About me
Welcome, get to know me a little better!
Naan the Wiser
Vegetarian | Aficionado of Flavour | Experimenting with Indian Food | Sydney Sider |
Being Vegetarian
I’ve been vegetarian for the past 16 years which was a pretty seamless transition given both my parents are vegetarian. The real challenge came when I moved out and had to start fending for myself. It was at this point that I realised how difficult it can be to ensure you’re feeding your body what it needs while still enjoying the food that you eat.
Finding a Balance
In jumping over some hurdles over the past few years, I found that my life had become characterised by stress and pessimism. Starting to lose clumps of hair versus a few strands shocked me into effecting a change to nourish both my mind and body.
I became proactive about focusing my energy on ideas that genuinely sparked Joy and I found a profound happiness spending time in the kitchen. I found a spark in taking a recipe and breaking it down or combining it with another dish to optimise the flavour.
To maintain balance with my food I also started to experiment with these recipes to see how I could make them healthier without losing the flavour complex I had built up. It took time, often finding the balance between nourishment and flavour is a tricky slope to climb but I found myself relishing this challenge and in turn reengaging with life again.
Focused on Indian Food
After moving out I often found myself homesick and yearning for that feeling of contentment that would only blanket me when I was with my family.
When I started exploring Indian cooking on my own, I had the freedom to explore this diverse and multifaceted culture and combine it with my experience as a first generation Indian-Australian. This enabled me to build a formative relationship with my roots and my background. With every spoonful of a dish I cooked I felt the homesickness fade away and that blanket start to envelope me once again.
My experience with Indian food and how it’s treated in the Western world is that it is correlated with clichés. I want to change this. I want to show that it can be an everyday food, a healthier option, a fancy dish, a comfort food and a cuisine you can fuse with the staples you already love.
Join me on this Journey
As an introverted homebody, revealing my face to the world wide web is something that scares me. I also work a 9 to 5 office job that is client facing and prefer to remain anonymous as I balance both aspects of my life.
There’s this quote by Maya Angelou “Hope and Fear cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Invite one to stay”. I’ve taken these words to heart and made the leap to start sharing this rocky road I’m walking in the pursuit of balance. My hope is that it will bring a smile to someone’s face, build some hope in someone’s heart and encourage someone to take the first step in the pursuit of joy.
Join me on this journey. I can’t guarantee it’ll be a smooth one, but I can promise you lots of delicious food on the way!
