#DeleteMonday with Home Cooking

by Radhika Viswanathan

It’s that time of the week! When you wake up with a sense of dread, hide under the warm covers for as long as you can, and then drag your limp body out of bed to face up to the start OF ANOTHER WEEK.

It’s been nearly a year since life changed, March 9th 2020 was the last day of ye olde routine. But I don’t feel the weight of it anymore. I’ve lost all memory, in fact. Is it December? Is it January? What?! It’s February? And it’s not even cool to talk about the virus anymore. Just head out onto the streets, everyone is out at work, driving about, stuck in traffic, eating out at restaurants…

Just the day before we ventured out as a team for our second field interview in mon(centuries)ths, and we were on location at an (outdoor) restaurant. It was bloody great. We sat outside, sipped some coffee through the sides of our masks, and peered at all the cheery folk out and about as they ordered fish for their delightfully late lunch at 4 pm. Chuffed with interview, we sat down to some G&Ts. That’s the stuff.

I have to say, if there has been one thing that’s kept me going these past many months at home — yes, wait for the cliché — it was home cooking! I rekindled my love for my cast iron pans and cooked and cooked and cooked (I didn’t make sourdough or anything fancy, sorry, mostly just one pot meals. That’s what you do when you have kids). In fact, I can break up the months of last year based on what I was cooking: there were the bean weeks in the early lockdown when we too scared to go out to buy fresh veggies and so I went through all the beans and lentils we had at home. Then we went through a paratha and chapati (“ Indian flatbreads”) phase till our arms couldn’t knead any more and the flour was packed away in the cupboard, never to be seen again.

Cheering me on as I sauteed and steamed and roasted and glazed were the food podcasts that I binged on. And if you haven’t listened to any, I highly recommend you do. There’s my favourite (and possibly everyone else’s in the world), the fantastic Home Cooking with Samin Nosrat and Hrishikesh Hirway, who steered us on a delightfully punny road through bean country, fish town, chicken with Yo-Yo Ma, Bae Bay leaves, AND SO MUCH MORE. What began as a four-part series, ended up as a hilarious fourteen part (with a two-part miniseries built-in) series. I listen when I walk, and I’ve laughed out loudly so many times startling everyone around, that my neighbours have given up on me. The star of the show wasn’t Samin or Hrishi, but it was the fantastic Dr Sumesh Hirway, whose guest appearances were like listening to your dad lecture you on cooking.

And then when I was in the mood for a chatty celebrity food show, I listened to Off Menu with Ed Gamble and James Acaster, where a celebrity guest is invited to their imaginary restaurant and they go through their favourite dishes, course by course. Louis Theroux was great. I recommend starting with episodes of celebrities you know of (or want to know more about).

And finally, there was Take a Bao, an Asian food podcast hosted by Jun Yi Loh (of junandtonic.com). It’s lovely and packed with stories and facts about Asian food. He’s only ten episodes in, so here’s hoping we get to hear more episodes!

What? You’re expecting a recommendation to get you through this week? If there’s any show that will get me through 2021, it’s got to be Fresh Airfrying with Dr Sumesh Hirway. But that’s wishful thinking and not a real show (unless he’s already making a Netflix special), and until then, check out one of the above.