An ode to Manjula's Kitchen

- Have you seen this website?
- I'm not sure about the handwo recipe, I use more ginger in mine

The other day, at a family party, my cousins and I had a bit of a bonding moment over Manjula's Kitchen.  One of my cousins exclaimed "What?  You've heard of it?  Is it famous?"  As I said to him at the time, no, it isn't, it's only famous amongst young East African Gujaratis living in this country who were, at some point, vaguely shown how to make their favourite Gujarati dishes by their mothers/aunts/grandmothers/random visiting "aunties" but have no idea how to actually make them.

It is a truth, universally acknowledged, that when you google for your favourite Gujarati recipe from childhood, the first hit is Manjula's Kitchen.  Which is brilliant because it actually gives you the recipe that you want.  There are some great Indian cooking websites and blogs out there but, almost without exception, they tend to provide you with something that is slightly different to what you were looking for (if you are a UK dwelling East African Gujarati).

Now, I think South Indian food is fantastic, and Mumbai street food is some of my favourite food (like all Gujaratis, I think Punjabi food is too oily, though, sorry to any Punjabi readers), but sometimes I just want the recipe for the dish that I grew up eating.  Almost invariably it's something that my nanima or my mother showed me how to make "oh, it's so easy you just have to remember the lemon juice" and then I start to think about making it and realise that I know all about the critical importance of the lemon juice but have no idea what sort of flour to use.

I do post the odd Gujarati food recipe from time to time, and I hope my readers enjoy them but - really - Manjula is the real deal and you should head over there and check out her site.