Hearth Beat

The food at Zorba is out of this world. Always diverse, always full of taste, always vegetarian. A few nights ago, I presented myself to the cooks at Zorba, Maman and Dilip, as Chopping Girl. We were feeding 25 that night and I first tackled about 10 pounds of okra. The Indians call it lady fingers in English and bindi in Hindi. As I looked out the window I realized I was in this moment supremely happy.

Afterwards I cut cucumber and onion for the salad and then hovered around Dilip (also my morning meditation mate) and watched him sizzle jack root in sesame oil in the wok and mastermind the curries.

The kitchen and all its accoutrement is well loved and well used. There's not a spot of copper in it. That will have to be remedied. 

Dheeru drops by. He's head of facilities here and been a part of Zorba for a long time. Handsome, gentle and soft-spoken he shares an Aryuvedic secret about copper. If you're suffering from stomach upset, put water into an unlined copper vessel overnight and drink it first thing in the morning. The metal and water have bonded overnight to provide a restorative and healing liquid. Wow!

Before parting and partaking of our creations that night, I asked my friend Lalit to procure me some ingredients. Lalit has been my tech guru here at Zorba and all-round awesome assistant, helping hook me up to the Internet, arranging for my taxis and so forth. I told Lalit I wanted to bake my favorite cookie...almond with raspberry filling...and needed him to purchase a non-flavored oil, some maple syrup (Aunt Jemima is what I expect to be using), some pastry flour, some almonds (which appear here often in rice pudding and other desserts) and raspberry jam. Then on another day I'll bake Karen's Cookies for the family.

Chef and Chopping Girl

Bon Appetit!

आप का खाना स्वादिष्ट हो (āp kā khānā svādiṣṭa ho)!