Freelance writer and my friend, Vijaysree Venkatraman has written an article for NPR. In her article, she wrote about Afghanistan cuisine and included one of my recipes (Pumpkin-Almond Halwa) and couple of my photographs.
The article “Discovering Afghan Cuisine, a World Away” is published today on NPR’s Kitchen Window.
We are big fans and regular listeners of NPR programs like Car Talk, All Things Considered and most of the days, our mornings start with NPR’s Morning Edition. So to be featured in such prestigious American institution is a privilege and an honor. I appreciate Vijaysree for a nice article and thank her for giving credit to Mahanandi. I also wish her good luck and continued success as a writer!
Congratulations Vijaysree!
Congratulations Indira and Vijaysree! The article and photographs are great. Keep up the good work.
Comment by Madhavi — December 5, 2006 @ 9:01 pm
Those were excellent selections. Kudos to you and Vijaysree. Great show!
Comment by VK Narayanan — December 5, 2006 @ 9:52 pm
Hearty Congrats to you Indira for another achievement! Truly, you deserve it.
Comment by Deepu — December 5, 2006 @ 10:10 pm
Congrats Indira. Have a good day. Viji
Comment by viji — December 5, 2006 @ 10:29 pm
Congrats Vijaysri and Indira!!!
Amazing article!!!
padmaja
Comment by Padmaja — December 6, 2006 @ 1:18 am
Congrats Indira!
Comment by Lakshmik — December 6, 2006 @ 3:37 am
Hi Indira,
Congratulations to you and Vijaysree for having your article and pictures published in such a well-respected and widely-read site. Next, can we expect to hear you talk on “All things considered”?
Best wishes.
Comment by Faffer — December 6, 2006 @ 4:01 am
We are very proud of you, Indira…Congratulations dear!
Comment by chandrika — December 6, 2006 @ 5:42 am
Congradulations Indra.
MB
Comment by MB — December 6, 2006 @ 6:04 am
Congrats, Indira. And best wishes to vijaysree, too.
Comment by Vee — December 6, 2006 @ 6:46 am
Congrats to you and Vijayashree.
Comment by Krithika — December 6, 2006 @ 6:50 am
Congrats Indira ! Photograph of okra stew is beautiful !
Comment by Priya S&S — December 6, 2006 @ 6:52 am
Indira, that is wonderful indeed! congratulations!
cheers!
Comment by Saffron — December 6, 2006 @ 7:40 am
Frankly, I’m shocked you haven’t made it to the mass media already. I’m unabashed in declaring myself one of the biggest fans of your blog.
Great news!
Comment by barrett — December 6, 2006 @ 7:54 am
Indira, Congratulations for being featured on NPR, very well deserved!
– Roopa
Comment by RD — December 6, 2006 @ 8:15 am
Congrats, Indira! I had no clue you had conquered Afghani cuisine as well! It sounds very similar to Indian cuisine although what we used to eat in an Afghani restaurant in Chicago was very different from anything Indian. I am guessing it was adapted to the local tastes.
Kudos to you on your success! And I hope this opens up many more doors for you!!
Comment by Manisha — December 6, 2006 @ 8:36 am
Congrats Indira, I am an ardent NPR listener too, to be featured on it is indeed great. Congrats to your friend too
Comment by sandeepa — December 6, 2006 @ 9:21 am
Congratulations! I have been a NPR listener ever since I moved to the US and it is indeed a great accomplishment to be mentioned on NPR.
Comment by Amy Thomas — December 6, 2006 @ 9:39 am
Congrats Indira and Vijaysree! wow,a very proud acheivement ,Indira and good luck for many more.
Comment by Bharghavi — December 6, 2006 @ 9:58 am
Congrats Indira! Wishing u all the very best in ur future endeavours.
shalini
Comment by shalini — December 6, 2006 @ 10:04 am
Great news, gals.
Congratulations !!!
Comment by Kala — December 6, 2006 @ 10:32 am
Wow – so happy for you. What great publicity.
Comment by s — December 6, 2006 @ 10:38 am
I saw this post last night and wanted to comment immediately, but my hubby wanted the system, after a small war I gave up.Congrats Indira! You truly deserve it!Cheers!
Comment by Lakshmiammal — December 6, 2006 @ 11:11 am
Congratulations!!! I have made your dessert THREE times now and our 86 year old very strict French grandpa loves it!! That is so great, I love NPR and listen to it via the internet since I have been living abroad. I love your blog and read it often.
Comment by riana — December 6, 2006 @ 11:38 am
I love NPR too, Indira. Good job there !!!!
Comment by Mythili — December 6, 2006 @ 12:05 pm
Congratulations Indira..that is really an honore to be mentioned so.Keep It Up:-))
Comment by meena kandlakuti — December 6, 2006 @ 12:11 pm
Man! NPR! Wow! Congragulations. That is so wonderful.
Comment by Gini — December 6, 2006 @ 1:20 pm
Congrats to Vijayshree and Indira.
I LOVE NPR. My morning alarm tone is the NPR news 🙂
This morning on my drive to work, I was listening to “Indian Government Minister Convicted of Murder” in the Morning Edition Show. It was interesting on the statistics. I didn’t catch all of it, so wanted to see of they had the transcript online and found the “Discovering Afgan”. I came to Mahanadhi (I am a frequent visitor and love the site, Indira) and saw this posted, Suprise….
Comment by lv — December 6, 2006 @ 1:37 pm
Congratulations to you Indira.
Comment by Archana Thomas — December 6, 2006 @ 2:16 pm
Congrats Indira. You derserve it.
Comment by RP — December 6, 2006 @ 7:09 pm
That’s wonderful! I, too, am a big fan of NPR and listen to it every morning. I’m so glad to read this; I discovered Afghani Cuisine only recently and am happy to learn more about it. http://annulla.blogspot.com/2006_09_01_annulla_archive.html
Comment by annulla — December 6, 2006 @ 7:14 pm
Hey congrats to you and Vijayashree both!
Comment by madhuli — December 6, 2006 @ 7:19 pm
Thanks very much for taking time to send your wishes. I greatly appreciate it. Thanks!
Comment by Indira — December 6, 2006 @ 7:45 pm
Congrats! So well deserved 🙂
Comment by Sandy — December 6, 2006 @ 8:03 pm
Hi Indira,congratulations indeed!I didn’t know about NPR until I saw your post, but to be featured in any article written by a reputed freelance writer is great achievement indeed.Never mind who berates us bloggers for being supposedly mediocre,it is always a triumph when such simple yet unique recipes get featured.Congrats again to you and to your friend for doing excellent work.
Comment by Vini K — December 7, 2006 @ 2:45 am
Ah! why is everybody so surprised? I am waiting to see Indira gaaru on Food TV 🙂
Comment by InjiPennu — December 7, 2006 @ 9:19 am
Hi Sandy, Vini K and dear Inji – Thanks for the wishes and good words!
Comment by Indira — December 7, 2006 @ 8:54 pm
enjoyed the article. we have afghanistan to thank for our asafoetida/perungayam,in tamil. did you know that it is not even native to india..let along south india, yet it has to make an appearance in all the tamilian south indian dishes!
even though there are german names(literally translated to ‘devil’s dung’ because of the smell)for asafoetida, it is really only native to afghanistan and iran. there are other spices that are similar to it ..known as silpium, it was used since roman times.. altho’ most persians do not seem to know what it is..the afghans probably still have it in their kitchens.
the story goes something like this..it is native to afghanistan and it was alexander who brought it from the middle east/persia. when he crossed the mountains to enter india, he found that all his supplies were gone…his entourage always had a couple of botanists and they found the sap of a tree…which we now know as the resin of asafoetida…that resembled the ancient roman tenderising spice. so to survive the bitter winter and to cross the mountains, alexander ordered his donkeys(horses? probably not..not sure)to be killed for meat..and the resin was used as a tenderiser.
i cannot think of any tamilian recipe without the addition of asafoetida and it was considered… how you say…’kosher’ for brahmins. thank you, afghanistan!!
enjoyed your posts..as always.
Comment by faustianbargain — December 8, 2006 @ 7:00 pm
Just lovely … I’ve bookmarked the halwa, am always looking for desserts made from vegetables …
Comment by Alanna — December 9, 2006 @ 9:43 am
Congrats Indira.. that is so totally cool. I am so happy for you. Keep up the great work!
Comment by thodarumm — December 9, 2006 @ 4:37 pm
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