About

As first generation Indian immigrants living in San Francisco, we, Mansi and Ashwini, two women working in tech, are fascinated by each other’s food stories. Mansi is from the north Indian city of Delhi, and grew up eating dal chaawal, while Ashwini ate pongal and thengaai chutney for breakfast at her childhood home in Chennai. We both discovered that while each of the 28 states in India has its own unique set of cuisines, Indian food in San Francisco usually meant saag paneer and garlic naan.

Why didn’t more people know about sevai, a south Indian delicious breakfast dish made with rice vermicelli? Or Kashmiri dum aaloo, the incredibly unique stuffed roast potato side dish? Even we didn’t fully understand each other’s versions of “Indian food”, which is an oversimplified term for the millions of dishes made in Indian homes every day.

This incredible diversity of food knowledge, built up over several generations, is the realm of home kitchens across the world. This insight is the inspiration behind this blog, Roots in Routes, where we document personal food stories, recipes from childhood kitchens of immigrants like us, who have developed new perspectives on the food they grew up eating, by virtue of being so far away from home.

Over the course of this journey, we will share recipes, pictures, books and interviews that inspire us.

Hope you will come along!