Good evening everyone! As I promised you last week, here are the reviews for two local Indian food establishments. My partner made a wise observation that perhaps it doesn't make so much sense for me to review my "competition," since I am not likely to be impartial. As usual his insight completely took me by surprise, but made perfect sense, once I thought about it. I had originally begun writing reviews, not as a means to slyly denigrate other chefs, but to give my readers a

It was right about six months ago that I last did a menu with some of these Moroccan dishes on it. Since I am learning the fine art of not reinventing the wheel each time I do something, I re-use previous newsletters so that I only need to change the photos and links for the dishes which I am not repeating. Besides saving me a little bit of time, reusing old newsletters allows me to take a trip down memory lane and remember what it was that I was doing 6 months or a year ago.

Picture a white-hued sandy beach, the expanse of which is lapped by salty waters that from above are a brilliant turquoise, the likes of which you have only seen previously in travel magazines. From your overhead vantage point, you look down and survey the breathtaking island shoreline. The sand and surf surround a verdant, volcanic mountain interior, a mere splotch of dark green dotting the azure canvas of ocean. Perhaps you pinch yourself and wonder how you became fortunate

Twenty bonus points and a free order of pakoras to anyone who can name all four of the people in this photo. I am only slightly joking. How about 40 more bonus points to anyone who can say where and when this photo was taken? The problem with throwing out a challenge question like that is, that I am not very patient and want to just blurt out the answer without having to wait for your guesses. I had also originally wanted to talk tonight about things that would require me to

I truly hope all of you remained safe and warm over this snow weekend. As much as I intend to/fantasize about staying home and taking care of all those little homemaking projects, it only took about 3 hours on Friday morning before I had cabin fever. I can't say that I have come to a point of complete acceptance with who and how I am as a person; however, the level of guilt I feel for my non-domestic goddessry has gone down over time. So anyway embracing my need for adventure

It has been a while since I have done a review for you all. You might surmise that this means that it has been a while since I went out somewhere. That would be the correct thing to surmise. It is easy to get so caught up in cooking, cleaning, and doing laundry, that one day bleeds into another and before you know it, entire weeks have gone by. This is especially true when you cook for a living, and especially, especially true when you cook for a living out of your home. Has

To all of you out there who either have or have had young children, I offer you the fist bump of solidarity. Early this morning I was in writing heaven. Ideas were flowing. I was entertaining myself with my cleverness. Then my son woke up. He was in a very cheerful mood... until he realized that I was writing this newsletter and not paying attention to his 13 minute story with 4 divergent plot lines. Ah the Sunday morning struggle... At any rate, the menu is at least writ

Old habits die hard. Because I am a full 24 hours late with this newsletter, I see how my mind is already trying to come up with clever, defensive excuses - "I was kidnapped by aliens;" "My dog ate my recipes;" "I was sick with a fever;" "My boulders (moving boxes) got out of control and started crushing the entire house..." You get the picture. However the reality is much more down to earth than all that. My life was overwhelmed by work, catering, traveling and singing (ya-h

Dear Friends of Govinda's, Here it is, a second week, and we have a near 50-50 split between those who like this format and those who like the white on black. The good news that I take away from that is that I have two templates that work for connecting with all of you. Maybe we will pull the old one back out now and then to spice things up. This was/is yet another power-packed weekend over here in my world. As this is high festival season in the Krishna community, much of ye

The subject of my travelogue down memory lane today is Fiji: photo (yes and yes) I was reflecting how very easy it is to take our experiences for granted. In the moment we so often forget to be present to the sights, sounds, smells, and sensations around us, being unaware that this very moment will never come again. This applies to being in our living room, as well as an exotic locale. Anyone who is a parent can attest to how quickly their children grow and change and how th