http://www.thespicespoon.com/blog Cooking without borders: cuisine from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and beyond. Wed, 10 Mar 2010 16:34:36 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Yassi sits on her stool in the kitchen kneading the glossy détrempe for la pâte feuilletée; puff pastry. There is no beurre sec, but Lurpak will do. Her silver and black hair is in short waves and immaculate as always; her pastel kurta is starched. Yassi's slender, milky fingers ... http://www.thespicespoon.com/blog/date-cake/ I am most honoured to have been interviewed by Qype, London, a Hamburg-based web 2.0 company centred around social networking and local reviews. In it, I talk about ladyfingers, Raoul's in London and how I came to start this blog. Thank you for your readership, as always, Shayma You can read ... http://www.thespicespoon.com/blog/interview/ Wonders of Pakistan Part III: A midnight run to the fruit-wallah, with my Uncle, Lahore, December 2009. http://www.thespicespoon.com/blog/wordless-wednesday-4/ The great Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan, King of the World (1592-1666), died in confinement, in Agra Fort, imprisoned by his son, Aurangzeb. As he lay dying, he looked down from the balcony of the Musamman Burj tower at the pearlescent dome of the Taj Mahal he created for his beloved ... http://www.thespicespoon.com/blog/curry/ I have been tagged for un même by a dear friend in Real Life, the gorgeous Mrs T. Mrs Trefusis, an Important Person in the Glossy Magazine World, writes a lyrical blog called Mrs Trefusis Takes A Taxi, ("because she eschews sensible shoes"). She can write eloquently and beautifully about any ... http://www.thespicespoon.com/blog/eleven/ It's a grey evening in Washington, DC. The rain, falling heavily, creates a pewter gloss on the road as I am driving home from work. It makes me want to be back in Lahore, during the unexpected Spring showers, when we sit on the veranda in my ancestral home with ... http://www.thespicespoon.com/blog/aloo/ Wonders of Pakistan Part II: 'Truck Art', Karachi, December 2009. http://www.thespicespoon.com/blog/wordless-wednesday-3/ It was a hot day in Lahore. The kind of day when the Loo wind blows in from the Cholistan Desert, as the sun casts its tungsten-white glow on the people of the city. The canal's water a dirty brown, small children leaping in one by one, to cool themselves ... http://www.thespicespoon.com/blog/yakhni-pulao/ Wonders of Pakistan Part I: Mum-in-law's caramel custard, (crème caramel), Karachi, January 2010. http://www.thespicespoon.com/blog/wordless-wednesday-2/ Happy New Year, all. Having just returned from hols, this year started off very well, despite the fact that there was a certain case of the re-entry blues, (a term coined by my friend Motherhood the Final Frontier's mum). But it wasn't anything that a good book, a few early ... http://www.thespicespoon.com/blog/highlights-of-2009/