Some of the best parts of reading books from different cultures are when a lot of those same emotions, themes and sentiments begin to intertwine with those of other books of other cultures. It narrows the world for me. It reminds me that we’re all a lot alike, you and me, whether we’re from New York City or Tehran. At the end of the day, whatever our politics, our religion, our cultures, we have the same beliefs, the same feelings and very often, the same coping mechanisms. That’s why this is the first blog post mash-up, combining the influences of two different books with similar themes and emotions. In it, friends from New Orleans came together with Rohit and myself to combine two cultures’ cuisines into a New Orl-India feast. 

Salvage the Bones by Jessmyn Ward, is a novel of searing depiction of life in the deep South of the lead up and experience of one of the worst natural disasters to hit American soil: Hurricane Katrina. It tells the story of four youngsters who are badly in need of their ever-absent and barhopping father. Esch is fourteen, poor, pregnant, and badly in need of parental advice, and if things couldn’t get any worse, poised on the verge of one of the worst storms to hit their household. The poetry of the narrative lulled me into the raw poignancy of the importance of survival.  

Wave is a firsthand account by Sonali Deraniyagala, who lost her entire family in an instant when the 2004 tsunami ripped through the southern coast of Sri Lanka. While the story could have been solely an elegy to grief, I loved it because it celebrates the lives of the people she lost, giving her closure to say goodbye to them in the most public way. Deraniyagala too, had to survive, even though the tsunami had spared her, once she realized that her life was filled with broken pieces.

While our evening was filled with laughter, creativity and lot of spirit (the Saints were playing that night!), it is in times of desperation and solitude that we often turn to food when we are wanting, when we need comfort. This evening was also a brilliant melding of minds: those of our friends Michael and Mark, who represent New Orleans and Rohit, who brought the Desi flavor Indian style, not Sri Lankan.

The essential NOLA cocktail is a Sazerac, a intense cocktail made with bourbon, a few dashes of bitters in a glass rinsed with absinthe. When Rohit and I visited a few years ago, we had one at the original bar where they were invented. To riff off this, I made a cardamom simple syrup with an anise infusion and stirred it with some good bourbon and topped it off with a few dashes of Peychaud’s bitters. It went down a lot easier than the original Sazerac.

We started munching on Cajun style samosas, which Michael whipped up: homemade samosa dough stuffed with stewed crayfish, mashed potatoes and peas.

Rohit married the two cultures with his bite size crab cakes made with a fish mousse base and a tomato base that encompassed a lot of Indian spices. He served it with a remoulade, a quintessential NOLA sauce, atop a cucumber round.

The appetizers continued with what we titled the “Ro-Boy,” a take-off of a po’boy using chapatti bread instead of a baguette-like French bread, shrimp that had been marinated in Creole mustard, radicchio, heirloom tomatoes and mango pickle.

And the food just kept on coming. Mark introduced his Goa-umbo, a hearty stew that he made with chicken, Andouille sausage, along with a smattering of Indian spices, including turmeric, ginger and cumin. In true Desi style, he served this with a healthy portion of Basmati rice.

And finally, Michael served us each a beautiful piece of sea bass en papillote. It had been cooked in coconut milk, along with mint, toasted cashew nuts (very Goa-style) and some steamed asparagus.

Just when we thought we couldn’t get another bite in edge-wise, the girls brought it home with a Bananas Chili Foster, a typical New Orleans dessert that we spiced up. Shannon cooked the bananas with a chili pepper, and doused it in fire. We served it with a fennel ice cream that I had made beforehand.

It was gratifying: great friends, excellent food and the mashing of cultures. Oh, and the Saints won. Not bad for an evening of comforts.