I grew up living back and forth between India and California. I was born in the U.S. but India holds a special place in my heart because of the many childhood years I spent there. My husband, Steve, and I started Indiaphile after years of endlessly talking about Indian food and culture with each other, friends and family. We currently live in San Diego, CA.
As you can probably tell by now, I am a major foodie. I cook foods from all around the world. But my comfort foods are almost all Indian. I especially love to take traditional Indian dishes and fuse them with Western dishes, techniques and ingredients.
Steve and I met in college and got married in June 2011. We have two animal children. A grey and peach (seriously!) Tortoiseshell cat named Cinnamon Snow and a Belgian Malinois Shepherd named Xaria. Cinny loves fabrics and props. She believes we set them up for her to perch on.
Steve does most of the photography and the website development. He mainly uses off-camera flash techniques (see: strobist) since we are rarely ready to eat when it is still light out.
I do most of the cooking and food styling.
What do we eat?
We love to eat all kinds of food Steve eats pretty much everything except zucchini and Puja is a little more picky but for the most part eats everything except for red meat. We try to avoid animal protein and tend to be weekday vegans/vegetarian. Most of the recipes posted here are vegetarian because that is how we eat.
We especially enjoy Indian flavors and spices. Steve didn’t like vegetables until he had them curried Indian style.
Food Philosophy
We believe in making things from scratch but are not above opening a can of tomato sauce to make a quick curry. Most (about 85 percent) of everything we cook is made from scratch. We like to shop at local ethnic shops and farmers markets for our ingredients. We also believe in limiting our consumption of animal protein for both environmental and health reasons. We don’t like strict dietary restrictions and labels but make an effort to eat consciously most of the time.
Check out our work at:
Other Projects
We have a couple of other projects:
- Junu Jungle – Check out our block-printing on 100% hemp fabric. Designs are typically Indian or nature inspired.
- My SoCal Garden – Steve’s blog on gardening. It mainly centers around California Native Plants and Permaculture.
Copyright Policy
All photos (except those clearly marked) on Indiaphile.info are copyrighted, so please do not use without permission. It is okay to take one image (do not take multiple pictures from a single post) from a post and link to our blog for the full recipe. Please do not crop or edit our images in anyway. If you want to use our photos in a way that is not explicitly spelled out here and are not sure about our policy, please ask first.
If you’d like to use a photo in anyway that does not refer back to our blog, such as for your business, advertising, etc. you will have to purchase the photo. We license our photos for commercial use. Please get in touch us through our contact page if you are interested.
We reserve the right to have any of our content taken down that we feel has been used inappropriately or in a way that would take traffic away from our site.
Contact Us
To contact Puja and Steve, e-mail us: [email protected] or fill out this form
Just wanted to say how happy I am to have found your website. I look forward to trying these wonderful sounding Indian recipes; I am especially glad they are vegan/vegetarian. Thank you so much, Renelle
By the way, I am an animal communicator and will be happy to talk to your pets if you ever would like that. Renelle
Puja, it was wonderful talking to you today at our “cocktail hour”:) I am looking forward to reading your blog:) I was also married to an American and I love learning about other couples’ synergies in food world.
Lana
Thanks, Lana! I love that you have the same exploration of culture in your blog as well. Really enjoyed reading about your mom’s different food culture.