Samar Halarnkar

Bangalore

Editor at IndiaSpend

Reporter. Writer. Cook.

Articles

Meat-eating dilemmas and the one-pot approach

1 week ago | livemint.com | Samar Halarnkar

Lounge Summary The dichotomy of modern eating allows one to adapt and improvise in the kitchen This is a Mint Premium article gifted to you. Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Last month in Mumbai, I met a Brahmin taxi driver from Uttar Pradesh. Within five minutes of getting into his car, he asked where I was from. When I said Goa, he peered in the rear-view mirror. “Christian?" No, Hindu, I said.
Raw mango, fish and the ides of spring

2 months ago | livemint.com | Samar Halarnkar

I did not think I could write another column on a Goan fish curry. I have often waxed eloquent about my ajji’s (grandmother’s) fish curry, my shortcut version, my mother’s version, the original version—to name a few. The beauty of the basic Goan fish curry is that there are as many versions as your imagination.
HT Syndication: Raw mango, fish and the ides of spring

2 months ago | htsyndication.com | Samar Halarnkar

New Delhi, April 12 -- I did not think I could write another column on a Goan fish curry. I have often waxed eloquent about my ajji's (grandmother's) fish curry, my shortcut version, my mother's version, the original version-to name a few. The beauty of the basic Goan fish curry is that there are as many versions as your imagination.
A serial killer’s eulogy to butter and passion

Mar 22, 2025 | livemint.com | Samar Halarnkar

Yuzuki skirts the borders of food and sex. There is little that is explicit, but there is little doubt of the connection, delivered through detail and deliciousness. The premise: Manako Kajii, a somewhat plump and plain imprisoned serial killer, appears to seduce—through rich food and domesticity—lonely businessmen and feed them to death. She cannot, she says, tolerate two things: feminists and margarine. When it’s been available, I have used margarine, but after reading Butter I will not.
HT Syndication: A serial killer's eulogy to butter and passion

Mar 22, 2025 | htsyndication.com | Samar Halarnkar

New Delhi, March 22 -- "Cloaked in their mantle of amber butter, the grains shimmied and danced before her eyes. There was a sizzle as the chef poured on some soy sauce, and then the short, spirited tango was over."I do not usually read fiction unless it concerns starships headed to deep space and devious plots to destroy the world.
In India, the rise of an apartheid state

Mar 19, 2025 | scroll.in | Samar Halarnkar

Another Holi has come and gone, revealing in its wake – once again – the deepening wounds of a society and State in crisis. Hindu festivals once celebrated the colours of the world’s original rainbow nation, although aspects of this rose-tinted view were always contentious (many Dalits point out that the celebration marking the burning of Holika, an asura king’s sister, legitimises violence against women from marginalised communities).
The line blurs between police and vigilante

Mar 10, 2025 | scroll.in | Samar Halarnkar

“Gai hamari mata hai, police hamari baap hai,” the two frightened men shout, wincing in pain in the viral video. The cow is our mother, police is our father. They stumble, fall and limp along as officers flog the two Muslims and parade them through the streets of Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh on March 3. There is no other way of saying this: the act was medieval, illegal, and unconstitutional, playing out after Hindu fundamentalists accused the two men of cow slaughter.
Final exam mutton fry and other challenges

Feb 8, 2025 | livemint.com | Samar Halarnkar

Lounge Summary A recipe for South Indian-style goat fry in exchange for 70 percent in geography? Good food can be a calming experience during exams This is a Mint Premium article gifted to you. Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Today, the daughter came back ravenous from her geography exam and said she craved beef chilli fry. I didn’t have beef. “So, make mutton chilli fry like beef," she demanded and flounced off. It’s exam time.
One nation, one voice: Dissent, diversity and other enemies in Modi’s India

Feb 5, 2025 | scroll.in | Samar Halarnkar

Until the deadly stampede that claimed 30 lives at the Mahakumbh last week, one of the Earth’s greatest gatherings of humanity had been used to convey Narendra Modi’s oft-repeated message of oneness – reducing the sometimes-incomprehensible plurality of 1.4 billion people and their myriad tongues and cultures to the singular. Easy to comprehend and easier to market, Modi’s oneness is couched in terms of national unity but what it really calls for is Hindu unity.
A rich bounty of family, food and conversations

Jan 11, 2025 | livemint.com | Samar Halarnkar

When I was married a quarter century ago, my spouse was startled with what she believed was my family’s obsession with food. As we scarfed down our lunch, she noted, we discussed what was for dinner and the next day’s breakfast. Nothing has changed—except she now does the same thing, planning the day’s meals, discussing the next day’s, refusing to acknowledge that food now occupies her mind as much as mine. She does not cook very much but is always generous with unsolicited comments.