So this is me, Aryan, a.k.a. Mayabugs. You might ask, what? Why Mayabugs? Well, Mayabugs happened years ago when trying to find a AOL instant messenger name. Somehow I ended up using my middle name, Maya, and adding “bugs” randomly. I am really not sure what was going through my head at the time, but it stuck. It stuck everywhere. My online presence IS Mayabugs. I think I’m kind of sentimental, because once I start with something, I kinda keep to it.

So you’ll probably notice that a good portion of the recipes on this blog are Indian, yet I’m not Indian [I know my first and middle names sound Indian too, but my mom just heard the names in a dream and voila]. There are a few reasons for all the Indian cooking, besides loving Indian food. The first is that I was super lucky and blessed to find a wonderful wonderful husband by the name of Tejas who is Indian. I was doubly blessed to find that Tejas has a pretty terrific family. Then I was triply blessed to have a big Indian wedding. It was in Bangalore and it was the most amazing, fantastic, magical, beautiful, and exhausting week of my life!

The second reason for all the Indian cooking is that once I started looking up Indian recipes and trying things, I couldn’t believe how many different dishes there were out there. Maybe my palate has changed somewhat, but I no longer see Indian food as one type of food. Sure there are similarities, but north, south, and so on are all so different to me now! What you get in restaurants in the United States is generally north Indian and sure, I love the heavy, creamy, rich, restaurant style north Indian food too, but that isn’t what we cook at home. For one thing, it is very heavy, like much restaurant food in any cuisine. Also, Tejas made a very good point when I was first getting to know him. I would always try and recreate dishes that we had out. But why? If you cook it at home, it is no longer that special thing you can get at that one place. Why not mix it up? Cook at home what you can’t get out.

The third reason is that I’m on an authentic food kick, and Tejas can tell me whether the Indian food I cook tastes authentic.

The other cuisine that I’m really excited about lately is Indonesian. I know so little about it and I have no idea what is exactly “authentic”, but perhaps the more I research and try stuff out, the more I’ll figure it out. I also love Vietnamese, Malaysian, Thai, Mexican, Italian, Greek and Middle Eastern food. Ooo, and Korean, Chinese, and Indian Chinese food (Indianized Chinese food that is very popular in India and so good!). And tacos are my fushion food. I think you can make a taco out of anything! Gastropub food is also to die for, but I don’t really try to cook it because gastropubs are everywhere in Los Angeles, where we live. Amazing food along with all the great beers I love. Give me something like goat cheese toasts drizzled with honey and a Belgian tripel and I’m verry happy in about 30 seconds!