#BookReview ; Spirits In A Spice Jar by Sarina Kamini

For Sarina Kamini’s Kashmiri family, food is love, love is faith, and faith is family. It’s cause for total emotional devastation when, ten years after her Australian mother is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, unaddressed grief turns the spice of this young food writer’s heritage to ash and her prayers to poison. At her lowest ebb, Sarina’s dead Ammi’s typed-up cooking notes become a recipe for healing, her progress in the kitchen marked by her movement through bitterness, grief and loneliness—the daal that is too fiery and lumpen; her play with salt that pricks and burns. In teaching herself how to personalise tradition and spirituality through spice, Sarina creates space to reconsider her relationship with Hinduism and God in a way that allows room for questions. She learns forgiveness of herself for being different, and comes to accept that family means change and challenge as much as acceptance and love.

Spirits In A Spice Jar is a memoir written by Sarina Kamini & published by Westland. The author is an Anglo-Indian now living in Western Australia. A former food writer, food editor& food critic, she has spent twenty years working in Paris, California, Edinburgh, Barcelona & Melbourne.

The story revolves around the life of the author, her heritage as a Kashmiri Pundit & her memories which are deep rooted with the Kashmiri food her Australian mother used to make. It’s after 10 years that her mother is diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, the author rekindles her memories & the grief and tries to mould her feelings by trying to cook the food her mother used to make using several spices which gave life to each single dish. Get this book here to read not just about spices & food but also take a stroll down the memory lane of the author,

At first after reading the title I was a bit perplexed about what this book is going to be about, for once I guessed it must be a cookbook of some sorts but to my surprise I was wrong. The book is divided into seventeen chapters, each have been titled after a spice or food item & accordingly the story in each chapter relates to that ingredient. It seems that the book has been written seamlessly & tries to bind you together with the memories of the author. What I loved about this book was the closeness it made me feel with the author’s story, unfortunately & understandably it did proceeded in a slow pace which made it difficult for me to stick with it for a long time. The language is quite easy, the title as well as the cover is beautiful. An enriching read, not to be missed.