I honestly can’t believe I’ve been in LA for over 3 years without a waffle maker! But leave it to the quarantine and my love for all things sourdough to finally push me to get one. Now waffles are a regular breakfast item in our house and I just love them!
I recently saw a beautiful image by Judy Kim, a food photographer whose work I absolutely admire. It was a delicious yogurt bowl with raspberry compote and cara cara oranges on this gorgeous pink backdrop. I had a pink backdrop that was sitting in the corner of my studio space for a while. I was just too hesitant to attempt to use it. I mean it’s a pretty bold choice to shoot food on. However, after seeing that Judy’s image, I knew I wanted to finally break it out and get over myself!
It’s been interesting to look at back at some of my earlier photos on my Instagram page. Most of my shots were on white or grey backgrounds. After our six-week honeymoon, traveling around Portugal, Spain, Italy and France, I was so inspired by the bold and beautiful colors of the architecture everywhere we went. My vision for my shoots have changed so much as a result of that trip.
I used to live on green smoothies in the morning for years. It wasn’t until I studied Ayurveda, the ancient holistic medical system from India, that I came to realize those cold breakfasts were not doing my digestion any good.
I began to switch out my green smoothies for warmer porridges, oatmeal’s and stewed fruit with spices. If I did make a smoothie, I would make sure I used fresh fruit from the refrigerator (not freezer) and always added spices like cinnamon, cardamom and/or nutmeg to support my digestion.
This specific porridge combines my favorite fruit – mangos – with another favorite of mine – coconut. I’m Indian and if you are too, you know what I mean when I say my mom buys mangos by the case when they are in season. During mango season, she would always have a bowl of fresh cut mangos in the fridge and I would just eat out of that bowl every time I happened to pass through the kitchen.