I Am Therefore I Blog

No Reservations: Sri Lanka

Having just entered FoodBuzz’s competition to be the ‘next food blog star,’ my first challenge is to explain what defines me as a food blogger, which is a really good question. It gets right down to the heart of the matter and allows me to really examine the motives behind what I do here.

I spend more time on my blog and its accompanying web series, Pan Asian, than most people spend at their regular day jobs. Maybe it’s because I don’t have a regular day job that I can afford this ‘luxury.’ Self-employed, I spend my days making films, making music, writing, cooking, and traveling. Though none of these activities in particular allows me to make a living, through a combination of them all, I am able to fashion a pretty interesting life. (Knock on wood.) So I refer to blogging as a luxury simply because it seems that anytime you are doing something that you want or like in life, it is a privilege—even though I don’t get paid for doing this.

But money isn’t everything, right? I chose a long time ago to forgo a ‘career track’ in order to follow my passion(s), and now at 40 I have a wealth of experiences to show for my time so far on planet Earth. Though I have my share of regrets, I also live the life I love and love the life I live.

Speaking of love, the driving force behind everything I do, I’ve discovered that when you have it, nothing else matters—not even food, sometimes.  When you approach something out of passion, I believe the universe conspires to make magic happen for you.

Take blogging, for example: my entrance to the blogging game came comparatively late, and in a very elliptical manner. As a journalist, blogging was a no brainer. I used to write a lot about music for some big magazines and newspapers, as well as run my own record label, but when the music industry crumbled in the early part of this decade I was left wondering what to do next.  I’ve always enjoyed cooking, but I turned to it even more. In fact, I had always wanted to do a cookbook—specifically about the food of my motherland, Sri Lanka—and with nothing but time on my hands, I decided to go back there for a year and learn everything I could about making Sri Lankan food myself.  It turned out to be one of the most enjoyable experiences of my life.

When I returned to the U.S., however, everyone told me that I had to be a celebrity chef in order to have a cookbook published in the current economic climate. After shopping the book around unsuccessfully, I decided to publish it myself though the self-publishing site Blurb.com. Since I had the photos and recipes all ready to go, it took me a week to layout the book on Blurb’s free software and upload it into their web store. I had a few copies printed and sent one to Anthony Bourdain, whose show, No Reservations, I had been following by then. I told Bourdain that if he was ever planning a trip to Sri Lanka, I was his man. A couple months later I got a call from the show’s producers, taking me up on my offer.

available at http://www.blurb.com

It was upon returning from that trip that I started my blog, Rice & Curry. I wanted to document what it was like behind-the-scenes while shooting the show, and these dispatches turned out to be my first blog posts. But I also realized that very few people in the west really knew about Sri Lankan food. My year’s worth of research on the cookbook and a lifetime of eating the food had made me somewhat of an expert, but more to the point, I had a burning desire to introduce people to Sri Lankan cuisine because it was sooooo good, and yet so obscure.

Skiz's Original Roasted and Raw Curry Powder

Over the past couple of years, my blog has expanded to become a celebration of all things spicy, while also featuring significant video content in the form of Pan Asian, a web series in which I show people how to make quick, easy, and delicious Asian dishes in under 10 minutes. I also sell my cookbook, and my own homemade curry powder through the blog, but the whole thing is really a labor of love and a true reflection of who I am.  Blogging, after all, is just another form or creativity and expression. So, I am therefore I blog! And as far as being the next food blog star? I am that as well, along with all the other stars in the cosmos whose passion for what they do shines bright.

http://www.foodbuzz.com/project_food_blog/challenges/1/view/399