2024: I Wrote a Book

My year writing "Pakistan"

2024 was quite the year.

The genocide in Gaza persisted and America re-elected Donald Trump. I spent the latter part of the year overcome by an unsettling numbness. 2024 reminded me of the enormity of today’s challenges, and how fundamentally powerless the majority of us are in moving the needle towards a more humane and just world. I’m hoping I can shake off the cynicism and detachment as we step into the new year, and find a new way to anchor myself in “the fight” as we get ready to wrap up our time in the Philippines and move back to the US in summer 2025.

In the midst of a crumbling world, I also wrote a cookbook. Pakistan will hit stores on March 25, 2025, and is already available for pre-order. In my previous post, I talked a little about how I “conceived” the book, and what it aims to do. Back in 2023, I wrote about my trip across Pakistan that formed the bulk of my field research. Here I want to talk a little bit more about the process, and what my life looked like while I wrote a book on Pakistani food in the Philippines for the North American office of an Australian publisher!

Pakistan is the most comprehensive look at Pakistani cuisine to date. It aims to anchor Pakistani food in its communities, and put the stories of diverse Pakistani cooks front and center of the conversation. It’s divided into eight straightforward chapters, such as, condiments, fish and seafood, meat and poultry, sweets and drinks, to make the cookbook easy to navigate as a home cook. Each chapter is followed by essays, which spotlight Pakistan’s four provinces, the Northern Areas, Lahore, Karachi and my hometown, Islamabad, to provide context to the various recipes. The essays provide a broad overview of the geographic area, and snippets of my conversations and reflections that weave in commentary about the food culture of a place within the larger “state of affairs.” It’s the kind of writing that inspired me to enter food media in the first place, and helps close an important gap in writing about Pakistani food.

My year therefore, involved a lot of desk research, poring over messy field notes from spring 2023, and listening to a lot of winding voice notes on WhatsApp. It was definitely frustrating to not be in Pakistan while writing. It doesn’t take long for me to feel disconnected from the country if I’m not physically present or continuously engaging with Pakistani colleagues but maybe the isolation and distance helped me stay focused? The first half of 2024 was definitely lonely, and so I’m infinitely grateful to Pakistan’s fabulous studio photographer, Sonny Thakur, who is not only talented and tasteful but was also a wonderful sounding board.

Pakistan presents roughly 100 recipes. I toggled between my desk at night and the kitchen during the day. While I came up with a rough recipe list while developing the book proposal, it went through significant changes following my trip to Pakistan and the recipe validation and testing process. Pakistan is by no means a comprehensive anthology of Pakistani cuisine but when developing the recipe list, I did my best to cover as many provinces, regions and communities as I could while balancing the need to include (1) crowd favorites (2) easy recipes that are accessible to beginners, (3) dishes that are really tasty, and (4) enough vegetarian dishes to signal that Pakistani cuisine isn’t just meat!

Majority of the recipes were sourced from cooks across Pakistan but they went through a significant validation, adaptation and testing process before making it to the book. A big shout-out to my wonderful team of recipe testers spread across the globe who volunteered their time and labor to support this project! A departure from the early days of my blog, I didn’t treat the recipes shared as “untouchable.” Instead, I viewed them as templates that I tweaked to make the recipes easier to follow, and dialed up the flavor so they appeal to a broader audience. This may raise some eyebrows regarding the “authenticity” of the recipes but the cookbook strongly pushes back against the notion that there is only one “right” way to prepare a dish.

You may have already guessed from the cover that the design of the book is strongly inspired by architecture in Pakistan. We wanted to keep the visuals of the book warm but tasteful. The location photography is documentary style with a focus on the cooks and the environment in order to properly contextualize the food. Similarly, with the studio photography, Sonny and our lovely food stylists at Conserva Kitchen, didn’t want the dishes to look overdone. We wanted to recreate real Pakistani tables through the props, surfaces and styling, in order to really transport readers to the country.

Working on this cookbook was a truly immersive experience that helped me expand as a writer, cook and visual editor. I can’t believe the official publish date is only a couple of months away! If you haven’t already pre-ordered, please consider doing so through any of these vendors here.

Happy new year!

Other 2024 Highlights

Writing

I wrote my first profile! Read about Asad Monga, one of Pakistan’s coolest young chefs.

I was also finally able to dive into some food-centric reporting from Manila:

Manila’s Cocktail Scene is Taking Hold in Unexpected Places (CNT)

The Sikh Kitchen that Feeds Manila’s Moneylenders (Al Jazeera)

Travel

After submitting my manuscript, I squeezed in a bunch of travel: Moalboal, Roxas, Siargao and Siquijor in Philippines, and Mexico City, Tokyo, Taipei and Wonderfruit festival in Thailand. Some quick recommendations:

Mexico City: Even though it’s overrun by North American nomads, the city is still amazing. My favorite meal was at the restaurant located inside Lago Algo. Not only is the space stunning but the food was so bright and satisfying. A little bit about the space here.

Siargao: The restaurant, Roots, which showcases Italian cooking through Filipino ingredients, is so cool and so tasty. The cocktail bar, Last Chance, co-founded by the brains behind Houston’s coolest bar, Anvil, is also fantastic.

Siquijor: I really wished I stayed at the very charming Coco Grove resort, which provides access to amazing offshore snorkeling.

Tokyo: Massive thanks to my college bud, Fahad who handpicked some very cool eating and drinking spots. Favorites include the izakaya, 35 Steps Bistro and SG Low.

I hope to get back to sharing recipes both here and on the blog by next month. Thanks once again for sticking around!