How To Be A Better Cook

arly in the Great Reopening, with all involved having been vaccinated, I cooked a dinner for four friends and my wife, and we sailed through an entire night without talking about the goddamned virus. The mood was giddy. I had decided to make a mix of South Indian and Bengali dishes and planned to finish with a Thai dessert. The curries involved the tempering and grinding of spices and then the further tempering and grinding of more spices for a multiplex of flavors. The strange resin stink of asafoetida (essential to many Indian dishes) and the jungly aroma of curry leaves mingled with the bite of mustard seeds and the mustiness of cumin and coriander that danced and popped