by Shoba Narayan (Author)
What is the role of spirituality in your life? Do you pray? Is religion part of your identity or does it make you uncomfortable? To answer these and other questions, Shoba Narayan approaches faith through perhaps its most primal and nourishing aspect: food. She partakes of sacred food in shrines across India-- Puri's bhog, Amritsar's langar, Palani's panchamritam, Mathura's pedas, Ambalapuzha's paal-payasam, Kashi's sweets, Jaipur's rabdi, Ajmer's kesaria bhat, Madurai's dosai, Jewish halva in Mumbai, and communal feasts in Udupi, Goa and the Kumbh Mela. Sacred food is linked to history, myth, and identity of specific shrines and their faithful. Food & Faith explores this powerful yet intimate connection. Shoba Narayan has written about food and faith for over two decades. She was the Hinduism columnist for Beliefnet and won the James Beard MFK Fisher Award for distinguished food writing. She has been a correspondent for Gourmet magazine and has written about culture, food and faith in her columns and essays for Hindustan Times and The National Abu Dhabi. Food & Faith brings together two of Shoba's passions: spirituality and food.