Madhur Jaffery

CLIMBING THE MANGO TREE

      A novel by Madhur Jaffrey

Today’s most highly regarded writer on Indian food gives us an enchanting memoir of her childhood in Delhi in an age and a society that has since disappeared.

Madhur Jaffrey grew up in a large family compound where her grandfather often presided over dinners at which 40 or more members of his extended family savored together the wonderfully flavorful dishes that were forever imprinted on Madhur’s palate.

Climbing mango trees in the orchard, armed with spices; picnicking in the Himalayan foothills on meatballs stuffed into freshly baked pooris; sampling the heady flavors in the lunch box of a fellow Muslim student; sneaking tastes of exotic street food these are the food memories Madhur Jaffrey draws on as a way of telling the story of the independent, sensitive, and ever-curious young girl she was.

Climbing the Mango Tree sis both anenormously appealing account of an unusual childhood and a testament to the power of food to evoke memory, a treasure of a book that contains a secreting redient a dozen family recipes that Madhur shares with us.