On a crisp Sunday morning, Atlantans wait in line at the Atlantic Station so they can go inside the former Pier 1 showroom and taste creations by local food artisans. It’s $5 fee to get in and then you pay $2-5 per sample. Atlanta Underground Market (AUM) is based upon the same concept of San Francisco’s […]

  My Momma Throws Down is a new comedic cooking competition that will be airing on TV One starting in April 2012. It is hosted by Ralph Harris (as seen on Last Comic Standing) and produced by Triage Entertainment (who produced Iron Chef America). Yesterday, I went to the filming of the show at Turner […]

Rev. Jessy Togbadoya is from a village in Liberia called Balama. He was the first individual from his village to receive an education. He now lives in Atlanta and runs a non profit organization called Balama Development Alliance (BDA). His mission through BDA is to enable transformational development by investing in the dreams of the […]

This past weekend I taught a cooking class on how to make hearty soups and salads that can be eaten as full meals. They are nutritious, filling and make wholesome entrees. Out of all the dishes we prepared, the class unanimously voted for the Brazilian shrimp soup as the most delicious and their favorite. I […]

Did you know that the name hamburger originally derives from Hamburg, Germany‘s second largest city, from where many people emigrated to the United States? In High German, Burg means fortified settlement or fortified refuge; and is a widespread component of place names. Originally what started out in the 15th century as a piece of meat between two slices of bread, has now taken […]

December was National pear month and my friends at Harvest PR and Marketing sent me a pear sampler box to mark the occasion. There are over 3,000 known pear varieties grown around the world, but only a handful of heirloom varieties have been cultivated. Up until recently, I didn’t even know there were so many varieties of […]

I first tasted pirogi (perogie) when I was on a volunteer vacation in Russia couple of years ago. The lady who cooked for us at the volunteer home in Yaroslavl made this authentic Russian bread stuffed with mushrooms. Being a fan of both breads and mushrooms, this was one of my favorite dishes in Russian […]

Recently I came across the book “Unquenchable – A Tipsy Quest for the World’s Best Bargain Wines” by Natalie MacLean. I feel like what I want to do with voluntourism, MacLean has done it with wine. I am not a fan of reading wine guides for entertainment purposes, but this book turned out to be […]

Last week a delegation from Russia came to Atlanta to discuss social issues and healthcare through the Open World Leadership Program. The six delegates were hosted with families who have opened up their homes by being members of the Georgia Council of International Visitors (GCIV). Mariya Yuryevna Solodunova, a young lady from St Petersburg was […]

First I would like to kindly thank Sucheta for letting me write a guest entry on her blog! I recently met Sucheta in Nepal where I was re-visiting VIN (Volunteers Initiative Nepal) whom I worked for last year. This year I set up a partner foundation called Friends of VIN (visit our newly launched website Friends […]

India and Nepal are two neighboring countries that have a lot of similarities and a few differences. Often times you would hear the phrase “same same but different” in reference to contrasting the two. My own personal experience aligns quite well with this. Like India, women in Nepal wear salwaar kameez and saris, adorned with […]

My perception of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal was quite different than the reality. I had envisioned a metropolitan city, neatly maintaining the balance between the old and new, cobblestone pathways leading to the Hindu temples and Buddhist stupas where peace and fresh air fills into your lungs, streets of restaurants and bars where hippies, […]

This holiday season consider giving the gift of learning. Books For Africa is a non profit with a mission to end the book famine in Africa. They want to create a culture of literacy and provide the tools of empowerment to the next generation of parents, teachers, and leaders in Africa.  Since 1988, Books For Africa has […]

Often times people ask me, I want to go somewhere abroad but don’t know how to start organizing it. Planning a trip can be quite a challenge, especially when it’s an unfamiliar country with a different language and culture. Moreover, people are looking for the flexibility to go on their own, where and when they want to. Solo travel […]

I learned that citizens from 180 nationalities call Amsterdam home. That explains the variety of cuisines you can find here. On a single street there are restaurants from India, Thailand, Malaysia, Mexico, Argentina, Italy, Japan, Brazil, China and more! The culture here has always been freedom of expression and will, which explains why Amsterdam is a […]

On my return from New Delhi to Atlanta this past week, I had a 11 hours layover in Amsterdam. In a way, I was glad about it. I have traveled extensively in Europe but never had the opportunity to visit Holland (or Netherlands). I was very close to moving there once in 2008 while working […]

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when it came to Nepali cuisine. All I could infer is that Nepal’s neighbors India, Tibet and China would have some role to play in it. That truly turned out to be the case. Food in Nepal can be categorized into three main categories – Nepali, Tibetan and […]

I am totally in awe after meeting some volunteers here in Kathmandu. There are boys and girls in their 20’s who have come from Canada, USA, Switzerland, UK and Australia – all with common goals to give back to this world and experience life in a different culture. They have abandoned their comfortable lifestyles and families, […]

The Golden Temple in Amritsar is one of the most spiritual places in India. The temple is a Sikh temple (aka gurduwara). It was constructed in 1604. Made entirely of gold, the temple is simply spectacular in its architecture and beauty teaching lesson of egalitarianism and humility. Even though I grew up in north India, […]

New Delhi, the capital of India is perhaps the only city in the world where a vast number of different religions coexist with much harmony. The population of India is majority Hindu, but also includes a good number of Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Jews and Zoroastrians. If you want to visit all their places […]