Unpopular Cook Turns 5: A Taste of Home and Heart

Unpopular Cook Turns 5 A Taste of Home and Heart

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Recently on Unpopular Cook, we celebrated our 5th anniversary. Five years since the blog came to life. My love for food started at home. My grandmother Akka was an amazing cook. No, that's not just my opinion but everyone else's who has eaten anything she's made. I wanted to do something more for my love for food so I started a small blog sharing recipes and my many, many experiments – good or bad. I created my blog five years ago in 2020 on Akka's birthday, May 18th.

For the past three years, I've started a ritual, an anniversary tradition where I share a little about the chef behind the blog and/or how Unpopular Cook came to be. Every year, I tell a story. This year's story especially felt nostalgic. I kept going back to read my stories on the blog once I posted them. I must have read it at least five times. I thought it was worth sharing that here too. Whether or not this exact story has happened to you, I think you will still find something in the details of it all to relate to, connect and feel the magic of nostalgia. Here goes the story.

Happy Happy Birthday Akka!

And just like that, in the blink of an eye, it's our 5th anniversary here at Unpopular Cook!

Which means... drumroll... it's story timeeee! (A little segment where you get to know more about the chef behind the scenes - and how Unpopular Cook came to be.)

This year's story is filled with warmth, love and joy. After all these years, I finally get to celebrate Akka's birthday at home. One of my fondest memories of her goes back to my childhood summers.

Summers back then were pure bliss! My brothers and I would play all morning and eagerly wait for the afternoons - not just because the food was special (which it always was when Akka cooked) but because it was mango season.

We would rush through lunch, not because we didn't love the food, but because we couldn't wait to indulge. We were allowed to eat two mangoes each, and if we got a third one because the adults were feeling generous (which wasn't very rare), we called it living life king-sized.

We all had lunch together and mind you, we had to wait until everyone had finished. No one was allowed to touch the mangoes until then.

Dad would pick the best among the best he got for us and hand them to Akka.

We would sit in a circle in the living room and Akka would bring at least a dozen mangoes every day. There was a particular way she cut mangoes. My brothers and I would watch her cut them patiently, one by one, drooling and fighting over who gets which mango purely based on the colour of the mangoes.

Akka wouldn't let us touch the plate until we all had one mango on each of our plates - that way, no one could complain that somebody ate their share (which we did very often).

Once at least three mangoes were cut, we would each get our plates. We would eat like there's no tomorrow.

We would even compete to see who ate better, although now, in retrospect, I think it was an old trick the adults used to make sure we ate without wasting too much. Akka would continue cutting mangoes and give us one more when each of us was done eating.

You'd think there would be no more fighting but this was the most dangerous one of them all. Once the children had two mangoes each, Akka would start cutting mangoes for the adults in the house, including herself. But the rules for adults didn't apply the way they did for us. They didn't fight over who got the best part of the mango (the gutli) like we did. So we would eye their gutlis instead. We would fight over who got to eat the gutli someone didn't want. More often than not, there were always atleast two gutlis up for grabs. It was like the adults didn't care as much. But us? Oh no no - we didn't take that lightly. (Or did-and that never went well, a story for another time)

Years later, decades later, the mango craze still hasn't died at our home.

Since this memory is so close to my heart, I figured what better way to mark our 5th anniversary than with a mango cake? I made a mango tres leches for Akka's birthday this year, for all the love I have for her and for mangoes. I'm finally enjoying desi mangoes again after years, and I couldn't feel fuller - both literally and figuratively.

Reminiscing about this and so many other memories with you as we celebrate our 5th anniversary here at Unpopular Cook. Once again, happy birthday, Akka. For everything you've done for us, we are forever grateful. We miss you, and we love you.

May 2025