Greetings from under the rock I've been hiding for the past several weeks. There's something about being home that makes the rest of the world fade away- sometimes in a pleasant way, and sometimes in not-so-pleasant ways- for instance, I'm probably the last person in the country to hear that we launched a rocket- and only found out after coming across a series of puzzling Indians on Mars jokes in my twitter feed.

In spite of occasionally making me feel like I'm on a different planet I really do like this place: it's a seaside town. Quaint, quiet, with a sherbet coloured mosque and the smallest, most underwhelming lighthouse. There's also great fish for most of the year, if you're into that sort of thing. Although I'm not the biggest fan of seafood, and don't eat much of it besides the odd shrimp or squid that finds its way into my diet, I'm trying to be more adventurous of late. 'What sort of sad food writer doesn't eat fish?', I ask myself as I bite into a piece of shark meat. It has been pretty smooth sailing mostly- I've discovered that I quite like Basa- primarily because it doesn't taste of anything- dislike sardines with all my heart and am ambivalent about salmon. My relationship with shrimp however is a lot less complicated- I love it. Fried, grilled, curried, you name it, I'll eat it. Mum and I tried out a Sriracha shrimp recipe recently that only reaffirmed my strong feelings for this lip-smacking crustacean. We had to make it a couple of times to fine tune the recipe, and we're very excited to share it with you. It's easy, hard to mess up and a great combination of flavours- a burst of heat from the Sriracha, mellowed nicely by the soy sauce and sugar and brightened with a dash of lime and cilantro. Be sure to make the dipping sauce from the marinade- it takes the dish to a whole new level.

PS: This post is would not have been possible without assistance from my niece Laiqa who in addition to lending me her laptop for the day, provided support in the form of snacks and good music. Although i've always been pretty darn crazy about her, I found the Titanic soundtrack in her music library and my heart swelled. A girl after my own heart.