Tamarind rice — and reflections on family — in Madhu Garikaparthi's Yellowknife kitchen

Some people who go on trips bring back little souvenirs for their families. Madhu Garikaparthi's husband brings back green chili peppers — two and a half kilos of them.

"They won't last long, really," said Madhu. "We are very careful to make them last as long as possible."

Her family processes them and stores them in airtight containers, where they stay good for a couple months. They're an important ingredient for many Indian dishes — and a tough ingredient to get in large quantities in Yellowknife.

Madhu grows some as well, as a backup supply.

But the meal Madhu and her mother, Sujata Kolisetty, were making on April 21 when they welcomed the CBC's Marc Winkler into their kitchen was something else altogether: Chinthapandu Pulihora, also known as tamarind rice.

It's a comfort food, Madhu explained, and something you might expect to eat during a festival like Diwali, or after a wedding.

"Whenever you do a celebration, this is a must," she added.

"It doesn't matter [if] you do 100 per cent of the other traditional stuff, you still have to do this — because without this, your celebration is not complete."

Madhu, who has lived in Canada for more than 20 years, recently brought her parents over from Andhra Pradesh in southeast India to live with her in Yellowknife. Both in their 70s, her parents arrived last summer.

She said she and her husband, Satish Garikaparthi, always wanted her parents to come, but they'd hesitated to leave Andhra Pradesh. Now that they're here, they have plenty to keep them busy: her mother Sujata spends her time doing a wealth of arts and crafts, when she isn't cooking, and her father SatyaNarayana Murthy Kolisetty keeps busy reading books and meditating.

Sujata meditates, too, waking up at 3 a.m. to do so — a practice she has done for Madhu's whole life.

Speaking in Telugu, translated by Madhu, Sujata said she lived all her life in Andhra Pradesh. Her house back in India was full of greenery, flowers and birds — "like a paradise," Madhu noted.

"She fondly remembers but never misses her home," Madhu said.

For Madhu, being back with her parents after decades of living so far away brings two particular delights: she can act like a daughter again, and Sujata has taken over much of the cooking — a task Madhu hates doing.