The food memory project
How it started?
An idea while cooking.
What started as a spontaneous potato sketch (because carbs are my love language) has now snowballed into a full-blown food art series.
AALOO.
If there’s one thing that’s followed me — loyally, carb-loaded, and a little dusty — from Bengal to Bangalore to Berlin, it’s the humble aaloo.
In Kolkata, it showed up in everything: tucked inside a kochuri, swimming in jhol, lounging next to luchi, or crisping away as aloo bhaja — like the extrovert at every adda. An ingredient most dependable.
Now in Berlin, different continent, it goes by “kartoffel” and tries to dress fancy — but deep down, it’s still the same starchy sidekick. Affordable, available, and always there when I’m hungry and half-functioning.
This is my love letter to the ordinary — the kind of ingredient that quietly bridges my kitchens, countries, and comfort zones.
From mustard-oil-soaked aloo bhaja to skillet-seared bratkartoffeln — same tuber, different stories.
I’ve always loved painting — mostly freeform, never by the rules. Inspired by the joy of eating and creating, I’m teaching myself watercolour through 30 days of illustrating my favourite comfort foods. This page is part documentation, part discipline, and all heart. A space for creative detours, hobby deep-dives, and maybe even a finished project.
Eklectic.Kreative has become a living sketchbook. A growing archive of everyday food memories, served one painting at a time. I'm currently sharing a daily series of illustrated dishes that have shaped my life across Bengal, Bangalore, and Berlin.
Each post is paired with music from my childhood .
Old Hindi, Bengali and English songs from the 70s, 80s, and 90s .The kind my Baba played on road trips, at family picnics, or on weekend afternoons that smelled of all things comforting. I know these tunes by heart, even if I’ve never seen the films they came from.
In India, we call them evergreen. And nothing fits nostalgia better than this project.
It is a celebration of all the senses: taste, touch, smell, sound, and memory.
