About Me

Welcome to the Urban Cilantro!

I am Bhumi.  I am an IT professional, a photography enthusiast, a home-cook, and a sci-fi fan at heart. And when I am not cooking in my kitchen, I am probably glued to the internet reading about possible Alien theories 😀 or re-watching the Lord of the Rings – Trilogy!

The Urban Cilantro is my creative playground to showcase my love for food, photography and design where I attempt to inspire you to get creative in making healthy wholesome meals.  I’m a Vegetarian that uses cooking and baking as a creative outlet and in the process I am learning, creating and photographing all things delicious!

I currently live in Tampa, Florida – The Sunshine State!! I grew up a vegetarian and have been one for all of my life. I love how fresh the herbs smell, how colorful the fruits are and the abundant of flavor profiles we can create out of nature’s palate.

I grew up in India, studied my Masters in the Essex,UK – lived there for about 4 years and later moved to the States to be with my husband  (a.k.a.  Mr. Taste Tester).  My love for food grew up at an early age, I started with baking (the first thing I baked was Nigella Lawson’s Chocolate cake) and moved my way up to cooking and ever since I am hooked! My student years abroad made my love for food grew more and more! Things that kept me going were – those craving for home-cooked meals followed by frequent calls to my mother asking for a certain recipe. In between all these years my cooking style and preferences has changed a lot and so is the blogging world!  My effort is to come up with healthy vegetarian recipes using wholesome, fresh and organic (where possible) products and produce.  And since, all good food blog creations often involves a good memory, an occasion, a seldom story or in my case, my love for Cilantro and watching the world go by outside of my Urban Kitchen window, I felt it was right to name it Urban Cilantro!

Other than this, I feel like there should be a random list of things that make me Happy – sunshine, books, spring, picnicking, gratefulness, my camera (my love affair with camera began prior to my love for food…way…way back!), long conversations, wilderness, houseplants, long walks/runs, sunny days, dark chocolate, documentaries (love ’em!, especially crime and mystery), make-up (oh boiii!), blueberries, cilantro (of course!), beach, sound of ocean waves, making lists ( I even make a list for all of my lists) and organizing anything and everything (its therapeutic to me, go figure!)

Thanks for visiting and I hope you enjoy cooking as much as I do!!