Ainy Cooks

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It just hit my mind to take interviews of all those Pakistani Food Bloggers whose work i enjoy and feel you might find interesting and useful, too. This is actually a little hub of online info and insight from bloggers within our Food community. Proudly present My first Pakistani Celebrity today.
You will come to know about the blogger’s secrets to success and practical advice, plus it lets you get to “know” the person behind the blog a bit in this series. The initial post here featured ASNA blogger of the well-known “My Happy & Chaotic Kitchen” is a truly unique resource for food writers or bloggers.

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Asna features gorgeous food photography and healthy, delicious meals.On 31st Dec she posted a recipe for a CHICKEN SAJJI. Which i liked a lot..

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I’m so grateful to bloggers like Asna for sharing their knowledge and taking the time and energy to help others! Including answering a few of my questions about how they got to where they are today. Here’s what I asked Asna about:

Thank you Asna for joining us today now first we would love to know about you… a girl behind “Happy & Chaotic Kitchen”.

I am Asna, a Pakistani – American, mother of two, living in U.S.A. This blog is my visual recipe journal, which I share with my friends. Though i consider myself an amateur, I have always felt very comfortable in kitchen. I cook and try to follow recipes but never can follow one without tweaking it unless I’m baking!
I am a lover of everything creative, and I have penchant for learning new things. An avid reader, on my bookshelf you’ll find books on coding and design, typography, Photoshop, photography, illustration, watercolor, cooking, Islamic geometrical patterns and my religion.

There are many things I would love to do with my time but most importantly at this time in my life I hope Allah guides me to raise my daughters in a way that they become appreciative of the blessings they are blessed with and become creative and free thinking individuals who are a credit to their society.

Q1.Why did you start your blog? Has the experience been what you expected?

It has been almost two years since I started blogging about food, why I started? There are more than a few reasons, apart from the fact that I love everything about food, mainly it was my growing collection of food pictures. Photography is amongst a number of hobbies I have,while I love cooking styling and plating food is the most fun part for me. Also I wanted to show my mother who lives back in Pakistan how good I was faring in the kitchen, given I knew very little about cooking when I got married.
It has been a wonderful experience, I found amazing people who are so artistic in different fields not just cooking and also found such talented cooks and photographers but above all I loved how big hearted most of them were, they welcome newcomers and cheer for them, they have no qualms about sharing their expertise and platforms to promote work of other bloggers. Now I have a whole lot of artistic bunch of friends who keep me motivated.

Q.2.What you think is most notable about your blog. What are the keys to its popularity?

I would say the photography, because honestly speaking unless you keep the reader visually interested they won’t stay on you blog for more than a couple of minutes. I have been complemented on the photography of my blog very often, people are so nice and it humbles me, truly does, because most of the time it’s just done in quick minutes before I serve the food. As I don’t cook for the blog, I blog about what I cook. I have to learn so much more about photography, I have just barely scratched the surface yet.

Q3.What’s the greatest satisfaction you get from hosting your blog?

It does give me satisfaction that is for sure, because it’s something I do just because I like it and it makes me happy. Also I truly cherish the people I have met from across the globe who share same interests as I do, never knew we had such an amazing community of artists, photographers, lifestyle bloggers, calligraphers and food bloggers of of course.

Q4.What kind of recipes most of the people want these days?

My desi readers and friends really love the recipes of chocolate desserts, cup cakes and entrées from American or Mexican cuisine.
And the non Desi readers, prefer pure Desi recipes, they especially like kebabs and chutney, and everything Pakistani.

Q5.Where do you get your inspiration from?

I started blogging long before I started following other food bloggers, at that time I just wanted to share the pics on my iPhone but now I do look for recipes that are easy and practical to make or bake, and tweak those to my taste. I won’t ever spend more than 15 mins to frost a cake nor do I wanna do intricate patterns on cookies. I just don’t believe in such complicated food arrangements.

Q6.What piece of photography equipment could you not go without?

Though nowadays I am sure I am suffering from a chronic disorder of shopping for food photography props but I can easily do with just a camera, iPhone even, and lots and lots of natural light.

Q7.What are your top 3 tips for aspiring food bloggers?

1. Cook what you would want to eat yourself.
2. Try to experiment, it’s so much fun. Know the basics and then break the rules.
3. Most importantly have a good time, take pictures of the process and keep it stress free.

Q8.What is your most successful food invention?

I wouldn’t call any of my recipes my own invention as we all get our inspiration from some where, having said that the most requests I get are for tamale corn cakes and My super secret Mac and cheese recipe that still hasn’t made it’s way to the blog, I did invent this one !

Q9.What’s the recipe in the blog you always tell people about — or show them — first?
That would be tamale corn cakes, chicken karahi or instant noodle kebabs.

Q10.Tell us about your favorite Pakistani place and food .
On my last trip to Pakistan we went to this barbecue place called charcoal. It was a wonderful experience not only because of the scrumptious heavenly smelling food but the whole atmosphere, the ambience and the setting of the restaurant was excellent.

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Thanks to Asna. You can visit her blog here:

My food blog : myhappyandchaotickitchen.com
Facebook page : https://www.facebook.com/myhappyandchaotickitchen
Follow me on instagram @myhappychaotickitchen
Meet me on pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/AsnaFaruqui/

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