“I Thought I Was Solidly In My Fun Auntie Era, And Then…”: How Rambutan’s Cynthia Shanmugalingam Met The Love Of Her ...

A couple of years ago, in the purgatory between Covid-19 lockdowns and dating app hell , I met Joe.

Cynthia first met Joe while spending six months at home in Sri Lanka researching her cookbook, Rambutan .

And then something amazing happened. After months of my friend Anokhi sending me daily motivational messages while I wrote and rewrote my proposal, I landed a book deal more generous than I had ever dreamed possible. I could afford to spend six months in Sri Lanka with my mum and dad. I wanted to write about food as a kind of Tamil joy, to find a way to represent and transcend our painful history through recipes . But the Sri Lankan Covid-19 guidelines were strict; I'd need to spend a whopping four weeks in isolation. "Well, so what?" I thought. "How bad could it be?" I'd be staying at a quarantine ...

Reference: Found here