Dr Nicole Pereira: Encouraging clean eating through minimalistic style food blogging

Dr Nicole Pereira’s food-related Instagram profile is an interesting exception to the existing social media posting style. It subtly snubs the predictable publishing of colour corrected, carefully curated images, and instead focuses on creating a minimalistic profile - simple, elegant, no-fluff yet warm - that echoes Nicole’s everlasting passion for food prepared using local ingredients and a global culinary palate. Through her page, the Pharmacologist and Simulation Educator aims to “empower young minds to cook”, and help them realise how therapeutic and simple the activity can be. 

In conversation with TAL, the 34-year-old talks about how a menagerie of cooking-related experiences – growing up in the island nation of Bahrain watching Hijab clad women cook exotic dishes on national television to discovering ancient Indian forms of preparing food – helped her understand that cooking is multilayered and the knowledge around it is never stationary. It also doesn’t have to be or look complex.

It is no wonder then that her profile features spicy South Indian curries influenced by her Mangalorean heritage alongside Japanese ramen, a personal favourite; all prepared in a simple, no-nonsense manner. Over to Nicole!

Tom yum drumsticks.

A little about me

I was born in Manama, Bahrain and now live in the beautiful picturesque coastal city of Mangalore, Karnataka, South India with my husband, Pritham D’Souza, a professional photographer. My parents got married in Mumbai, a major Indian city, and moved to Bahrain to work and reside for a majority of their lives. I came tumbling out into this wonderful world on August 5, 1986 and three years later, my younger brother Vernon was born.

I studied in Bahrain till class 12, then came back to India to pursue MBBS, MD Pharmacology from Fr Muller Medical College, Mangalore. My father works for Carrier and my mother, now retired, used to work for Bahrain Atomisers Intl.   

Tom yum chicken mince over saffron rice, steamed beans and fried egg.

Presently I work at Fr Muller Medical College as an Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacology and am also Pre and Para clinical coordinator for Father Muller simulation and skill lab. Over the past four years, I have taken a keen interest in the simulation as a methodology in teaching Pharmacology, and I am proud to say that we are one of the first medical colleges’ in India to utilise this methodology in teaching undergraduate medical students.

Using Instagram to promote clean eating 

I started my Instagram page and have been actively talking about clean eating in other venues because I want people to understand how simple it is to cook, plate and lead a healthy lifestyle. For me, minimalism is key. There should always be a fine balance in everything we do.

Sweet and tarty strawberry jam with Edam cheese and a sunny side up egg over toast.

I understand that food should look good too, but the garnish and flair of a dish shouldn’t compromise food’s basic tenet – nourishment of the body. I also love experimenting with dishes, and on my profile you will find simple, yet delicious fusion dishes.

Nowadays, we hardly make time to buy fresh produce, eat and cook clean or plate our food with relish. I am more interested in purchasing fresh and clean ingredients and embracing a locavore style of cooking and eating rather than creating a ‘perfect’ looking dish. I believe in leading by example, and to motivate myself and help others emulate the same principle of eating, I started my Instagram page.   

I enjoy all kinds of cuisine, but when forced to choose my favourites would be Indian and Middle Eastern dishes.

Rice, yard long beans in coconut, red amaranth bhaji, spicy clams and rawa (semolina) fried pearlspot.

Also, I love Japanese food, especially ramen. It might seem like an exaggeration, but I can eat ramen everyday! When I was learning Japanese, I came across a word, ‘Itaidakimasu’ that the Japanese say before their meals. It roughly translates into thanking the food for sacrificing its life to give us life! The word’s underlying philosophy stuck a chord with me.

I admire the Japanese’s meticulous attitude towards everything and wish we would inculcate the same in our lives. Talking about Japan, I was featured on Tokyo TV a few years ago, showcasing how I use Miso paste (made and sourced in Mangalore) in my cooking.

Oscillating between simple and fancy foods

When I was growing up, both my parents worked full-time jobs. My mother’s busy schedule didn’t give her time to indulge in elaborate meal planning during the week. Our breakfasts were quite simple, no-fuss burger sandwich comprising two slices of bread with a patty inside. Lunches and dinners were similarly unspectacular, with spinach and rice, or dal (lentils) and parotha (Indian thick flatbread), among other mundane items, dominating the table most days. 

Egg Biryani.

But come weekends (Fridays and Saturdays in the Middle East) our menus changed drastically! My mother’s inner gourmet chef would come alive, and we would be gifted an array of scrumptious dishes including but not limited to exceptional prawn biryani/ pulao (pilaf), beef cutlets, fried chicken skins, and chicken offal curry, among others. Jumping out of the school bus on Friday afternoons, running towards home, clumsily taking off my shoes to peer into the pots and pans on the stove to guess the delicacy of the day still remains one of my favourite childhood memories!  

My fascination for food originated from watching my mother effortlessly fluctuate between cooking ordinary food to experimenting with more complex and delicious recipes. My mother used to work very hard. On weekdays she used to leave for work at 6:30 am and get back by 5 pm. In between, she had to put up with the temper tantrums of two growing kids, get them ready for school, and make sure their homework was up-to-date! It wasn’t easy, and there was just not enough time to whip up something delicious every day. But, despite being extremely busy, my mother always ensured there was food on the table (God bless her).  

Fried rice with Miso pork.

Unfortunately, our childhood insolence stopped us from comprehending or appreciating our mother’s hard work, so my brother and I would devise ways to avoid eating our bland breakfasts and lunches. We would try to cook our own meals, and needless to say, those culinary experiments would end in absolute disasters! 

My brother and I were always passionate about food. We would save up our pocket money and buy delicious treats from the local supermarkets. We scoured for new items on the aisles or searched for old favourites; we knew more about the products in those shops than chapters in our textbooks! We were absolute brats and would get a good spanking for wasting our money on junk food instead of eating the food prepared painstakingly by our mother.

Nicole with her brother Vernon.

Nostalgia fills my heart when I look back at our afternoons in Bahrain, full of fun, laughter, pranks, tears, and what not! We were partners in crime, my brother and I, during childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. Food, despite our early complaints, always brought delight to us; it still does and will always do! 

My food journey   

Growing up in Bahrain during the ‘90s, cable television was a luxury, so we were forced to watch whatever was on the nation-run channels. For some reason, Arabic cooking channels left an indelible mark on my brother and my impressionable young minds. I couldn’t decipher what they were saying – I didn’t speak Arabic – but I understood the ingredients being used and was always excited to see the result. 

When I moved back to Mangalore for higher studies, I stayed with both my maternal and paternal grandmothers, who took wonderful care of me for eight years. There, for the first time, I was introduced to ancient norms of preparing food, like cooking over an open fire, sans fancy gadgets. Suddenly, everything I ate tasted better.

Saffron rice and fried mackerel.

My grandmothers educated me on the ways of how our ancestors would consume food – simple and healthy. My favourite dish till date is my maternal grandmother’s red rice with homemade buttermilk and chicken cooked with onions and tomatoes on an open fire. The time spent with them strengthened my love and passion for food. My father’s cooking has also inspired me! He is a fantastic cook but rarely ventures into the kitchen. But when he does, the results are amazing! 

During my postgraduation, I developed a passion for reading and collecting cookbooks, and today I have more cookbooks than medical books on my shelves.

My culinary inspirations  

My cooking inspirations are eclectic - aromas wafting from my neighbours’ kitchens to random YouTube videos – anything can spark off an idea for a dish. 

A fusion of Asian delicacies.

However, my mother’s cooking both average (weekdays) and delicious (weekends) influenced me greatly. 

You can find me roaming about in supermarkets sometimes seeking inspiration for my next dish; looking at the produce available, imagining ingredients that would go well with it, and recipes I can concoct. I usually carry a little book where I write notes on a potential dish, drawing a rough diagram alongside on how the dish would look.  

Cooking is imprinted in my soul! If you were to knock at my door and say you wanted biryani at midnight, I would happily prepare it in two hours for you. Since I have a demanding job, there are days when I cook, plate and don’t have time to click a picture because I have to get back to work or I am just too hungry! But, irrespective of my hectic schedule, I will always carve out time to cook for it has and will always be my enduring love and passion. 

Follow Nicole’s tasty food stories on Instagram.