As Americans count down the hours to Inauguration Day, when Kamala Harris will make history as the nation's first woman, first Black and first person with South Asian roots to take the office of the Vice President, Padma Lakshmi cooked up one of her favourite South Indian dishes in honour of Ms Harris.
Like Kamala Harris's mother, Shyamala Gopalan, Padma Lakshmi was born in Chennai too. She immigrated to the United States at the age of four and went on to become an author, a model and the host of Emmy-award winning cooking show Top Chef.
"So in honour of our new vice president, Kamala Harris, I'm making today a typical South Indian rice that happens to be her favourite as well as mine," said Padma Lakshmi in a video introducing her dish - Tamarind Rice.
Her nearly 12-minutes-long video shows her whipping up Tamarind Rice with expert ease - explaining the traditional methods used to prepare this South Indian dish and suggesting alternatives for Americans.
Watch the recipe video below:
Since being posted a couple of hours ago, Padma Lakshmi's video has already racked up over 1 lakh views and hundreds of comments.
"Omg this sounds and looks like it tastes amazing! Never heard of this dish. Thank you for sharing!!!" wrote one person in the comments section.
"I know it's stupid but I still get such a kick out of seeming anything Tamil in mainstream American media like this," said another.
Kamala Harris's mother, Shyamala Gopalan, was born in Chennai and immigrated to the US to pursue a doctorate at the age of 19. In the past, Ms Harris has spoken of her love for South Indian food that she grew up eating.
"We had South Indian food. Lots of yogurt and rice, dal, potato curry, idli," she revealed to Mindy Kaling - another American with South Indian roots - in 2019.
Last year, speaking at an event, she also revealed that her mother had instilled in her and her sister a love for good idlis - which she counts among one of her favourite dishes.
"Growing up, my mother would take my sister Maya and me back to what was then called Madras because she wanted us to understand where she had come from and where we had ancestry. And, of course, she always wanted to instil in us, a love of good idli," Ms Harris said.
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