snapshot
“I find people are ready for the spicier flavors and the complexity. They say, ‘Give me clove, give me cinnamon, give me star anise.’ I’ve become to feel like an artist. I’m using spices the way a painter would, adding them to dishes to create another layer of taste and flavor.” – RENU PRAKASH
MAMA TIGRE:
Uniting Cultures with Cuisine
| BY ED AVIS | Mixing Mexican cuisine with other ethnic flavors is not new — many fusion cuisines have appeared in recent years. But the owners of Mama Tigre in Oakton, Virginia did not develop their fusion of Mexican and Indian food just because it tastes great. They also wanted to unite people. “We wanted to bring cultures together,” says Renu Prakash, who owns Mama Tigre with her husband Ajay Prakash. “We wanted to convey the idea of getting together, of sharing. Let’s not say the food tastes Mexican or Indian, let’s just say it tastes great. And we’re not just Americans or Indians or brown or black or blue, we’re all in this together.” Mama Tigre opened in the summer of 2020, but the idea of combining Indian and Mexican flavors was brewing in Prakash’s mind since the couple opened
