Butterfly effect meme

My very first tag....Iam so excited about this. Thank you Vani for tagging me.

This is a foodie meme which asks you to talk about stuff that has had a profound influence on your foodie life(in the words of Dan@saltshaker.net who started this meme). Well, not just any kind of stuff...but specifically an ingredient, a dish/recipe, a meal, a cookbook/other written work, a food personality, and another person in your life.
Before I get down to the meme, here's some info:
A meme is an Internet phenomenon (sometimes called an Internet meme)which occurs when something relatively unknown becomes hugely popular, often quite suddenly, through the mass propagation of media content made feasible by the Internet.(source: wikipedia)
Alright, that said, let's talk....

• Ingredient - I had a tough time deciding on this one.....there are several ingredients that I absolutely love but if I must choose just one, then it would have to be potatoes. Whether it is a spicy potato fry with ulli sambar, drenched-in-oil Mc Donalds french fries, Hard Rock Cafe's Baked potato which is a meal in itself, or the "no one can eat just one" chips...I love 'em all.
• A dish/ recipe - No thinking twice about it....it is nothing other than the very south indian sambar. Can you believe Iam so particular about how sambar should taste that I hardly ever touch it if I go to a restaurant??? And of course, in my opinion, my mom's sambar is the absolute best in the world....Iam always striving to recreate that in my kitchen.
  
• A meal - There's a restaurant run by Arusuvai Arasu on Chennai's East Coast Road(known locally as just ECR). Usually Iam not the kind of person that orders a full thali meal in a restaurant....'coz if you've been reading carefully u know that Iam picky about my sambar....but this is one restaurant where as soon as i stepped in, I knew I'd love the food. I had their several course lunch served on a banana leaf....and the taste lingers to this day.
  
• A cookbook/other written work - When I got married and moved from a small town in Kerala to the US, the extent of my cooking was limited to sambar, rasam and tomato rice. The only thing that saved us from eating those dishes day in and day out was the several Mallika Badrinath cookbooks that I carried with me.
• A food personality - Don't know if he fits this label perfectly, but it would have to be Hemant Trivedi. All of his recipes are perfect....each and every one that I've tried out has come out delicious.
• Another person in my life - Let's start with my husband. He has always encouraged me to experiment with food, try out new dishes....and yeah, he is the only one that's had to actually eat my "not-so-perfect" creations. And then there's mom....moms are fantastic in that they are able to whip up great tasting meals within what seems like no time at all. I always find myself comparing anything that I cook with her cooking and also strive to keep my kitchen as neat as she keeps hers.

With that said, it is now my turn to tag......and I tag Prema of My Cookbook.