• AWARD-WINNING COOKBOOK AUTHORS: The new, highly anticipated companion title to Coconut Lagoon, winner of Taste Canada Award 2020 Best Regional Cookbook, also published by Figure 1. Co-author Anne DesBrisay authored Ottawa Cooks, winner of the Applied Arts Food Photography Award, and shortlisted for a Taste Canada Award.
• ACCESSIBLE AND INCLUSIVE RECIPES: Whereas Coconut Lagoon was a tribute to a homeland, My Thali is a celebration of home-cooking. 85 simple but elevated recipes, 7 menus, and tips throughout. Some of the recipes can be prepared in 30 minutes in a single pot. Recipes require only basic cooking equipment and many ingredients that readers will already have at home, or that can be easily sourced through an Indian or South Asian grocery store, or else online. Recipes include dietary symbols for vegan, gluten-free and dairy-free.
• BUILDS ON INTEREST IN MAUNIKA GOWARDHAN'S THALI (2021), WITH SOME KEY DIFFERENCES: Gowardhan is from Mumbai in western India, Thottungal is from Kerala in South India. Thottungal brings a Canadian chef's flair to the art of thali.
  
• WELL-CONNECTED RESTAURANTEUR Thottungal is the the owner of the restaurants Coconut Lagoon and Thali in Ottawa, and the culinary director of the charity Food For Thought.
• GORGEOUS FOOD PHOTOGRAPHY: Commissioned colour food photography throughout by Christian Lalonde.