Ferran Adria made foams famous, but Indians may have beaten him to it by a few hundred years. Many years ago, my cousin was posted in Agra, and she used to buy something called Makhan from a sweet shop nearby. It was one of the most wonderful things I'd ever had - essentially an almost... Continue Reading →
Rolling in Maps
I've already written about my search for Kolkata-style Kati Rolls in Mumbai; here's the map to help you find them. And lets not forget New York. The Kati Roll Company fuelled many of my parties, while Roomali was a lunch staple. Indian Bread Company served excellent tea along with decent rolls and a was a... Continue Reading →
Steamy Stories
I've been trying to eat healthy, as usual, so I go looking for steamed dishes on restaurant menus wherever I can find them. This entry is less about healthy or lightly cooked food as particularly about 'steamed' food. The king of steamed in India is undoubtedly the idli. Mumbai is chock-a-block with udipis chrning out... Continue Reading →
Roll over Beethoven II
Ask anyone who's lived in Kolkata in his or her youth, and the one food they hanker for is the Kolkata Roll. Mustard fish, rossogolla. puchka, jhalmuri, all have undoubted appeal, but the most universal of the lot is the kati roll. Everyone except a dietician loves it. I don't visit Kolkata that much anymore,... Continue Reading →
Chocolate
Vir Sanghvi's Sunday column in the HT Cafe, about chocolates and chocolate snobbery, set me thinking. I'm not as convinced about chocolate and terroir as Vir Sanghvi is, but his column triggered my thoughts about where I've had the best chocolates or chocolate confections. Here, then, is my top 5 chocolate list. I'm not claiming... Continue Reading →
Whitewash
Suburban shift or no, Goregaon is not a place you associate with fine dining; that does not prevent the odd eccentric from springing a surprise. White is one such, tucked away in a small lane near Goregaon station. The most surprising part about White is the quality of ingredients used, and the execution of the... Continue Reading →
Mapping Madness
I've finally discovered nearly the perfect mapping tool for my blogs. Map Channels lets me make these cool interactive maps using Google Maps that I can then embed into my blog. Really cool. I've started adding maps retrospectively - so far these posts have been mapchanneled. Sausages and Smoke Dining with Saint Francis The only... Continue Reading →
More Suburban Crawl
A few people called me with some names I had left out of yesterday's list. Bhagat Tarachand no longer insists you brave the bylanes of Kalbadevi; they are now also at Vashi's APMC market. O Calcutta lived long as Only Fish in the bylanes of Tardeo, and has spread not just northwards but nationwide. Zafran... Continue Reading →
Suburban Crawl
Mumbai, ever since the days when goras pottered about cobblestone streets, has been dominated by "town". Respectability was measured in direct proportion to distance from the Gateway of India, and for the longest time the Borivali national forest started just beyond Dadar. This was true of any kind of decent housing just as much as... Continue Reading →
Dining with Saint Francis
Vir Sanghvi has described in his column in yesterday's HT supplement his dining experiences in San Francisco, which got me to thinking. I know San Francisco quite well, having spent generous amounts of time there cycling up hills and running down reviews in the SF Chronicle. Indeed, this blog started four years ago in San... Continue Reading →
The Well Fed Bong 