The frenetic Durga Puja over, a nice slow midweek holiday emerged yesterday. Sunny weather, nothing much to do all added up to picture windows and leisurely lunches. I chose Tasty Tangles. Yes, ok, its a chain (though not a very big one) and its format is very fastfood. However, in this area it has the... Continue Reading →
I misjudged the Leela. Far from being clueless about local food, the hotel actually puts on quite a spread in their regular menus both at lunch and dinner. It turns out the conference had requested a less adventurous menu, hence the constant attempt to feed us Thai and French. The executive sous chef (as hardboiled... Continue Reading →
Ducking out of another hotel dinner, I put my fate in the hands of taxi driver Ainaz, who promptly took me to Zam Zam in nearby Thiruvanthapuram. A short drive from the hotel, Thiruvananthapuram (I hope I don’t to write that again – even copy-paste is tough) turned out to be (disappointingly for a capital... Continue Reading →
It was not the kind of branding I expected to see in a messy, muddy, back-of-beyond suburb of Pune. A bright purple could have been expected, wadewale is not that uncommon but a clean, well-designed sign with a small cartoon face? A self-confident sign that would be more in place in an ad agency pitch... Continue Reading →
I gathered much material for Thai food; this might yet evolve into a Rambo-quality series. This is my second instalment about eating Thai off the streets, sitting down in air-conditioned comfort ordering food off a menu. Waiting for food to come to you rather than walking up to it. Haute of a sort. Thailand is,... Continue Reading →
A quick trip to our great capital left me without enough time to go to Chandi Chowk, so we headed to Bengali Market – a place I last visited a decade ago, and still remembered fondly - for our golgappa fix. The two giants – Nathu Sweets and Bengali Sweet House - still dominate Bengali... Continue Reading →
I spent most of my time on the streets of Thailand, but I did venture into a few restaurants. Lets start with Hua Hin. Lonely Planet told me the place to go for seafood and atmosphere was Chao Lay (ranked #2 on the list of things to do in Hua Hin though there are some... Continue Reading →
Drinks inside domestic flights went the way of dinosaurs days before my first flight, and for a very long time the only place to drink even before boarding a flight was at Bangalore Airport. The sobriety situation stayed firmly in place for decades; your only options for flying drunk was to tank up before entering... Continue Reading →
When I first moved into Mumbai in the mid nineties, Gujarati Thali was a big thing. At a time when expense accounts were still some years away, the sheer promise of unlimited food (even if vegetarian), attentive waiters and wholesomely pretty gujju girls (even if vegetarian) all sounded like the greatest option ever. That most... Continue Reading →
Today I went in search of misal. Misal is as soundly maharashtrian as the pandu, the vada pao, the dabbawallah or the endearing habit of naming everything after Shivaji. No self-respecting station or streetcorner in Mumbai can afford to maintain its status in society without one. I suspect that while pao bhaji is sold to... Continue Reading →
The Well Fed Bong 