There have been a few cheese posts lately. I could write this as a comment but this is not about cheese. This is about cheese and wine and anything that is seen as high brow. I usually stay away from all such posts as my experience with both cheese and wine is like less than 2 years old. Never had too much money or inclination for either and both were paraded as such high trends that people like me stayed out because of reverse-disdain. But…Continue Reading “About wine, cheese and food snobs”
The guy who gives me a haircut spends 45 excruciating minutes on how to hide the whites and the bald. The salon, yes I go to a salon, has never slid a line in the bill or winked at me for a tip. But since morning most restaurateurs have come out saying how if you don’t pay service charge, you are robbing poor dish washers and service staff of their due. Imagine the owner of a for-profit enterprise saying his staff needs public charity to…Continue Reading “Service charge is in restaurants is a giant scam”
This is called a korana in Odia. Koriba, the verb, would roughly translate to grating. So, a korana, theoretically, can grate anything. But, in practice, it is a single purpose tool – grating coconuts. I am not claiming this is an Odia innovation, but I am sure non-coastal folks would rarely have seen it. Once you know how to use it, it looks deceptively easy to handle. When you don’t, you call it what we call all things we don’t understand – art. In my…Continue Reading “Grating coconuts and adulthood”
There is nothing new about calls to prove your patriotism. Before all these idiotic new ones, there was the original, primal one that every east Indian would know. If you are from Bengal or Odisha and had moved to Delhi, no matter how many lifetimes back, you will walk into this question so many times that they can act as milestones for your life. Do you love puchka/gupchup or have you converted to golgappas? You see, if your answer is in favour of the first,…Continue Reading “Puchka / Gupchup or Golgappa?”
This is the most dominant streetfood in Odisha. The vendors are everywhere, under every tree, at every bus stop, in front of every school. Everywhere. It is a breakfast item, a preferred lunch dish for some and is eaten at all hours of the day. Quite a lot goes into this too – there is the vada soaked in dahi, matar ghugni, dum alu, sev bhujia, onions and coriander for garnish and some sprinkle a spice powder. There is also a sweet…Continue Reading “Streetfood of Odisha”
The problem with delhi streetfood is that we have too much of alu chaats and too less of vada pavs and pohas and dabelis etc. We can all add items from our home states that we don’t find here. If you are in Malviya Nagar, there is this vada pav vendor, across the road from Moti Sweets. The classic vada pav in the photo came for just 35 bucks and the pav bhaji for 65. They also have a dabeli on the menu. The vada pav…Continue Reading “Vada Pav Junction, Malviya Nagar”
In all these years, I had never been to Social, until this weekend. The place has always been the cards but seemed too cafe-ish for a full meal. Good thing is it is not. There are items on the menu that will do well even in a proper restaurant. Though there was loads to order from, I went for the laska curry. The curry was too mild for a laska, was more like a Thai green curry with noodles. But I did not mind because…Continue Reading “Social, Defence Colony”
We have all had different kinds of teas, haven’t we? However, this one threw me off the chair. I spent two decades in this city and had never tasted this one. This time, luckily I did. This tea costs five bucks. Has lemon, honey and a spice powder that makes it almost taste like Hajmola. It is very addictive and I used to have two at a go. It is a version of what the Bengalis call laal chai and what the Odias call naali…Continue Reading “Tea Shop, Unit 4, Bhubaneswar”
A dirty war is going to happen on the issue of kalakand in Alwar. Apparently, it all started with one guy after partition – Baba Thakurdas. He used to sell it on a cart and then a small shop. It was so good that it caught on and now there is a whole market in Alwar known as the Kalakand Market. But there are violent debates about whether it is a kalakand or a milkcake. Every sweetshop in the city has milkcake on the counter….Continue Reading “Kalakand, No, Milk Cake, No, Kalakand in Alwar”
This has been one of my most favorite sweets since childhood. But I knew nothing about it, until I put the question on a food group. Seems, as I suspected, it is related to Mysore Pak. Mahisur being a local pronunciation of Mysore. The version in the picture is called honeycombed mysore pak, I am sure that is not the local term. Anyone know the local names, please let me know in the comments. It is made of besan (gram flour), same as Mysore Pak….Continue Reading “The mystery of Mahisur, Odisha”
Bangkok 1. There is a brand owner and an investor and all that. But leaving all the boring details apart, this one is owned in part by an ex industry guy and a Thai team in the kitchen, both confess to being horrible at social media and communication. The facebook page sucks, there are no fancy photos, no blogger reviews and no close ups of hip customers. But, that is how restaurants run these days. But, they have worked on the areas that any sincere…Continue Reading “Bangkok 1, Sector 53, Gurgaon”
I stress about a lot of things, so this may not be a big deal. But I have been stressing about it since yesterday, that makes it one. I came across a tweet from a food writer that equated Chinese dosa with rape of food. Now, to me, it is not about political correctness or feminism or sensitivity at all. It is about English. Rape has a meaning and it does not mean this. I have asked her on twitter, hope she takes it down….Continue Reading “‘Rape’ in food writing: tell me I am wrong”
On recent trip to Alwar, we spotted this incomplete looking shack by the roadside. There was a charpai, a cooking station with a stove and a tarpaulin roof. It looked like a food place but given that no one stopped by we were not too sure. We decided to stop on the way back. It was a dhaba. The guy had nothing ready. He explained all that he could cook and how much time it would take. We decided on the dal baati in twenty…Continue Reading “Impromptu dal baati, Alwar”
I got an invite when this place opened. I wondered if I would like to review a fast food chain and never went there, until i did, yesterday. They had massive standees all over the place and the bacon caught my eye. We walked in, the price seemed extremely reasonable at 179 rupees or thereabouts. And, the burger was damn good, with fried chicken, lettuce and tomato. The only other burger chain that serves bacon is Jonny Rockets and the prices don’t compare. The railway…Continue Reading “Wendy’s, Cyberhub”
In my fifteen years in Delhi, Nizamuddin is one locality that I was never really interested in exploring. The food scene seemed like a lesser cousin of Old Delhi and I was antagonized to the dargah as it forbids women from entering the inner sanctum. So, I have refrained from venturing there time and again. I finally did, and as it mostly happens, for no significant reason at all. I guess time had eaten through the wall of resistance. Anyway, what I found is a…Continue Reading “Kit Care Kebab Corner, Nizamuddin”
For someone who has had so many kebabs, I was always stumped by the shammi one. Is that a hard galouti? Is there some other difference ? Why is it hard at times? Should not all kebabs be soft? Ghalib kebab corner in Nizamuddin probably has a few lessons to teach to morons like me. The shammi holds its shape, is made from beaten meat that is stringy than tender and tastes of chana dal and spice too. They also have some other amazing looking…Continue Reading “Ghalib Kebab Corner, Nizamuddin”
Alu tikki and dahi papdi There was not much time to travel the city and try many things. So, started with the first stall that I laid my eyes on. First, the alu tikki. I had never had a tikki with curry. The curry was not even an afterthought or a side dish. It had small kabuli chana, kala chana, matar and a delicious gravy. This was awesome. Then the dahi papdi. This was new to me. He took the papdi, crushed them, topped it…Continue Reading “Streetfood in Alwar”