Latest Posts

My Favourite Food Festival – Aquafest 2016 @ Karavalli (Residency Road)

Published by

It’s time to indulge! Karavalli’s famed Aquafest is back and is going to leave you in raptures till the end of this month. A veritable feast from the sea, Bangalore’s most esteemed dining institution brings to you sublime flavours of the southern coasts. Like every year, the menu is a careful composition of recipes gleaned from homemakers with a deep love for their cuisine, perfected in the rustic kitchens of Karavalli over 26 years. Chef Naren and team have an outstanding menu this November and I for one am always surprised on how they keep pushing the perfection envelope!

Read More

Cookbook Review: The married man’s guide to creative cooking

Published by

With the gazillion cookbook’s I own, it would be a shame to let them collect dust. I do pick up my favorites and rummage through the pages greedily for some ‘flashbulb’ recipes, but the rest of them are read once and relegated to the back shelf. Samar’s book runs the ambiguous path of a cross between ramblings of one’s life and recipes that relate to that phase, scribbled onto pages of a scrummy diary. As he states in the preface to the book – he is a glutton. And if he needed to feed his rambunctious appetite without upsetting the balance at home (his wife is a vegetarian), he had to learn how to cook. Years of living away from home, coupled with hosting innumerable impromptu parties has given him the ammunition to be creative with his cooking techniques. The book is a result of him documenting his attempts to create palatable meals through a blog in the Hindustan Times and a column in the Mint.

Read More

Masala Fried Fish for rasam rice and other world problems

Published by

Yes, I know what you’re thinking. A recipe for Masala Fried Fish?? I mean, how basic right?! You chuck some chili and turmeric paste and deep fry the fish and it’s done. Fini. Like honestly, why even bother listing it here. But I have, because we make this at home very often and it’s used as a bait to eat the rasam rice. It’s part of the family repertoire of quick fix meals when all we want to do is put our legs up and chill or in most cases, order in some greasy Chinese.

Read More

Breezy Lake Views and Pan Asian Delicacies at Aroi (Sarjapur Road)

Published by

Aroi is not kidding when they call themselves a lakeview restaurant. The cheery terrace space adorned with large birdcages and rattan chairs with colourful cushions, overlooks the surprisingly well mainted Kaikondrahalli Lake. A venture by a foodie engineer called Jacksy Chan (it’s the truth) who gave up his IT career to bring the taste of South-East Asia to Bangalore – the cuisine on offer is true to its roots. Delicacies from Malaysia, China, Vietnam and Thailand vie for your attention here and with good effect!

Read More

Lazy Afternoons @ Fresh Pressery Café (Lavelle Road)

Published by

I’m always on the lookout for wonderful little spaces that serve as an oasis from the hustle and bustle of our dear burgeoning city. Located on the Lavelle Road offshoot in the erstwhile space occupied by Cinnamon and now the GoodEarth store, is the very welcoming Fresh Pressery Café. An extension of the cold pressed chain – Fresh Pressery’s ideology, the café caters to all those health nuts that like their food and drink – light and healthy.

Read More

Matriarch of Moplah Cuisine – Ummi Abdulla’s menu at Dakshin, ITC Windsor (Palace Road)

Published by

She carefully inspects the thickness of the pastry that encases the succulent chicken filling. A cross between a samosa and a gujia, the Kozhi Ada is a Moplah specialty that is actually served as a tea time snack. She laughs when I ask her about the equally enticing Ulliyada which has a caramelized onion filling. ‘Moplah cuisine is not high on vegetarian delicacies’ she says smiling, but she improvised to please the vegetarian guests. She signals to the ITC staff that the Ada is up to the mark and then settles down to regale us with tales from Moplah land. After two hours of abject gluttony and childhood stories, I’m floored by this 80-year-old diminutive food adventurer called Ummi Abdulla. Her first love – traditional Moplah cuisine, is being showcased by Dakshin, ITC Windsor till the 12th of September. Right off the bat, let’s just say you need to experience it!

Read More

15 minute Tiramisu – for real!

Published by

I might have suddenly gone all Jamie Oliver and tried to find recipes that can be made under 15 mins. The slow food movement guys can have their leisurely life, but if I have to lovingly watch over a stew for 24 hrs, I think I might bust a blood vessel. In my defense I do Yoga and Meditation to ‘slow’ down, but all areas of my life are filled with a frenzy of activity. Tiramisu under 15 mins sounds like a bad clickbait title but I’ve tested this multiple times and it’s definitely for real. I’ve obviously not counted the time it sits languishing in the fridge before you serve it, but you need to cut me some slack for that!

Read More

German Sliced Apple Cake for an early Christmas

Published by

This is the cake you make when you have a bounty of Apples from the farm or you have a large number of people around the dinner table and you need a dessert that smells like Christmas. I like making non-fussy desserts – a bowl of ice cream with hot chocolate sauce, a large slice of chocolate cake, a decadent brownie or a fruit bowl with custard. This is not to say I don’t like a frilly mielle fuielle, or a triple layered cheesecake – it’s just that I don’t have the skill or the patience to attempt it. When I need to serve a fancy dessert, I just buy it from a patisserie and that’s that. Why mess with the experts, no?

Read More