The phrase “spoilt for choice” takes on an altogether different connotation for three weeks every April in Singapore. That is when the World Gourmet Summit is on, with 73 events packed into 21 days. I was there for a modest two days and could not make up my mind whether to attend a gala lunch…
Budget travellers to Singapore head happily to the thousands of hawkers centres in that city-state. Two people can have a filling meal of noodles, soup, Hainanese chicken rice or something called roti pratha, and still have change left over from Singapore $ 5. Hawkers’ centres provide variety. In the interests of fairplay, owners of a…
I seem to be in a minority of one. My belief is that chawanmushi, hormok and dab chingri are all related to one another. Everyone else that I have spoken to about my pet theory has heaped scorn on me and told me not to be a fool. ‘Everyone’ includes chefs from the Far East,…
Salon International de l’Alimentation, better known as SIAL, just concluded in Villepinte, Paris. No matter where you looked, you couldn’t have missed the Indian contingent, and I’m not referring to exhibitors like Satnam Overseas. We were a motley bunch of executive chefs and F & B Managers, importers and food writers, looking at what France…
Cuisine: street food from all over India The eye-catching ‘train’ has fired everyone’s imagination Atmospherics: with ample parking, it is just off the main Rajendra Bhavan sprawl. Imly and its likeness to a train has, in the few weeks that it has been opened, been besieged with customers of all ages and it is easy…
Cuisine: oriental The Big Daddy is here, though in a seemingly playful avatar Atmospherics: First the location. Sangam Courtyard is on a main road in an easy to find location. Though it is packed with restaurants – some by Delhi’s most important players – Fatty Bao is the first one to start. The playful sketches…
Cuisine: modern Indian Packed through the day, Modern Indian can be said to have come of age Atmospherics: At long last, Indian restaurant design is taking a few baby steps into the New Age. Zorawar Kalra’s newest restaurant, the second avatar of Farzi Café, opened in Connaught Place and has been doing roaring business since…
What do you get when you cross a bon vivant with a solitary translator of Ghalib’s poetry? You get maverick restaurateur Riyaaz Amlani. He has two sides to him. He is blessed with friends across the planet on one hand, yet on the other, he loves nothing better than to hole up in his study…
If you want to feel like royalty, there’s just one place in the country to make your dream come true, and that is at Suvarna Mahal, the old dining room when Rambagh Palace really was a palace. Old timers to the restaurant remember the late Rajmata dining there. Of course, the royal experience begins long…
In the heyday of Lucknow, say a hundred and fifty years ago, nobles delighted in presenting their guests culinary quizzes. There would be a table-spread of dishes that appeared to resemble lamb qorma and biryani but would in actual fact turn out to be made of spun sugar. In days of yore, says Muzaffar Ali,…