I have been writing about food and travel for longer than I care to remember. I have written for magazines and newspapers about my twin passions: food and travel. My ‘best’ meals have been the ones in palatial surroundings cooked by Michelin starred chefs, but also those of bajra rotis and ground chillies under the stars in a village in Banni, Kutch. I hope this site fully captures the sheer sweep of life from 1987 to the present times. All published articles that date before 2000 are in Vintage. All reviews of existing restaurants as well as those that have closed, are in Reviews.
More
About Me...
About this site
Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.
― Ruth Reichl
I first started writing as a profession in 1987. For the last 15 years, I have written exclusively about food. It is a vast subject, and my weekly column in Times of India is just one aspect of food. Ingredients, spices, utensils, regional cuisines, grandma’s secret recipes, five star hotels and their chefs, the chaat-walas in the bylanes of Delhi’s Chandni Chowk and Lucknow’s Hazratganj – all are equal contributors to this impossibly rich medley. I hope this site does justice to all of them.
Yum Yum Tree
Ignore the decidedly non-serious name. This stylishly appointed restaurant in the heart of New Friends Colony Market has a first to it: the cuisine is Singaporean Chinese, one of the few types of Chinese food that is consonant with our palate, yet one that frequently gets overlooked in favour of classical Cantonese. One of the…
DetailsIgnis
Ignis, the new restaurant in Connaught Place, offers good view, good food Rare is the restaurant that looks like a classic from the day it opens. Yet, that is exactly what Ignis looks like barely a week or two into its inauguration: an icon in the manner of United Coffee House. It has a touch…
DetailsSantrampur: Dining with the Royal Family
In a supremely secluded corner of Gujarat, the 9 gun salute state of Santrampur occupies a rather interesting site in the intersection between three different states: Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Gujarat. The present ruler and his wife, HH Maharana Paranjayaditya Parmar and Maharani Mandakini Kumari, are the latest in a dynasty that has been in…
Details100 years of Restaurating in Delhi
It was the year of the Great Darbar, 1911. A young man from the outskirts of Delhi thought he spied an opportunity to earn a living. He moored a push-cart near Gate Number One of the Jama Masjid, and served dal as well as meat and potatoes with freshly made rotis. Business boomed: he was,…
DetailsWitches’ Brew
Jancis Robinson, the well-known wine writer, and Silverio Cineri, master chef from Italy, occupy two ends of the spectrum of food and beverage. But last week, both found themselves in New Delhi. While Robinson, on a private visit to the Capital, was co-opted by The Oberoi to hold a wine workshop for the staff, Cineri…
DetailsJims Jungle Retreat
The evening was so silent that I could hear my heart slamming hard against my rib-cage. I was sure the animal that was a few metres away could hear it too. I was sitting on the open first floor terrace of the café in Jim’s Jungle Resort, at the very edge of the 16 acre…
DetailsSteamed Fish Custards
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,…
DetailsStuffed Vegetables
A few days ago we had visitors to dinner. Nothing exceptional about that, except that rather a lot of mince was left over – an unusual occurrence in the Reshii household where, over the years, I’ve learnt to cook just enough because of an irrational dislike for eating stale food. As a consequence, I have…
DetailsSushi ~ the Culinary Haiku
A few decades from now, they’ll probably be asking a riddle: what started in China, became popular in Japan, was expounded in California and became a hysterically frenzied cult in New Delhi? The answer, as anyone who has visited the capital in the last decade knows, is sushi. The Chinese character was first found in…
DetailsIn the Kitchen of Kamal, Smita and Awadh
It is fascinating to know how various people strayed into the food business. And even more fascinating to figure out that how they were inveigled in and the strength of their bond with the business has little correlation. But I am getting ahead of myself. Gurgaon, also called Millennium City, is a haven for small…
DetailsWhat’s Cooking in Kashmir
Think about Kashmiri food and the first thing that comes to mind is the justly famous wazwan. However, try eating it for two consecutive meals and you’ll be laid up in bed for a week thereafter, so heavy is it. Indeed, most visitors to Kashmir have no difficulty finding the ristas and gushtabas of a…
DetailsAhhh Praaague
When my son (now in his 20s) was tiny, he had gone to see a film with his best friend’s family. I never did get to learn the name of the movie, but it had a scene in it, which, described by a 4 year old, consisted of a cupboard with a door. You walked…
DetailsKnocking the bastard off
In 1953, a British led expedition to Mount Everest included a New Zealand bee-keeper and a Sherpa who had settled in Darjeeling. There was rather a lot at stake. Ever since the discovery and the naming of the mountain, it had been identified with the British. Or so the British themselves liked to think. They…
DetailsIn the Valley of Flowers
The Lalit Grand Palace makes you feel like royalty in this romantic city with picturesque lakes and historic gardens. God has given a gift to romantics and it is called The Lalit Grand Palace Srinagar. The first time I caught sight of it, it was hardly visible, wrapped as it was in mist that hung…
DetailsThe Gullies and Kuchas of Melbourne’s CBD
I was prepared to be swept away by the walkway that hugged the Yarra River in Melbourne, by the sheer sweep of produce that is reputed to fill the markets of the city, or even by the coffee that even the most ordinary café next door is reputed to serve. In the end, it was…
DetailsThe Chinar Tree on the Landscape of Kashmir
I have been to Istanbul, Prague and Iran and seen chinars or plane trees. Within India, even Nainital has them. But nowhere do they grow as majestic and spectacular as they do in the Kashmir Valley, where they dominate the landscape with their height, girth and the changing colour of their leaves with the passing…
DetailsGuns in the Garden of the Sufis
The middle-aged gentleman in the seat next to me on the plane to Srinagar was waxing eloquent about a single line in a song in Mission Kashmir. “Do you know,” he boomed in a voice that easily outdid the roar of the aircraft we were in, “that rind poshmal gindini drai lo lo is taken…
DetailsBasil & Thyme
Cuisine: European Blurb: At 23 years and one relocation, it’s still going strong. Atmospherics: One of the rare restaurants in the NCR that is owned and run by a family, the original was in Santushti Complex for 23 years till it moved to Sunder Nagar a couple of months ago. The interiors – and the…
DetailsPDA (PCO + Diva Agenzia)
Cuisine: Italian bar snacks Atmospherics: The best little bar in the city. The music doesn’t blast your ear-drums, there’s none of the ‘open tab’ accounts that are the norm in places where crowds have to roar to make themselves heard. This is a stylish bar, in the manner of an Italian bar where an espresso…
DetailsBurbee’s
Cuisine: Café Intro: A cheery little home away from home Atmospherics: Today is the day of the impersonal restaurant, run by a bevy of hired staff. The owner is usually a business tycoon who wants a restaurant to complete his ‘bouquet’ of businesses! Well, young Lakshman and Kirti Singh are the complete opposite of that,…
DetailsRaas
The fun of going to Hauz Khas Village is discovering all levels of restaurants and bars, from the professionally run to mom’s kitchen, plus everything in between. Raas is one of the more professionally run. From the first floor, the view is of a tiny garden enclosed with an ancient wall. It is floodlit at…
DetailsL’Angoor
One underrated gem in Millennium City Serves American, European, seafood Atmospherics: I have been visiting this restaurant cum wine bar ever since its inception 11 years ago and one puzzle, whose answer has eluded me, is why it has remained so consistently under the radar. After all, Gurugram has frenetic bars for the young and…
DetailsNagai
First Nobu, then Morimoto, now Reina Nagai Serving: Japanese Atmospherics: Want to know how authentic a Japanese restaurant is? Look around at the Japanese guests there. If they constitute over 90%, authenticity is guaranteed; if it is next to nothing, be sure it is a crowd pleaser for the desi palate. But what about a…
DetailsRanveer Brar
For the sixteen or so years that I have known Chef Ranveer Brar, I have always exhorted him to go in for plastic surgery. As soon as his contours are re-moulded to incorporate a pot-belly and his eyes have acquired bags underneath them, he will be taken seriously as a chef. Until then, he will…
DetailsWhat Makes a Landmark Restaurants
What is common to Koshy’s Bangalore, United Coffee House Delhi, Mocambo Kolkata and Gaylord Mumbai? They’re all landmark restaurants. None of them are particularly old-fashioned, and certainly none are down at heel; rather, they wear the patina of timelessness. Is the cuisine excellent? In patches, yes, but it is not excellence all the way. Most…
DetailsRohit Bal, A Stitch in Time Revives a Dying Craft
Visit a museum, look at a miniature painting or a Bourne & Shepherd print and you’ll be struck by the sheer splendour of royal costumes of yore. Rich brocades, tiny jewel-like stitches, an unlimited vocabulary of motifs. Yesterday’s craftsmanship with its palette of warm, vivid hues seems to have given way to shoddy workmanship and…
DetailsLeela’s Latin Fiesta
When the organizers of India Fiesta Latina got in touch with Leela Ambience Gurgaon for a venue for their salsa performances and workshops, Chef Ramon Alvarez of the hotel pricked up his ears. Alvarez is from Spain (Barcelona, in fact, and he’s done a stint at El Bulli but that’s another story) and his wife…
DetailsThe Birth of Diva Kitsch
Ritu Dalmia, the feisty lady behind the Diva brand in Delhi, turned 40 a few months ago. Besides the frenetic juggling that she does, between writing cookbooks, managing a fine-dining Italian restaurant and five cafes across Delhi, catering for top parties in Delhi, Mumbai, Thailand and Italy travelling across the globe like a restless ghost…
DetailsOriental Trio at 19, Oriental Avenue
With a redefined Japanese, Chinese and Thai menu, this top-end restaurant has hit upon the winning formula For as long as it has been open, 19 Oriental Avenue, the Chinese-Japanese-Thai restaurant at the Shangri La, has been trying to get its act right. Finally, it has hit upon the winning formula. So, while there are…
DetailsWhat’s Cooking in Kashmir
There is a wedding in the family, and all day long the courtyard is the scene of activity. A party of professional male cooks spread themselves out under a colourful canopy. The head cook cuts up a whole sheep with a set of wicked looking knives. Nearby, a log fire is being lighted, and an…
DetailsMy Journey In Kutch
My journey in Kutch began at the bus station in Bhuj. It is in a sense a microcosm of the whole of Kutch. The barren land is echoed in the drab bus depot, and in contrast to the plain settings are the people who dazzle the beholder with their brilliance. After the first few moments,…
DetailsFamily Feasting and Fasting
DELHI’S FIRST FAMILY OF MUGHLAI CUISINE, THE OWNERS OF KARIM’S, HAVE TRADITIONAL TASTES AT HOME AND AT WORK The building in a narrow, sunless alley just off he imposing bulk of the Jama Masjid is just like any other in the neighbourhood. There’s nothing — absolutely nothing — to mark it as one of the…
DetailsMagique
Food personality, wedding caterer, TV show host and restaurateur – Marut Sikka’s larger-than-life personality dominates the garden restaurant in the slightly out of the way Garden of Five Senses. It is supposed to be a de-stressing zone with soft music, heaters in winter and mist fans in summers to take the edge of Delhi’s infamously…
DetailsBloggers’ Meat
Lolzzzzz was the cryptic comment in reply to a facebook post I had made on social media. I had just vented my spleen about how social media had taken over our social lives. How every time I opened my facebook account with trepidation, I would encounter several ‘invitations’ to a confusing welter of subsidiary sites…
Details