The problem with English food is that it has either been looked upon as comfort food, or the poor (and boring) country cousin of its Continental neighbour. In other words, food for the nursery as in roly poly pudding, or a cuisine that had so little intrinsic worth that it borrowed its national dish from…
2007 was the Year of the Chinese Restaurant. Some whoppers opened this year, among them, China Kitchen and China House in Hyatt Regency Delhi and Grand Hyatt Mumbai respectively, My Humble House at ITC The Maurya Luxury Collection, Hao Shi Nian Nian and Noo Ba in Gurgaon each with a slew of chefs from Sichuan…
The trouble with reviewing Italian restaurants in the city is that after you’ve made your way to Diva, none of the others even begin to match up. It is, quite simply, the finest around. It’s a fine dining restaurant, so if you’re in the mood for just a pizza, you’ll be better off elsewhere: though…
Last fortnight saw major happenings in the tiny world of coffee bars. Barista announced its willingness to be bought out, Starbucks is – finally – poised to enter the country and Barnie’s made its entry into the country, the first outlet being in the National Capital Region. That means that Barista, Café Coffee Day, Coffee…
Last Sunday, a friend and I were having an animated discussion about where in Delhi one goes for the best butter chicken. Rahul said Mini Mughal; I said Swagath. Many other suggestions came up and were shot down. Both of us thought that Moti Mahal had no consistency between branches; that dhabas got the dish…
The next time you’re in Goa, if you want to stir up hornet’s nest, try asking a group of house wives for the exact recipe of Goan fish curry. have a riot on your hands in no time at all. The exact details of the recipe may elude you — whether the Gherkin-like bimblim, tamarind,…
The first time I heard about the mystery spice must have been around 1998. I had just started writing about food, when a youthful chef from Taj Coromandel, Chennai, came visiting Delhi for a Chettinad food festival. He showed me the spices necessary to make the iconic Chettinad chicken, and there it was, nestled amidst…
Which came first – the chicken or the egg? And no, I’m not asking this with reference to the bird flu scare. It’s the first question I asked Chef Arun Tyagi, Corporate Chef of the MBD group of hotels when I visited a festival of breads that featured 100 different varieties. On the other hand,…
There’s a certain point on the map of India, north of which ‘South Indian food’ tends to be a one-size-fits-all panoply of dosas and sambhars with minor, if any, variations to distinguish them. In fact, all four southern states have an abundance of cuisines. Geographical location – coastal or interior – and community both play…
Zaffran is one of the few Indian restaurants in Connaught Place that does not date back to the 1950s. Consequently, the relatively minimalistic décor has more to do with the revamped Hotel Palace Heights of which it is a part, than the likes of Embassy Restaurant two doors away. Fortunately, the owners have decided not…