One of the most popular breakfasts in the ITC Sheraton, New Delhi is the Japanese bento breakfast. The brainchild of Chef Nakamura, he tells us about what these “Japanese thalis” stand for. Most bento boxes are rectangular and black, with a few being oval, square or crescent moon shaped. Red is an uncommon colour for…
Marketing pundits who think they’ve cracked the code of consumer preferences throughout the length and breadth of the country, may just be in for a surprise. Alan Bird may not be a marketing pundit, nor The Ivy, Covent Garden, London, a marketing research organization, but during his ten day stint in India, there’s a lot…
It was hot and overcrowded in the Friday market at Mapusa. On tiny squares of gunny sacks that lined the pavements and roads, hundreds of village ladies had staked out their space to sell a bewildering assortment of vegetables, fruits, sausages and cooking ingredients. In the midst of it all were spice sellers whose cinnamon…
What do shrikhand, kulfi and tomato chutney have in common? They all use mangoes as a flavouring agent – in the first two, ripe mangoes are the predominant flavour; in the third, raw mango dice perk up the sourness of the tomato. India’s best loved fruit finds expression in a surprising variety of ways, but…
The orange marmalade I had for breakfast still tingles on my palate. Sevilla marmalade is more intense and more astringent than anything else I have ever tasted; English marmalade is more bitter but not quite as fruity. I’ve started to spread the marmalade more and more thinly on my toast in a bid to make…
Visit any Kashmiri banquet, and you’ll be proudly told by the host that no fewer than 30 dishes are being served. Just try to put down half that number of dishes at a single sitting and you’ll know that it’s impossible to stuff yourself after a point. Yet, the hosts aren’t lying, so what’s the…
Six years ago, when Eggspectation opened its doors in New Delhi’s Vasant Continental, not only did the name not ring a bell with customers (it is a franchised operation, whose parent company is in Canada), people sniggered at the very idea of eggs cooked in dozens of ways. Three years is a long time in…
The large, airy, light restaurant makes a mark in its interiors. Entirely glass enclosed, it is like being out of doors, except that whether it is cold, rainy, dusty or hot as hell, you are insulated from it all, though you are a part of it all the same. When I visited, the menu was…
I’ve done nothing but gossip these last few days. And the results have been fascinating. But first things first. In the last one year alone, three major restaurant brands have opened in the country. Hakkasan made its appearance in Mumbai and Le Cirque in Delhi. Very soon, Megu is going to open, in Delhi, on…
I have a confession to make. I hate avial with a passion. Whenever I have had it, it has seemed to me to be the most pointless, tasteless dish in the panoply of that glorious mélange of Kerala’s deservedly famous cuisine. A bunch of vegetable batons in a yellow, coconut-based gravy has never cut the…