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.
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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.
A Blast from Bali
“With the advent of Coca Cola into Indonesia, the entire population began calling it Chocha Chola” chortled my guide in Bali a few years ago. In Bahasa, the national language of Indonesia that has 8844 named islands and over 10,000 more that have not been dignified with a name, the letter C is pronounced as…
DetailsEspresso Grill
A surprisingly sophisticated eatery in Baba Kharak Singh Marg Atmospherics: Just above the most sophisticated car parking system in the country, Espresso Grill is a simply done up, smart casual space that serves world cuisine. It has an open kitchen, a few shelves on which ingredients are displayed (though it does not bill itself as…
DetailsThe Srinagar Conspiracy
It’s not that the author is a television journalist who has crossed the floor. It’s not that Kashmir is seldom used as a backdrop for novels. It’s not even that the thriller is a little explored genre in Indian writing in English. The Srinagar Conspiracy is a compulsive page turner because it’s that felicitous meeting…
DetailsChalchitra
Even if you are never going to visit Chalchitra, take time off to check out its superb retro façade from the outside. Wait for the sun to set, and look at the lights as they twinkle. Everything – the lettering, the colours and the movement of the lights – call to mind the 1960s. As…
DetailsStephen Twining on Twinings Tea
Everybody who has ever received a Diwali/Christmas/New Year hamper would have received a carton of Twining’s teabags in it. It is something of a silent revolution, and not unlike carrying coals to Newcastle, but that’s a fact that both Stephen Twining and Georgina Durnford would stoutly deny! You see, much of the tea that is…
DetailsA Theory of Butter Chicken
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…
DetailsFrom Tokyo, with love
Japanese restaurants will flood the market and Indian regional cuisines will be big If 2007 was the Year of the Chinese Restaurant, 2008 will be the Year of the Japanese Restaurant. Japan bites So far, almost every Japanese restaurant in India served either sushi, teppanyaki or both, but nothing more. Apart from Sakura in Delhi’s…
DetailsTravelling with my Chopsticks
What goes round the world, changing yet remaining the same? Marryam H Reshii discovers the answer: Chinese street food In the night market in Taipei, capital of Taiwan, every shopper sauntered around with what looked like a red lollipop. Not to be outdone, I ordered one too. One bite of it, and I was assailed…
DetailsChef Suman Kaul
Trust ITC Hotels to be on top of the game. This hotel chain has always been at the forefront of hiring chefs, researchers and caterers that few others in the hotel industry would have considered, but who have gone on to become pillars in the group’s quest for excellence in Food and Beverage. One example…
DetailsRajni Jinsi: Kashmiri Food with a Magical Touch
I have a blind spot, as everyone who knows me will readily attest: I love the homeland of my husband: Kashmir and am completely unable to separate the strands of what is Muslim and what is Pandit. To me, they are interwoven with the silken fibres of a cobweb. You have to view the cobweb…
DetailsThe Royal Spread: Fit for a King
The evening air was deliciously cool and every time a gentle breeze blew, I’d wrap my shawl around my shoulders more tightly. It was a decided pleasure to be able to sit out in the open, in the gardens of the majestic Minto House that wears its 110 years lightly, and not be uncomfortable at…
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…
DetailsCzech Republic
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…
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…
DetailsWith love, for Kashmir
I was delighted when a shopkeeper in the Grand Bazaar of Istanbul called me Hema Malini. Not, I hasten to add, because I am a fan of that actress, nor indeed because I have any pretensions of looking like a star, but because it was one more point to chalk up on my ‘Kashmir’ board.…
DetailsLeela Palace Udaipur
My first glimpse of Leela Palace Udaipur was not of the building itself, majestic as it is, but of the way the management looks after its guests. Shortly after a date for my visit was set, I received an email. Would I please list out my preferences for music, beverage and reading material. And while…
DetailsThe Olive Tree in the Mediterranean Basin
It was my first day in Tunisia and I had been whisked off by my hosts to visit a museum. Not any old museum, mind, but one that had mosaics as its theme. Bardo had mosaics on the walls, on plaques, on the floors, even on the ceiling. Most of them were old and faded.…
DetailsUnderdoggs
It’s a bar, a sports centre and a restaurant all rolled into one and that’s the best part about Underdoggs. On the evening of my visit, I saw middle-aged parents with their teenaged children playing board games at one table, as well as the young and trendy crowd getting rowdy at the foosball counter, an…
DetailsGuppy by ai
Ai moves across the city in a new, playful avatar. Colourful interiors; great food Most restaurants grow older with the passage of time. Guppy (formerly ai) has grown visibly younger. Having the corner plot in the Lodi Colony Market means that the area comprises a courtyard, a bar and the restaurant. The bright, cheerful colours…
DetailsMusic & Mountains
You’ll lose yourself in the mountains Serves: western casual Atmospherics: After a day spent tramping about the city, retreat into the mountains, right in the middle of Greater Kailash Market. The (mostly retro) music is played at a low volume, the lights – that replicate candlelight – are low (you’ll have to use your cellphone…
DetailsBeeryani
Cuisine: North Indian The food of a dhaba and the soul of a college hangout Atmospherics: Safdarjung Development Area caters not so much to those who live in the vicinity as to the army of students at the nearby IIT and Beeryani is no exception. The restaurant is on two floors, is dark, has cut-outs…
DetailsKhyen Chyen
Blurb: a piece of the Valley, in Gurugram Cuisine: Kashmiri wazwan mostly Atmospherics: This snappily named little ground floor eatery looks like a piece of Kashmir with its exposed brick and wood interiors and lattice screens. All the items of décor: part of a hookah, a rice winnower, copper service- and table-ware, are items of…
DetailsDum Affairs
North Indian/Lucknow Blurb Forget the corny name: this menu concentrates on the finest from Lucknow Gourmet Gallery, never known for the excellence of its cuisine, has just acquired a new Indian restaurant. Award winning food, a steal at the price, its elegant surroundings embody five star comfort. Atmospherics: the small, elegant restaurant could give a…
DetailsChef Keisuke Uno
This young man, still unmarried, has sixteen years of experience in cooking. He passed out from cooking school in Osaka where he was required to study Japanese, European and Chinese food for one year, before specializing in one area. Uno decided to specialize in Japanese, French and – hold your breath! – vacuum packed food.…
DetailsIndians – good, bad and ugly
On the whole, we’re a warm and hospitable bunch of people. Whether it’s a Sardar taxi driver in New York or a village woman living in a mud hut in Kutch, no stranger need fear that he’ll be dealing with an inscrutable oriental. There is, however, the flip side of the coin. We are loud…
DetailsChef Suman Kaul
Trust ITC Hotels to be on top of the game. This hotel chain has always been at the forefront of hiring chefs, researchers and caterers that few others in the hotel industry would have considered, but who have gone on to become pillars in the group’s quest for excellence in Food and Beverage. One example…
DetailsMilitancy’s Child
Fear and other emotions are alien to a generation of Kashmiri youth who grew up under the shadow of militancy.. In 1991, when militancy was at its peak, Omar Jan was three years old. It was the year I got married and travelled to Kashmir as a bride. Before that, my visits to Kashmir had…
DetailsRajni Jinsi: Kashmiri Food with a Magical Touch
I have a blind spot, as everyone who knows me will readily attest: I love the homeland of my husband: Kashmir and am completely unable to separate the strands of what is Muslim and what is Pandit. To me, they are interwoven with the silken fibres of a cobweb. You have to view the cobweb…
DetailsThe A to Z of Punjab Grill
In the universe of the food and beverage world, you will see several restaurant models that keep playing out, over and over again. One is the family-owned restaurant where the colour scheme has not been changed since the ‘80s. The other is the modern bar that opens in January and has shut in November, after…
DetailsAmreli
Cuisine: Western, South Indian Intro: The Olive Beach of old makes way for the new kid Atmospherics: Have you ever laboured over a jigsaw puzzle for hours together, and still had a missing piece left over in spite of completing the picture? That’s how you’ll feel when you visit Amreli. It has reverted to Diplomat…
DetailsYellow Brick Road
When it came into existence some ten years ago, it became a sort of cult to be seen there. In the intervening years, Yellow Brick Road at the Ambassador Hotel has acquired a few more layers insofar as cuisine goes. Its sunny yellow interiors have worn well, and it still looks as fresh and chirpy…
Details100 years of Restauranting 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,…
DetailsChi
Chi is the latest restaurant to hit town. In the popular Safdarjung Development Area market, next to Masala Junction, it is a cool hangout place with a South East Asian menu serving meals and snacks. Noodles and noodle soups are what their claim to fame is, but there are starters and main courses too for…
DetailsVisionnaire Cafe
Cuisine: Italian Blurb: Straight from Milan is this café next door to a designer furnishings showroom. Visionnaire Café really does try to make a difference in Gurgaon. Especially in terms of the concept: a café next door to a luxury furniture showroom selling the designs of Ipe Cavalli and Fendi. Both are prototypes of the…
DetailsCapital Curry
If life in Sarita Vihar has one problem, it is the scarcity of restaurants in the vicinity. There are dhabas and tiny take-away restaurants in each market, but restaurants? Dear me, no! Which is why Capital Curry next door in Jasola is a welcome addition to the landscape. Small but fairly well-appointed, it is about…
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