Which is the country that has the largest variety of cuisines in the world? What country produces and consumes the largest amount of spices in the world? Where would you go for a vast variety of fruits and vegetables? The answer to all three questions is India. But the awareness is staggeringly low. Let’s take…
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…
I’ve always wanted some enterprising soul to open a Malaysian restaurant in Delhi. The cuisine has more affinity with the Indian palate than, say, Thai, with its many spectacular vegetarian dishes and plenty of spice. So when I was told about Kayalan, a takeaway place started by a Malaysian citizen of Indian origin, my joy…
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…
In a country whose area spans 1.24 million square miles, it is a foregone conclusion that there have been, and continue to be, a multitude of influences from outside the country as well as from within, in terms of ingredients, preparations, vegetables, meats, combinations, spices and cooking methods. Furthermore, in our ancient civilization, the notion…
Flip through Facebook, and you’ll see that the rules of the boasting game appear to have altered slightly. Instead of your friends crowing about the Sacher Torte they enjoyed in Vienna, now it is about a Sambalpuri thali from Orissa or an incendiary meal from Rayalseema. 2016 must go down in history as the year…
Light as air and as flaky as a snowdrop – that’s fan for you, never mind the curious name. They’re made by traditional bakers in pockets of Old Delhi, almost always by the Muslim community, and tend to be concentrated in Muslim-dominated localities – Kallan Masjid near Turkman Gate, Pahadi Bhojla and Matia Mahal. They…
“Our food has influences from Delhi and Lucknow, Rampur being equidistant from both cities,” Osama Jalali greets us at the door of the restaurant where his festival is in full swing. The Jalalis are from the principality of Rampur; in fact, Osama’s wife Nazia Khan is a Rohilla Pathan, a community well represented in the…
If there ever was a model restaurant city in India, it would have to be Chennai. It has always been thought of as uber traditional, but in the last three years, the number of hotels, their grandeur and the sheer wealth of food and beverage concepts puts every other city in India to shame. One…
Out of the couple of hundred books I have on the subject of food, ingredients and cookery, I had never come across one where the subject of onions was dealt with as exhaustively as in Asma’s Indian Kitchen. The author, Asma Khan, London-based founder and cook of Darjeeling Express, who writes in the introductory chapter…