Bombay Cafe Review - Bollywood Inspired Indian Place

The day you walk out of a MRT station, and just bump into a fun person to be with. And that fun, enthu cutlet agrees to come out for dinner. The day cannot be too wrong, can it ?

Before ideas fly by, I met Revathi at Little India last evening and we both were bored. She claimed to be hungry as well. I do not mind eating as long as there is boredom and company. Hunger is kind of not my consideration for good food.

We walked to Bombay Cafe. It is a very famous place, and not one you can miss; but I had never been there earlier. The place is bollywood inspired. It has posters, neon lighted posters and pink furniture. There, I said it. Yes, it is in pink. Go and see for yourself if you do not believe me.

The menu is very impressive. It has got pictures that will make you hungry and a wide range of stuff to order. We could not have tried all varieties. Here is their complete menu.

We ordered a Gobi Manchurian (dry) for starters. It was crispy yet soft on the interior, and very peppry spicy. One word - Must try!

 Like any self respecting Indian, I love Indian inspired chinese food. I heard Indian Wok above also serves tasty food. There is a good choice of sizzlers choices for maincourse. We ordered the Kebab Platter Sizzler.

The paneer is probably in house done, it was amazingly soft. Though they could have gone a little easy on those colours. No, I did not do bad contrast correction - it was that orange looking. The sizzler comes on a jeera rice bed, along with rotis. There was some more gobi, some vegetable kebab and a potato - besan based kebab ( for want of a better description).I took a snap with the rotis, but it looks all steamy with the sizzler smoke.

We had lemon based drinks - a soda and a shikanjvi ( a lemon drink with loads of chat masala and amchur). They had a impressive dessert menu, falooda et all. Next time :)

Over all, Bombay Cafe is a good place to go with a group, catch up with some tasty food. The place is smoky and noisy. Also, it is pink. So if these turn off your appetite, visit Indian Wok. Heard it is more of a fine dining place. The sizzler is a huge serving. So, do not get over ambitious and order way to much.

A meal for two, with drinks costs 40- 45 dollars.

Also, if you are in SG and looking for good Indian valentine's day meals - check this dinner at Annalakshmi.

A huge thanks to Revathi for mast company, and to Chandru for promptly sending the Annalakshmi picture!

Brownies Anyone ? - The Brownie Factory Review

I love Brownies.

I love anything that is nutty.

I am tempted to add a smiley to the title.

Image Courtesy here
The Brownie Factory is small in size but very generous in choices. They offer over 20 types of brownies to choose from and it is not easy to pick one at all. Conveniently, they have placards on the best sellers ( from 1 to 5) and offer the new ones with a note too.

I have personally tried their Fudgy Gooey Chocolate Brownie, The Triple Chocolate Brownie, The Vegan Nutty Brownie, The Salted Caramel Brownie and the The Caramel Pecan Brownie ( most favourite!)They also have convenient packages for you to gift or for a birthday.

The prices range from 3 dollars to close to 5 dollars. If I am not too wrong, the most expensive one was a cheesecake brownie at some 4 dollars odd. They are a perfect fix for a sweet carving, or for a not so awesome day at work. They also offer some icecream choices, which I haven't tried.

Triple Chocolate Brownie is one of their best sellers and it can be safe bet for anyone who wants to try for a first time. It has a crumby texture unlike a brownie and is with apt sweetness. Made a mental note to try their peppermint brownie sometime too. It has this pretty green with chocolate stripes. They have seasonal specials - for CNY they have mandarin orange brownie and some blondies as well.

Visit them at 1 Raffles Place, OUB Centre ( open till 8PM). This place is right next to a Swiss Bake and is opposite to a BodyShop store. They should consider renaming 1 Raffles Place to 1 Evil Place !

All pictures clicked and edited with Instagram. Pardon the poor lighting.

P.S : I hope you got the clue about gift boxes. I travel via Raffles Place twice a day.
P.P.S : The Salted Caramel Brownie is actually nice. I was just grumpy when I wrote this post.

Foodie..er..whats the name!

                                     

                                                                        Source: thejunkhouse.blogspot.com via Brie on Pinterest

This post has been picked up for BlogAdda's Spicy Saturday Picks. Whatte surprise!



At one point of time in my life, I was declared to be on dangerously low weight. Though it was not for long, I have had serious eating problems as a child. Always raised a demur against food, I was not exactly amma’s favourite activity.

The early years were not very exciting too, as for more than ten years – my family never ordered anything specifically for me. Thus was my tryst with food, ordering and eating out. The last four years have been a pleasant reversal, though. A lot of my friends know I love food – both to cook and to eat. It surprises so many when I say, that I cook! Interestingly, no one really expects a single 24 year old to be able to cook different things, and hate instant noodles.

What is particularly funny is how the exact same people have already determined I should be married by now. If I have no ability to fetch myself a decent, healthy meal, how exactly should I do/handle a marriage? Yea, I do know many women get married without an idea of cooking  and that cooking is not exactly organic chemistry. But, the determination baffles me. Totally.

As always, I digress. This post is not on my take on cooking/marriage but on how this change over has made life different today. I have certainly become a much responsible eater.  I was never really into making my own cup of tea before 2008, but yea – I was barely 22 then. What started as a learning curve, has become a way of exploring, experimenting and enjoying food. As a bonus, I have qualified to be called as a foodie!

Now, I have serious issues with this word. For one, it conjures the image of someone who hogs meals and searches for expensive options. For another, it is directly seen in relation with my waistline. I detest my own line there, but it is true. Promise.

The word foodie hardly represents what fellow people like me think about food. We are not eaters.  It is very hard to find a so called foodie who will eat anything on the plate. As a matter, most people are good cooks.  A few things, I have to say on being a foodie -

·        A foodie or whatever the person is called,  has a passionate interest on food and participates enthusiastically in the preparation and consumption of good food.  The act is not merely a means of survival ( as some chronic diet freaks do ) nor is an act of necessity ( as some really really busy people call it). 

·        We do eat out, at least I do – but love our food. It is savoured, tasted well and time/efforts are invested to find the best place, pay the best value and be mindful.

·        There is this charm about eating for pleasure. Biting into a pannacotta when the world is trying to stick to guts with roti- chawal, or wiping up a rasam-curry meal after a long day at 11pm when you may crash with maggi noodles. 

·        Then, there is this thing about exploring. We normally love to walk around food markets, click pictures, taste stuff, peep and see new cuisines being cooked, read memoirs, talk to people etc. And yes, IKEA is a great time pass place.

And yes, after we are done with our meal, we do go ahead with other things in life – like a full time job, or an intolerable kid or an almost there deadline (!). Like me. Like now. I have earlier written on food, places, philosophy with food ( I know ! ) etc. Click here to read/see/ogle at them!
         

Singapore Veg Healthy Frankie: The Flyin' Bread Review

Note: This place has been closed down.

If you are from Chennai, or actually from Bombay - you will know Tibbs Frankie. It is this awesome bite meal with a tangy, spicy, evil taste that lingers for a while. For long, a trip to besant nagar beach was NEVER complete without a paneer frankie. It is clearly not a healthy meal, with a maida ( plain flour ) based paratha, rolled and served hot with a oily gravy ( not tandoor cooked) filling. Yet, like all unhealthy stuff, it was pretty awesome.

And it was only 35 rupees. Or may be 40. Does not matter.

Come to Singapore,and I forget the frankie. This one is the closest resemblant one can find here. The rolls we get in sandwich stores here are mundane, boring and very sloppy in taste. And yea, i do like subway stuff, but anyone who has had a frankie will find it blasphemous to compare. A random late evening post walk work inside Plaza Singapura got me to The Flyin' Bread.

From the outside, the store looks like any other kiosk.

Image Source here

I noticed a live grill pan and loads of chicken around, and quietly asked if there are any veg options. The man at the counter probably understood I was a lost vegetarian roaming around, and immediately suggested a paneer flyer. I chose a medium one for two reasons - I did not exactly want to hog at 7pm, and later spend the night thinking if I should have dinner or not. Two - I was not prepared for a spit away tofu roll with laden mayo.

Big mistake. The roll was stupendously good. You either make good, soft, delectable paneer or you serve leather shoes. This one was fantastic. It seemed correctly spiced and was rolled well with lots of lettuce ( salad, whatever) and had mint chutney, a dash of something like imli chutney and wrapped in a roomali roti. Yes, not a prata. A roomali.

Image Sources - mailed by Vikram ( the one who owns this place). First pic - Potato Flyer. Second pic - Grilled panneer :)

They also serve set meals with avacado milkshake ( once again, same BIG mistake!) with chocolate on it. The best part is the BBQ idea and indianizing it beautifully with chutneys and flavours. The menu had a lot of offers, I did not bother to look beyond anything when he said paneer. A look on their website also shows this interesting video on how the chef makes the roomali. I did not see the act, but it sure looks nice. That is also why the rolls are called flyers.

Going with the final say,

Excellent branding. I have always loved, loved when small things are told well. Esp, in the food business. A good mix of taste, some neat package deals, convinient location and a great name. Who could have christened it better!

The medium roll costs $6.90. It is not exactly cheap, but it is not expensive either. Would not call it a whole meal as it is a mere binge.

The portions are generous, which makes up for the money in my opinion.

They should consider giving a fork/spoon along with the meal. It is not easy to really bite into the meal, especially for clumsy, multi tasking eaters, like yours truly.

The paper cover got very soggy and dripped along, and hence I had to throw away some sauce. Though it is nice to give in paper, some skill is needed in eating this :)

They have two stalls - one at Plaza Singapura, and another at Somerset. For the complete menu, offers, check here.

P.S :Apparently, their beef and chicken flyer is really nice as well. Do try!

Special thanks to Vikram for being absolutely sweet and mailing the pics, along with the permission to use material from his site.

What to eat when in North India!

I think the headline is pretty lame. I mean, the entire world knows about Chicken Tikka and Naan. What am I going to write about here? I now think this whole series is a pretty weird idea because it is all about stuff I have no idea on. I really wish I get a job in the India version of TLC and get a chance to go on a culinary journey. Me and my job aspirations, always!

The series started here, and is not here. I hope it does end soon :)



Anyways, here it goes - Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh,Chandigarh, Harayana,Punjab and Uttar Pradesh!

Kashmir - Dum Aloo is one of the few things that has been heavily roaming in abridged versions. I am sure the authentic version has more rich stuff - cream, nuts and such waistline damaging evilness. The versions that I have had are only the ones from Amma's kitchen or from some NI restaurant, where it is mostly a plomp of tomato-onion gravy and potatoes. The rest, I have not even heard about. Searches reveal Gustaba is a lamb balls in gravy dish, Hak ka saag is a spinach dish.

Chandigarh - has the most yummiest stuff. I have eaten the veg versions of all of those:) Yea, we love cloning!

Himachal Pradesh - As a kid, I was so fascinated by the name of this place. No clue why, though. I have not been anywhere close or eaten the mid-day brahmin meals there.

Haryana - Yumville again. Check, check :)

Punjab - Isnt channa batura the NI version of Masala Dosa? Not quite literally, but in royalty and popularity - yes!

Uttar Pradesh - Kebabs. That is enough to love this place.

This exercise is no means going to make my already famished brain work better to get this day over at work. This post is not at all complete, or descriptive because most of the food here is deemed so all over Indian already!

What to eat when in Central India!

Central India ? I don't even know if it is a term to be used. Nevertheless, resuming my new found zest for being regular here, I am once again revisiting this part. Please dont disown me, if I discontinue now. I meant, I wont. Or I decided to build some defence in my case. Whatever..

The series started here, and is not here. I hope it does end soon :)



P.S - As always, click on the image to view larger.

Orissa, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Chattisgarh - are you okay with being called Central India? I think it is pretty okay. The only catch is Orissa - but I would have a lot of places in East.

Of these, I have not been to Maharashtra. Yup, 24 years in India and not been to Mumbai once. Not even on transit.

Orissa - Fish Orly, Khirmohan, Rasabali, Chhenapodapitha. So tough to spell these stuff. Khirmohan is similar to Rasgulla. I may have had it in a 'bengali sweetbox'. Not sure at all. Fish Orly - :P, Rasabali, yup. I have done this one with khoa. Rasabali is the Rasmalai version of a Gulabjamun - well, sort off. I made this as a part of a sweets class, sometime when I was in college. Chhenapodapitha is the 'cheesecake' from Orissa. Wow, never knew about this. Must check out, and try sometime.

Trivia : Visited Puri when I was 10 years old. I remember eating Poori at Puri :) and talking about it in school.

Maharashtra - Shrikand, Thalipeeth, Vada Pao, Modak. All tasted. Have tried to make only vada pao from this, but I dont know if mine was authentic. I should go to Bombay and try it sometime. Thalipeeth is the NI version of Adai made with different flours. The version I had contained even ragi. Not a fan, but was nice.

Madhya Pradhesh - Lapsi, Bafla, Bhutte ki Khees, Bhopali Kebabs. Lapsi is a sweet dish made with godumai ravai. Amma makes it often. She even calls the upma from it s Lapsi Upma :)Bafla Bati and Bhopali Kebabs - Nope. Bhutte Ka Kees seems very interesting, a mix of upma and dhokla. Sometime.

Gujarat - Thepla, Dhokla and Khandvi - Love. Handvo - May be second love. Panki - A elai adai version of NI, probably. Never heard before.

Rajasthan - Dal Baati Churma, Ker Sangri, Lal Maas Gatte, Pyaaz ki Kachori. Dal Baati, I have had, but did not like it too much. May be I have not had the best versions. Lal Mass and Ker Sangri is saved :) Kachoris, only from local chaat shops.

Chattisgarh - Bafauri, Kusli and Red ant chutney. Geez, whats this ant chutney supossed to be? Ahem!

East and Rest Later :)

Day Six - What to eat when in South India :)

P.S: Click on image to view larger!

I found this image when I was doing some random browsing, over a year ago. After various futile attempts on trying to taste all the vegetarian dishes on the list, here comes my 'tasted' list from it. We will go by the states, for easier navigation!

South India - The Food Connoisseur's heaven

Tamilnadu - Obviously, done. Aapam, Dosa, Idli, Sambar and Rasam. Live a day in chennai and you will have all of that, except may be aapam!

Kerala - I have had the best sadya meals for onam with friends. Ente Keralam also serves an amazing Sadya meal. Dont miss it, if you like mallu land food. Avial is a part of sadya.Parotas- the malabar thattukada ones are to die for. The most authentic place in chennai is kumarkom, to my knowledge. Payasam, their vella-paripu ones, though not my favourite is also tasted.

Karnataka - Bisibele Bhaat, Kesari Bhaat, Mysore Pak and Chirotis - Done! Infact, I have made my own chirotis. They are a very unique tasting, semi-sweet dish, not really my favourite. Dharwad Peda, i have no clue on what it is!

Pondicherry - Vendakkai Patchaddy is not really from Pondy! So yea, I have done it.

Andhra Pradesh - The Biriyani, an authentic dum version from a wedding kitchen was once ransacked by me. I almost sat in the kitchen and licked it up, yum! I did not know Mirchi ka Salan is Andhra special, but yea tasted it somewhere. Gongurra pickle, licked it as well!

I am skipping Goa, bcos it has got nothing for the herbivore in me. Goa is not exactly SI too:)

Check here on Central India here. North, East and Rest next week or whenever :)

Day Four - The Rava Dosa Story

Dear peepls,

My excuse post should also explain I was voraciously hungry, having missed lunch! The kid who wrote that tromped her way to catch lunch-dinner at Anjappar.

I am never a fan of this place, especially because of the wait area and the continous plates of chicken flowing out. But, you see the finicky nose has a stomach and it does feel hungry. So, after an expert's ( more on the expert later) view - ordered a rava dosa and a ginger tea. With specific instructions to bring the tea after the dosa.

6 minutes later ( one time of Usure Poguthey) later, the tea arrived. It was truly ginger tea - with only ginger and no sugar. I politely asked for sugar with my 'i-am-not-mad smile" and added it. My already tired mind decided to stop the debate to wait for the dosa or not, and gulped the tea down.

7 minutes later ( one time on of Kilimanjaro later), the dosa arrives. By now, I am done with Aishwarya Rai and literally start drooling at Rava Dosa ( the comparison, I know is the result of a hungry tummy). Now, imagine the song goes on slow mood and changes to some soga illayaraaja song when I notice there are no chutneys in the plate. One kara kuzhumbu. One veg gravy! What kind of a combination is that!

The decent 'i am in singapore' part of me called the waiter and explained how I cannot fathom the idea of having dosa with kaara kuzhumbu and silently hinting that they should stop calling themselves chettinaad. The violent ' hey, i am from chennai ' part of me jumped up when he said, "Sorry madam, you never asked" ! WOW, are we in Uganda to ask for chutney with dosa, or is this a Chowmein place?

Horridness apart, I returned the dosa. I did bite into two've two crisp pieces ( thts a secret, bcos I DO NOT know if he gave it to someone else) and paid for my tea. Had this been chennai, I would have got the manager, spoken to the chef and given a lecture on the importance of customer service. AND NOT PAID FOR THE TEA!

I simply was not up for a fight! I see a lot of non-indian folks eating there. Dear Peepls, This is not how Indian food is. Visit a better place, or better yet ask me. I will tell you where to go :)

Day Two - The unique'st dish I have cooked - Murukku Sandwich

has to be Murukku Sandwich. I heard this first during a conversation with my MOP friends. I imagined it to be a stuffing of murukku inside two slices of bread, but on one of the 100 visits to sowcarpet, knew it was a sandwich of two murukkus! How awesome, I say. Sowcarpet is the most innovative shopping place I ever know of. The people there, are naturally gifted to convert the most ordinary of things to exotic items - food, clothes, accesories!

These murukus are unique to sowcarpet and are small, very crispy and spicy. A thin layer of red chutney, a piece of cucumber, a tiny onion and a tomato followed by a thin layer of green chutney makes the sandwich. It is served on a plate with ten pieces, topped with lots of sev and coriander. The tomato can also be replaced with a piece of boiled potato. Clearly, I was out of cucumber when this was made!

Now, sowcarpet is a place I go to SHOP and cant really eat much. So, we usually buy two packets of murukku and make these at home. This was the last dish I cooked, before I came to Singapore. Amma's most favourite with tea!

Joy of Photographing

I am loving to capture moments, more so those aha special views that seem to look so beautiful over a camera lens. Here is one. A very ordinary picture of corn and paneer on the kitchen counter, the day I made pizza. The corn toppled on the paneer...and here it is.

Biscuits, Bakes and a Truth

As you all must be knowing by now - I bake. And I don't stop at that. The long resigned research analyst in me does a lot of studying on each and every ingredient. There is practically nothing, that I don't google on. But, then there are a gazzilion things that google does not show. Like it does not tell you that most biscuits you buy have eggs in them!

Here is my bourbon and custard-jam biscuits.

The Bourbons contain one egg yolk and the custard jam contains half of a egg. I am not a non-egg eater, but I try and avoid them unless it is impossible to make without it. The biscuits were very tasty and did not smell or taste eggy. But, the fact remains that we the consumers of store bought stuff do not know that most of them contain eggs. I may sound like I am making a big fuss - but to non-egg smellers/touchers like my paati, this is a very big deal. I am wondering now how the green symbol comes. May be I am wrong. May be they really dont use eggs. But, yes from my limited understanding(read: buying all biscuits on store, and trying atleast 6 variations) most of them contain. Milk Bikis, Digestives, Rusks are safe. Anything that gives you a very crisp exterior but makes you bite into it at ease does.

Another revelation - Now, prepare to hear the worst. All breads contain vegetable hydrogenated shortening. And most store bought breads contain egg. I have tried tasting a eggless, butter used bread and a egg used, dalda used bread. The latter tastes just like store bought. Also, when you try and buy the so called brown bread it is not wheat, as the ingredient list says. It is maida, with probably a portion of wheat. I know, that is the way to make brown bread but I have my own doubts if they use a full portion of maida and brown it with caramel. But, that is just my doubt.

We have been using Vanaspathi for decades. Later, they found it is completely transfats. From a google generated lead - When vegetable oils are hydrogenated under conditions of optimal temperature and pressure in the presence of a catalyst, the liquid oils are converted into semisolid and solid fats. This hydrogenated fat is termed as vanaspathi. Paati and CV say, Poori turns best in Dalda. Now, Dalda is not such a big thing to worry about - but I just thought I should let you know. Most restaurants use vanasapathi.So do all pre-packaged mixes. The soups which call just for a boil, The cake mixes that say in a minute, and THE 2 Minute Noodles - all of them do.

By the way - the pics are

Bourbons
Custard Jams
Caramel Cake

I am in glee!

Actually double glee. I have been rummaging through some old cookbooks from a old book store, and found over 10 priceless copies of 1965-1980 printed US library discard books. I spent so much time thinking which one to do, and I did this first.

This is a oatmeal-wheat-date muffin. The recipe originally has eggs. For all those who need eggless bakes, substitute one egg with one tablespoon flaxseed powder mixed with two tablespoons water. Healthy, Eggless Muffins.

So yaay! No more thinking eggless bakes taste little less good. This one is awesome, with honey, walnuts et all!

Update : I tried the same recipe with brown sugar and whole wheat. Still pretty nice, though not very spongy on texture.

Kids and Sevai.

People love cute children. Kids with pink bands, and lollipop smiles. Kids who walk thatka pothaka and talk in gibberish. Kids who say ABCDJKLMWXYZ always. I love them too. Most of the times, we fondle the baby, kiss at least twice in five minutes and try to maintain hand contact with the baby. At least, I try to.



We have always liked cute children to play with. And we appreciate them open heartedly. But, how many of us do the same with well mannered children? I know of a wonderful child in my apartment who is very good behaved, talks politely, thanks every time for a cookie and puts garbage only in the right bin ( Now, that's very very disciplined). He belongs to the East of India, but sings vada mapillai and speaks in suthama tamizh when asked in tamizh. I have alwways told his mom, that S is the best ever behaved child I have come across. This snap was clicked last week when we both made sevai together.I think we should learn to appreciate more ( that's a separate post by itself), but we should really know to do so to such sweet kids.

This is Shreyas:-)

And when pongal happens at home...

Kannu follows. I am inspired to share some pictures, from this post of Anu. The vazhaipazham, vethlai and manjal are homegrown. I was insistent on starting a garden last year. But, never had the skills for it. Thanks to paati's sustained interest, we now have a "at least 10 fruits a month yielding" guava tree, vazhaimaram, ginger, manjal( been growing it just for pongal) vethlai (betel), pasala keerai, vendhaya keerai, kothamali, karuvepillai and lots of sembarithi, rose and one kutty watermelon creeper. I am really looking to grow more veggies over this summer. That pazham is a ilaki, and is very tasty. The vazhaithandu literally melts in the mouth, with no strings (naaru) in it. I am so proud of myself today!

Chew!

Carbon Trust, an independent carbon foot printing agency, measured the carbon footprint of a popular two-litre packaged orange drink and found it to be equal to a carbon dioxide emission of 1.7 kg! This came from the emissions during its processing, packaging and transportation. On the other hand, munching an orange grown locally would have caused a negligible footprint. The point is, what is needed is not one single action but a comprehensive lifestyle change.

From Hindu Metro Plus here

What is your carbon foot print? I am not social activist in any sense, and I do consume all kinds of packaged foods. Infact, I have not even followed on the Copenhagen Summit. But, when I read something like this, my stomach churns and I feel so damn small - almost feel like being invisible.

One of Sadhguru's quotes went like this - If you look at the organisation, capability and the certainity with which a simple ant is conducting its life, you will see you aer quite stupid.

This quote hit me harder only today. Is there any other species, other than humans - who leaves carbon prints? Why is it our tongues carve those orange juices and not bite into a orange? Why are we so persistent on only buying a car,because we are economically more strong - and not spend the same in paying 2 rupees more for organically grown produce?

Nowdays, I am like yuucckk at humans, yeah, that includes me. And - there are no castes in animaldom too.

Eat your plate!

What excessive googling skills, and a passion for food can land you into - http://www.bakeys.com/EdibleCutlery.html

Amazed at their efforts to use jowar, shorgum for making edible cutlery, and the colours from vegetables. Not had a chance to personally use them, but a definite move in social entrepreneurship.

Kitchen Dates - Theraphy

Have you ever gone on a date?

To do some work?

And to learn new recipes?

If no, then you are missing kitchen dates!

I have been on atleast 8 -10 kitchen dates with Chitra Ma, over the last 10 months. And I must say, my personal self has improved drastically. The following are some changes I observe:

A sense of always 'having something to do' - I have a dozen recipes on my "To try" list, at any given point of time.
Better googling skills. Ask me where dill leaves are there in chennai, or where ricotta is available.
More knowledge - Ask me how to use a thermometer in cooking or on how Ferrero Rochers are made. I will tellyou.
More Responsibility - Suprisingly, I have started talking to much older people ( 60+) on recipes, cooking, and traditions. I somehow feel a lot responsible when I talk to older people on things they know best.
More than all this, it is the creative juices flowing. After a tiring week, the best way to unwind is to bake something. This diwali, I made quite some mithai, and felt over the top for most of it. It is so important to have a hobby, and to indulge in it regularly.At least to keep me going! My Kitchen - My Theraphy

:-)

Jam Rolls!
Mango Kesari!
Vanilla Buns
Khara Buns
Cinnamon Rolls!

Stuff that has been filling my weekends! Dedicated to Chitra Ma !

Food "Item"

My family has a super strong heritage for tasty cooking. I would literally pawn anything at all I own (!) for my paati's milagu kuzhambu ( The literal english translation is Grandmom's Pepper Gravy. It does not convey the same meaning). I had to dine out for lunch over the weekend, and was looking forward to dive into my paati's kuzhumbu for dinner. Had plain rice with this gravy and when asked how it tastes, I could just say one word - Mallika Sherawat! HOT!

Eating Out...and Feeling Empty...

A self confessed and a obsessed foodie that I am, I love dining out. My home makes some of the best foods I have ever had, but still a local dine out option is never a no from me. Thankfully, my systems are pretty reselient and my tastes are varied - I never have a problem in eating anywhere as long as it is hygenic and tasty. I dont know if what I read is true about the recession curbing eating out habits, but it is true that I dont like to spend much on a dining. Call it being conservative, but to me 5 star hotels dont appeal a tad more than a good meal with lovely company. At the star hotels, I prefer those with quaint surroundings ( Above Sea Level, Park ) types to the noidy clatter at Dakshin and Mainstreet.

Last evening, 8 adults and 4 children - family and friends went for a dinner to Dakshin. We had kuzhi paniyarams, vazhapazham dosais, idiyappams,set dosais and parottas with delicious kuzhumbus and masalas. The food was yum. Desseert was Elaneer icecream for me :-). Loved it. Yet, yet - It is not worth Rs. 12500 at all.

I feel guilty. For spending so much money on one meal. It is saddening, and I feel so very small when I think of it. Possibly, the happiness of the meal should have satiated my guilt, but it does not do so. It only makes me feel more selfish.

At a time when I am trying to evolve and do someting meaningful than just live and fade, such experiences draw out the colour and make me look so faded and forlorn in the sphere of the globe.