Skip to main content

My favorite food memories for IFCA 2015

I recently saw a tweet by @IFCA about the 6th IFCA International Chefs Conference 2015 coming up in Chennai. Ever since I restarted my tryst with food blogging a few weeks ago I have been waiting for an opportunity to network with people in the know. 

Events such as this are hard to come by in Chennai and with the line up of culinary legends IFCA had got for this event, I was dying to be a part of it. I navigated to their Facebook page and was pleasantly surpised to find these good souls were generously giving away 2 free passes for the event to food bloggers. All I had to do post about my favorite dish and why I want to be at the gala event. 

Update: I won this contest!

So here it is!

Berry Pulav
Source: Wsj.com


The iconic Berry Pulav at Brittania Cafe in Mumbai. The taste of those tart berries bursting through the Parsi pulav still lingers in my mind. But perhaps, it is its endearing 91 year old owner, Boman Kohinoor, who I reminisce about most. Bubbly as a teenager, Mr. Kohinoor takes great pride in regaling diners about Brittania’s heritage.

Or maybe, Rava Onion Dosa. My first taste was in the  quaint South India Canteen at Delhi University. The crunchy rava strudded with slivers of small onions is my perfect way to start the day. After having sampled it across the country, my best pick is at Sarvana Bhavan in Chennai.

Rava Onion Dosa
Source: awesomecuines.com
However there is just one dish, I'd be willing to fly across the country for. A dish so ethereal, it is to be found only in the magical gullis of Old Delhi during the harsh winters. It is the deceivingly named Daulat Ki Chaat
Daulat Ki Chaat
This lighter-than-air milk foam topped with saffron, khoya and almond slivers is nothing like Chaat. It signifies winters back home in Delhi for me. I remember setting out on a hunt after reading about it eons ago in an article by Rahul Verma. After searching high and dry in the streets of Shahjahananbad, I finally found it near Chawri bazaar. I recently wrote an ode this masterpiece, here.

So that’s it. Hopefully by now the good folks at IFCA are convinced about my love for food and yearning to be a part of this great event.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Western dishes, Hindi mein

I often scroll through peevish threads on social media about bastardizing food and (dis)honoring authenticity, often in semantics. A food blogger sighs over gratuitous descriptors like ‘Greek yogurt and Persian cucumber for a  Raita Sauce’. While I am not going to brood over localizing recipes to convey essence of a foreign cuisine, I can’t deny the twitchy indignation in my gut when I see the ‘lentil stew, seasoned with turmeric and spices finished with a tempering of whole spices flash fried in oil’ byline for a Dal at an Indian restaurant, celebrating Indian cuisine, in an Indian city. Contrast this with the sweeping assumptions that American fast food chains make about their prosaic Hamburgers and frothy Lattes. I confess to sheepishly spending a minute or two skimming images and pronunciations, before placing my order at fine dine Italian restaurants. Something seems amiss to me, if Indian restaurants and hotels are spending so much letter & ink highlighting t...

A guide to eating out in Anna Nagar, Chennai

Back at Amala Mess, one of Anna Nagar's best kept secrets. A Karaikudi family has been serving no-frills Chettinadu food for close to two decades. The fare is not doused in oil nor lit up with spice, and your stomach certainly rest easy after the meal. I love their light Surra Puttu (sort of Shark meat bhurji) and toothsomse Chicken roast. #pursuitofyummyness A photo posted by Amit Patnaik (@patnaikamit) on Jun 22, 2016 at 6:25am PDT Anna Nagar West, Chennai - 40: The very first address that acquainted me with the city I’ve called home since 2013.  I have a faint memory of being driven under two huge arches, abutting the naked pillars of a half-finished flyover. Barring this eyesore, Anna Nagar is unusually well laid out for an Indian locality with wide Avenues, leafy Main Roads, and logical nomenclature for the streets. My only gripe with Anna Nagar was its seemingly drab offerings for dining out. While Mylapore and Triplicane had classic Madras Tiffen centr...

Bakerstreet in Pondicherry and the Galette of Kings

I have been away from home ever since I left for Bombay in 2010, and that's the last time I brought in the new year with my family. My folks were quite resolute on not letting that trend continue into 2016, and so I was joined by my parents and younger brother in Chennai. I found myself at an Army New Years party after nearly a decade (I am not much of a NYE party person), I was unsurprised to note that the mess food tastes exactly the same, as it did all those years ago. In fact, the menu items hadn't changed a bit either! No matter which part of the country you're in, the Officers Mess shall always have Dal Makhni, Kashmiri Pulao, Raita, Chicken Curry and Ice cream on the menu! En route to Pondicherry,  we stopped by for a tour of Mahabalipuram’s Shore temples and headed over to Santana for lunch. I foolishly parked my car right under the restaurant in the narrow lane, by the beach. After a while, many cars piled up behind mine, and by the time we came out, I cou...