Yummyness

Note: This post is reprised out of my memories in the winter of 2014, spent in Gwalior. About a month ago, I noticed a hive of activity in the otherwise sleepy city of Gwalior - bemusing if catchy, announcements  welcomed you to try everything from a Car to Chaat Masala at the annual Gwalior Mela. Soon, almost everyone was talking about it. I learnt that the fair was started nearly a century ago by the Maharaja of Gwalior, to promote trade in the region and is regarded as one of the biggest trade fairs in India. Locals tell me that up until a few years ago, all goods sold at the fair were exempt from sales tax. The mela is indeed huge; with stalls spread across the sprawling mela grounds, you need a good 5-6 hours to see it all. Everything from cars to kitchenware and horses are on sale here. An insider told me about leather jackets from Kashmiri leather stalls. Kashmiri leather is regarded to be of very high quality - grass fed lambs, grazing the Himalayas yield some of th...

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...

Prawns or Shrimps (the difference is more linguistic than taxonomic, the British calls them Prawns while the Americans prefer Shrimp; I use the terms interchangeably) are perhaps my favorite aquatic things to cook with.  Packed with high-quality proteins, minerals and bit of good fat, their mellow taste and bouncy texture make them a one-of-a-kind guilt free indulgence. They cook super fast and hardly require any prep work, making them the perfect comfort food when you’re in a hurry. A kitchen all-rounder, their likable yet subtly sweet flavor beautifully adapts to nearly everything – from a citrusy Ceviche to rich Butter Pepper Garlic and fiery Indian coastal curries. In my opinion, the affordable small to medium sized ones pack more flavor than the showy Tiger prawns. However, all this simplicity comes with a price - Prawns are deceivingly difficult to get just right. By just right, I mean – plump, juicy and bursting with a taste of the waters they came from. To mast...

North Campus, Delhi University - look beyond the affordable cafes, cult college canteens and fast food chains teeming with students, and discover some of the legends of classic Delhi food in this part of town. Stalwarts of their craft, these guys have stood the test of time and fed generations of Dilliwallas; they would undoubtedly figure amongst the best places in the city for their food. Chhole Bhature at Chacha di Hatti, Kamla Nagar Any Delhite worth his salt has a favourite Chhole Bhature place; some swear by Sitaram in Paharganj, while others patronise Lala in Lajpat Nagar. I am an out and out Chache da fan.  A landmark in Kamla Nagar, Chache Di Hatti has been dishing out lip smacking, Rawalpindi style Chhole Bhature for over half a century. Come lunch time and a serpentine queue spills out on to the road, as hordes of locals, students and university staff descend upon the tiny eatery. Not a place to ponder over what to order, you grab a plate of Chhole, Hari...

I attended by my first Hyderabad Write Club meet at Lamakaan last Saturday. HWC is an offshoot of the Bangalore Write Club, and follows the concept of bringing together established and aspiring writers to hone their skills.  Image from SoDelhi.com Late by an hour, I joined in just as the group was beginning their writing exercise. It was centred around the theme of human senses. After a brief, but insightful, conversation on the many human senses we take for granted everyday we were given the challenge of writing a short story around one of them. A fishpot was passed around with a bunch of chits. Each chit was inscribed with a line to help us get started. I picked one which read, “I saw the pots”. Almost instantaneously, a nightmare unfolded in my mind and I penned a story extempore. Here’s what I wrote. I saw the pots I drove past the ramparts of the Old Fort. Fondly called Purana Qila, Shergarh Fort or Sher Fort is said to predate Delhi's more famous Red fort i...

Gwalior - a city whose fate passed from one dynasty to another through the ages - from the Tomars through the Mughals to the present-day monarch-turned politicians, the Scindias. The influence of this historical game of thrones is as vividly visible on its food as it is on the walls of its imposing fortress. While the typical artery-clogging staples of the Northern Plains - Bedai, Boondi Ladoo and Kachoris vindicate its geographic location, the ubiquitous carts peddling Poha, Dabeli and even Vada Pao attest to the Maratha heritage of its last monarchs. Dining out in Gwalior would be incomplete without hogging on rich Mughlai Qormas and Kebabs at some of its old school restaurants like Kwality and Volga.  After arriving in the region for an official assignment last winter (here’s how ), I soon took a liking to Gwalior. As the mustard fields turned from green to a sea of yellow, finally withering away into the dust, my days in the city led to an evolution of my own. Her...

Source: Wikipedia I woke up one Sunday to the tune of my phone's ringtone. My boss' name was flashing on the screen. It couldn't mean anything but trouble. It took me about 10 minutes to comprehend and, the rest of the day hence, to accept what I had just heard. I was about to be unceremoniously shipped off to Bhind, Madhya Pradesh on an official assignment.  I am usually game for taking a break from the monotony of my cubicle and exploring new cities but, this one was a bummer. Because,  I was going to Bhind. Maybe if it was Mumbai, Delhi, Pune or pretty much any place I had heard good things about, I could overlook all the above points and be happy about it. But it was BHIND, of the Chambal Dacoits fame. Deserted, cold and dangerous, it fizzled the wanderlust out of me Touchdown and Transformation Fast forward one week, my initial despair had all but vanished. The gloom surrounding my well being was replaced by the bubbly excitement of exploring the re...