Sushi Somethings-I: The A-B-C of Sushi

  Japanese is fast becoming the hottest foreign cuisine in the country, shoving Chinese, Thai and Lebanese into the background. My first tryst with the much-famed Sushi was back in the year 2009, when I tried a few from a big box of sushi, rather apprehensively, during a family dinner at the Pan Asian, ITC,…

What the Cake!

When there’s Xmas, there has to be cakes. Not the fancy ones we normally prefer round the year, like ‘a little savoury ones’ or the ones lined with exorbitantly priced exotic fruits; but the good old fruit cake. The maximum variation would be plum or chocolate. But get anything fancier, and it will fail miserably…

Cha & Taa: A Warm Hug in the Winters

A long, deep breath of Calcutta air during the winter months, bring with it the smell of freshly baked tea-cakes, komla lebu, boroline, fulkopi-r shingara and of course, freshly brewed tea. Cha and boroline – these two apparently mundane and disconnected things, are the primary weapons of mass survival for the sheeth-katurey Bangali, during the…

To Love or not to Love the new-age Ilish:

The much-famed Ilish (Hilsa, for the uninitiated), holds a special place in the heart of Bangalis worth their ‘Machh-Bhaat‘. Be it fellow commuters in the crowded bus, or colleagues at office, or even relatives meeting after years, the conversations held any time between May and September, has to, invariably, hover around the Ilish. “Ajkal shob…

A Walk through the Food and Festivities of Eid

Eid-ul-Fitr, literally means the Feast or Festival of Breaking the Fast in Arabic. The smell of new clothes, the tinkle of colorful glass bangles, the joy of hugging fellow humans, and of course, the breaking of the rigorous month long fast, mark the day of Eid. Being a non-muslim, with few muslim friends, the entire…

OMG: Over-Enthusiasm over Molecular Gastronomy

The term ‘Molecular Gastronomy’ first entered my vocabulary a few years back, thanks to Masterchef Australia. I watched in awe as Heston Blumenthal, the chef with the get-up of a scientist, made fumes, spheres, ribbons etc in his lab-kitchen and served them on a plate. Today it happens to be the new fad in the…

Durga Puja Through a Donut

It is often said that Bengalis have more festivals than the number of months. And the grandest of them all is undoubtedly Durga Puja.  And it goes without saying that an integral part of every celebration in Bengal is the Food. #Restaurant Food:  The first picture that comes to my mind when I think of…

The Hurdles in the Life of a Foodie

I worship Food. But the path to attain Food-Moksha is ridden with obstacles, though most would think of it to be a cake-walk. But as they say, when there’s a will, there definitely will be a way. So I have learnt to circumvent the little bumps in my own little ways. #FOOD COSTS MONEY: The first and…

The Dirty D

I am now in a phase, where I either go off to sleep very happily, thinking of all the buttery cookies and the ghee-doused biriyani I gorged on during the day, or very sadly, cursing myself for over-eating again. In my guilt-ridden nights, I tell myself that it’s time I ‘diet’. Well no, not a…

How Life Conspired to make me a Food-Addict

I come from a typical Indian family, where love and affection are proved by over-feeding. The ‘3 big meals versus 6 small meals’ kind of debates hold little value at my home, where every hour is a meal hour. Needless to say, most of the conversations I have with my mother revolve around food. When…