Beegara Oota is an age-old tradition of the Gowdas, a community mainly from Southern Karnataka. Also known as Vokkaligas, they’re a largely agricultural community who have a healthy non-vegetarian diet. The Beegara Oota is a special tradition of the Gowdas, in which two-three days after the wedding, the groom’s side invites the bride’s family for […]
This dish doesn’t have the same popularity that Butter Chicken enjoys, but is equally worthy. Both dishes came out of the by lanes of Old Delhi. Butter chicken achieved superstar status through a combination of different factors and Chicken Changezi pretty much remained where it started from; Gali Choodiwali near Jama Masjid Changezi Chicken I’ve been […]
The Bistro Chair or Irani Cafe Chair The Irani cafes of Bombay and Western India are mad-quirky spaces, in a league of their own. If you’ve grown up in Bombay or around, these Irani cafes have tremendous nostalgia value – chai and akuri pav with friends after cricket, the first date (as one would have […]
Dad’s side is from Trivandrum in South Kerala and Mom’s side from Pallakad in the North. I’ve mostly been exposed to the culture and food from South Kerala and had the chance to sample flavours from Palakkad, once over lunch with Lalitha Aunty (a superb cook from Mom’s side) who’s from Pallakad. I was quite […]
The Congress Bun has an interesting story behind the name and is now pretty much part of Jayanagar and Bangalore folklore. I found this at VB Bakery, an old Bangalore bakery situated at the start of Thindi Beedi in Basavangudi. The famous khau galli or food street of the area. I was going to Thindi […]
The Mandi is one of Hyderabad’s best kept secrets. Everyone talks about Hyderabadi biryani, but there’s so much more to this city and its cuisine. Barkas used to be this infamous part of town ruled by Pehelwans (Hyderabadi equivalent to the Bombay Bhai). No one except the initiated ventured into Barkas. It was also infamous […]
I’ve only been going to Savera Tea Centre in Shivaji Nagar since 1998 for my doses of midnight chai. But the place’s been around for much more. I was 23 when I moved to Bangalore and in those days wasn’t too much into discovery of food, inspite of working as a chef at the flight […]
Though I’ve been in Delhi for many years and I started my blogging innings here in 2011. It was in Pune to where I moved in early 2012, where my blogposts came out in full flow. I’ve now started blogging afresh after having let go of all my initial blogposts and one-by-one revisiting the old […]
I’ve always been familiar with Delhi as my grandparents used to live here and we used to come here for holidays. But I started my formal innings living here in 1996 with my first job with Hotel Ashok as a Chef Trainee. There were five of us – Kishore Hedaoo, Vijay Nair, Jasbir Singh, Seemant […]
This’s the concept currently on a roll in Jama Masjid. I’d earlier predicted a meteoric rise for the Butter Cream Chicken in this part of Delhi, but the cult of the BCC which I also call the Mughlaification of Butter Chicken hasn’t spread beyond Aslam, Anmol and a couple of more shops. Whereas it’s one of the […]
