Explorer of Experiences

This article was published on The Punekar and can be viewed here .  I have been lucky enough to live in several cities over the past few years. Pune has been a particular favourite for me; I always feel home here. So I am always thinking about ways this city can be made more livable and more exciting!  1. Pop-up Restaurants Chef Gaggan If you’re a follower of the global food scene, you’ve probably heard of pop-up restaurants. Pop-ups are like wandering, nomadic restaurants and our neighbor, Mumbai, has seen quite a few of them over the past year. Case in point, Gaggan Anand of Gaggan fame (his eponymous Bangkok restaurant ranked 3 rd  on the World’s 50 Best Asian Restaurants list) set up a public tasting of his progressive Indian menu at Bandra-Kurla Complex. Needless to say, the city’s foodies were raving about it. Pune has a proud and flourishing food history too and we are sure there will be lots of takers of such pop-ups. 2. Dedicated Public Ope...

It's not everyday you get to bake and indulge in decadent chocolate cake. I had been craving to make some cake but the lack of time or the temptation of just lying in bed when I did have idle time, prevented me from taking to the whisk. Day before yesterday, however, the cake craving hit me hard. All that headache from the glaring day's sun exposure left me exhausted but I finally took out the ingredients and got out the cocoa at 9PM post dinner. The usual source to any and all recipes was mum or Google. But this time I thought why not try out what might be the most full-proof recipe; the one plastered on the label of Cadbury Cocoa box! Not ingenious, I know, I know... So for the benefit of my readers, let me list out the recipe below: 5 tablespoons of Cadbury Cocoa 100 gms of butter 1 cup sugar 2 cups of white flour 3 eggs or 1 can of condensed milk 1 teaspoon of baking powder 2 drops of vanilla essence/extract Method: Whisk the butter and sugar till it becomes...

A view of Trois from the terrace It's a big deal when a new restaurant opens its shutters in Pune, it really is. So inadvertently, you are bound to hear reviews from some of the first visitors to the place. Launched last May, Trois Kitchen and Wine Bar has created quite a stir in the city and its owner-chef Mayur, has impressed most food lovers. Read the reviews, and you'll notice he's had a near 100% success rate so far. The venue is an enchanting white one storey-ed villa on a quiet tree-sheltered lane in Kalyani Nagar (that's right, not Koregaon Park!). Al fresco seating is a big plus when it comes to restaurants (something Mumbai restaurateurs  envy), and Trois has enough of it.  White wine sangria - a top shot I chose to sit at the terrace area where I was in the company of many other diners (a lot of expatriates). With the tinkling of wine glasses and cutlery, happy conversations and Cafe del Mar-esque music as my audio make-up, ...

If you've gone through my blog, it may bemuse you that this is my second post on tofu. How much do I love eating it? A lot. And why not? I find it tasty, love the texture, and enjoy the variety. You heard me...there's variety even with an ingredient like Tofu - silken, firm, extra firm, fermented, flavoured, etc.  And this 'obedient ingredient' (as chef Roger Mooking would call it in his food show Everyday Exotic), is super versatile to cook with. Deep fry it and cook it with veggies in sweet and sour sauce, or make an evening snack out of it by toasting it on a pan with a little oil and drizzle with salt and cracked black pepper. Like me, if eggs don't suit, you then scramble up a tofu and add the other usual scrambled egg ingredients and you're set!  One of my favourites tofu dishes is when it is baked with peanut sauce. Pure bliss. A picture below to treat your eyes. Now that's a happy meal for me. Just a quick tip, give your tofu a boil in water fla...

Don't you wish you could go back in time just to truly appreciate where you were and what you were doing with your time then? I ponder about this sometimes. I spent two years in Melbourne. That city was a treat food-wise. I tried so many new things, experienced so many new flavours! Narrow lanes used to be dotted with little quaint cafes and the fruit and vegetable market lined with food carts, and it used to be but a pleasure to walk by, trying these treats on a free day.  Chinatown in Melbourne (image courtesy: www.victoria.aussietrueblue.com) But of course every major city has to have its very own Chinatown, Melbourne included. We had a community kitchen in the lodge we stayed at. Every night after classes, the group of Chinese girls and guys used to collectively cook in the kitchen - sharing their sauces and veggies, and thereafter eating together. Laughter from the kitchen echoed into the halls and I used to envy the sense of togetherness they experienced over food!...

Many times I have been recommended a restaurant that is super popular in the city, but after dining there I tend to walk out feeling disappointed...it was good, but not that good. Pune has a few restaurants that are deemed a must-visit for outsiders. My theory is that these popular outlets were good at one time, but once they gained popularity and the footprint, somewhere along the way, the prices sky-rocketed and the food quality suffered. Nonetheless with some PR machinery backing them up, they do get their desired footfalls.  Sometimes, the best restaurants turn out to be the ones very few have heard of.  One such not-much-talked-about place is Soy. My sister discovered it two years ago when severe sushi cravings drove her on a city-wide hunt for a restaurant that serves decent ones. Sheltered on the ground floor of Le Royce Hotel, the chefs at Soy dish out some remarkable Chinese and Japanese food.  Their menu has good range and better still, vegetarians will not...

How many times has it happened that you are not quite happy with what you've ordered at a restaurant? That what you thought you'd get is not what's in front of you waiting to be eaten...how often has it happened that what the people seated on your adjacent table are eating looks way more scrumptious  than what lays on your table? How is it that you can never identify the beautiful dish that the waiter who passed by your table just carried? And how is it that you can't figure out which dish that was when you were scanning the menu? Why do the dishes your neighbouring table dwellers are devouring smell so good? How do the portion sizes of their dishes look SO worth the money? Why does your dish arrive after the one that the table next to you ordered for even though they arrived AFTER you? How is it that you don't find any waiters there to take your order, while so many other huddle around other tables! How man, how! Maybe we should wear blinders when we walk into...

This post was written in 2011. While reading, ensure you have something to munch on. Mum's baked mac & cheese I always had a penchant for all things food. Always. I am in unwavering awe of the ability of an ingredient to tease and flatter one’s palate so ingeniously. Like with most foodies and chefs, my mum has been the biggest epicurean influence in my life. She told me that when I was little, I used to relish the simplest of things with a twinkle in my eye…things like bread & butter toast, plain Roti, Ghee Dosa and Mac & Cheese - all mom-made. This is the stuff my childhood smells of and it is heavenly! During my ‘geek years’, when I got time off my books, I would run to the kitchen and help mum sauté onions, peel garlic and give her a hand in mixing the vanilla & banana cake batter. Sometimes I’d even sneak in an additional teaspoon of spices into the curry when mum wasn't looking. Pure joy!   My other big, big influence behind this pas...