Finely Chopped
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I am a columnist for The Indian Express and NDTV Food and write for other publications. I have recently published a book called The Travelling Belly I am based in Mumbai.I love to travel and share my experiences from all over the world. This page is where I share my articles on food, blog posts and experiences from the world of food which appear on my blog. You will find recipes here. Feedback..
Finely Chopped
6d ago
"What is the point of shooting this?"
I turned and looked at the young lady who looked sternly at me and said this. I had noticed her staring at me earlier. Perhaps she recognised me? It turned out to be misplaced hubris.
"It's all there on YouTube," she added with a note of exasperation at my naivete.
This happened at Bohri Mohalla last Thursday. Srishti Kedia was recording the making of malpuas at Shabbir's Tawakkal. This was for my Instagram reels series on Ramzan in Bohri Mohalla. Srishti is a videographer whom I often work with. I stood beside her in the crowd and shot s ..read more
Finely Chopped
6d ago
Mummy, mama and masi
This first appeared on my Instagram page.
It was Navroz. K was travelling on work. Mummy, masi and mama made sure that I was not alone and called me over for a sumptuous Navroze lunch. The choice of menu and caterer involved several days of research and debate amongst them. Finally, it was Gaurav from Gilbert hall for non-veg. Special mention should be made of the juicy and fresh fish and meat and lovely, balanced flavours of the food from there.
Gaurav
The veg was from Jimmy Boy (plus saas ni macchi). The food was nice but pulao is their weak point as I ..read more
Finely Chopped
1w ago
It’s #pakhaladiwas today. A day dedicated to celebrate the Odia summer favourite dish, #pakhala. The dish is a great example of fermentation that features in cuisines across India. My friends,
Rohit Srivastava and Akash Mohanty, took me to the Odisha Hotel in Bhubaneswar after I had landed and checked into my hotel. They gave me a ‘pakhala for dummies’ introduction to the dish. Key takeouts: 1. Use your fingers to eat. 2. Add salt and lime juice to the mix. 3. Take a bite of the rice and then of the accompaniments. 4. At its most basic, sides are not a must with PB. The number of sides adde ..read more
Finely Chopped
1w ago
A classmate of mine from college shared a story on Facebook yesterday. It was about the celebration of the 175th year of our college, Presidency College (now University), Kolkata, in 1992. He recalled the visit made by the then President, late Shankar Dayal Sharma, to inaugurate the week-long festivities.
Several famous folks visited the college on the occasion. One was a certain Pranab Mukherjee, an alumnus of our college. He later became the President of India. So we got to see two presidents for the price of one that week!
I was awake late into the night last night, remembering ..read more
Finely Chopped
1w ago
Proud Mummy and Daddy Loaf
Baby Loaf turned 5 last Friday. Or so we like to think.
Baby Loaf is our eldest and first cat. We arrived at the date of 8th March as his birthday using several assumptions. We do not know his actual birthday, birth month or year. The vets had guessed that he was anything between a year to 10 months old when we took him to be checked. We had found Loaf in our building. He was no longer a kitten by then.
The day we chose happens to be Women's Day too. Coincidentally the other person in the family whose birthday we do not know is Didu, my grandmoth ..read more
Finely Chopped
2M ago
Patti samosa, jalebi fafda. Durga Sweets & Farsa
Why Vadodara?
"I am sure people will say 'Who goes to Baroda for a holiday'," I jokingly told K. We were on our way to the airport to catch our flight to Vadodara, the city formerly known as Baroda.
K wanted to take her mom, mama and masi on a holiday. We could not decide on a destination. I suggested Ahmedabad. K's folks were born in Surat. I thought that they might like to visit another city in Gujarat. I wanted to explore the food scene in the capital city of Gujarat. This influenced my suggestion.
Statue of Unity ..read more
Finely Chopped
2M ago
Started the week by having the Maharashtrian dish of missal the ‘Pune way.’ That is, with sliced bread and not pav. The customary farsan on top would have added crunch and fun, but I adulted and stayed away from that.
I used the bowl and plate from didu’s set which she’d given to me. She moved to Allahabad and then Delhi from a village outside Dhaka after she got married at a young age. Despite being thrown into a completely new world, she kept an open mind and connected with those from parts of the country that she had probably not even heard of before. In the process, she learnt to ..read more
Finely Chopped
2M ago
Fruit trifle at Aamchee
Years back I had written about how tough it is for vegetarians in cafes in Mumbai. While the rest of us can get our fill of eggs, sausages, ham and bacon. vegetarians hardly have any options beyond toast and beans. Things have changed a bit with the avocado and toast takeover of the world but there is so much more that can be done. Especially if one looks into the Indian snacking repertoire and introduces them to our cafes. There would be a surfeit of vegetarian options then. I finally came across a cafe that does this. I am talking of the recently opened Aamc ..read more
Finely Chopped
2M ago
RIP Little Laila. Queen of Mary Lodge.
You gave us so much joy. And love.
I have so many happy memories of you.
Of the time when you came up up to me while I waited in the queue to place my order.
Of when I’d pick you up in my arms and squish you.
Of when we’d pose together while K clicked us.
Of when you slept in your cat house and refused to open your eyes while I called out to you.
Of the time you’d be busy munching the food kept for you while I waited patiently for you to finish so that I could pat you.
And of the last time we met, when you proudly took me around to see the ..read more
Finely Chopped
3M ago
Chef Vanika Choudhary at Noon
I used to work in market research when I started this blog 16 years back. I was an outsider writing about the world of food then.
I moved to full-time food writing 10 years back. I have been lucky enough to meet many talented and accomplished chefs and restaurateurs since then. I learned to appreciate the nuances of food better through my conversations with them. I found inspiration in their life stories and world views.
Take chef Vanika Choudhary for example. I met her recently when she invited me over for lunch at Noon. I was as impressed by the ..read more