I feel that you are at a disadvantage if you are a solo diner at restaurant. You need to order at least two dishes to have a complete meal. You often can’t finish the food in such cases. It’s a waste of money. And food. I like one dish meals when eating alone. Like biryanis. Natural combos such as dhansak. And thalis!  I have started shooting for my new series named #thalimumbai for #finelychoppedTV which covers some of my favourite thali places across the city. Thalis which represent the essence of the city. Keep watching this space. Ps: Who can guess where this picture was take ..read more

 London  19 May 2024 From Instagram Met our friends Sue and Nathan @elvigilantedelvino for breakfast. The advantage of being in the west is that you have time on your side and can sleep more before it’s morning unlike in the far east. It was lovely to meet them after a gap of almost 2 years. They took me to @terryscafelondon  We started off with some nice @monmouthcoffee coffee. I had a macchiato. I went for the ‘blow out’ greasy spoon special. Juicy sausage, thick cut & smokey bacon, fried eggs, baked beans, mushrooms and a beautiful textured bla ..read more

  Kaker deem, boker deem… My first brush with food plating/ presentation was when mom would make rice balls and name them after eggs of various birds. I would eat them one by one without making a fuss. I was obviously very small then. She tells me that I had a fixed plate in which I would have all my meals. It had different farm animals painted on it. My niece has inherited it.  Plating remains important to me. I need my food to look appealing to me and I make sure that it does. I often take pictures of them and post them on Instagram. That’s a secondary objective though. I eat f ..read more

Full disclosure, I like avocados  I am chilling in a cafe in Bandra. The world marches past. Autos, BMW Bikes, Uber Luxes, S Classes & Range Rovers race past each other leaving behind the proverbial rats.  It’s 1030. The place is empty, barring the smiling owner. He doesn’t know when the cafe was opened. ‘My dad opened it before I was born,’ says Mohammed . ‘18 years back?,’ I quip. He guffaws. ‘My dad, Ramzan Ali. came to India from Yazd. He was 10. There was no India Pakistan. There was only one border to cross. He built this building.’ You do the math. Mohammad grew up at ..read more

There’s something about heavy rains and the desire to have something fried and hot. That’s the excuse I gave myself after I finished a plate of what we call alu bhajiyas here. Thin slices of potato, coated in besan and deep fried the hell out of. I’d earlier gone to Parel today. A 45 min drive in pouring rain. I felt like having something hot & savoury, while the rain came down on our car. Our cook, #bunkinbanu came to work in the evening. I requested her to make bhajiya. PS Bhajiyas can be made with onion, cauliflower, chillies or even spinach, not just potato.  I took out a gener ..read more

I am working from home today. Surprised? Don’t I always do that? No, not always these days. I joined a co-working space 3 months back. I’ve not used more than 10pc of my quota. I felt guilty about this. I have tried to make going there a habit to ‘fix’ this, but being there the whole day doesn’t suit my work. My sweet spot for writing is from late afternoon till the evening. Our house help, Banu, comes to work then & this disturbs my rhythm. The boys wake up and want my attention. Going to ‘office’, as our driver calls it, makes sense then. I have a mechanical task to do today. Reviewin ..read more

 ‘Let’s order fish fingers.’ ‘No.’ ‘Let’s order fish fingers.’ ‘But fish fingers are so dry. There’s hardly any fish in fish fingers. Just a thick, oily, bread crumb coating.’ ‘Are you ready with your orders sir?’ ‘Galauti kebab, dahi kebab, guacamole and cream cheese in fried potato skin.’ ‘And a plate of fish fingers.’ I rolled my eyes up incredulously. Then the fish fingers arrived. Plump and juicy rawas (Indian salmon), perfectly seasoned, coated in a thin breadcrumb coating. Fish was the hero ingredient of the fish fingers that we had at @gallopsmumbai last Sunday. It sounds obvi ..read more

I was hungry last night. I made myself a toast butter and cheese sandwich with coarsely ground black pepper inside. I toasted the bread in the oven. We’ve bought a new @philipsindia toaster but the bread just doesn’t pop up.  ‘We didn’t have a toaster at home when I was growing up,’ I told K. ‘Oh, you guys must have used the jaliwala (with a grill) hand held toaster,’ replied K. ‘No, we used the tava.’ ‘Tava? How would you toast bread in that?’ She sounded incredulous. ‘We’d add oil before putting the bread on it. It was a sort of fried bread.’ ‘I can’t imagine your mother using oil ..read more

  The pasta that I made today One of the reasons why I usually decline restaurant review invites is the amount of food that gets wasted. There’s only so much that one can eat. Then there are issues of it being an artificially simulated experience, with the kitchen and service staff being more alert than normal. Plus these meals often drag on and on! Moreover I have made an effort to cut down on meals had outside. Scallops in corn purée  On the plus side, one gets to try a larger number dishes when invited and can get a better sense of the place. What’s paramount is ..read more

‘We eat palak paneer when we are with our parents. Chhole bhature, masala papad, when we are with friends,’ said the young gentleman with a big grin. He had a plate of chhole bhature in front of him and was with fellow collegian (TYBA) friends. That sounded right. Who in their teens would order spinach when given a choice? “Do you know what my friend & I used order here? Sukha alu, paneer bhurjee, kali dal, rajma and alu paratha. The thick, chilled kheer was a must. And our bill would never come to more than 30 Rs per head.” The young man’s eyes popped out. “That was in 1998 to 2000. Bef ..read more