Bengali sweets are known to be subtle in flavour and light on the bhuri (belly/ tummy). For me it’s a lot about memories too. Our go to place for mishti in Mumbai for years has been Sweet Bengal, be it for gifting to fellow Bengalis, to non Bengali friends or for chomping on the mishti oneself. Recently Anjan da (Anjan Chatterjee), the owner of Sweet Bengal, messaged me saying he would like to send me some mango mishti to try. What you see on the plate is some of what he sent: 1. The green Sandesh that you see is unripe mango Sandesh. It took me back to my childhood in Kolkata. I am not sure ..read more

  I think our good old thalis (thala in Bengali) are a great way to measure one’s food and ensure portion control.. This picture is of yesterday’s lunch. We eat course by course in Bengal with vegetables first followed by fish and meat as applicable. The pumpkin subzi was made in whole cumin and had karela in it. A nice mix of the inherent sweetness of pumpkin and the bitterness of the karela. This was followed up by the katla kalia. It’s been fish all the way for the past few day after we called in fish from Poonam at Khar market. There was ilisher tel jhol couple of nights back. Last ..read more

Prawns with curd rice. Kari Apla Kari Apla is a new(ish) restaurant in Bandra. It was opened in October 2023. They spent the initial months getting their systems in place before marketing them and listing them on food delivery apps. I went there a week back on an invite. I reached and stood in front of the door of the restaurant and wondered how to go in. There were no push or pull signs or a door handle.  The aromas of two (Indo) Chinese restaurants enveloped me as I stood there. Kuai Kitchen on one side and 5 Spice on the other. This was rather tempting and I had half the m ..read more

The family elders - my mom in law, maternal uncle, aunt in law -  and I went to Masala Kraft restaurant in the hotel for lunch. We had the Parsi set veg and non veg meals. These are a part of the #finalcourse menu which is available at the Masala Kraft right now.  The restaurant is going to shut down after 20 years of its existence to make way for Loiya.  The staff led by Ms Shalaka took great care of us. Chef Kurush made us an off the menu sali tamatar per eedu for my MIl who is vegetarian but has eggs. Exec chef Amit Chowdhury dropped in and shared stories from h ..read more

Curry Leaf ice cream to the top left, ragi molten cake to the top right,  coconut ice cream in the lower row. Did the headline baffle you? It was meant to.  Let me give some context to it in case you are living under a rock. Or belong to the majority who do not follow happenings in the Indian fine dining space. Hosa is a restaurant in Goa which is operated by EHV International. The much-feted Indian Accent is the flagship brand of this hospitality group. Chef Manish Mehrotra is the genius behind this.  People referred to Hosa as the 'South Indian Indian Accent' when ..read more

With chef Amit Chowdhury at Masala Kraft  There are a couple of things which are common between Chef Amit Chowdhury, the executive chef of the Taj Mahal Palace Mumbai, and me. We are both Bengalis who are married to Parsis. One more thing, we both love food. But that would apply to everyone I know! It is no surprise that we bonded over the Parsi thali at their Masala Kraft restaurant yesterday. Technically there’s no such thing as a Parsi ‘thali.’ A Parsi festive meal is served course by course unlike in a thali where everything is served at one go. A thali works well as a hote ..read more

‘How are you?’ I asked her. ‘I am fine. I have no complaints. I have no problems,’ she replied. Ever the one to downplay herself and not inconvenience anyone. ‘Having no problems is never a problem,’ I replied with a smile. She smiled back once I could make her hear what I said. My 95 year old granny asked me about our 94 year old aunt the other day. She knew of her as the sister of our uncle who has passed away. Technically not an ‘uncle,’ but like one for K…and subsequently me.  I’d gone to Colaba for lunch yesterday. I fixed it partly so that I could drop in to see her after lunch ..read more

 "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

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

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