If you bake a decadent chocolate cake for my birthday, I will probably be a tad bit disappointed. I know. “80% ” means little to me. I’d rather take a fruit-based cake instead. Or even a plain and simple pound cake. But. I have my moments. I sometimes crave a small square of good, dark […]
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I share my mum’s love for Roulades. Swiss Rolls, as they are known in bakeries here. When we were kids, my mum would make a simple butterless sponge sheet and slather it with store-bought mixed fruit jam and roll it up tightly. This would be our 4 o’clock snack or make its way to our […]
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Every Thursday, when the family would fast for the family deity, my great grandma would make naralachi vadi or coconut fudge squares for prasad or the offering to god. She would labor over a panful of freshly grated coconuts, often plucked from the tree in the backyard, stirring in clotted cream, milk and sugar and […]
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A few weeks ago, Sir Knife, or Kalyan of Finely Chopped fame, announced his second Food Walk–this time, he was going to Fort. I had missed his first walk, the one to Bohri Mohallah, the mecca of all things non-vegetarian and sinful. I was not going to miss his second walk–especially because the area has […]
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The original, Marathi version of this article appeared in Loksatta on December 22, 2012 and can be viewed here. Mumbai has never really had a winter. Somewhere in the middle of December, we tell ourselves it is getting cool enough to bring out the occasional sweater or shawl that only sees a day or so […]
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A few days ago, a journalist from a popular daily called to ask if I could help her with some information for a story on Christmas Cake, and a host of memories came flooding out. Of Radha kaku and her carefully put together recipe that we would get boxfuls of every Christmas, of gaudily packed […]
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I’m just back from a quick weekend getaway in Jodhpur, where I was invited to the launch of a book on the Temple Food of India. The weather was cool, the night a little a nippy. With my friends I gorged on the mirchi vadas and pyaaz ki kachoris that Jodhpur is famous for and […]
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