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On the JLF fringes

Posted by Anoothi Vishal on January 26th, 2012

By Anoothi Vishal

A bunch of determined protestors offended by a book-that-shall-not-be-named stalled proceedings at the Jaipur fest; others, denied access to overcrowded sessions, sought their festive fix in laal maans and kachoris

Like someone sensible tweeted, the Jaipur Literature Festival should just drop its middle name and be true to what it really is: A festival; full of noise, food, booze, consumption and people dressed up in all their finery as any true-to-type Indian festival is these days, in our recession-defying, money-having-moved-east moment under the sun.

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Tags: Booze, Chinaman, Debut Work, Finery, Fringes, Influx, Jamboree, Literature Festival, Media Critics, Mega Bytes, Middle Name, Month Old Baby, Networkers, Prize Money, Protestors, Self Importance, Sensitive Men, Shehan, Star Of The Show, True To Type

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12 things to eat in 2012

Posted by Anoothi Vishal on January 1st, 2012

By Anoothi Vishal

Beginning-of-the-year food forecasting can get downright absurd. This year, for instance, popcorn has been deemed a big trend, at least in the US, where popcorn patrons are expected to consume buttered, honeyed or otherwise versions in copious quantities, just as another trend anoints customized French fries as the new “It” thing.

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Tags: Ayurveda, Brave New World, Catfish, Caviar, Charaka, Copious Quantities, Different Seasons, French Fries, Indian Cuisines, Indian Khana, Luxe Restaurant, Mad Rush, Norms, Pop Charts, Popcorn, Restaurant Space, Science Of Life, Seasonal Ingredients, Turmeric, Yin Yang

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My Gymkhana meal (with S and A) and Delhi’s best Club food

Posted by Anoothi Vishal on December 30th, 2011

By Anoothi Vishal

Over my monthly lunch with S and A (this time though it was more like a quarterly lunch), I discovered the best soup in Delhi. S is a member at the snobby Gymkhana; so we sat around a table in the dining hall, trying to look older and distinguished enough to fit in with all the other diners, to speak in hushed whispers and to not give in to the temptation of looking into our silenced-cellphones to check whether there could have been any other calls at all from non-random PR people.

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Tags: Beet Soup, Best Food, Butter And Cheese, Caramel, Cellphones, Clubby, Continental Food, Diners, Dining Hall, Hallowed Portals, Hushed Whispers, Kiev, Last Meal, Many Things, Paen, Repute, Rite Of Passage, Temptation, Vishal, Waiters

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My (unannounced) review of Smoke House Room

Posted by Anoothi Vishal on December 29th, 2011

Smoke House Room in Delhi was quite the launch of 2011, I checked it out some time ago. Here’s how it went…

By Anoothi Vishal

First impression

The sleepy Crescent Mall, much of whose top floor Smoke House Room takes up, lies in darkness when I give my car to the valet.

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Tags: Area Of Darkness, Ashwin, Chutney, Different Kinds, Ferro Roche, First Impression, Green Apple Martini, Launch, Light Bulb, Long Haul, Platters, Prune, S Green, Sangria, Service Staff, Single Woman, Sprinkling, Tasting Menus, Top Notch, Vegetarian Menu

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On Delhi’s 100th birthday: Coronation chicken, Shahjahanabad’s lost dishes, and a rant

Posted by Anoothi Vishal on December 12th, 2011

By Anoothi Vishal

Not because I wanted to particularly celebrate the Delhi Durbar of Dec 12, 1912, where George V may well have been following, ironically, the grand Mughal tradition of holding an ostentatious audience with his tributary princes. Not even because the day should be celebrated — with or without the government of India pitching in to mark what it does not quite what to acknowledge: the country’s colonial past—as the beginning of a newer, more powerful Delhi.

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Tags: 100th Anniversary, British Monarch, Chicken Sandwich, Cold Chicken, Coronation Chicken, Crown Colony, Curry Powder, Delhi Durbar, Delicious Twist, Engla, Fashion Food, Finger Sandwiches, Food Art, Fresh Herbs, Government Of India, Jewel In The Crown, Monstrosities, Shahjahanabad, Tea Room, Twists And Turns

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My day at the Academia Barilla, Parma

Posted by Anoothi Vishal on December 11th, 2011

A meal in a library with some of Europe’s oldest recipe books and menus is even more special because of the gourmet cooking class that precedes it

By Anoothi Vishal

Last week, in the heart of Parma, that lovely region of Italy known for its ham and cheese amongst other things, I got a chance to live out my masterchef, er, apprentice dream!

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Tags: Academia Barilla, Aphrodisiacs, Apprentice, Carrots, Collection Of Books, Cooking Class, Dinner Table, Food Critic, Formaggio, Fungi, Gastronomy, Gourmet Cooking, Last Supper, Mnc, Quail, Rare Collection, Recipe Books, Region Of Italy, Taster, Tomes

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The winter brunch list

Posted by Anoothi Vishal on December 4th, 2011

The prettiest places to eat out at this season

By Anoothi Vishal

Unlike in other colder parts of the world (and country), winter is not a season full of blues for most of us in the Subcontinent. Instead, it is a particularly salubrious time; where the terrible heat and dust and sweat of the rest of the year give way to Lodhi Garden picnics, farmhouse revelry, Christmas lunches, beach BBQs and, in general, to much all-round consumption.

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Tags: Agrarian World, Bbqs, Brunches, Christmas Lunches, Country Winter, Food Retail, Heat And Dust, Inexorable March, Jaggery, Maternal Grandparents, Mild Sun, Propound, Puffed Rice, Seasonal Produce, Sweet Shop, Vishal, Waistlines, Weighing Scales, Winter Harvest, Winter Traditions

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Big, fat tables

Posted by Anoothi Vishal on December 4th, 2011

Top tables

Luxury dining comes of age in the capital with the likes of Le Cirque and Lebua’s ambitious gourmet- Indian plans…

By Anoothi Vishal

Will you pay $ 400 per person on a meal for a single person at a super-exclusive Indian food restaurant—no, not in New York or Chicago or even London, but here in the National Capital Region?

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Tags: Al Fresco, Asian Diner, Bangkok Hotel, Best Luxury Hotel, Deepak Ohri, Dwarka, European Food, First Steps, Food Menus, Food Restaurant, Food Writers, Foodies, Fresco Restaurant, Global Food, Le Cirque, Luxury Hotels, Management Contract, Traditional Indian Food, Tricky Territory, Vishal

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Why Masterchef India is not (and will not be) as good as Masterchef Australia!

Posted by Anoothi Vishal on November 7th, 2011

By Anoothi Vishal

If you are struggling to make “party” conversation, a safe topic to touch upon, at least in young, metropolitan India, would be, well, Masterchef. Not Masterchef India, mind you. But Masterchef Australia, arguably one of the best cooking shows in the world, and one, let me confess right at the beginning, that I am absolutely devoted to.

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Tags: Cooks, Dieters, Egg, Exact Format, Gap, Glass Of Wine, Hoppers, Imaginations, Indians, Masterchef, Mummies, Neighbourhood, Party Conversation, Prime Time Tv, Stay At Home, Stay At Home Moms, Subtext, Top Manner, Vishal, Worldly Success

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The mithai chronicle

Posted by Anoothi Vishal on October 20th, 2011

Sweet somethings during the festive season in India

By Anoothi Vishal

An interesting— if lesser known — reason proffered for failure of the uprising of 1857 had to do with, well, sweets! According to the Dihli Urdu Akhbar of August 23, 1857, chronicling those terrible days of murder and loot in Shahjahanabad, the rebels, who had congregated from other regions of the country, became “softened” with the luxuries of the Mughal capital — amongst them sweetmeats from Ghantewala, the halwai shop set up in 1790 that enjoyed the patronage of emperor Bahadur Shah.

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Tags: Akhbar, Ancient Texts, Bahadur Shah, Bonhomie, Bura, Chandni, Festival Of Lights, Festive Season, Gond, Holi, Indian Sweets, Jaggery, Khoya, Laddoo, Mawa, Modak, Place Under The Sun, Refined Flour, Sweet Somethings, Vishal

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India – Food & Travel Guide

Discover India — through your tummy!

Destinations

On the JLF fringes

12 things to eat in 2012

My Gymkhana meal (with S and A) and Delhi’s best Club food

My (unannounced) review of Smoke House Room

On Delhi’s 100th birthday: Coronation chicken, Shahjahanabad’s lost dishes, and a rant

My day at the Academia Barilla, Parma

The winter brunch list

Big, fat tables

Why Masterchef India is not (and will not be) as good as Masterchef Australia!

The mithai chronicle

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