Tag Archives: India

#summerfood

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I am sure we all have beautiful memories of our summer vacations, be it grandparents or any vacation spot. Besides the location and people, every place on this planet has food that is specific to summer. Growing up, I spent most of my summer vacations in Mumbai and the rest in Goa and Mangalore. We would wait the whole year to relish that summer special food.

India being the most diverse country in terms of food and culture, some of the foods have become a lost treasure and forgotten in the name of fast and fusion food. This summer, the food festival at Novotel Chennai Chamiers Road is bringing out those lost treasures and forgotten food. I am super happy to bring some of those specials from multiple regions of India. This season, five (5) inspiring women, who are passionate about their regional food, besides their career, have curated a menu for us to enjoy this summer cool special.

Special mention to Chef Nitu and team at Novotel chamiers road, without whose incredible support this summer food festival was impossible. How fast the entire team adapted to new recipes, techniques and ingredients was such a pleasure to watch.

Kavitha Bothra, hails from Rajasthan, settled in Chennai, a jewellery designer by profession whose love for food made her a home chef and recipient of many awards such as Super Chef Chennai, Creative Chef award, Jito MasterChef, Home Icon etc. Kavitha runs a cloud kitchen in the name of Blend Town. All her dishes are self-curated, unique and out-of-the box recipes. She makes healthy and creative fusion dishes which are not only appealing to the eye but scrumptious also.

Nithya Franklyn, a doctor by profession with an MBBS, DNB (Paediatrics) and Fellowship (Sleep Medicine) is a MasterChef Tamil Season1 Runner-up. Coming from Southern Tamilnadu she grew up on Pandya Nadu and Nanjil Nadu cuisines which have influences from Sri Lanka and Kerala and this uniqueness was showcased in her dishes.

Smita Premkumar, a German Translator and Teacher, a Goan from Mumbai settled in Chennai has brought in some authentic Goan and Maharashtrian food. Her venture Kokum, blends traditional methods, regional local ingredients and heirloom recipes in every meal.

Hyma Sakhamuri is an Entrepreneur, Educationist turned Chef, her passion for preserving heirloom recipes motivated her to start Andhra Deli, a Cloud Kitchen specialising in Andhra Cuisine. Andhra Deli over the past 3 years has been serving homemade Andhra speciality dishes. Creating fusion recipes with traditional methods are also her speciality.

Harshini Diya, belongs to a family in which food was at the core of everything. She credits her vast culinary knowledge of Kongu food to her upbringing and grandmother, and her grandfather a renowned hotelier from Kovai. Despite majoring in International Business, she joined Le Cordon bleu London, to learn the techniques used in modern day restaurant cooking. With a combination of inherent kongu living and modern-day technique, entered into culinary ventures in Coimbatore, like Corner Kitchen, 10 biryani mandi and Sree Vidya meals room and the legendary Kovai Alankar Vilas.

The menu changes every day but what we had on day 1                                                   From Hyma’s Andhra Deli Kitchen – Perugu Vada (Dahi Vada) and Mamidikaya Royyalu (Prawn mango curry) Special mention about the perugu vada that was so refreshing and had the flavour of mango ginger hit the right note.

From Harshini’s Kongunadu kitchen – Ragi Kali (soft finger millet ball), Keerai Kadasil and Vazhaipoo Vada (banana flower vada). Ragi cools the body and gives the body nutrition required in summer, special mention to the texture and flavour of the kali.

From Nithya’s Tamilnadu Kitchen – Kayalpattinam Kalari Kari, Nungu Sarbath and Palapalam Payasam. Loved loved the Sarbath because it was so cooling with the temperatures so high outside.

From Kavitha’s Rajasthani Kitchen – Rajasthani kadi and Badi ki Sabji the kadi was just how it has to be for a summer afternoon.

From Smita’s Konkan and Maharashtrian Kitchen – Sol kadhi and Raw Jackfruit Dangar. The jackfruit was crisp from outside and soft from inside with the perfect blend of masalas and Sol kadhi is not only a Summer drink but also the most amazing digestive drink.

If you are looking at homestyle food made using heirloom recipes by the home chefs you just need to head to Novotel Chamiers Road, Chennai. The menu changes everyday but you will find at least 10 dishes from the home chefs till 28th May.

Food From The Northern Hills Of India❤️

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Food from the northern hills of India by the beautiful Miss Shimla runner up Chef Sherry Mehta.

I am a big advocate of the fact the new exotic food is the homestyle regional food.

This time it was from the northern hills of India, by  chef Sherry Mehta

What I liked about the food was the richness and simplicity of flavours, each dish had an unique flavours and a story to tell. 

This marriage of Punjabi and kashmiri food for me was purely made in heaven. The  Dham ( festive food of Himachal Pradesh) curated by chef Sherry had very minimal spices I tasted the real flavour of every ingredient/ produce used and that for me is real good food.

Adraki panje(Lamb ribs with fat, milk, whole spices, and ginger)

Chamba Chukh Chicken Tikka (Tangy spicy Himachali chilli marinated chicken tikkas grilled to perfection in Tandoor)

The soft Matara Kulcha with stuffed tikki gave a run for a sour dough bread, I am sure we discovered sour dough much before anyone did!

Siddu, the traditional fermented stuffed steamed bread was another favourite of mine. This is available with lamb stuffing, vegetable stuffing and sweet ( coconut jaggery) stuffing.

A special mention for the most famous Himalayan trout that was absolutely fresh and cooked to perfection. This sure was a treat for us in Chennai!

Some of my favourite main course dishes were the Chaa  Gosht  (One of the most popular dishes from Himachal cooked in buttermilk and roasted gram flour based    gravy)

Channa Paneer Madra (Chickpeas slow cooked in a yoghurt based gravy along with cottage cheese and nuts, a star of any Himachali dhaam)

Gobi Ka Palda(Cauliflower cooked in yoghurt-based gravy thickened with rice flour)

Seb Aur Bhein Ki Sabji(Local vegetable dish made with apples and lotus stem)

Kale  Chane Ki Maahni (Dried raw mangoes from the hills are cooked with black grams to create this unique Himachali dish)

Sepu Wadi(Urad daal fritters cooked in a luscious spinach gravy was once a humble rural dish and now am ambassador of mandiyali dhaam)

The finale is always sweet with the most simple yet rich food and lovely people around! Budane Ka Meetha With  Rabri it was! (Any dhaam is incomplete without this sweet dish which kick starts any dhaam experience)

What did one day at Kozhikode look like!!!

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It was a very unplanned trip, we were in Coimbatore thinking if we should or shouldn’t go for the tharavad festival, keeping my mother in law’s health condition in mind. It was the once in a year tharavad ( family temple) Pooja and we are just 3hrs away by train, the night before we decided with loads of prayers in our hearts to make the decision to go.

4.30am out alarm rings and we started getting ready to hop into the cab to take the intercity train at 6am from Coimbatore station. We decided not to carry breakfast with us since we have had breakfast at shoranur station before and it was always so good. 7am and we were at palakkad and we couldn’t resist the call from the station outside ” vada, parapu Vada, pazham pori” our eyes widened and we ran outside to get one pack of it. Disappointed, the parapu vada was rock solid, the pazham pori was full of thick soda mixed batter with a thin slice of nendra pazham ( Banana) that barely had any taste or flavour and the medu vada was just like there! We took some pictures cause well they looked good and it went straight to the bin after one bite. Now we were waiting for Shoranur for the most awaited breakfast that we have always had few years ago. 8am Shoranur and we are ready to get off the train to get a pack of the breakfast with chaya. I excitedly open the pack and see 3 beautiful looking idlys with one vada. Hungry and happy next I open the sambar pack that smelt good, poured it next to the idly, next opened the chutney pack and ohh it was just plain sour green water with some salt and there started our disappointment, the whole packet of 3 idlis, Vada, sambar and chutney after one bite goes to the bin, I really feel bad to waste food, but this tasted off and couldn’t help but trashing it the tea was equally bad. Our memories of Shoranur station breakfast just shattered. Our plan was to get off at Calicut station and try out some nice breakfast near the station, but our cousin had other plans for us, he surprised us at the station and droves us straight to his house for the soulful appam and payar curry, our search for good breakfast ended at 10am at beypore, Calicut.

It was the tharavad festival and we headed to the temple soon after the breakfast. The Pooja had started a day before and it was a typical small town fare that I really love and miss most of the time. I was visiting the temple after a long time, the last time I was here, there was nothing only a few deities and stones. Must say my mother in law and husband have been instrumental in getting the temple into shape by supporting them with whatever they really needed each time, like few years back they wanted a well to be dug and they happily did it and ofcourse monetarily supported every initiative. We were glad we could atleast be there for a day to witness this splendid Pooja, wait as it unfolds.

The afternoon started with women chanting Amma narayana, Lakshmi Narayana and ended with various gods and goddesses showcasing their presence and blessings till wee hours of the morning, 6am to be precise. The community lunch was vegetarian Kerala food made using wood fire need not mention anything further it was divine.

The next morning after few hours of sleep and a sumptuous breakfast at home we decided to visit pappan ( our uncle, father in-laws younger brother) who due to his health couldn’t attend the temple festivities. We stopped buy a local bakery to pick up some goodies for pappan and I really wanted to eat it all, but resisted since I had a Big break of ottappam and chicken stew at home.

On our way back from visiting uncle/ pappan we stopped by a very small place that makes pappadam, this is so different from appalam made in tamilnadu and papad made in rest of India, this one puffs up like poori and is so delicious when fried using coconut oil. Spent sometime with the person making these and to my surprise they don’t individually roll them they take a big pile and pat it till thin like paper, ingredients used urad dal, salt, papad soda also know as papad khar and tapioca flour to pat it. Watching the process of making the papadam and packing it was soul touching. Special mention to the packing part the papadam were put into a plastic cover and sealed using candle flame and packed again in a newspaper. Life is so simple yet we make it complicated.

On our way back we also stopped by to buy some special kaima rice from a store I assume it’s the same as jeera samba but this one I hear is grown in the Malabar region. Hence wanted to try kaima rice from its birth place.

Came home to the flavours of Malabar briyani in the back yard. Our cousins had decided to surprise us with wood fire Malabar biryani. We surely were running out of time and did not know if we had the time to relish this one and hence decided to pack it for our train journey. We felt so bad that they took so much efforts to make the biryani with so much love for us and we were like why all this trouble after a sleepless night, they said “this is our way of showering love to the people we love the most” and that for me was definitely the highlight of this beautiful one day trip to Calicut/ Kozhikode!

Grateful that we could make the best of these 24hrs that was gifted to us! We are thankful to every person we encountered during the best 24hrs is Calicut/ Kozhikode! Looking forward to spend a few more days to really enjoy so much more that “God’s own country” has to offer us!

Chennai- Dharamsala – Chennai in 24hrs ❤️

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When I look back on this 24hrs round trip Chennai to Dharamsala and back that I did on 1st December of 2014, loads of memories flash in front of my eyes!

First, how the hell did I even do it! But they say “where there is a will there is a way” so when my mother was going through her treatment a friend of mine recommended that I meet a Tibetan doctor in Dharamshala. I didn’t even blink an eyelid and packed my bags to take the next flight to Dharamsala. 6am flight to Delhi, 11am flight from delhi to Kangra, 2pm we were in the cab towards Dharamsala. My sister who stays in mumbai was a little worried about me going to an unknown place alone and insisted she would join me.

They say when your intentions are right and your heart is pure and above all if you are going to do something good for your parents, you will be guided on every step you take. That’s exactly what happened to us, we found a very good car and driver who is an ex-armyman who was our guide and driver for the next 24hrs. As we started chatting we told him our purpose of visit and also that we are going to be around only for 24hrs. The moment he understood that it was our first trip and that too a very short one, he insisted that we do a small tour of this beautiful hill station.

First he took us to a very small dabba after checking our food preferences to enjoy the best ever mutton curry, steamed rice and Radish salad. I must admit I have never ever in my entire life tasted a mutton dish like that, it had very basic masala and that is what enhanced the flavour and taste of the mutton. The mutton pieces were huge but tender and juicy. Secret of the meat, they graze on the Himalayan mountains and have fresh Himalayan grass and herbs. This lunch was such a perfect welcome Dharamsala.

Next the driver stopped the car on every beautiful view point on our ride uphill, he let us take pictures and kept explaining about the significance of each place.

We reached our hotel around 5pm. Since it was December the driver told us if we wanted to see a few more places we just had to drop our bags and continue our sight seeing else it would get dark and we might not be able to see much and so we just went with the experts suggetion. He showed us a few more places before sunset and we also got to witness the beautiful sunset.

It was dinner time and knowing me I wanted to try every local food there and so we headed to McLeod Ganj, boy oh boy the place was brimming with people, food, light and music. We walked through the streets looking around and finally settled at Tibetan kitchen to have a hot Bowl of tukpa and momos. Walked through the streets just enjoying the vibe before we called it a day.

We had an early morning appointment with the doctor and the driver picked us up from the hotel and we were in time for our appointment. Again we experienced something very special at the doctor’s place, although we had spoken to someone about the appointment we were not sure if we could go in on time, since there was a very long queue that went in circles and we found people from all around the world who had come to meet the doctor, when I saw the queue my heart sank, since we had a flight to take at 2pm. I walked in with lots of gratitude and prayers in my heart NMRK! The moment I met the person at the counter and handed him my moms urine sample, they just let me in without any questions asked. The doctor came out checked the urine sample ( thats how they do their diagnosis) and immediately called me inside for a discussion, I couldn’t believe that all this was really happening. Another 20mins of discussion, medicines and we were out in 30mins. Our driver couldn’t believe what happened because he has never ever seen someone come out in 30 Mins, he said we were blessed and lucky.

But guess what, I think everything has a purpose in life and we had a bigger purpose and hence all that 30mins appointment happened for us. Since we were done with our purpose of visit the driver told us, that he can show us a few more places as it was 9am and our flight was at 2pm. So we hopped into the car and started wondering around, as a matter of fact he asked us if we wanted to visit the Dalai Lama temple/ office in McLeod Ganj, but he told us that Dalai Lama might not be there since he does not do too much public appearances. We agreed and we started our journey towards the temple( well I have no pictures of that place since photography is not allowed) we went in, it was quite and did not find too much movement of people, but there too much security checks. We left our hand bags and started walking towards the temple and we could hear faint voices and saw a few people around, we climbed up the stairs and oh my god whom do I see in front of my eyes, tears started rolling from my eyes for a minute I thought I was dreaming ” Dalai Lama” looked at us showed his hand in blessing gesture and smiled. That day I understood the purpose of this trip and why this 24hrs of my trip worked out the way it did! We took our flight back to Delhi and than to Chennai and was back home the next day!

My heart was full of gratitude to everyone who made me do this trip first my mother, the doctor, our driver, Dalai Lama and the entire universe came together to conspire this trip! Name’s of the actors who conspired this trip: My mother – Hemalata Uchil Dr. Yeshi Dhonen ( he was the personal physician of Dalai Lama from 1960 to 1980) Driver – Rajkumar My sister – Neeta Uchil. Above all faith in my prayers ( NMRK) and the intention of finding the best medication for my mother. They say if you take care of your parents with all your heart that is the biggest gratitude one can pay to them. My mother, the universe and my karma gave me an opportunity to pay my debt of gratitude to my mother! I could ask for nothing more!

Nothing comes easy, it is true the most beautiful place was the most toughest for us! Welcome to Leh Ladakh ❤️

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This vacation has been in the planning for the longest time and finally after 3yrs of short drives, vacations and staycations we had to make this trip to the ever charming Leh Ladakh!

Khardungla pass

We landed on 30th June afternoon with bad weather in Delhi ( transit) risking the terrain of leh airport, It is not an easy terrain to fly. With lots of gratitude to all our pilots who landed us safe.

Our itinerary was made in such a away that we had enough time for acclimatization since this height could give altitude sickness. Soon after we landed the sickness hit me and I was wondering why ever did I choose this location for a vacation. I have seen beautiful pictures and videos of Leh Ladakh but not heard anyone warn about the altitude sickness. I had mild irritating head ache nausea and just too lethargic. I was advised to take rest and drink lot of warm water. When I Still was not feeling good I popped a paracetamol and slept for a while now that made me feel better towards evening.

Our first day pretty much was all about taking care of ourselves. Next day 1st July we had decided again to go slow with minimal activity. So we had breakfast and just strolling around when a good soul suggested we visit the Hall of fame leh. It was a few metres of walk from our place and do we agreed without knowing much what the place had in store for us. And I cannot be more thankful to the person who suggested this place, since this one gave me goose bumps and made me love my country and my jawans even more. This is a war memorial with so many stories.

In the evening we set out to enjoy the city of leh. We did the Shanti stupa, the Leh palace and my most favourite leh market. Loved the colours in the market, the old met the new be is fruits, vegetables, grocery, restaurant, clothes of accessories you could find everything in this market traditional and modern. I picked up some fresh apricots since it is the season for apricots.

The next day was the beautiful Sangam were the indus met zanskar river. Sometimes you wonder how nature is so beautiful by itself the mixing of the 2 colors of the river was serene and peaceful! Did you know that during summer people do rafting here and during winter when the water turns to ice, they ice trek on this same river. So what would you like to do? Our next destination for the day was the cool magnetic hill, so our car was totally switched off and no we were not on a slop, but yet we moved, kinda exciting. The gurudwara pathar sahib is another monument to just find peace. Don’t miss the tea and prashad there it’s yummy!

The most significant day of our trip was doing the worlds highest motorable road the one and only Khardungla pass. We had our own altitude sickness challenges to handle but boy when we reached the peak it was like magic. It was such a proud moment for us to know that our country has the highest motorable road in the damn whole world yay!

After the movie 3 idiots the pangong Lake gained more popularity and why not it is so surreal. Surrounded by mountains it’s hard to say we could find a huge mass of water with shades of color that changes from blue, green, grey, brown to red, it is one of the highest altitude lake in the world with salty water that freezes during winter. Mind blowing right!!!

On our way back from pangong Lake we had to stop by the changa la pass another one of the highest! We stopped by for lunch and had a hot bowl of authentic ladakhi thukpa! We also stopped by a few more random places for some good photo shoots.

Whenever we visit a new place or country the first thing that I look for is Local home cooked food. Before we left to leh I started my search for good home cooked leh traditional food. Since we are non vegetarians I was surprised to know that traditionally people of leh Ladakh eat according to the weather and season. So in winter it’s meat and non vegetarian and in summer it’s mostly vegetarian, from June to September they get to grow vegetables and fruits and get to eat it too. Other time of the year it is cold and snow. So after doing some search on google found gyapthago heritage home. Got speaking to Jimmy and visited his House for a soulful all vegeterian dinner cooked by his mother.
We were greeted by butter tea that is made using Fresh cows milk butter from their own farm. This place is more of a farm to table concept since everything that was cooked for dinner came from their farm including wheat and barley.
The barley soup with fresh vegetables and leh local peas was warm and had a creamy consistency.
The veg momos were made using wheat flour and we had the steamed and fried momos that was served with cold salad.
The khamir the local wheat bread with Home made curd sure was a delicacy.
The local pasta is made fresh, pasta is made with fresh grounded wheat and turnip sauce.
We finished this most amazing meal with the local sweet of apricot soaked in water.
Must say that ended my search for Local Leh Ladakh food.

Discovered Namza that serves authentic/ traditional leh Ladakh food and what excited me even more is the farm to table concept. The place has beautiful ambience, outdoor seating will be lovely in the evening.
We started our lunch with mutton Za-thuk this is a soup that is made using nettle leaves, dried cheese and local herbs, available in veg, chicken and mutton option, we loved the flavour of nettle leaves and dried cheese with little chunks of mutton. I personally love the flavour of mountain mutton.
The chicken momo also known as mok mok was average nothing to write home about.
The yarkhadi pulao is a chefs special and I am glad we tried it. The meal come with pulao made of paneer, green peas, Carrots and fried onions loaded with ghee. We were warned it would be heavy, it was but we just loved the flavour, this meal comes with a clear soup and 3 momos or mok mok. Available in veg, chicken and mutton. We opted for the veg option.
The most famous home grown fruit of Leh Ladakh is apricot and the season has just started. We enjoyed a tall glass of homemade apricot juice.
Like us if you are keen on trying local food, this place is a must visit.

Had a very happy lunch after we descended down the khardungla pass at Dontang. This place has beautiful seating and the most comfort food. The ladhaki thukpa was my favourite. We had fresh lime soda, potato in honey chilli, chicken clear soup and chicken momos / mok mok.
The service was polite and every thing we had was made fresh to order. Few vegetables are used from their garden. Definately a try when in leh.

We had hired a private chauffeur driven ertiga for 5days that cost us 25k which I thought was pretty reasonable and we could go around according to our own convenience.

Leh Ladakh is a very beautiful Indian union territory that is a must visit, but with all precautions and understanding the terrain. It could get very warm and dry in summer on few days that’s what we experienced and it is not easy to handle that weather. If you are a person who likes to see greenery around you please don’t expect anything like that around. Winters could be very harsh so please check before you go. You can fly or drive.