My World of Food and Travel

Not long ago, I would make a list of food that I wanted to have on my annual visit to home. I would then call up Maa and relay the contents of the list to her. Among them, there would always be the mention of a fish head preparation. I was staying in a vegetarian hostel in Mumbai then and while I had access to non-veg food from restaurants, fish head curry or maasor murighonto in Assamese could never be ordered. This dish, I think, is savoured only in the eastern and north-eastern part of the curry. I pity the rest of the country who has still not tasted this awesome dish. There are a lot of ways to cook the fish head with. But fish has always been my weak point. I also made the mistake of thinking that Maa would continue to be the cook of the family and I could have my favourite fish head dish any time I wanted. Now, I have taught myself to cook my own favourite dishes, but with my own twists and short-cuts.  And talking of short-cuts, I never believed in them ...

We had visited Matheran way back in the winter of 2007. By ‘we’, I mean sis and myself. Strange how this term has changed with the passage of time. ‘We’ for a short time, meant the husband and I, and now it includes the baby, too. God, how I love rambling! So, as I was telling you, we had been to Matheran at a time when we had our Nikon camera that required film rolls. We had that camera only for a few years before it became completely obsolete. How fast technology can make your prized possessions outdated! I digress again but just could not help wondering that out aloud. Anyways, that essentially meant that this post won’t have any pictures clicked by us. I have no idea where those photographs went. But, no matter, the visit remains quite clear in mind. And for various reasons as well.  Let me first give you a little background on Matheran. Matheran is a small hill station located around 90 km from Mumbai. Due to its proximity to both Mumbai and Pune, it attracts a l...

Well, since the husband had his way last Saturday , I had mine this weekend. I was in the mood to have something really cheese-y and pizza was just not the answer. Nor was pasta. I didn’t have much time to look up the net for some recipes and lunch hour was too close. I thought up the recipe while cleaning the chicken. Chicken in white sauce! But I didn’t have flour! What about the Amul cheese cubes lying in the fridge? Oh yeah, and the recipe was decided. So, you see, that’s how I plan my menu – everything depends upon the ingredients in hand and not the other way around. I wish cheese was something which would not tilt the weighing scales; or I would have included it in at least one meal every day! The days I don’t pack lunch for office I gleefully order cheese paranthas or kathi rolls with dollops of cheese. It is another matter that my food attracts the maximum critical eyeing that day.   I remember once I had finished one whole double burst cheese pizza from Do...

“So what do you want to have for lunch?” I asked the husband on our way back from a birding trip to Hebbal Lake last Saturday. We had breakfasted on the way and had lunch to tackle. Now, the household is divided into two over the choice of non-vegetarian for weekend lunch/dinner. The husband and mother-in-law are strong supporters of fish while father-in-law and I upheld the chicken/meat card. But ask any of us what we wanted for food and that will evince only one answer – “Whatever you want.” We are quite an indulgent family, you see.  The husband had, however, made up his mind. Fish will be the order of the day, he announced. We then took a quick glance at father-in-law’s face who was sitting behind and stifled our grins. As luck would have it, we came across a cart selling fresh fish not long after the somber statement. Much to FIL’s dismay, the cart only sold seafood! He could still tolerate fresh water fish like Rohu or Katla, but seafood? Oh the horribly smelly ...