My World of Food and Travel

I hope this image of my herb-roasted chicken does not scare you. This was my first attempt and the husband had clicked it then. I made the same recipe quite a few times after that and they turned out much better than what you see in the picture. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of the ‘successful’ and ‘better-looking’ attempts – we had been too busy doing justice to the chicken! Okay, so I am done with my disclaimer. But seriously,I never knew about the wonders that rosemary and thyme could do to the olfactory senses, along with the aroma of butter. The whole house smelled so warm and delicious that I really had to control myself in not opening the oven before the stipulated time.  Chicken roast has always been my great weakness, right from childhood. Deta used to make an amazing roast in the pressure cooker, a recipe he had learnt on a trip to London decades back. He believed in trussing up the bird properly, braising it in butter and roasting it after keeping it marin...

“ Bhaiyya, please zara dekh ke chalo !” hollered Kunchi* from her seat at the back of the Indica. While she frowned at the driver, I reached out for my notebook and jotted down our itinerary for the next 5 days. It was October, 2007. We had just arrived in Dehra Dun by the early morning Shatabdi Express from Delhi and boarded the cab booked for us. Our itinerary read: Dehra Dun – Nainital – Rudrapur – Haridwar – Rishikesh – Dehra Dun**. It was to be an office trip to understand these markets on our industry-basis. I could not have asked for a better route. Of course, there was my temperamental colleague, Kunchi, saddled with me but that hardly mattered. I was happy and excited and knew that it would be the ride of a lifetime! I was not wrong. Today, I wonder if we had taken a risk in travelling to these far flung places all by ourselves, in a cab. But nary did a thought cross our mind about any kind of danger when we were at it – on the road trip to Uttarakhand hot-beds. We ...

…or rather, the long road to my sasural (in-laws place). The first time I had traversed through the 500-odd kilometers to Tinsukia from my home town Guwahati was in November 2009, just two months before my marriage. Till then, I had only met my husband-to-be once and spoken over phone with my soon-to-be in-laws. Thus, it was the first visit to my future home. We had hired an Indigo as Deta could not be asked to drive our car for such a long stretch. Ma had become a bit jittery during the course of the long journey and frequently grumbled “Out of so many boys in the world, my daughters had to choose grooms staying so far away.” Sis and I were both engaged to be married at around the same time and a stop on the way was scheduled at her in-laws’ place as well. Ma would sigh every now and then and ask “Aru kiman dur?” (Loosely translated as – are we there yet?) I guess losing her daughters to these new places was getting on her nerves! At that time, I was too busy updating the fi...

It has been raining almost every day here in Bangalore, leaving the air fresh and cool in its wake. So, finally, I could go out birding without the fear of the harsh sun breathing down my neck. Of course, there is always the chance of rain playing spoilsport just as you are about to shoot your favourite bird. But, I will take the droplets rather than the migraine inducing heat. The husband may beg to differ as he wields the camera most of the time and feels the need of proper light. Anyways, we have been out looking for birds quite frequently in the last few weeks and re-visited several areas like Gulakmale village , Hebbal lake , Valley school and Hoskote lake . Last weekend, we decided to cover the hitherto uncharted (by us) locations of Manchenbele and Thippagondanahalli (TG Halli) Reservoir. Both were at close quarters of each other and we felt a day would be enough to dedicate towards them. TG Halli was bestowed with the honor of being our first stop of the day. So, here ...