Dear Readers, as many of you have noticed my blog has not been as active as it used to be once. This is the reason why! I have been completely involved in something exciting. Palatable is a labor of love for fellow foodies and social animals, the next step to realizing the true potential of tech and smartphones in helping take our social life and food experiences to the next level. Hope to see many of you try the app and let me know what you think. Cheers!
Greece and Japan - two nations on other sides of the world, one a proud Eastern culture that has been developing its culture and forming new layers for thousands of years, the other even older and among the first civilisations of the Western world. They don’t seem to have much in common until you see them through a foodie's eyes.
San Francisco is chock-a-block with interesting restaurants. You could be a few blocks away from a great little place you would love but not find it. Technology hasn’t evolved enough to match people with the places they are sure to enjoy. This is specially true of restaurant apps such as Yelp!, OpenTable or Zomato, all of who use crowd-sourced ratings to sort restaurants. Food is a very a personal thing that everyone tends to rate differently. A lover of spicy food can find even a good French restaurant insipid and bland, but even if their taste buds did not vary, one may give a higher importance to atmosphere, price, and/or service quality than another.
We are a family of dim-sum lovers. When we decided to book our flights to Japan on Cathay Pacific, I had to give in to the temptation of making a brief halt for a dim-sum tour of Hong Kong. This island was a refuge for fleeing Chinese from the mainland, first during the Mongol invasion and then again during the Opium Wars when the British wrested this island from the Chinese and made it a strategic military port. Immigrants from the East and the West brought with them culinary techniques that soon resulted in a medley of tastes and flavors that continue to tempt the palate.
For those less familiar with Japan, when you think of food you probably think sushi. As you dig deeper, you will discover it is so much more! Like the French, Japanese are passionate about food and celebrate the wide variety of their eating choices in small and intimate surroundings. Where they differ from classical French is their Zen philosophy of keeping it simple. No elaborate sauces for them! They focus on putting together the best seasonal produce and enhancing their natural flavours with delicate sauces and seasonings.
Another day dawns in one of the small towns and villages that dot the North Indian Gangetic plains. Roosters crow in the distance as the faint morning light begins to permeate the early morning mists. You can see smoke beginning to waft from dozens of stoves along the winding streets and alleys as local halwais open shop and get ready for the day. Many of these early morning confectioners and sweet-makers specialize in just one sweet that is ubiquitous in small-town North India during this time of the day: the jalebi.
This was my second visit to Jaipur and a business trip at that. I was here for an annual CEO summit: three days of round-tables and panel discussions held at the luxurious Fairmont Hotel. While the location of the hotel can be inconvenient because of its distance from the airport and the city centre, the hotel itself is another splendid example of five-star opulence in a city that boasts of top-notch resorts.
When I first realised I will be travelling to Rudrapur I confused it with Rudraprayag, a place made famous by the famous British hunter Jim Corbett. Rudrapur is a small town in the Himalayan foothills of Uttarakhand close to the Nepal border. Much to my surprise, our road trip from Delhi turned out to be quite a delight. Clearly, there has been much progress in the network of roads here during the last 15 years, since I last took a car to the highways in this region.
New York was remarkably warm and bright when I landed. If the weather here is so hospitable what else can possibly go wrong? Shortly after checking into my hotel, I decided to take a stroll in the welcoming outdoors and found myself looking up at the tall steel and glass buildings that make up the city’s familiar skyline; however, it was the older, darker building that caught my attention - the imposing facade of Grand Central Station.
Michael Krondl, in his brilliantly engrossing book Sweet Invention, notes that desserts were never a human necessity. Unlike the rest of our food, desserts were purely a craving that reflected our culture and still do. Having traveled a good part of the world, I can see he is right. The exquisitely crafted creme brûlée, pot de crème, and tarts are as much a reflection of the elaborate and formal French as apple pies, sonkers and s'mores are for the casual, easy-going Americans.
You know you are near Tim Ho Wan, the dim sum specialists in Hong Kong, when you see the large crowds outside. Names are called, people settled into closely packed tables, and orders are rapidly taken - with nary a smile or small talk. That don't seem like a place to attract attention from the high and mighty Michelin guides, does it? That it did is testimony to the deliciousness they dish out daily to a growing number of patrons. When it received its single star in 2009, Tim Ho Wan became the cheapest Michelin-starred restaurant in the world!
I have decided to nominate Seattle as the city with the most quirkily named restaurants! Where else can you find eating places such as The Whale Wins, The Walrus & the Carpenter, or the delightful Brimmer & Hilltap that opened its doors only recently. Some research quickly yielded the fact that the creativity of their owners did not end at the names alone.
The rains welcomed me as I landed in Seattle, but that wasn't unusual in itself. Rains are a given in this lovely sea-facing city on America's north-west coast. The Emerald City is known for its Mediterranean climate, rains and lush green surroundings as it is for its hi-tech companies. However, much has changed from the last time I was here in the early 90s. People then knew the city for its two iconic companies, Boeing and Microsoft. Now the big boys here are Amazon and Starbucks, both of whom are making big moves into India right now. Seattle has continued to grow rapidly; I was not surprised to learn that this city is the fast growing major city in the USA.
Alice Waters is probably among the most influential figures in American food and cooking in recent times. She moved into Berkeley California in the early 60s as a young, single woman with a talent for cooking and much less else. Over the next 40 years, she would go on to open and run one of the most famous restaurants in the country and in the process redefine what American cuisine was about. Waters opened Chez Panisse in 1971 and over the years this restaurant has won several awards and together with its famous owner spearheaded the movement towards locally sourced and organic food.
I ate at several new restaurants around the world during the past few months. Some I have written about, but others never got their own post. I also had a chance to return back to some old favourites. Here’s a round up on the best experiences of the last six months.
Plume is an extraordinary restaurant that can instantly transport you to an earlier age, one of unhurried opulence, with French food so amazing you can save that trip across the Atlantic. Set within the luxurious and classy Jefferson Hotel located only a few blocks away from Washington D.C.’s most famous address, this restaurant is characterised by multiple segregated dining spaces, immaculately dressed tables, crystal chandeliers and soft classical music in the background.
Italy and good food are synonymous! This is particularly true in Tuscany, the land that produces much of Italy's Chianti wines, porcini mushrooms, rare truffles and Pecorino cheese among other delights. While Tuscan cuisine have evolved from simple peasant fare that tend to involve offals and four-finger thick steaks, there is enough for the non-adventurous foodie too.
The Leela Palace in New Delhi is among the fanciest hotels built by the group. While not the largest, this hotel has clearly tried to position itself as one of the most luxurious. With this in mind, the hotel opened with high-end restaurants that are destinations in themselves. Le Cirque occupies top spot here, but since I have experienced this well-known French restaurant at their Las Vegas location, I decided to try Megu instead.
While there was much to absorb and luxuriate in during our few days in Rajasthan, the elaborate Rajashani royal cuisine was clearly one of the highlights. Typical local fare here tends to be made with creativity from the few ingredients that grow locally. However, elaborate versions of this same cuisine mastered by generations of royal cooks can clearly impress even the palate of the most jaded foodie.
Dum Pukht has been one of the finest restaurants showcasing the 200-year old legacy of the nawabs of Awadh. Characterized by the subtle use of spices, this restaurant serves the renowned Dum Pukht biryani and the Kakori kabab, best enjoyed at a leisurely pace. Dum Pukht at the ITC Maratha in Mumbai recently reopened its door after a complete renovation. While the menu remains the same, the decor has been changed for the better.
