A few months back, I visited the restaurant Burma Burma and loved their vegan menu with its fusion concepts. I had a hearty, soul-satisfying meal at a restaurant after a long time. It’s a vegetarian restaurant but offers vegan options. I enjoyed the steamed curried buns, Mekong curry made with exotic spices complimented with sticky jasmine rice. But the star of the dinner for me was the Burmese dessert of vegan panna cotta with sago pearls and palm jaggery. One bite, and I knew I was in heaven.
Category: vegan food writing
One Cook and Five Knives
One cook and five knives. No, that’s not the title of a murder mystery. It is the state of my kitchen. I cook and I have five different knives. Well, it was not intended to be a collection but somehow it has become one.
Shojin Ryori in Kyoto: An Unforgettable Vegan Dining Experience
The burst of red, orange and yellow autumn hues is the first thing that caught my eyes at the Tenryu-ji temple premises. I had come to taste the Shojin ryori vegan cuisine, which was served at the Shigetsu restaurant inside the temple premises. But I got caught in the beauty of the Zen Garden around it. The autumn trees accompanied by a peaceful pond in front of it and the Arashiyama mountains standing tall behind it were picture-perfect from all sides.
Vegan Food in Kerala: Long Before It Had a Name
When I tell people I am a Mallu (Malayali), and a vegan, people look at me with suspicious eyes. Yes, Kerala cuisine is popular for its variety of seafood and meat-based dishes being a land surrounded by the sea. Yes, Kerala is a state which leads in non-vegetarian food consumption in India. Yes, I am the only vegan in my entire family of 200 people. But trust me when I say this that Mallu cuisine (as I would like to call it) is one of the best cuisines to be vegan as it naturally has a lot of variety of vegan dishes.
Lal Bazar Gangtok: Where the City Begins Its Sunday
What is the best way to know a place? Visit its popular bucket list places, get a taste of the place at the well-known eateries, talk to the local people and attend local festivals. I do all this.
But my favourite way to get to know a place is through its local markets— those lively, colourful hubs where daily life unfolds. A place where people shop for their daily needs, a place where new and unique things are found, a place where you find stories in lanes and colours. I found this in Lal Bazar – the local market in Gangtok.
When Modak meets Kozhukatta
Modak, which is made in Maharashtra, is the same as Kozhukatta, which is made in Kerala. For the unversed it is a steamed rice dumpling with the filling of coconut, jaggery with a hint of cardamom. When you take a bite of this piping hot Kozhukatta, you first taste the soft mildly salty taste of the steamed rice covering and then tumbles out of it the moistened juicy coconut and jaggery mixture slowly revealing its richness.
My love for dosa
Do you wonder how to make the dosa batter? Have you attempted and failed to get that beautiful looking tasty dosa? Then read further to know more about my journey of learning to make the dosa batter.
The humble vada pav
I had just completed a project which had taken me out of the country for a month and I was landing in Bombay close to around midnight. I got into the taxi with my luggage and after telling the taxi driver in which direction to head, I told him that he will have to first stop at any vada pav stall that would be open on the way. He turned and looked at me and gave me a smile and without any questions, he took me to one. I packed two hot vada pav and relished it in the back seat. I felt happy and content.