Pinku-Enchanted Life

Walking out of office for a quick lunch and a few laughs with a girlie gang is a complete life saver when you feel life isn’t taking you the places you were promised as part of the grown up deal.  And so it happened that four of us escaped for a quick lunch last week – the destination Dana Choga a restaurant with a long history of feeding Gurgaon people delicious, Punjabi food in a no nonsense straight to the tummy way. Accompanied by giggles and gossip we landed up at the Atul Kataria Chowk outlet and were lucky enough to grab the last empty table before the place completely filled up with the lunch crowd. The fact that the place was packed on a hot weekday said something good about the food. Now two of us are Non-Veg eaters with a vengeance, one sways in between and the fourth is a strict vegetarian and this means that we always end up ordering too much. After much asking around for each other’s preferences we settled on a crisp honey chilli lotus stem and some soft drinks as starter

I had been really curious about a place called Sodabottleopenerwalla that opened a few months back at Cyber Hub in gurgaon. Reviews I read told me that the place served authentic Irani Café/ Parsi food along with a bit Bombay street food as well. Though I visited Cyber Hub a number of times for one reason or another I never did walk into Sodabottleopenerwalla. My stay in Bombay had given me some idea of what to expect in an Irani Café. Reading popular novels based on the city as well as following Kalyan,  Kurush and Rhea Dalal on FB and on blogger ensured that Parsi food would never be too far away from my mind. Since a chance visit to the restaurant had not worked out I made a plan to ask Parry to take me there for my birthday. So with much anticipation I waited yesterday for evening to arrive so that I could go and check out the place for myself. The interesting but non eye catching signage We walked into Cyber Hub, walked around the whole place and couldn’t find the place!!! Parry s

What do you write about a food joint which can easily claim the crown for Delhi’s most written about food joint? A place frequented by anyone and everyone who calls himself a foodie atleast once.  A place that boasts of holding on to the recipes of the Mughals long after they have vacated the throne of Delhi. Well I guess the only thing to write about such a place is your own thoughts and experiences and memories since the fact that the food would be good is a given. Karim’s opened in Dwarka some months ago and I believe they opened without much fanfare and started operations from a small outlet on the first floor of a cluttered market. I had no idea about its existence at almost my doorstep till one day I drove past this market and spotted the signage. A close look to ascertain that it’s the real thing, for quite a few fakes also abound and I was jumping in glee. A Karims right in the center of Dwarka seemed too good to be true. My first quick expedition was with a friend and after a

My love for all things wintry is well known. And honestly tell me what is there not to love? The oranges and groundnuts in the sun, steaming hot sarson saag with makki di roti, kebabs, biryiani and niharis. Lots of weddings, bonhomie and warm gajar and moong halwas not to mention delicious hot gulab jamuns.And in my case my beloved nolen gurer rassogulla. Its perfect. Another ultimate winter delight is the stuffed parathas and kachoris. So from gobhi (cauliflower/cabbage), mooli (radish), gajar (carrot), aloo (potato) to the yummiest of the lot - matar (peas) I love them all. And what makes an ordinary winter morning not so ordinary anymore is the smell of fresh matar kachori or kochuri as we bongs call it being fried. The yummylicious smell of frying maida and the tinge of hing in it is what heaven is made of. Today was one such day - Mom made us hot matar kochuri for breakfast and since this is something u want to eat as soon as its been taken off the kadhai - we actually sat down to

I love planning...not the immaculate thought through to the last detail, well in advance kind of planning. Rather the last minute, 'let's do something' and it should be fun kind of planning which entails frantic wracking of one's brains for options and spur of the moment innovations. Yesterday was one such day...I had a long boring meeting from 9 AM sharp and it lasted till about 12:30 in the noon. As you can imagine my brains were fried by the time I walked out.Once out the first thing I saw was a message from a friend who said 'I am so bored, I feel like running away' initially I said 'lets do it together'. Later I thought, 'what the heck, its a Friday - we deserve a break.' So messages went scurrying back and forth and a plan was formed. The idea was to meet up at Hauz Khas village - 'pregame' as the youngsters call it, at a shots bar and then eventually go to Golconda Bowl for dinner. Hauz Khas Village - once used to be a sleepy littl