Secret Tastes of India

I love sea-food. So deep is this love that I can go around massive cities, travel to remote locations, agree to 'dangerous dares' (figuratively speaking!) and even fall in love in my pursuit of the fishes and prawns and crabs and their cousins.  My journey, from consciously disliking fish to graduating to be an avid sea-food lover, well, lets keep it for another day. All I can do is thank the Universe for this transformation (vegan and vegetarian brigades can troll me for all I care).  Lets get to the point. I was introduced to Calamari by my darling little sister (she is strictly vegetarian). It was love at first sight. I was instantly drawn to this sea creature, more commonly known as Squid, especially the rubbery rings that formed part of my sea-food Mongolian fried rice.  In no time, fried Calamari Rings became one of the thumb rules for me to judge the quality of sea-food cuisines in a restaurant. If they can botch this, they are no good and you should ...

In Jammu to pay obeisance to Mata Vaishno Devi? Or just passing through the Winter Capital of the state of J&K? You may be on any mission or bound towards any destination, a pit stop at this non-descript shop will leave you salivating for more.  Tucked in a busy corner of Jammu is Shankar’s Puri Choley. As the name suggests, this is as desi as it gets. Opposite the remnants of what was once the famous Jewel Talkies, Shankar’s is abuzz at any time of the day. The local residents prefer to haunt this shanty for a scrumptious, Indian breakfast or 'nashta' as we like calling this meal of the day. The Puris are crisp and two in number in a plate. You may ask for as many servings of the lip-smacking Choley. The first spoonful and you are guaranteed to be transported to the Mystery Land of taste. There is something about the Choley that I am yet to appropriately decipher. Your mind repeats in loop, “What is this taste? I know it”. It’s a week now and I am yet to figure o...

I am lactose intolerant and therefore, I stay away from dairy products. Yet, this evening, the bizarre me decided to give my cook a day off and ordered pineapple and anar Raita from a neighbourhood eatery, The Green Kitchen. As luck would have it, the app-based delivery executive vanished with the order and I managed a replacement from the company (that's a story for another day!) After almost 2 hours, the food arrived! I opened this neatly packed, chilled box of Raita. Looked rather plain jane. My lactose hating alter ego laughed. But I decided to stay hopeful. As a matter of habit, I smell my food to awaken my gastronomy desires. It smelled fresh. Treading on the side of caution, I served myself three spoonfuls of the Raita. The moment it touched my tongue, I yelped with delight. This was perhaps the most ingenious Raita I had in my lifetime. It was a heavenly mix of curd, caramelised pineapple or what we call murabba and achaari anaar, with a generous sprinkling of coriander lea...