Terttulia

Remember when I woke up one day and decided to draw on the wall in my room?

Well, it wasn't that long ago.

If you don't remember, I have a video to prove it.

Well, that was just practice.

Now people hire me to draw on their walls.

How cool is that?

And sometimes people refer to me as a chalk artist.

Or that girl who does chalk art.

I find it funny because chalk is just a medium.

I could scribble on your wall with just about anything.

Not a problem.

Terttulia, a popular restaurant in Pune, opens in Bombay today.

But the food isn't the only thing that I'm excited about.

It's also the art on the walls of the restaurant.

Because I was responsible for it.

I've done a mix of illustration and hand lettering and it was a lot of fun.

It was a lot of work for one person so I worked on it with the wonderful Rabanne (he makes furniture too) who was just the best guy to hang out with - while working, traveling, lunching and dinnering (my English isn't bad. I just have a talent for making up words).

Here are a few photos of the restaurant:

You can see more photos on my website. And then some more.

I've eaten a bunch of things there but highly recommend the mud cake.

It makes you forget all the troubles of this world and temporarily makes you feel as happy as a new born baby.

If you plan on going there, here's the address:

Terttulia

Ground Floor, Hotel Parkway,

Near Natural Ice Cream,

Shivaji Park, Mumbai

Happy Mother's Day

There's no place like home.

Because Home is where your Mom is.

I know Mother's Day, like many other days has been created so everyone can make some money while you shop for your mother.
But who cares?
In my opinion, everyday should be Mother's Day.

So do something special for your mother today.

I was thinking of making some art for her or cooking her something.
And then I saw this.

 Chocolates by Chef Jorge Llanderal

What a brilliant way of killing two birds with one stone.

Happy Mother's Day!

Typographic video by me.

I am a Mango

Wake up and smell the mango, people!

It's that time of the year again.

I feel so happy I could do a little jig every morning.

To be honest I started eating mango a couple of weeks ago, when they weren't that great but the familiar taste was enough to make me happy.

I'm not hard to please. Especially if you're a mango.

I call it God's own fruit - sweet to the core.

They say You are what you eat.

So then I suppose for the next couple of months I am a suitcase of mangoes.

Photo and video by me.

Sweet like chocolate

You know what they say about cake.

You can't have your cake and eat it too.

Well, it's a little different with chocolate.

Last weekend I made my chocolate, and you guessed it - I ate it too.

And guess what - it's really simple.

A friend of ours had us over for a chocolate making class and had our very patient teacher Davina teach us the basics.

Here are a few recipes:

DROPPED CHOCOLATES - ALMOND ROCKS

No of Portions: 5-10

Ingredients                             Quantity

Almonds                                    60 g

Chocolate                                  30 g

Method:

1.     Toast Almonds and allow to cool.

2.     Melt chocolate over a double boiler on gentle heat.

3.     When thoroughly melted, mix the almonds in, ensuring they are completely coated.

4.     Allow it to cool slightly, then drop clusters of 3-4 chocolate-enrobed almonds onto a butter paper. Allow to set, then peel off from the butter paper and store in boxes in a cool, dry place.

DIPPED CHOCOLATE - CHOCOLATE MINT

No of Portions: 5-10

Dipping Chocolate

Ingredients                              Quantity

Chocolate                                      50 g

Chocolate Ganache                  

Ingredients                              Quantity

Chocolate                                     30 g

Cream                                            10 ml

Mint Essence As Needed

Method:

1.     Heat the cream.

2.     Add the chopped chocolate into the cream. Stir till smooth.

3.     Add the mint essence to the ganache.

4.     Put into the fridge to set for 15-30 minutes.

5.     Roll the ganache into small balls.

6.     Refreeze.

1.     Melt chocolate over a double boiler on gentle heat.

2.     Remove the mint balls, dip into the melted chocolate and allow to dry on a butter paper-lined baking tray.

3.     Repeat this process twice.

MOULDED CHOCOLATES

Ingredients                            Quantity

Chocolate                                    60 g

Method

1.     Melt chocolate over a double boiler on gentle heat.

2.     When thoroughly melted, temper and pour into moulds.

3.     Gently tap the mould to prevent air bubbles and allow to set.

4.     De-mould, wrap and store in boxes in a cool, dry place.

SOFT CENTRED CHOCOLATES – Rum Centres

Ingredients                             Quantity

Chocolate                                    60 g

Rum Ganache

Ingredients                             Quantity

Rum                                         as required

Chocolate                                    30 g

Cream                                           10 ml

Method

1.     Heat the cream.

2.     Add the chopped chocolate into the cream. Stir till smooth.

3.     Add the rum to the ganache.

4.     Put into the fridge to set for 15-30 minutes.

5.     Roll the ganache into small balls.

6.     Refreeze.

1.     Melt chocolate over a double boiler on gentle heat.

2.     Remove the mint balls, dip into the melted chocolate and allow to dry on a butter paper-lined baking tray.

3.     Repeat this process twice. 

SOFT CENTRED CHOCOLATES - MARZIPAN

Ingredients                           Quantity

Marzipan                                    30 g

Chocolate                                   60 g

Method

1.     Melt chocolate over a double boiler on gentle heat.

2.     When thoroughly melted, temper and pour into moulds. Leave for a minute and remove excess. Leave to set. Repeat this process 2 more times.

3.     Roll the marzipan into small balls, place into the moulds and cover with more chocolate.

4.     Gently tap the mould to prevent air bubbles and allow to set.

5.     De-mould, wrap and store in boxes in a cool, dry place.

I couldn't believe that's all it takes to make chocolate.

Sweet!

Godiva

I just got back from my holiday a few days ago and as always I did some Duty Free shopping.

I don't know why but I go a bit crazy in duty free and shouldn't ever really be left there unsupervised.

I almost look like a child playing in a waterfall of goodies under a beaten down pinata.

Yes, the thought itself is a little scary.

But everytime I am at the airport I make sure I pick up a box of Godiva.

It's just something that must be done.

I have always loved the name Godiva. 

Godiva Godiva Godiva.

Ok, so I wouldn't name my daughter that but my love for the name made me look her up.

Lady Godiva was the wife of Leofric, who was an Earl.

She took pity on the people of Coventry who had to pay high taxes and appealed to her husband to reduce it and show some kindness to the people.

Leofric agreed on the condition that Godiva would ride through the town while naked on her horse.

Lady Godiva did so after procaliming that the whole town must be closed and that everyone must stay in their homes.

Only one man - Tom (of Peeping Tom fame) decided to have a little looksie and made a hole in his shutters and watched as Godiva passed by.

Everyone had a good day.

Godiva got to ride around the town naked.

Tom got to see Godiva naked.

and Leofric abolished the tax.

But somehow Tom went blind.

I'm not sure if that was a punishment for looking at a naked woman on a horse.

Or whether they made it up to scare other boys.

My research sort of ended there and I dove head first into a nice big box of chocolates.

Hope your day is just as sweet as mine.

Happy Easter!

DIY for the Holiday Season

via

For those of you who enjoy their drink and like to make it too, here's a quick and easy recipe to make Irish Cream.

Ingredients

·      3 eggs*

·      ½ tsp. vanilla essence

·      1½ tbsp. coffee (instant)

·      100 gm. castor sugar

·      1 tin condensed milk

·      ½ bottle whisky

·      400 gm. sterilized cream

Method

1.     Mix all the ingredients with an electric hand-mixer in the order given above, until smooth.

2.     Fill in a glass bottle with the help of a funnel and refrigerate.

And you can print your own labels too!

Drink during party time. Or any other time.

Happy Holidays!

Tchin tchin!

* The recipe was given to me by a Parsi friend and you know how much they love their eggs.

I know it sounds strange to mix egg and whiskey. Atleast to me it does. But it tastes amazing.

If it makes you uncomfortable, you could probably skip the eggs because I don't know for how long you can keep something with raw egg in it.

Single and ready for dessert

Wall Art by Luulla

I was having a very serious conversation with a friend of mine about Lemon tarts this morning.

Because that's what we do on Wednesday mornings.

And this is how the conversation went:

Friend: Remember when we stopped at that place in Goa for a lemon tart?

Me: Yea. But was it that good?

Friend: It was. Wasn't it? How about the one we had the other day at the club?

Me: That was also good I suppose but it was also not memorable.

Friend: Really?

Me: Yea. I mean I didn't go home and think about it later.

Friend: That's what you do after eating dessert?

Me: Yea. That's what happens when you don't have a boyfriend.

You go home and think about whether your rendezvous with a new dessert really created an impression and think about whether you'd meet again.

Me: Hmmm.

Well, atleast I'm not waiting by the phone for hours for a call from a certain Mister Banoffee.

When love & Love collide

I was a fussy eater and I still am sometimes (can't eat green things). 

But I do enjoy everything else. It's like a celebration in my mouth.

When it's health food - I Eat to Live.

When its dessert / fried - I Live to Eat.

80% of my meals are not salad-like and so I make up for it by doing Yoga 3 times a week.

So when I found this, I was obviously very amused.

by Baked Ideas.

Two of my loves = food ♥ yoga.

I hope to make these someday. I wish I could cook. And well too.

I don't think making maggi and papad really allow me to call myself a chef. And after my papad episode, I quit eating it forever (for now).

I've tried helping my mother make rotis since I was a child but for some reason my hands itch when I try rolling the dough. No, it's not an excuse.

Also, I'm very scared of fire. And that's not even a lie. Ask my friend Shivani. She lit the Bunsen burner for me in Chemistry class for two whole years in school.

What can I say? Life is hard.

So,
Dear Yoga cookie people,
It's going to take a while for you to be born out of my kitchen.
Sorry.

There's always hope.

by Alanna Cavanagh.

Perfect Sunday

How was your weekend?

Mine was fantabulous.

Here's what happened.

I went swimming with some friends (floating while being guided by the non-existent wave in the pool).

Had butterful food.

Found a perfect companion for it called beer.
Is beer really good for your kidneys? Our taxi driver in Goa told us that it is.
My Doctor friend said No but Google disagrees.
But, then again Google gives you whichever answer you want to find.

On my way home, I crashed my sister and brother-in-law's romantic Sunday lunch at Salt Water Cafe to grab some dessert - dark chocolate crème brûlée.

And washed it down with green tea. I don't know if green tea washes down anything. But it did wash away some of the guilt of over-eating.

Came home and felt a little guilty about crashing their lunch till I looked at myself in the mirror and saw how they hadn't told me that my after-swim-undried hair looked like a mop on my head.

I was about to take a nap and my friend popped by. To talk about life.

And I forced her to take a nap too.

She turned out to be a true friend for about 30 minutes.

After which she kept poking me to wake me up so she could grab a bite somewhere.

While she got her Shawerma at Maroosh, I got some Frozen yoghurt at Yogurtbay on Carter Road. You have to try the Blueberry Cheesecake flavour. It's just everything you want it to be.
Lovely blueberry topping and crumbly cheesecake base sprinkles.

Do check out the website. It's nice and friendly and even has pointless sections like Everybelly. Interesting!

picture from the yogurtbay website.

Tip: Please don't ever go to Cocoberry. It smells funny and tastes bleaaaheaahhh (that's an exaggerated blah).

I ate some more yoghurt again for dinner while watching Simi's new show.

Could she be more annoying while flirting with India's Most Desirable?

I think not.

Siddhartha Mallya was cute even with all the twitches.

He made me want to speak with my British accent during the commercial breaks to everyone sitting around me. I pretty much just said uhf-khos (ofcourse) to every question.

This morning

yoghurt = unstoppable sneezing.

swimming = pain in my feet. even my toes.

But, it was all worth it.

And in the middle of it all, I made my sister play photographer and help me shoot for future Sunday thank-yous. It was a blast. I don't know if she agrees.

I wanted to give you a sneek peek but then thought why not just wait till Sunday.

Update (1 week later): Also try the Mango flavour, topped with real mango pieces and a colourful water-balloon-like topping that feels like Holi in your mouth.
And the Tiramisu flavour. Now I'm not a fan of Tiramisu or anything coffee-like but it's to die for.

Rating: 10/10

How satisfying?: Extremely.

A Friend with Benefits

When you think of friends with benefits you are clearly going the wrong way.

But, not me. There are some great benefits of being friends with Varun Sheth.

He's the sweetest boy ever. And he cooks. And super well too.

I've always behaved like a food critic in restaurants. Giving a critique when noone really cares.

This started way back when I couldn't even tell the difference between chalk and cheese.

I was a fussy eater while growing up and my mother would feed me with stories like apples and pears are cousins. This was done in an attempt to make me eat pears.

Being the fussy eater that I was, when dessert was served my eyes would light up and suddenly there were exactly 2 empty circular spaces in my tummy to fit in 2 gulab jamuns. I deserved the dessert reward just for being that creative with my explanations.

Anyway, on Tuesday I did no such thing.

My friend, Varun cooked up this neverending meal that was nothing but super.

How did it all start for him?

I think this is a pretty amazing story. 

I've known Varun for what feels like forever and he was as confused as I still am.

He represented India in Counter Strike (the video game). I thought that was awesome. But, he was made for something bigger. And that was 1 tablespoon.

It all began with Varun being bored at home and realising how much he wants to eat pizza which led to him making it himself, from scratch. And then doing it everyday. Making better sauces. Adding different toppings. And then a chef was born.

Varun then went on to study at the Natural Gourmet Institute in New York and when he returned he started his own Gourmet catering service called 1 tablespoon.

Now about the food...

There were starters, main course, dessert and even wine. All in the middle of the evening.

But, who's complaining?

We started with some wine. I was thirsty.

As I sipped my wine, Varun started bringing in one tasty treat after another.

First there was the hummus and lavash followed by a garlicy dip (I forgot what it's called) and pita squares.

I love garlic but hate how the taste won't leave me and I need to brush my teeth 5 times after eating it.

But, no such thing happened.

After this we had creamy corn vol-au-vents. This is something I ask my mother to make for me on every birthday because I love vol-au-vents so much. I have only ever eaten the ones she's made. But, these were super too. I would've preferred less of the wafery part but then that's just me.

This was followed by crostinis with a tomato paste, goat cheese and burnt onion. So, I love goat cheese like I love every other cheese and there's something lovely about sweet burnt onion but I am not a fan of tomato. But, guess what, I totally loved it. It was nice and creamy and you couldn't feel the tomatoey texture which is what I usually have a problem with. Full marks again!

This was followed by Varun's specialty - pizza.

He makes everything from scratch - the dough and even the sauce. I could choose my toppings so I went with red and yellow peppers. While Varun made the pizza at lightning speed, I walked around and took some photographs. I'm an amateur photographer with a fancy camera. I tried.

And then when I took really bad pictures, I just continued eating. Seemed to help a lot.

The pizza was followed by ravioli which was filled with a mushroomy pasty filling. A little salty on the outside. But, only because I asked him to put extra salt so I could play around with my photography while he threw salt in the pan. Sorry.

Then came the best part - the dessert.

This is the part I look forward to the most in every meal.

Varun knew that and let me have my desserts in between courses.

So, actually at this point I had already had a bowl of crème brûlée and strawberry sorbet.

Yum yum yum.

The crème brûlée was probably the best I've ever had. Perfect crackly top (without being so thick that it gets stuck in your teeth). And the inside couldn't have been creamier. Even though it was super creamy and that by this time I had eaten as much as an elephant, it was still easy to digest. Loved the black vanilla dots in it.

The strawberry sorbet on the other hand was served right into my wine glass. Well, atleast that's how I had my first serving of it. It was like the white wine pulled it in and gave it a big hug.

This is where I stopped to take a breath.

Yoga has taught me the importance of breathing.

And then we ended the perfect meal with a cannoli (topped with chocolate chips). 

Varun explained how it was made. Something about ricotta, wine, coffee powder, whiskey and I went into a trance. 

My advice: Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.

All this over some great conversation and average photography on a day that couldn't have been anything but delicious. And I got some sorbet and a chocolate biscuit to take home.

My frank opinion: Go for it!

Not only was I impressed by his food but his kitchen is super clean. Something I really appreciated.

Varun caters under the name 1 tablespoon. That's a lot more than what I got.

Check out his website for the complete menu.

Definitely get the brownies.


photos & illustration by me.

The Hunt continues...

The hunt for the perfect easter egg never ends. Atleast for me.

I have hated eating eggs for most of my life - poached, boiled, benedict, florentine & all the others.

Recently however, I've begun enjoying the special eggs my mother brings from the farms in Gorai (which I've been told can hatch into little chicks if kept for long enough). Maybe that's why they taste so good.

Before this I was never a fan of eggs unless it was used as an ingredient in making some sort of dessert.

I've probably cracked one egg in my life to make a fried egg - the only way I can eat it.

Or as an omelette. But, that's because it's generally camouflaged with what I like to call a bunker of cheese.

It's the same with cold coffee. I only like it when you can taste more chocolate than coffee.

Anyway, the one day I have always looked forward to the entire year to eat an egg is today - Easter.

By Brett Bara

When I was a little girl, my friend Sabrina & I would paint & decorate egg shells and leave them to rest in a cane basket on a bed of cotton and confetti. It was very creative and pretty looking but completely pointless. 

So, now I just focus on buying and eating good easter eggs.

The hunt, like every year began 3 days ago. I went to many different stores around Bandra and this is what I got.

Regal was alright.

Candies had run out.

And Cheron was ooook.

More maida than marzipan according to my mom.

Then my friend Ken came and gave me a chocolate egg and life seemed not so bad again.

Whether you got Chocolate, Marzipan or just plain flour, I wish you all a very Happy Easter.

And as for tomorrow, let's hope it's Sunny Side Up.

Paloma's Nest

For the ones who love to bake

Bake him something special

So that he can Eat his Heart out.

And have yours too.