Palmyra fruit also called Toddy palm in the Konkan region and “Taal ” in Bengal  and Ice apple in English is a versatile fruit. This tree is a native of India and almost all the parts of the plant are put to use. The sap of the tree is used to make toddy which is
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  I was delighted to visit  this beautiful restaurant located at the first floor of the  hotel Auriole which provides luxurious accommodation in the city  with terrace swimming pools ,modern amenities ,elegant decor  etc. The interiors of the Lume cafe is bright and luminous ,I guess it justifies the name(“Lume”) with lots of open space
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If you have tasted Dahi bhalle or Dahi vada  before ,  you will be amazed to know that this is not the same item I am talking about. Few months earlier I used to think that I know everything about making dahi bhalle and can pull off cooking this popular dish with perfection during any
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  What  a day! it all started with hustle ,bustle and the sweet sound of the crockery ,utensils and cutleries as the young ladies participating in the cooking contest organized by youngbutterfly.in in collaboration with the ,Culinary crafts , Powai began their cooking job of the day. A busy and wonderful day indeed .The tables were
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In Bengal this meal is about pampering son in laws  and treating him with a delicious meal. The actual event is on 19th June 2018.On this day , the husband of  daughter who is also known as “Jamai”  in  Bengali ,along with his family  ,visit their in-laws house with gifts .In this Bengali meal the
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Chiffon cake is a light spongy cake made fluffy with egg whites.It can be easily made gluten free using rice flour or any other gluten free flour.The emulsification process with lemon juice and vegetable oil packs bubbles into this cake and beaten egg whites make it super spongy,soft and moist.It is the first type of
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Bohri Khichda which is consumed during the holy month of Ramadan , is an amalgamation of flavors from the Hyderabad-i halem in which the broken wheat is cooked with meat and lentils and made a paste later and the traditional vegetarian khichdi cooked in every  Gujarati household.Traditionally the process is quite long intensive ,but   nowadays the cooking process is shortened by using tools like pressure cooker. The final dish was aromatic delicious and infused with intricate flavors of spices which  will compel you to ask for more. It was Finger-licking good.

  This weekend don’t miss the Thingyan festival at Burma Burma at Kala Ghoda, Mumbai, as the team has curated a special menu with the talented chef Ansab Khan and The founder and food enthusiast Ankit Gupta. The Thingyan festival, which is the New Year celebration of Myanmar, also called Myanmar water festival is celebrated
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  Baked yogurt or bhapa doi is a traditional Bengali dessert very easy to prepare with curd and condensed milk.In olden days this mixture used to be steamed due to the absence of oven .Now you can do the steaming process in the oven itself by filling the tray with water and baking the mixture
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I would not have known that such a delicious dish existed  ,if I had missed Lisa Watson’s wonderful post on twitter about the Easter Recipes.She is a gem of a writer and a chef ,you can read about the history of this wonderful dish ,in her blog.Easter Sunday is celebrated throughout the world to  commemorate
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I often need to make the mini cupcakes on popular demand from my child and her friends .With an intention to put health on topmost priority ,I prefer falling back on our traditional gluten free grains.”finger millet”,called Ragi or Nachni ,  in local language ,can be labelled as an wonder grain.It is high in dietary
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    In  this world of rat race,  intentionally or unintentionally  we learnt to ignore some of the precious advice of the elders regarding our health ,causing our health to be heavily compromised and leading a momentary superficial, so called happy life with immense stress.The #wellness conference by FBAI on 17th  March 2018, in collaboration
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  Dashanzi , an oriental cuisine restaurant at JW-Mariott Juhu , on its first year of anniversary launched Yum cha Saturdays led by Chef Vishal Atreya, Executive Chef at JW Marriott Juhu and his team.Yum cha literally in Chinese means “drinking tea”.It refers to the Cantonese tradition of drinking Chinese tea with dimsums. Owing to the
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  I have a sweet tooth and I love sweet dishes  but sweet and sour chicken is really unique but you will love it.I first had this dish during my trip in Hongkong and it was prepared with pork.The pork pieces were tender ,sweet and delicious ,though I would have loved it a little more
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If you have some overripe bananas sitting idle in your refrigerator ,you can make some delicious use of them in this recipe.Adding caramel in this cookie  takes the recipe to a new level of uniqueness.The combination is like a match made in heaven and you will continue to lick your fingers long after they disappear.These
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Kachori is  one of the most favorite Indian snacks ,hundreds of varieties and versions of whom you can find  in the local regional sweet shops.They are essentially deep fried flat breads with a spicy ,savory or sweet filling inside. Kachoris seems to be invented by Marwaris ,who are vegetarians,and hail from the land of Rajasthan
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These strawberry cupcakes are very close to my heart.prepared these during valentine’s day with strawberries mildly poached in white rum.The cakes were very soft and full of flavor from the strawberries.Then covered the cupcakes with a butter cream icing.I could not find my star nozzle for icing at the last moment and spooned the thick
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sui mai ,traditionally called shāomài is a flower shaped dumpling with an open top.I had these in Hongkong and the filling consisted of ground pork .The casing is thin and soft like wantons. They are popular in Chinese as well as in Japanese cuisine.I steamed these dumplings in a bamboo steamer purchased from Hongkong itself.Instead of
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The fun food festival splash is an annual festival which was held at Nirmala Memorial Foundation College of Commerce and science on 18th and 19th January 2018.This was the first year of the festival in this theme and the  festival attracted a crowd of around 4 thousand students on each day of the festival.The event
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  Dhadoom , the name signifies the sound of an explosion and the restaurant indeed contain dishes which can cause an explosion of flavors in your mouth.The ambiance of the restaurant reflects the personality of the chef who conceptualized the theme,Chef Harpal Singh Sokhi,who is popular among the masses for his  jovial manners ,creative and
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The dal or the pulses control the pulse of Indian food.No meal is complete without this humble dal(pulse) boiled and flavored  with a spicy tempering in clarified butter or Desi Ghee,called tadka. The house feels like  home when the aroma of tadka fills the house .There are many varieties of pulses used in Indian cooking
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  Through out the year the Bengali community who hail from East and West Bengal celebrate festivals like any other Indian community and we call it “Baro mashe tero parbon” ,which means that the community celebrates 13 festivals in 12 months of the year.The cooked meat of a male goat called “khashi” form the center
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This new year ,I had been with my mom and brother and spent some valuable time with them.For the dinner I made a whole chicken roast stuffed with rice,seafood and chicken mince infused with Indian spices.The accompaniment was stir fried broccoli,potatoes and peppers.The chicken was tender an juicy with flavors from black pepper and mild
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  Vinod cookware is a range of cookwares specially manufactured customised to Indian  cooking .over the years researches have established the harmful effects of aluminium when it comes in contact with food.There has also been studies which reveal that aluminum can hamper a child’s IQ. But still when it comes to home cooking many home
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Christmas has  always been very special to my heart .Every year ,when my papa was alive,he used to buy and bring home a fruit and nut rum cake from the shop on 25th December.My brother and I used to wait eagerly for him, in the morning, to go to the market and bring the cake
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Located in the suburbs of Mumbai around 3.5 kms from the popular Indraprastha mall in Borivali west,the E-hotel will mesmerise you with its beautiful lawn,poolside,gardens,tennis court, and breath-taking rooftop lounge.Near the entrance a huge idol of Gautam Buddha will remind you the philosophy of peace and Nonviolence.The whole environment gives a sense of relaxation and
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Chettinad is a region in Tamil Nadu which is famous for it curries spiced up with  “Chettinad masala”.The famous spice mix is a mixture of ample amount of  aromatic ingredients.For some reason,I did not try the flavorsome curry in my kitchen until now when I decided to grind the spices at home and use them
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  HomechefMatters is a conference for the  chefs,recipe developers,bakers who work at home doing popup restaurant meals,food delivery services ,cooking workshops etc or simply passionate about cooking homemade meals for their families .The objective of this conference is to educate and motivate the talented Home-chefs to target a wider audience for promotion of their food
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Christmas is coming ,time for making a pie.Why not go for a fusion of flavours combining the European and Indian seasonal favorites.These mini gajar halwa pies do justice to the season in the best possible way.The pie is soft ,yet crispy ,and a bite will give you the best seasonal flavors of India ,a gooey
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This will be delicious for the vegetarians and though the texture is dense and fudgy compared to a cake with refined flour and eggs, it was super tasty and you cannot stop at one bite sized serving for sure.This is an amazing idea for your child’s snack or for kitty parties as well.The texture is
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Toast Bistro and Bar  located on the 8th floor of t24 residency hotel , was celebrating its 2nd anniversary on 27th October .I got an  invitation to join the celebrations having a complimentary dinner and spending a wonderful evening with my fellow bloggers from FBAI.The decor was contemporary and trendy. The dim-light ambiance with soothing music was
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This can be a wholesome nutritious breakfast or dessert filled with goodness .I have tried this recipe from my google+   friend  Gloria Ruvalcaba  in one of her posts found it really intriguing .Apple is nutritious full of iron ,good for improving hemoglobin content of the blood and this can be an excellent recipe for your kids
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In rural India ,clay pots are the popular containers for cooking as they are cheap ,easy to wash and bio degradable ,can be used and thrown.According to ancient Ayurveda earthen utensils make more nutritious food.Due to their porous nature heat is distributed uniformly to the food cooking in them and gets cooked slowly and uniformly
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Bhetki or Vetki  is a catadromous  fish ,a fish or machh called in bengali which migrates from river to sea for breeding.When caught from the rivers in Bengal this fish is very popular in flavor for Bengali cuisines.When the same fish  is caught from sea,it loses its flavors which are required to cook it the
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Diwali, the festival of lights ,is celebrated all over the world by the Hindus with pomp and glory.The traditional festivals have an important part to play in our lives as they give us moments to remember ,rejoice,forget sorrows, build new hopes and motivation to carry on. The Diwali word derives from the word deepawali as
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These honeycomb shaped cakes are mesmerizing and  can easily entice the mind of a child as well as an adult.Waffles are  often connected with Belgium where they are a popular breakfast.The batter is often leavened with yeast ,baking powder and eggs.The pockets are then filled with sweet syrup before serving to form a delicious wholesome
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Potol or pointed gourd is a vegetable which is found in abundance in any part of India.But the vegetable varieties found in West Bengal are amazing and are best for the Bengali recipes as they are prepared from the local yields.Most of them are seedless and have a soft texture which gets tender quickly and
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The word Mandala  represents wholeness and purity symbolizing the notion that life is never ending..Mandala founded by  Mikhel Rajani ,is a concept which aims at serving healthy nutritious meals free from artificial additives to  people.The ingredients for the dishes are cultivated through organic farming.As a result the food is super delicious which, I learnt  through my
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I am always in search of healthy recipes and love to bake with whole grains.This was another try for a healthy gluten free alternative of a delicious dessert.Rice flour is easy to digest and the gluten free lemon cake was moist.In the first attempt ,the cakes were a little gritty .It is needed to hydrate
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I think many people know about this epic dish “Alu Posto” which is an iconic dish from West Bengal .In this particular Vegetable recipe the potatoes are cooked  in a paste of white poppy seeds and green chilies paste which gives a nutty creamy texture to the dish.The flowers of the poppy plant also produce
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If you are from Kolkata, the fish Kobiraji cutlet will definitely hold a special place in your heart. It is a recipe which is from the British era when Kolkata used to be a Winter capital of India  and derived from the English coverage cutlet recipe. The boneless fish or chicken fillets are covered with
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Mochi is a sweet Japanese rice cake popular all over the world.It is made from the glutinous rice flour “Mochiko”.This rice cake can be found in various shapes flavored or stuffed.The texture will be soft and chewy ,with the stuffing filling your mouth with tempting  flavors in each bite.The flavors can be from  fruits like
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I was in love with this dal (Lentils) served with steamed rice since my childhood in Kolkata .This is a recipe cooked by the “Bangals” whose ancestors hail from East bengal ,from undivided Bengal era.The Bengali’s are divided into these two groups “Ghoti” and “Bangal” owing to the origin of their ancestors having variations in
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  NRI is a creation of Michelin-starred chef Atul Kochhar. The restaurant focuses on serving innovative fusion dishes which include preparations from the kitchens around the world with an Indian twist and also some popular Indian dishes which has travelled abroad with the NRIs. On 13th August I was invited by the FBAI for a
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These are moist and droolicious chocolate cakes full of chocolate flavor and health.They are egg-less and dairy free and even sugar free.I have used honey instead.They look divine and I bet that you cannot stop eating at one.The lemon juice ,baking soda and olive oil are imulsified together to  form a frothy mixture which helps
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These are eggless dairy free muffins  which  can be prepared quickly when you are in need of breakfast or  tea time snacks.Always wanted to develop a recipe of  delicious  whole wheat muffins without dairy and eggs and after days of trial with the texture finally could get the exact ratio of the ingredients .The batter
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This may be one of the simplest fish curry recipe you have come across  as well as an extra ordinary one.It is also highly customizable and you can add your favorite ingredients creating amazing range of varieties.I had learnt this dish after my marriage ,watching  my mother in law cooking ,as it seemed to be
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I had a lot of fruits in my refrigerator unused and I decided to make this quick and delicious dessert from it.My advice to you will be, that do not make it when you are the only person at home otherwise you end up eating this whole thing as it is quite irresistible.You can make
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Hongkong is a foodies paradise .This small island with a spectacular skyline is a must visit for  for the dream park “Disneyland” and exotic fresh and delicious food.Though at times vegetarians may get disappointed  in spite of abundance of greens and colorful vegetables in the Hongkong market.The restaurants and street food joints mostly serve meat
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I was not so much aware about this substance aquafava  until I decided to try a healthy eggless cake .I bake egg-less cakes with condensed milk and butter as an ingredient as they help to make the cake soft fluffy and moist. Aquafava  is almost a magic ingredient which can cause miracles in your baking.It
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