For the love of food and travel

When exams are over and vacations have begun, the common everyday question in my house - "Mumma, what's there to eat?" Hunger pangs are on the rise for kids......and obviously, cookies, biscuits & cakes are whats on demand. And what can be better than homemade. But I wanted to try something different this time......especially, for my kids, who like chocolate.  I've made chocolate cake before.....and I've also made vanilla sponge. So I thought why not get the best of both worlds this time....why not a mix n match. A chocolate & vanilla marble cake.  Marble cake called Marmorkuchen in German, originated in Germany back in the 19th Century.  The technique of this cake is to create a marble effect with two different colors of cake batters together. Molasses, spices, raisins, currants, and even coffee was originally used to create the darker color batter for the marbling effect.  German immigrants that came to America before the Civil War brought wi

Pondicherry is now officially known as Puducherry. In Tamil Puducherry means "New Town" If weekend getaways from Bangalore city is in your mind...then Pondicherry is one of the places you need to be. It's approximately a 6 hour drive. We've been there a couple of times and I'd be happy to go there again. My uncle is settled in Pondicherry with his family, so accommodation hasn't been a problem for us.....but there are many hotels, home stays and B&B's available, given the fact that it is a tourist place, having people visiting almost every weekend.  Pondicherry is one of the Union Territories of India, but it   used to be a French colony, many years ago. Some of the streets still retain French names, like the Romain Rolland Street, Bussy Street, La Bourdannaise Street...and many more fascinating names that I can't recall. Then another common sight are the villas in French architectural styles...all so beautiful. There are also a lot of

It was yet another holiday from school & office & it was a long weekend and we wanted to go some place. Mr. Peter & I are kind of last minute travel planning people. And it generally works out well for us. This is a travelogue that happened 3 years ago, but we had such a good time that I'm still able to recall all the wonderful things we did there. It was a trip to Madikeri.  Madikeri is the capital of the district of Kodagu (also called as Coorg) in Karnataka. It's a cooler hilly town bordering the forest ranges with plenty of plantations around, especially coffee.  It's perhaps, this climate & hilly terrain of Coorg, that inspired the British to occupy this area for over 100 years & they called it as Scotland of India.  The front area with a reception, the living room, dining hall and some classic artifacts It's approximately a five and half hour drive from Bangalore. We went by our car and Mr. Peter drove. The roads were good a

We have these spontaneous moments where we just take off for a few days to some place. We might drive or take the bus or maybe even take a flight.  (Whenever we plan something.....generally for us it doesn't turn out well or that trip just gets cancelled).  So when we got back from one of those "spontaneous trips"....and when I was unpacking our stuff and checking out the kitchen pantry & refrigerator....there it was--- A whole loaf of bread. I didn't have the heart to throw it out nor did I feel like eating it at that stage. So, the idea of croutons popped in mind from out of nowhere.  Now for those who don't know, a crouton is a piece of sautéed or rebaked bread, often cubed and seasoned; that is used to add texture and flavour to salads and soups.  Storebought croutons mostly are hard and dry, and they don’t have the fresh taste that a homemade crouton has. When you bite down on a homemade crouton, it's sooooo good that you will want to make

A salad is one such dish which consists of small pieces of food mixed with a sauce. It may contain virtually any type of ready to eat food. What I like about salads is that we can be so creative with the ingredients which is based around a wide variety of foods like vegetables, fruits, cooked meat, eggs, nuts and leafy greens. Garden salads use a base of leafy greens like lettuce, arugula, kale or spinach; they are common enough that the word salad alone often refers specifically to garden salads.  Other types include Mexican bean salad, tuna salad, Lebanese fattoush, Greek salad, Thai Raw Papaya Salad and Japanese somen salad (a noodle-based salad). The sauce used to flavor a salad is commonly called a salad dressing; well-known types include Ranch, Thousand Island, Caesar and French vinaigrette. Salads can be served at any point during a meal such as an appetiser or side dish or as a main course.  Food historians tell us salads (generally defined as mixed greens with dr

“Good bread is the most fundamentally satisfying of all foods; and good bread with fresh butter, the greatest of feasts.” — James Beard Have you ever gone past a bakery and got a whiff of freshly baked bread? Hmmm!!!!! Just the smell of that makes one feel so warm and comfy inside.  It's always easy to buy a loaf from your local super market or from the bakery, but why not make one at home.  Bread is one of the oldest prepared foods. It has been and still is a staple food in many countries of the world. We have it for breakfast along with eggs, butter, jam and cheese or as an evening snack like bread pakoda, we make sandwiches and it's great as desserts too like warm bread pudding or the shahi tukda. So many ways to eat such a humble food like bread.  Not only is it an important source of carbohydrates, it’s also portable and compact, which helps to explain why it has been an integral part of our diet for thousands of years.  In fact, recent studies suggests

I love watching the American TV sitcom F•R•I•E•N•D•S all the time.  In those the Thanksgiving episodes are some of my favourites.....apart from the hilarious scenarios and funny moments....the one thing that I really like is the Thanksgiving meal set at Monica's table. It would be a feast with a lot of delicious food and a nice big Turkey roast at the centre. Slurpp!!Slurpp!! oohh yumm!!!  At first I thought roasting turkey was a hard thing to do. It must take a lot of time & effort to get something to look so glorious and yummy. So I started looking for the method of cooking on the Internet. And to my surprise, it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be. Hence, I gathered all the information that I could........mixed n matched a couple of them and made a recipe of my own using chicken. What started off as a fun experiment, turned out to be a delicious and healthy meal in itself. It’s the perfect meal to make when you’re expecting company, fancy Sunday suppers,

That was our houseboat A couple of years back, Mr. Peter and I celebrated our wedding anniversary on a houseboat in the backwaters of Alappuzha. All that we wanted was to be away from the city and noise and all the hustle & bustle......moments which had just US !! It was a spontaneous trip.  I still remember that our anniversary was on a Saturday. Mr. Peter was busy with work at office and kids had school, so we couldn't take off on that Friday. Trains & flights were not available in accordance to our timings, so we took the bus on that Friday night from Bangalore. It was our kids'  first time on a long distance bus journey. And luckily they slept....no tantrums.  We reached Alappuzha around 8am. Our tour manager told us that we had to check in to the houseboat at 11 am at the Finishing Point. There was still a lot of time left before we could check in to the houseboat. So we hired an auto and asked him to take us around this little town of theirs.....for a