For the love of food and travel

This year Miss J was celebrating her birthday on a Saturday. Since it was a weekend, I was gearing up for a birthday party with family and friends. I was planning on baking a cake and preparing a menu for our guests. Well that's when my almost teenage daughter, said that she didn't want any of these for her birthday......she wanted to celebrate it in a different way. This time, she wished for a birthday celebration away from home.  And that's when we had an impromptu trip to Mysore.  I've been living in Bangalore for over two decades, and though Mysore is just approximately 150kms from here, I had visited this heritage city in my school days; at around the same age as Miss J is today. Reaching Mysore from Bangalore and vice versa is very easy. There is a 24 X 7 bus connectivity between Bangalore - Mysore. There is a good train facility between Bangalore city junction and Mysore junction. There are good number of cabs which fly between these cities too .  Else,

Some things are just wonderful, like friendship & chocolate cake!!! I love chocolate cake. It's always my "go-to" recipe for any occasion - be it a birthday, anniversary, graduation, promotion, homecoming....any kind of celebrations. I even make it on days when I just feel like having it. Until 1830's-1840's, chocolate was consumed primarily as a beverage. Early chocolate cakes were much lighter because they used significantly smaller amounts of sugar and cocoa. They also used more flour than what we are accustomed to making them fluffier and more like what we would today call a breakfast bread. It wasn't until 1940 that chocolate cake recipes became more rich and decadent, calling for larger quantities of cocoa and sugar than previously. Did you know that there is a difference between a chocolate cake and brownie?? They are both chocolaty and absolutely delicious. And though many people may argue that brownies are simply a smaller version of cho

It was in a TV reality show, called Masterchef Australia, that I first saw a dessert called panna cotta. Then later at an Italian restaurant, here in Bangalore, is when I tasted it.  It looked so simple and pretty....and it tasted heavenly.  And from then on, panna cotta has been my all time favourite dessert. A spoonful of panna cotta is remarkably creamy, melting in the mouth without a trace of grittiness or lumps.  Panna cotta is a very basic pudding that is made of dairy thickened with gelatin. It originated in Italy and its name literally means "cooked cream". You can eat it straight out of a cup, but it's often unmolded onto a plate and drizzled with sweet sauce and garnished with fruit.  It is not known exactly how or when this dessert came to be, but some theories suggest that cream, for which mountainous Northern Italy is famous, was historically eaten plain or sweetened with fruit or hazelnuts.  The earliest recipes mention simmering the cream with fish

Do you have overipe bananas in your kitchen or pantry or fruit basket or wherever you keep your fruits? Are you thinking to throw them out? Don't throw out those soft, over-ripe bananas. You might not want to look, peel and actually eat them, but if they aren't too far gone, you can turn them into a wonderful, (and healthy, may I add) easy to make treat--banana bread.  Banana bread is a quick bread whose main ingredient is mashed bananas. Ripe or overly ripe bananas are ideal to use in banana bread because the riper a banana becomes, the sweeter it gets.  Bananas were first found in Malaysia and migrated, with the help of travelers and traders, to India. Alexander the Great is said to have introduced the banana to the Western civilization.  The origin of the first banana bread recipe is unknown, though some speculate it was originated in the 18th century by housewives experimenting with pearlash. The term "pearlash," refers to potassium carbonate, which was

Kentucky Fried Chicken aka KFC, used to be my favourite food when I was young. Almost every weekend my Dad used to take my kid brother and me to this fast food joint and we would have the bucket meal of fried chicken with the buns, french fries and the coleslaw. This menu was our standard order every time we went there.  It's been so many years.....decades maybe, but still this is one fast food joint we have to visit atleast once a month.....even now. Miss J and our little man loves it too. For me, it's not just the juicy crispy chicken that's delicious, but also the cold coleslaw that it comes along with.  Coleslaw (also known as cole slaw or simply slaw) is a salad consisting primarily of finely-shredded raw cabbage and dressed most commonly with a vinaigrette salad dressing. Prepared in this manner, coleslaw can be pickled for up to four weeks if it is stored in an airtight container. Mayonnaise is also commonly used. The term coleslaw came from the Dutch ter

We have a little group of friends and family in this city that we live in, and in this group, every month, there is at least one birthday to celebrate. And if not a birthday, there is definitely Christmas, Onam, Valentine's Day or Easter celebrations. So now you know where I'm going with this......there's always at least one party every month.  It's exciting to plan a party......and the most important part of this planning is the food section. We try to fit in a good meal which can be eaten by every guest - young & old. Finally, to end a fabulous meal....desserts are a must!!! Chocolate is always a winner here.  One of my favourites is the chocolate ganache tart. It is a crispy, buttery tart shell filled with a velvety-smooth dark chocolate ganache. It's very easy to prepare and tastes awesome....and can be made by anyone new to cooking or baking. Ganache is said to have been invented sometime in the 1850s when a chocolatier’s apprentice accidentally

Do you know that feeling when you're really really really thirsty?  Would a lemonade or a coke suffice? Nope!!!  Nothing quenches better than water.  At that moment you realise that water is the best drink in the world. It's a same kinda feeling when it comes to a classic cake. You would have tasted a number of pastries, marble cakes, fruit cakes, jelly cakes, ice cream cakes.....but a classic buttery plain vanilla is just out of the world. This cake has a wonderful velvety texture with loads of butter and a lovely vanilla flavour.  It is fluffy, moist and a super easy-to-prepare cake.  The term "cake" has a long history.  The word itself is of Viking origin, from the Old Norse word "kaka". The ancient Greeks called cake πλακοῦς (plakous), which was derived from the word for "flat", πλακόεις (plakoeis). It was baked using flour mixed with eggs, milk, nuts and honey. In ancient Rome, basic bread dough was sometimes enriched with