What’s your state’s Chicken Tikka Masala?

Posted on July 13, 2010July 13, 2010 by bach

I am a foodfan. Do we have a word like that? A “foodfan”? Well, I am that whatever it means. I am a fan and I keep looking for it in internet (wrong place…eh?) for where what and how to eat, something different and something new. For instance Lebanese is my latest pick.

Anyways, talking about Internet and Food, I came across this image via visualLoop which paints each states (of India) with their trademark food. A fantastic collection and will give you a picture how diverse our food culture is. I haven’t tried (heard to be specific) most of them myself and went straight to Lebanon. 😦

Food in india (Click on image to enlarge)

– image via visual loop

Few comments here

Do they really eat Red Ant chutney there in Chuttishghar!!? And is that their trademark delicacy?
Nobody’s seems to be claiming Panipuri and Bhel Items.
Idly Dosa are not exactly Tamilnadu delicacy, isn’t it? They are south Indian in general

** A small question , do we have something like “tongue-worm” in English, for favourite food? Just like we have earworm for music. 🙂

My list of ten best documentaries

Posted on June 14, 2010January 23, 2014 by bach

I highly recommend this set of ten documentaries. I rate all of them above 9.5/10. I know there are many more which may be as good as these; I just did not have a chance to watch them. Please feel free to recommend them to me.

An Inconvenient Truth, by Al Gore. You already would have seen this. If not, shame on you 🙂

Capitalism – A Love Story, by Michael More. This gives a complete picture on “how capitalism works”. Basically this is about industries maximising profits with optimal resource utilisation with minimum ethics.

Earthlings: All the things you need to know about meat, fur, leather etc. It’s the story of human exploitation of his fellow earthlings for food, clothing’s, and entertainment. Recommended only for people with strong stomach.

Food Inc. by Robert Kenner. A fantastic movie on how food goods in supermarket shelves are generated in assembly line. Shocking information, a must see.

Home, by Yann Arthus-Bertrand. It’s a collection of areal videos, arranged in coherence to narrate a compelling story on our Home- earth. Superb presentation on how small we are, how big we have screwed it up. This movie is free on youtube.

Religulous – This is a fantastic movie from the director of Borat, Larry Charles and presented by Bill Maher, obviously you can expect this to be satirical and hilarious at the same time. The name says it all – religion is ridiculous, and this is the most interesting topic for me. In this movie, Bill roams around places (mostly USA) visiting religious people, debating them. Various encounters and the argument they put forward are simply ROFL.

Sicko, by Michael More. This movie addresses problems in American Medical care, being manipulated by insurance and pharmaceutical companies. In coming few years this documentary may not be as strong as it is now, democrats may end up changing the system for good. Anyways, both the countries I lived in had (kind of) socialised medicine, which also mean receipt for medicine does not hurt when you are sick, it happens only in America.

Story of the stuff, by Anne. This is story of all the stuff, starting from raw materials till it becomes rubbish i.e extraction, production, distribution, consumption, and disposal. It is criticised to be inaccurate, but hey, the story is still true and compelling.

The Age of Stupid, a British movie on climate change. This is set in future where whole earth is already disturbed by climate change and remaining humans do causal analysis using all stored footages.

Zeitgeist – This has two parts, one addresses Christianity, the other on capitalist economics. Compelling arguments, must watch.

I stayed in a castle.,kind of.

Posted on June 10, 2010June 10, 2010 by bach

I stayed in this Hostel when I last visited Edinburgh. No, it is not a typo… It indeed is a hostel, not castle.

Next day we were served with royal breakfast, including a Scottish delicacy Haggis. None of us had stomach to eat it though. Clue : Haggis is dish of minced heart, liver and lungs of lamb stuffed in stomach/intestine of same lucky animal.

My ratings : Indian Restaurants in London

Posted on June 3, 2010September 19, 2010 by bach

There are hundreds of Indian restaurants across London, serving Indian food for curry lovers. This massive number is kind of obvious, since British national food is Tikka Masala (unofficially) and curry is ‘party food’, just like we have pizza in India. But the problem is, not many of these restaurants provide authentic taste; they customise their dishes for the west with less spice in them, sometimes irritatingly sweetish.[tweetmeme]

As Indian, I sometimes wonder if the curries served in Central London are really Indian or ‘Thai’. Anyways, my point is, if you are new to Indian food and would like to try; Central London is not a place for you. They are expensive, customised and does not even taste Indian. You need to find a place in east London for south Indian style food and west London for north Indian kind of curries. Thumb rule is, North Indian restaurant is judged by the “Daal” it serves, and South Indian by its “Sambhar”. I am yet to explore few more Indian-ish areas before I can write review about curries. But South Indian is ready right away.

photo courtesy

East London is a pilgrimage for south Indians, for food and temples. If you miss T-Nagaar Chennai, for its Idly-Dosa or full meals, you will have to come to east – East ham, Upton Park or Ilford. In this context, I would like to provide some web presence on where to eat with special emphasis on what is “must miss”. I feel I should offer my help to people who refer to internet for good Indian restaurants in London, south Indian ones.

Vasanta Bhavan 9/10: I would rate this top amongst all the restaurants I have ever eaten in London. This is first place I would visit when my gf denies me food for the night. This is an authentic south Indian vegetarian restaurant, located just 20 meters from East Ham underground station. Food here is excellent, so is their service. Idly-Vada with Coconut Chutney is as good and fresh as if they were just imported! North Indian and Chinese dishes are also worth try. There is a scope of improvement on Masala they provide with Dosa. To summarize, food is worth your money.

Ananthapuri 8/10: This is a newly opened Kerala restaurant. I rate it very high, since they have classic Kerala style taste in all of their dishes. This is also located near East Ham tube station; You have more options here with Kerala specials, also booze to go with. A boiled rice meal is a speciality (must try), for those who are from Kerala or coastal Karnataka.

Taste of India 7/10: This restaurant represents typical Indian style food in both South Indian and North Indian dishes. Good service, neat and clean, value for money. Non-vegetarian food is their speciality.

Chennai Dosa 4:/10: This is a chain of restaurants spread across London (I guess). I have tried them in East and South London as well. I am not impressed. Lunch and breakfast buffet is worth a try, where you taste almost every item they offer. Taste of south Indian food is very average and north Indian dishes are very bad. Biggest problem with this chain of restaurant is service, they suck! They look unhygienic.

Saravana Bhavan 5/10: This is most hyped restaurants among all. But the fact is, they are not as good as others I have listed here. South Indian food is average; north Indian/Chinese food is very bad. This is the only place where I have seen strangely tasting greenish yellow Gobi Manchurian (which BTW discouraged me to visit here further). Contrary to my review this place is always crowded and will continue to be so, only because the people aren’t well informed about the facts or they go by name.

Chola Dosa 4/10: Go here only for chicken/ lamb dishes, they seem to be fantastic. As a vegetarian myself, I haven’t tried non-veg dishes, but I have collected this information from reliable resources (My gf is a carnivore). Vegetarian items here are pathetic. I have tried them personally and I do not want you to repeat the mistakes I have done.

Other honourable mentions

Udaya 7/10: Fantastic service and authentic Kerala taste, little isolated.

Hyderabad Biriyani 6/10: Overpriced but authentic Andhra style.

Tattakuda 5/10: Kerala style restaurant. Good but there is nothing much they can offer with frozen fishes.

… to be continued.