Life As I Know It

My cousin was in town for a bit and she wanted to take her kids to one of our all-time favorite places – Downtown. For those not familiar with Mysore, on Kalidasa road is one teeny tiny shop that’s been there for over two decades that serves some of the best burgers I have ever eaten. Whenever I go out of town and come back home I need to have a burger from there or if I have a friend visiting, a meal at Downtown is mandatory. One of the reasons for the popularity of this little spot is that, the couple that runs it makes the burgers themselves and every day we are served fresh burgers. They go by quality hence the moment the patties are over the shop closes. One of the unique things about their burger is coleslaw. They use coleslaw along with beans and a patty. In fact in all the variations of their burgers they serve coleslaw. I was to go with my cousin but work got in the way. Thus, one Saturday I decided that my family would have to eat my own “version” of the Downtown burgers for ...

Facials are all too common but because subscription boxes and stores are now offering sheet masks at lower prices because of increase in different brands introducing new mask sheets every month. This popularity has given rise to a monster. I am that monster. I am a little lazy and I don’t do well in situations where I am supposed to sit still hence facials have never been my thing. Thanks to sheet masks I save a lot of time and money on my skin care routine. In our April month’s GlamEgo box we got the Vedic Line facial kit which had 6 sachets with each sachet labeled with its purpose and the order in which one is supposed to use them. Lulu had suggested that I take the kit with me the next time I visited the parlor. First of all I over think things: “Why will a parlor allow me to bring a product from outside?” “They’ll probably ask me to use their product only.” “They’ll charge me more.” “Will they charge me less?” “I should just give this kit to someone who knows to give facials at h...

Look at the consistency!  Blame it on the blog! Earlier, every time I thought of cooking something my first thought is, “ Is this blog worthy?” Now it is, “ Is this the healthiest version of the dish?” As it happens Lulu and I don’t recommend deep frying, or having overly rich desserts and even the recipes we’ve put up until this point have all been the healthiest version we knew. Yes, some things need deep frying ( Koftas ), sure… but we try to recommend shallow frying or toasting after having tried it out ourselves. I wanted to make mayonnaise but I was worried about making the traditional mayonnaise with eggs for fear of how it would smell. Which is also why I haven’t ever made it.   Then one day I came across this simple recipe on YouTube and had to try it! Ingredients: 25 Cashews 3 Garlic pods ½ Lemon 1 Tbsp vinegar (I used Apple Cider Vinegar) 1/3 Tsp pepper powder ¼ Cup water ½ Tsp pink salt (Or regular salt ) Method: 1. Soak the cashew nuts in water for 10 minutes. ...

“Main akela hi chala tha janab-e-manzil, magar log saath judte gaye aur karwaan banta gaya.” Avinash( Dulquer Salmaan ) is that guy who is working a desk job at an IT company. We see a day in his life and get to see his egotistical boss raving and lashing out at people like a maniac doing exactly what he asks his employees not to do. When he gets home he gets a call from a travel company and finds out that his father has passed away in a road accident whilst on his way to Gangotri. Usually death brings with it shock and grief. Except, we see Avinash isn’t affected by his father’s death. He heads out to ask his friend Shaukat( Irrfan Khan ) to lend him his van so he can collect his father’s body. Shaukat is Avinash’s friend who runs a garage and offers to drive him to collect his father’s remains. Now, Shaukat is a very outspoken man and has certain conservative views which he is constantly voicing out throughout the movie. His character is the caricature of most people today when they ...

Clearly Lulu and I have pretty much done every paneer dish we possibly knew and like. Yet since we both are constantly buying paneer we can’t help but go deep into the alleys of the internet looking for more paneer recipes. This blog experience in itself has been an adventure in terms of stepping out of my comfort zone. I have always thought of cooking as a necessary skill and didn’t really ever bother too much with the whole concept of plating and photographing the dishes I make. I primarily don’t like taking photos while cooking because I am constantly worried that I might end up putting my phone in the pan/wok/kadai! And the reason why I don’t like taking photos of dishes after they are cooked is because I am hungry and I don’t particularly like waiting to get the most perfect photograph because my brain and stomach keep egging me on to eat. Yet, over the past few months I have come to develop skills that help me distinguish between gadget and food and the sense to figure out the mo...

I love potatoes! Who doesn’t? Once upon a time I liked them fried the best. I can still polish off a bag of potato chips and not feel guilty at all (YOLO). If I had to pick a last meal one of the things in that meal would be potato chips dusted with pepper powder. (Drool face smiley.) Hence this post is a dedication to one of my favourite vegetables – POTATO! I found this specific recipe on sharmis passion and would definitely recommend it to all of you for the simplest reason that I made it and it turned out amazing! Ingredients To Temper 25 Baby potatoes 1 Tsp Cumin ( Jeera) 1 Onion (Finely chopped) 1 Bay Leaf 1 Cup curd 2 Cloves 3/4 th  Cup tomato puree ¼ inch Cinnamon 1 Tsp ginger-garlic paste 1 Tsp oil 1 Tsp chilli powder 1 Tsp coriander powder ½ Tsp garam masala 3 Tbsp fresh cream 5 Cashews (Powdered) 1 Tsp Oil Salt                ...

When I am ironing my clothes, cleaning my room or doing something that allows me to enjoy listening to something; I tend to listen to podcasts. When AIB had just started, very few of my friends knew of them and I kept going on and on about how they should listen to AIB’s podcasts and everybody would just nod their head and say ‘okay’ and never really listen to them. One day AIB made it to mainstream and the whole world was talking about them and I had already moved on to my next favourite thing – Serial, podcast . No, no, I am not a hipster who abhors mainstream I just tend to discover stuff because I am constantly on the lookout for something new. Have you listened to Neil deGrasse Tyson's voice? Pocket cast is an app that’s available on the Play store for INR 99/- and it is the answer to all my, “ I wish I had something interesting to listen to. ” wishes. Since childhood I have loved being told stories and my mum’s accompanying voice change and background sounds just made them a...