The Well-Fed Bong

Ferran Adria made foams famous, but Indians may have beaten him to it by a few hundred years. Many years ago, my cousin was posted in Agra, and she used to buy something called Makhan from a sweet shop nearby. It was one of the most wonderful things I'd ever had - essentially an almost weightless saffron-flavoured foam. We used to have it with pooris, and it was the airiest, most fantastic dessert ever. Its also a dessert of romance; morning dew and moonlight are supposed to play important parts. I've tried a few times over to find Makhan elsewhere, but only UP and Delhi have even heard of it. I stumbled upon this article in the Hindu that talks about the Delhi version, Daulat Ka Chaat , and a few more references, including blog posts in Cooking with Simi and EOiD (who even had a map of where it is available in Delhi). Lucknow apparently calls it Nimish. Pushpesh Pant, the ever-obliging chronicler of all foods Avadhi, has published a recipe for it. Simple, but tedio...

I've already written about my search for Kolkata-style Kati Rolls in Mumbai ; here's the map to help you find them. And lets not forget New York. The Kati Roll Company fuelled many of my parties, while Roomali was a lunch staple. Indian Bread Company served excellent tea along with decent rolls and a was a great place to read books in. Roti Roll's unusual curry fillings filled me out a couple of times while wandering near Columbia.

I've been trying to eat healthy, as usual, so I go looking for steamed dishes on restaurant menus wherever I can find them. This entry is less about healthy or lightly cooked food as particularly about 'steamed' food. The king of steamed in India is undoubtedly the idli. Mumbai is chock-a-block with udipis chrning out passable idlis with sweet sambhar, (not to forget the uniquely bambaiyya idli-on-a-cycle). Apparently even Madonna went idli on her visit to the city, giving some Shetty his fifteen minutes of fame. There's a lot of good idli in Mumbai, but Idli House on King's Circle (just at the end of the flyover) deserves a mention for focus. Its got just idlis, and lots of different kinds, with lots of different chatni, powder and other goodies. Swati Snacks offers my favourite steamed snack - panki - in three varieties. Steamed fish, or patra-ni-macchi, is a Parsi mainstay available at some (though not most) Parsi restaurants; ones that spring to mind ar...

Ask anyone who's lived in Kolkata in his or her youth, and the one food they hanker for is the Kolkata Roll. Mustard fish, rossogolla. puchka, jhalmuri, all have undoubted appeal, but the most universal of the lot is the kati roll. Everyone except a dietician loves it. I don't visit Kolkata that much anymore, but its been my fortune to find the Kolkata roll becoming Bengal's biggest food export. New York, in particular, developed rather nicely as a roll destination; there were none when I moved there, now there are at least six. The most famous one - Kati Roll Company - is so popular it employs bouncers to keep the queues orderly. Other good choices, in order of preference are Indian Bread Company and Roomali , but nowadays Yelp lists over a dozen !! Mumbai had its own pretender - the Frankie invented by Tibb (whose son was briefly in college with me). However, the frankie is rolled in a naan rather than a paratha and filled with all manners of gooey curries (no barbecu...