While Thai and Malaysian cuisine are the big daddies of Southeast Asian cooking, Vietnamese food is like a poor cousin. However, it does not lack in taste, only hype. It is actually one of the lightest cuisines of Asia and like most food of the region, depends on fresh ingredients.

They are brownies, yet they are not. They are cookies, yet they are not. They are brookies, a delicious combination of brownies and cookies. Once you have bitten into one of these heavenly delights with the taste of a chocolate chip cookie and texture of a moist brownie, you will realise that all those brownies and fudges you have had before this were mere stand-ins.

With the holy month of Ramzan going on, one has to eat judiciously, planning the total calories needed in the morning to get through the day. Equally important is not going overboard while breaking one’s fast and it’s always better to have a light meal in the evenings.

This Italian dessert can easily be termed the queen of sweet dishes. It’s smooth, elegant and understated and can be infused with any number of flavours.

This Italian dessert can easily be termed the queen of sweet dishes. It’s smooth, elegant and understated and can be infused with any number of flavours.

An honest-to-god fried chicken that is crunchy on the outside and juicy inside is unbeatable. And while the Americans have some of the worst food habits and can hardly be credited with coming up with some good food, the fried chicken is an exception.

One of our prime reasons to eat out — other than when we are too bored to cook at home — is that we feel that we won’t be able to reproduce our favourite dishes as the restaurants do.

In today’s rat race, no one has a time to eat a proper breakfast. Weekends thus provide the ideal opportunity for the family to get together and cook up some fun and bond. As bacon and eggs do not require much in the way of family participation, to get everyone really involved, try waffles and pancakes.

By Sangeeta Bahadur

Rs 299

Indian authors delving into the world of fantasy fiction were few and far between even a decade ago. The genre, however, is gaining credence in India thanks to writers like Samit Basu (The Game World Trilogy) and Amish (The Shiva Trilogy).

There’s something about the monsoons that gives rise to an atavistic urge for seafood. Perhaps it’s all the water around or the fact that the supply of fish in markets dwindles at this time as the state governments ban large scale fishing as it’s the mating season. However, when one comes across fresh fish in the markets, it’s almost impossible to walk away.