How often did we fantasise about the food while reading Enid Blyton’s descriptions of English high tea and dinners when we were kids.

The month of Shravan is around the corner and it’s fasting time once again. While for Hindus, fasting usually means staying away from non-vegetarian dishes and onions and garlic, the food served during this time often tends to be bland.

The latest craze these days is to go Vegan. From celebs to sports stars everyone seems to be jumping on the bandwagon as a Vegan diet seems to work wonders for the body and soul.

When any Indian foodie is asked about the cities where one can get the best food, most will name Delhi, Lucknow, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai etc. Very few will name Amritsar. However, this city in Punjab has some of the most delectable food and due to its proximity to Pakistan (Lahore is just 23 km away), it has a rich history of shared cuisine with our neighbours.

There was a time when Nawabs and Nizams would employ chefs or bawarchis whose sole job would be to make kebabs. The landed gentry in Lucknow and Hyderabad would be known not by their wealth but by the quality of the food that would be served to guests. Thus kebab recipes were often closely-guarded secrets handed down from father to sons for generations. The recipes of the barra kebab at Karims in New Delhi and the galauti kebab of Tunday’s in Lucknow are examples of such close-guarded secrets.

While a diet of fish is nothing new to Indians, we are stuck to curries and fries when it comes to seafood. And of course, most of the fish consumed throughout the country are freshwater fish from rivers and lakes.

With schools and colleges having reopened after the summer holidays, mothers are once again at their wits’ end about what to give their kids for tiffin.

While most of us have had pancakes or at least are aware of them thanks to movies and instant mixes available over the counter these days, crepes are still relatively unknown in India. However, it should not be the case as crepes are simply European cousins of the US pancake and as with most differences between the two continents, the European version is classier.

Foreigners or even Indian tourists visiting Rajasthan are often warned about the spicy food of the state. However, while part of Rajasthani cuisine is definitely spicy, it would be wrong to generalise the entire state’s cuisine in the bracket.

It’s that time of the year when bakers and confectionaries the world over start getting the chocolate ready as Easter’s around the corner and that means Easter eggs.
While earlier elaborate Easter egg hunts would be organised and children would spend a glorious afternoon hunting down eggs hidden by the elders of the family, no one has the time these days and a goody bag filled with chocolate eggs has become the norm.