Chronicles Of The Sassy Fork

These days you hear of many new restaurants coming up and then soon after shutting shop.Why does that happen? What's going wrong? What makes a great restaurant? How can they last? Here's what I think.... 1. Great Food .Today everyone has an interest in food.Watching television and the internet has exposed us to various cultures.People travel more than ever before and know what's authentic and what's not.They expect nothing but the best.They want consistency.If one chef is excellent and the other chef is not,the customer may be happy one day and not so happy when the other guy cooks. 2. Hygiene .This is paramount.The food should come in clean crockery and cutlery and the waiters should be clean and well groomed.It's also important that the kitchen is clean and with a suitable temperature else the food will spoil.The weather has changed nowadays.What's worked in the past may not work now.Instituting new instructions necessary.Any food handler who is ill is going ...

The other day I had friends over.We were 10 of us and one amongst us was a vegetarian....Harshad, the wittiest person I ever met.He really ought to publish a book of all his quotes.His latest:"Introduce your biggest fear to its feet.Then buy it a pair of really cool Nikes".The dynamic Harshad turned vegetarian and lost a lot of weight,with determination and will power. In two other groups that I belong to,I am the only nonvegetarian.One group consists of my school friends, none of whom mind me eating nonveg when we go out.The other group are my gym friends who meet on a regular basis at someone's home but have not yet tried my cooking.Everytime we met at the gym, there would be conversations about food and that's how we bonded.Since they are all housewives,they would sweetly tell me not to bother with the cooking and just come.I would usually buy something from outside as I never thought I could cook for a large group.My birthday changed all that. Made Kanda Batata Ra...

Celebrated my birthday with family and friends.An evening spent in conversation and laughter.We all are similar souls so the easy pace suited us all.My friends Kalyan and Soumik took the pictures.Kalyan's camera actually sounded like a machine gun as he attempted a panoramic view.I pray that he doesn't use it in sensitive localities. I cooked for a large group for the first time,a bit nervously.Started a day earlier as I chose to make Russian Salad,a salad that requires vegetables to be diced to the same size and boiled.Something that takes time. With instructions from my mother,I managed to do it right! The menu was vegetarian and nonvegetarian and with no particular cuisine in mind....some Maharashtrian,some Bengali and one that came from a Parsi ....coincidentally representing all of us! There was ofcourse Biryani,a very Mumbai one! Remembered my childhood days when Monaco was served with various toppings and did just that: the vegetarian one with low fat cheese,onion,corian...

These days very often I hear of people having aches,pains,feeling low and fatigued.Some are in so much pain that they have pain killers for relief,not realising that in the long run, their frequent use can cause damage to the kidney.What they really need to do is have a blood test to check vitamin D3 deficiency and have it corrected if deficient.Low levels are being seen all over the world. Levels above 30 ng/ml are considered sufficient.Some laboratories show old values as normal range, leading the person to think they are okay.The other problem is the expense of the test...around Rs 1500! Vitamin D is a vitamin that is essential for bone and mineral metabolism,immunity against infections and against cancer.It has a role to play in the synthesis and secretion of insulin and its deficiency is a risk factor for diabetes. Our major source is sunlight.Today,pollution,sunblock lotions and cloudy weather are common factors that prevent the right amount of ultraviolet rays from reaching our...

When my friends Ranjit Mankeshwar and his wife C invited me for a fest on Sunday evening,I had no idea what it was about.All I knew was that I was going to be around friends and that was reason enough.They bought passes for us for the Maharashtra Day Celebrations,the Andrean way.It was held on the grounds on St Andrew's School(therefore the word Andrean),Bandra,Mumbai and was a fest of food,music and dance.1st May is the day Maharashtra became an independant state in 1960,as did Gujarat. The cuisine: Maharashtrian,Goan,Mangalorean and East Indian.There were four main stalls serving each of these and were packed to the gills with people. The Maharashtrian stall had Puran Polis,Missal and a dry chicken dish.This I have often so I headed for the other stalls. The best decorated stall was the East Indian one.It had garlands of mango leaves and marigold. There were bunches of white onions everywhere. I asked for the Dinner Tat(dinner plate).The rice was served with a spoon made of cocon...