December 2015 | Branded Bawi's Biography

My Favourite Foodies. And Their Favourite Ingredients.

December 23, 2015 5 Comments

Do you have that one ingredient that you enjoy cooking with? That one ingredient that you try incorporating in most of your dishes? I decided to ask some of my favourite food bloggers and home chefs what their favourite ingredients to cook with are. These are bloggers that I follow, home chefs whose food I swear by, and food writers who I enjoy reading – an esteemed bunch who I am thankful to for contributing to this post. Read on!

1. Kalyan Karmakar of The Finely Chopped

One of the first food blogs I started following, each post Kalyan pens down is a fable, where the central characters are food! I’ve yet to find a blog that oscillates between gourmet food from the cobbled streets of Rome, to street side dosas from Mumbai suburbs with such ease.Kalyan tells me he enjoys cooking with fish – an answer I was hoping for owing to his Bengali lineage. ‘My current focus has been on oven based yet flavourful fish grills and bakes. The trick is to ensure that the fish is cooked right. Not over cooked. Not raw. Which is always a challenge in the oven and part of the fun.’, shares Kalyan.

Random Musings, Travel

My Encounters with Mumbai Rickshaw Walas

December 16, 2015 15 Comments

The most challenging part of my work day is finding an auto rickshaw on Linking road during peak hours, to ply a short distance. I turn from Zenia to Xena – the warrior princess – fighting my way through the swarming traffic, competing with fellow office goers, all so that I can find someone to safely take me home. Sadly my ordeal does not end there.

I seem to have the innate knack of attracting auto drivers that range from the obstinately rude to the downright cheap. An interesting rickshaw ride yesterday inspired me to list down the types of rickshaw walas I encounter on a regular basis, and here goes –

Cooking Studio, Food, Khar

Flavour Diaries, Khar – Bake Your Cake and Eat It Too!

December 9, 2015 No Comments

I remember my first year, Anatomy lecture many moons ago where the professor labelled the laryngeal cartilages for us on a cadaver, that fifty of us were asked to share. When the time came for me to identify them during a test, I couldn’t tell the cricoid from the thyroid! The purpose of this extremely useless piece of information is to acquaint you’ll with how important ‘hands on’ learning is in any field. Some time back I attended a baking class where the chef demonstrated a couple of easy treats which I was confident I could pull off. Needless to say when I tried the recipe at home, my cake did not rise and I ended up eating half cooked cake batter for dessert! Had I actually practiced baking the cake alongside the teacher, I’d have a different story (and some cake) to share.

Which is why the Flavour Diaries – a cooking studio perched right on top of Khar Social – is what the doctor ordered! Eight individual work stations where you actually get to practice what you’re learning ensures you leave class with not just knowledge but also skill!