Aah, the ease of living in the twenty-first century. Everything is available online, right from booking peons to get your work done, to getting clothes designed. And on the food front there’s a huge boom. Buy your groceries, compare vegetable prices, and even get recipe kits delivered to your doorstep. My latest find is Seafood and Meat Co. – an online portal delivering what else, but seafood and meat of every kind! 

The company was launched with the idea to become a one stop stop for all your non-vegetarian food needs, ensuring safety, hygiene and prompt delivery. I recently ordered some medium sized prawns and spicy chorizo from them, and here’s what I liked and disliked about my overall experience right from ordering on the website, to cooking with their products.

Q. Your preferred excuse for not experimenting in the kitchen and cooking as much as you’d want to?
a. No time and energy to enter the kitchen and whip up something new after a hard day at work
b. Don’t know the recipes and technical skills behind cooking all the cool dishes
c. Don’t know what ingredients to buy and where to buy them from
d. All of the above

If you too fall in the final category, like I do, there’s good news for us lazy slobs who want to experiment with cooking but don’t know how to – iChef.in The website offers gourmet meal recipes and ingredients, hand delivered to your doorstep. Each kit comes with exact, measured ingredients, and a pictorial recipe all at 250 bucks for a meal for two.

What prompted me to order was the variety of dishes they had on offer – all International cuisine, with a decent mix of vegetarian and meat options. These were the dishes I could not easily whip up at home because my cooking skills were limited to the staples rice-dal-roti-sabzi. I ordered a basic Thai Green Chicken curry rice meal to start off with.

Here is what I liked about my experience:

Same day delivery: I ordered my kit through via phone on my way to work in the morning, and it was home by the time I got back from work, ready to be cooked.

Cash On Delivery: 

They only have COD option which I’m more than happy about. Though that may be a hassle for some others who prefer using plastic money.

Packaging: 

The ingredients came in this adorable cloth bag (which my mother was most excited about). Each ingredient was labelled and packaged in separate plastic. No spillage, or leakage either.

Christmas is a big deal in the Irani household. The tree comes out a week in advance, with mom and I decorating it with the same trinkets that I’ve been collecting as a little girl. I still get presents under my tree just as I did as a child, with the exception that I know it’s not Santa who is leaving them behind. And then of course, there’s the rum cake and marzipan that our neighbors and friends so generously send across. Growing up in Bandra has made me a lover of Christmas and all the festivities that come alongside. What are your Christmas and New Year plans?

Christmas came home early this year, when I walked home post work one day to a large hamper from Onesta Confections sitting pretty under my tree.  Onesta which means ‘honesty’ in Italian, is the baby and brainchild of Neha Chaudhary. After graduating from the French Culinary Institute in New York, and gaining further experience working at the J.W.Mariott, Mumbai; Neha started her own brand of desserts retailing out of Juhu.