Category: Books

Some Of The Must Visit Cafes In India!


When you have lived In a city like Mumbai for a long time and have had the opportunity to enjoy some of the best Yum food in the city and also get equally good food at home, It
becomes difficult to find food that tastes just as good in the city or town you travel for vacation or Work.
While travelling around the country, there have been some amazing cafes for Food, Coffee or The View and occasionally all three elements.
Here are some of them I have visited and recommend

Goa: The La Plage Cafe in Goa.
The beach view is amazing, The Coffee is good too and the seafood options are Yum.
Babka in Anjuna has the best Eclairs, Coffee and Pasta.

Kolkata: The Roastery House location, The White & Yellow colours on the walls Definitely make you feel you are in Kolkata the cold brew options In coffee and the Baked fish in mustard is amazing!

Bengaluru: Araku’s Orange Cold Brew and the savoury Waffles have been two of the best things from the cafe. The Roastery within the cafe, The Mod Bar Espresso machines, and the Coffee table Books at the cafe does not make you get enough of the cafe.

Lavonee Cafe’sAcademy has been the Foundation for many patisseries and Pastry chefs in the city and in India and no wonder the Cafe Gets the Bake and the coffee right! The breakfast menu has been one of the most beautifully presented and filled with Taste and texture in the Bengaluru city.

Conoor: The Culinarium cafe en route to Ooty has one of the most breathtaking views. The coffee option, The Bakes( Lemon Cake) was one of the perfect ones I have had not too sweet or not too sour.
The pizzas were amazing too!

Dharamshala:
Moonspeak Deli Cafe – A tiny cafe near the main market is a hidden gem!
The coffee Ricotta Cake has been one of the most delicious Tea-cakes I have ever had!
The coffee was also well-balanced and the Ham and Bacon sandwich was very good too!
The Cliffs In Palampur is a cute little cafe that’s like a cottage in the woods, with a small corner filled with books.
The Marble Cake, Filter Coffee, and Mutton Kheema Dosa were the highlight of our meal

The Other Space: There wasn’t any other space like this one in Dharamshala!
The day we visited this space, we witnessed Hail and Rain from the balcony of the cafe while sipping our Coffee and enjoying Spaghetti at this cafe.
You just can’t miss this for the view!

Varanasi:
Vatika – A cafe Overlooking the Ghats of Varanasi and you are enjoying the most delicious pizza, you could not imagine you could get here! For desserts, you must have Apple Pie with Ice Cream and try their Saffron Milk and Paan Stuffed With Rose Petal Milk.

Himachal, State of a Mind!

It’s a state where, I have had quite a few childhood memories.
Starting From Solan, there have been Memories of Playing cricket with a bunch of my cousin friends for days, whenever we visited, plucking of Apples & Peaches from the Trees, Watching Films at Laxmi theatre a family owned Cinema theatre the first & only one in the town.
To enjoying fresh fruit Jams from now popular Bhuria Jams ( Gauva, Apple, Orange and many more flavours) and then having the HPMC fresh Squashes.
While this would be Solan!
Shimla not being far away and the cousins studying there, we would frequently visit the Hill Station’s too!


A lot of times the spiral roads from Chandigarh to Solan to Shimla would make me feel dizzy’s and a lot of mints and breaks later, We would reach our destination. In Shimla The Toy Trains would be our favourite spot, on many visits would we only like to go there.
The Combermere Pizza’s would be a treat for us, since they would be the most cheezy and the only hot food, we enjoyed in the winters at the Hill station.


We would also like trying out the Bakes from Trishool, the Cream Roll would be the Favourite.


A tiny little Restuarant style place in the lanes of Shimla also served the Best Momo’s and Soups that we couldn’t get enough of!
The Maggi noodles from the Highway near the Waterfalls, where we would Enjoy the shower and witness the sight of Monkey’s jumping and Hopping from the trees.


One time, When we visited Wildflower the Oberoi hotel, one of the most beautiful hotels with a view. There were snow leopards spotted just a couple of days earlier than we had visited.
Wildflower is also the same hotel, where The movie Black was shot starring Amitabh Bachchan and Rani Mukerji


When we would visit Himachal in snowy winters we would slide down the hills and throw snow balls on each other.
The memories with Himachal, Solan, Shimla are so fresh that all these Himanchal memories seem like yesterday, but indeed it has been over 3 Decades and Multiple visits of memories.
Now too, though it’s been about six Years. Since the last visit, Shimla hasn’t changed a bit.
The CeCecil Oberoi: Has its own old-world charm that brings you back to the hotel again.


We also went a little further ahead to Theog and experienced the Hills from the Top overlooking all the Pine Trees, or snow trees from the Taj Theog.

Information:

Travel to Shimla from Chandigarh.

3-hour drive from Chandigarh.

Stay:

Chillaru

Taj Theog

The Wildflower by Oberoi

The Cecil by Oberoi

Cafes:

Cafe Sol

Shimla Times for Pizza and Sunset View.

Combermere for Italian Food.

Trishool Bakery For Cream Rolls & Eclairs

Best Books on Food!

Taste by @stanleytucci.
A book, that you would enjoy reading not just if you like eating, but if you like cooking too! The tone used in the book, the way it has been written, takes us back to his childhood days and memories! This book has Taste on every page, while some pages are sweet, some are Bitter. The whole read is a meal! You wouldn’t like to miss it!

The Food Mood Connection by @drumanaidoo
Haven’t you always said or heard? I am in the mood to eat this meal today for lunch, Breakfast or Dinner.
Well! Food and Mood does have a connection and this book highlights how it affects us. An interesting book on focusing correlation between Mental Health, Food and Diet.
Research and written by Uma Naidoo who has studied nutritional & lifestyle psychiatry at Harvard.

Pancake in Paris by @craigcarlsonauthor
A story of an American who lived his American dream in Paris!
By starting a cafe – Pancake in Paris!
This story is about how he succeeded in living his dream and the challenges he faced in getting the right ingredients and introducing a Breakfast meal that wasn’t part of the French culture.
A good American breakfast.

How I Quit Google to Sell Samosas @munafkapadia
The Story about Borhi Kitchen – A home experience of cultural cuisine, that started a decade ago and gained popularity for the food and the experience it, it later also grew with food experience as a delivery service and for Catering at events! With a simple idea of bringing in local cultural food. This is an inspirational story set in India, Mumbai since it’s also a challenge to diversify from well-paid jobs to starting something of your own. This book also highlights the challenges one faces in the Food & Beverages and Hospitality business.

Forgotten Foods @taranahusainkhan
A book on looking back at some of the food specialities that aren’t very popular these days and are well known only in certain parts of the country.

UK Flashback 2023!

The Memories, come flashing back!

The vivid details, the signages, The bustling streets, the hop on and hop off buses,

The Lego store, Leicester Square and Times Square coming together in my memory!

The M&M World! Piccadilly Circle written faintly!

And the huge square, Trafalgar Square with the lion roaring.

The London Bridge! All that meets the London eye!

The erratic weather changing, like mood swings for humans in the city!

Brexit has happened from the last time we visited,

Still trying to figure things out here! 

UK! LONDON! Seems …

Can’t get over it it’s been a decade since I visited London!

The memories seem crystal clear, walking up the bridge and witnessing the Thames…

Felt like a Lord! After taking them through the cricket ring that has so much history in the sport and St.John Woods Brownish, Beige rooftops and homes with a little redness never felt the same again!

Walking through the dining room and changing room of the Lord’s Stadium was a Kodak tour in so many ways! The sport that I couldn’t breathe & sleep without in childhood is a distant reality in my adulthood!

The Marketspace CAMDEN! IN Yellowish brown BOLD Font, was an interesting space of shops and cafes!

The London Tube and the Big Red Bus! Through Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and Notting Hill!

The Tourist’s ness was rubbing on our shoulders, Afternoon tea and scones at Claridge’s was one splurge we did on our trip!

Oh! The now famous Pret A Manager that has India sipping and eating was one of our hangout spots after we strolled through Oxford Street!

Oh! We passed through Covent Garden which years later became a hub for Contemporary interiors and places to eat! Like the BKC In Mumbai.

London, The UK! Hadn’t seemed to have changed much! But, what had changed was it had become expensive to live and holiday here! Transport fares had doubled, and the pricing of basic goods & services too had doubled. And on the other side, Ireland was thriving with tourism, and had seemed a better bet for the UK Locals to move there! Irish Cream was a nice country with beautiful bookstores and odd-looking people with colourful hair. The Vibe & energy in Ireland felt more for youngsters and youth. With Good food options and not just 90 minutes by Air from London City Ireland indeed became a good option for UK residents to shift.

Galway & Cork were two small towns, each having their charm & differences.

The Bars were hangout spots to enjoy the Guinness Beer or have a cup of Irish coffee.

A pizzeria in Galway was also not just in Ireland but had been accoladed with the 16th best pizzeria in Europe in 2022 and 37th best in the world in 2022.

Well! Ireland is also well known for Bailey’s liqueur – A popular coffee-based alcohol and Butlers chocolates. A bar of chocolate that melts away!

And last but not least the Jameson whiskey outlet – The Secret ingredient behind the Irish Coffee.

The last highlight, An 18th-century Century Church that was restored over seven years in the late nineties until mid two thousands was opened in 2005 and still has the rustiness and architecture of the 18th Century.
Information:

Ireland 

Cities: Galway, Cork, Dublin and Belfast. 

Enter through Dublin and travel through trains to the other cities.

 Stay: 

Ashkings Hotel Dublin

Buy a leap card from the station. You could use this across public transport (Trams, Trains, Buses)