Tag: India

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

Flamin Hot Cheetos!


A Story about Richard Montañez who was a Janitor, Bold & Confident about his idea to directly call the boss at Frito lay and tell him about his plan to save the company’s factory and Jobs!
The story is about how some believed him, while others mocked him. It was the push he got from one of the seniors, who believed in his Idea and the CEO who trusted his instincts. Yes! He did save the jobs and Grew the company too, with a simple idea of following his roots for a snack, that’s loved globally today.
A Completely new range of products was introduced and handled by Richard Montañez the man who changed the lives of Cheetos.
He retired in 2019 after being involved with the company for 42 Years…
Flamin Hot is Streaming on Hotstar.

Holi Hai!!


A festival, that’s always been associated with fun, colourful and childlike!
The older crowd, just can’t let their childishness go away. Over the years, Holi has been filled with colours, friends & Family and Food too!
Since childhood Holi celebration memories have been about being soaked in water, Sometimes the faces looked like Mud Pack or sometimes they were unrecognizable.
It would take days before we or someone could recognise us as ourselves.
We would get thrown into inflated water Pools and while all this would be happening, there were rain showers too for Rain Dance with Good Music with popular Holi festival songs and occasionally playing musical instruments and enjoying shaven ice Lollies dipped in Rose, Cola, Jamun and Kala Khatta Syrups to beat the heat.
The food would be a street food style menu.
Chaat, like Sev Puri and Paani Puri, Chole Kulcha, of the north to the South Indian Dosa, Samosa, Kulfi & Jalebi’s for Desserts with Thandai, Coconut Water, Kokum as beverages.
Holi has always been that day where you meet up to socialise with family and friends.
Holi-Day is that festival where you would take a couple of Holidays only to get clean with the mess, because you forgot to Apply the Oil or because you enjoy the break.
Holi Celebration this year was like, the ones we celebrated earlier, but this time with a small group! A celebration after years!!!

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.

Merry Christmas – Not A Movie Review!

Merry Christmas by Sriram Raghavan!
When you watch a movie and instantly remember the source of inspiration.
You know exactly what the result would be and how the story would unfold.
But, at the same time you always feel the Book would be better! I remember Reading the book last year. And a while later Realised the simplicity of the story. This is a slow burn, French Noir But having been adapted to the screen it could have been a little more edgier. The story is about two strangers who meet each other. One who is revisiting his home after 7 Years And the other who is out for dinner.
They both go to the latter’s house and enjoy a drink! Then she remembers she has forgotten something and they go looking for it and are back home only to discover that her husband is killed ! This is when the story unfolds… And then this incident happens again With another man
The plot thickens and slowly the mystery unravels. Merry Christmas is an inspiration and adaption of Bird in a Cage by Fredrick Dard a French noir writer and the film is now streaming on A popular Ott platform.