2011

Pastel de Tres Leches

On a lazy Friday afternoon, post lunch, what’s that one piece of food that can completely satisfy all your senses? Well most of us have a vague idea of what pleases us, after a coma-inducing meal, however for me it has, is and will always be the Tres Leches cake. Tres Leches, which literally means ‘three milks’ in Spanish, is a light sponge, generously soaked in three different kinds of cow’s milk, baked to perfection ensuring no crust, dense yet light fluffy texture, with every bite screaming ‘just died and gone to heaven’.

Steve Jobs

It’s been a little over a month since Steve Jobs passed away, and I’ve toyed with this post since then. As is the case with everyone who knew he was battling cancer, it was expected and yet, it seemed sudden. As I opened up a new tab to apple.com, hoping against hope that it was just a twitter rumor, I was greeted by a page that carried the simple words, “Steve Jobs, 1955–2011.

Ferrero Rocher Cheesecake

I have been making cheesecakes yet again. This time I decided I would attempt to make a favourite of mine. Ferrero Rocher Cheesecake. This took some imagination and a little bit of research. I finally decided to alter a few recipes which I found to make my own. Ingredients: One box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates One jar of Nutella 1 250g packet of Chocolate Digestive Biscuits 100g Butter, melted 1 Tub of Double Cream (300ml) 1 Tub of Cream Cheese (300g Philadelphia) 3 tablespoons of Icing Sugar a handful of chopped roasted Hazelnuts (to decorate) Method:

Let there be ‘cake’

The history of cake dates back to ancient times. According to the food historians, the ancient Egyptians were the first culture to show evidence of advanced baking skills. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the English word ‘cake’ back to the 13th century. According to food historians, the precursors of modern cakes (round ones with icing) were first baked in Europe sometime in the mid-17th century. It was not until the middle of the 19th century that cake as we know it today arrived on the scene and the birthday cake became an integral part of the birthday celebrations in Western cultures since the middle of the 19th century.

Ghughra

Diwali is almost here — lights, colors, bling and ofcourse, sweets. So on the occassion of Diwali, we bring you, live from the naihar kitchens, the Ghughra. Since I try to relate stuff we do to more colloquially known items out here, I suppose you can think of this as perhaps a sweet fatayer. Layered on the inside with sweetness that will change your mood regardless of how angry you are on the day, fried on the outside to a nice crunch to boot, and filled with a richness that is supposed to give you energy and brain power (and maybe, a tad bit of cholesterol), the ghughra is a traditional gujarati diwali production.

*The* Iced Tea, Brunetti

I am a man of simple pleasures. And for those who know me, Iced Tea is my simplest pleasure. Which reminds me, I need to go place my iced tea bottle into the freezer for a quick chill. Where was I again? Right, so this afternoon we strolled down to one of my favorite dessert shops, Brunetti. Jumping straight for the usual suspects, their little tiramisu container and some cappuccino, we wandered around to see what else attracted our eye.

Evil Mud Cake @ C???est ici Brasserie

Say hello to the newest kid on the block (wow, I need new band references) and our very own resident food explorer, Siddhi! A self-confessed lover of food that’s been plated well, Siddhi is known for snapping up dishes all around town (and beyond), and starts off with the extremely craving-inducing dessert all the way from C’est ici Brasserie in London. Presenting the Evil mud cake with a dark Belgian chocolate center and chamomile ice cream.

Nine eleven

To this day, when I close my eyes and recall the shocking events from 10 years ago, somehow I’m still at a loss for words. Still cannot describe the event. Still. The impact of the day is continued to be felt the world over. Every thing from the the economy to international relations has changed. Everything. Ten years ago to this date and time, I was in a car, heading towards New York, when we saw the neon roadsigns telling us to avoid the city.

Elevator

They stood quietly. It hummed downward. 35? Maybe 40, they both speculated. Each was amused, and gave the other the stare down. Then the depth engulfed them. Probably senile. Definitely rash. They laughed on the inside. Bing! The doors opened. One looked confused at the other. He smiled, “The exit’s here, follow me this way.” Each walked away with their perceptions changed. Just a little.

Khaman

We all love a good sponge cake. Now close your eyes and imagine that instead of a sweet, sugar-rushing sponge cake, you have a savory, slightly spicy, salty delicious sponge cake. Yes I realize you can’t read this if you closed your eyes, but I’m also relying on the fact that no one listens to me anyway. A Gujarati specialty, Khaman is the equivalent of a savory sponge cake, with just the right amount of spice and flavor, and topped with a tempering of mustard and garnished with coriander and sometimes, grated coconut.

The (planned) end of an era…

As news of Steve Jobs’ resignation flutters through the cyberspace, most people pronouncing this the end of an era. It is. Steve Jobs may not have had the agreement of every John and Jane Doe, but we definitely had the respect of a man who knew what he was doing, often way ahead of his peers. What struck me is that this was a matter of time — not his first medical leave for one — and yet it comes with a level of shock and surprise, going to show how larger than life the man is.

At the stroke of midnight hour

Famous words from an inspiring speech. India celebrates another year of independence, and there’s a lot on my mind. Every year on this day, I introspect a little. What does this day really mean to me? The answer is weird. It means a lot — and yet, it somehow means so little. I feel patriotic, I feel inspired, I love the tri-colors fluttering everywhere, I’ve attended the flag hoisted ceremonies organized as far out as Philadelphia.

Differences

It continually amazes me to see the kind of creativity that comes out of American movies and TV. As I finally watched Sucker Punch this week, this was more evident than ever. There is so much creativity in the telling of this story. When I compare that against the real run of the mill rubbish we see in bollywood or on Indian tv…I quite literally, have no words. I think that, in the Bollywood paradigm:

Il Forno

Anyone who’s driven around Abu Dhabi a bit will notice Il Forno outlets spread around the city. Boasting authentic food, the real reason I wanted to try it out was because someone who tried out my favorite pizzeria in Dubai (which has since shut down) said he had liked Il Forno better. Not one to take criticism poorly, I tried it. One bite in and Il Forno fell into the category of just another pizza place.

Happy Birthday FiA

About a year ago, I received a DM over twitter that went: “Is this you: http://t.co/GAVYjLo?" Oh relax, it wasn’t spam — well that was when twitter wasn’t so infected anyway. Point is, it was linked to a foodblog (go ahead, click it), but the friend had confused it as being this blog because of “eerily similar[ity] to u!” Another food blog? With much better pictures? Ooh. I hastily posted what I can only imagine now was a creepy comment and didn’t think anything of it afterward.

Union Co-op Barsha outlet bans single men, via @bilalhouri

Well, well, well. I had to really think about this one. I finally decided to file it under #funny. Bachelors have been barred from entering a newly- inaugurated shopping centre in Dubai for fear that they would misuse the massive discounts on offer. … “We found out that many of them were buying our products on offer only to resell them in at their stores at the original price. So we have decided to turn away single men from entering the hypermarket until the promotion ends,” he said.

Musings 2.0

“At some point I took it personally. #fail” I remember this tweet someone wrote before going offline for a few months very vividly. I’m not entirely sure why, but it just stuck. Maybe because it resonated with me somehow. Maybe..I’m not sure. I saw this coming I think. It’s not often that I lose my temper, in fact, it happens rarely enough that I cannot recall the last time I did it.

Gummies!

Who doesn’t love candy. Come to think of it, I can’t think of anyone who’s ever told me they hate Gummies. Maybe not biggest fans, but don’t like Gummies. Yea, NEVER happens. Gummies are things that you can’t stop eating once you start, then you feel sick and tell yourself, okay not having that many again. Until a couple of days later, you walk by a store that sells gummies and…pfft, what’s another entire pack going to do — I survived fine last time!

First Impressions: Lion (OS X 10.7)

My early thoughts on the all-new Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion — image via Apple), in trademarked bullet-point style: I upgraded to a new OS for all of $30 and did not step out of my room. While this appeals to my height of laziness, you have to say that is an impressive way to function. The installation took about 35 minutes in total, not counting download time (a little over an hour).

It all ends.

Well for the two loyal readers this blog actually has, they’ll know I got in to the premiere viewing of the final installment of the Harry Potter series. I’ve been a huge fan of the books since I first read them in 2001 and frankly most of the movies tended to disappoint. But that’s normal with adaptations — you lose out on the subtleties, additional plotlines and in the case of Harry Potter, I feel we lost the inherent sarcasm that he spews oh so easily in the books.

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[gallery] As the posters say, ‘it all ends’..tonight.

Thepla

When you look up Gujarati food, thepla ranks right up there. Theplas are pretty much one of those all-purpose items. A staple for any travelling Gujarati, it can be eaten plain, with condiments such as indian pickles (achaar), yogurt, garlic paste (one of my favorites) or with curries much like a roti. In fact, the best description of a thepla is probably a flavored roti — you find them in the plain/masala type, the methi (fenugreek), or kothmir (coriander) flavored types.

The lesser known #win’s of Google+

A lot was said before, during and after. Google+ was unveiled to a lot of trumpets this past week and well, we have a serious well-thought out contender. My first impression — well it still holds — is it looks like the perfect fusion between Twitter — the interactivity, un-binding relationship (You don’t have to see my posts just because I want to see yours, and vice-versa), the free-flow of public data and sharing — and Facebook — the limitless posting, pictures, videos and locations.

Pizza @ Mamma Rossella

AED250 for a slice of pizza. Okay, granted that not technically accurate, but hear me out. Anyone who knows me will know that I love my pizza. Not the Pizza Hut and Dominos nonsense, I’m talking real authentic stuff. Light crust that is just a little charred, a good dollop of fresh mozzarella baked to perfection in a wood-fire oven. Frankly in Dubai, I’ve enjoyed that experience in a grand total of one location, which has since shut down.

iCloud may not be the next phase in Cloud technology, but it’s the next step

Yesterday’s iCloud announcement has, and will, cause some stir. … Apple is paving the way for taking Cloud technology to the masses, and all those who wouldn’t stop talking about how scary the cloud is. Free stops a lot of people from asking questions. Often, when speaking to customers about the fact that a lot of our technology offerings are based in the Cloud, you can already see that they’ve shown you the door.

BakeFestDXB — Round 2

Briefly, BakeFestDXB is an initiative by organizer Nick (also known as the dahlink of Twitter — @theregos) to bring together Dubai’s community bakers. Wild Peeta has been the main supporters of BakeFestDXB and have generously opened up their venue for us for the second time (how cool is that?!) to sell our stuff. Read more about BakeFestDXB — Round 2 at Red Panda Bakes.

Some great advice for your first job by @atulchitnis

Saw an interesting tweet on my timeline this morning relating to first day at a first job and advice surrounding it. This became a great list of 20 tips (well, 19, since there was no 13th tip) that I think I would recommend anyone read — and in some cases, not just on their first job. I may not be a veteran, but I can already see how this advice would have been incredibly useful.

Why @twimbow is my favorite twitter client

UPDATE, 12 Sep 2012: Twimbow is no longer in active development, and will be shut down once Twitter’s new APIs take over. It started with a tweet. I’ve been on twitter for some time (two and a half years as I write this) and tried out a few clients pretty early in that span. I rejected the Adobe AIR based apps — I really couldn’t stand the reactivity — and jumped to Seesmic’s Web app the second it was launched.

Chocolate by @ChoCoaDubai

I’d heard about the existance of Choco’a for some time but it wasn’t until a birthday celebration that I actually went and picked up their signature chocolate cake. If you need a chocolate fix, you really need to look no further. The cake was dripping chocolate from every pore, and was rather fresh. I placed the order a day in advance and as promised I got a fresh cake in the morning.

LinkedIn has a fun prank today too!

This is what shows up under people I know (1st page) today: Well done! Ofcourse if you try to connect with them — as LinkedIn does when you try to connect with someone not within your network — it asks you for their email so you can’t do much. Google pretty much takes the cake each year, but this one is rather cleverly done.

On the twelfth day of Christmas…

…normally, I think, I’d have said a lot more. This time around, I’m chosing the quiet route. And hoping to keep my head steady. 12 has been brilliant though, no matter the downs. There is no doubt about that at all.

Magic Masala!

One of the positives to be taken out of being in India for any extended period of time would be the abundance of Lay’s Magic Masala chips. You may feel sick after consuming a packetful or two, but you’d generally consider that finger-licking worth it.

Cricket Team

This transition has been among the tougher that the 10 before them, but here’s to a better tomorrow, and a better 12 cheers Happy 11.

What is wrong with Indian television (and society, probably)

Consider the premise for a new TV show on one of the many, many channels: A family has 3 adult sons. The father of the household (traditionally the head of the family) has decided that he wants a specific girl to be his daughter-in-law. So now, he will spend the rest of the TV show’s life (and what’s left of Indian households’ brains) deciding which of his sons she will marry.

Dark Chocolate Mousse Cake

This was made by dad at home. Whenever I make a mousse cake (last attempt was strawberry mousse cake), it never turns out like this (read: messed up). The one made by dad has the perfect consistency, the taste, even they way it’s cut and presented looks awesome. It was garnished with white chocolate- for some reason (till date) it looks like cheese to me :)

Banoffee Pie

Banoffee Pie may sound complicated but it is one of the easiest British desserts to make and also one that got me liking bananas. I don’t quite like that fruit, I’m more of a berries, raisins, cherries, blackberries, strawberries, sultanas, pomegranates person. Did I mention strawberries? So a banoffee pie is primarily made out of bananas, cream, caramel and to give you a kick- chocolate is used as topping. The only trouble I had was finding a jar of ready made caramel.

Chocopologie

Earlier this week, I was taking a stroll around Festival Marina, Dubai Festival City. There’s a few new restaurants open there but this one place caught my eye: Chocopologie. Needless to say, the name alone was intriguing enough to get me in there within 5 minutes. After being shown around by a friendly waitress, I promised myself I would go there for brunch since they served all-day breakfast! (How exciting is that?