Chirag Desai

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. Most people have a weakness for this gram-flour deliciousness, considering it can be eaten all by itself, or dipped in the chutney of the day.

I have even managed — wait for it — to make a Khaman sandwich that tasted so awesome, it’s now a standard occurance every time there’s Khaman in the house.

So there you have it, the savory and slightly spicy sponge cake, the Khaman.

We’re planning to have this available at the next Bakefest. If you like the idea, let us know :)

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.

A tribute to the man who envisioned a new era to computing, and pretty much got us there.

I leave you with a witty tweet poking fun at the awesome autocorrect feature (via GarethAveyard)

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. Yet I come up with an empty feeling when I think about what I have done. For my country. At all.

The thoughts take me broader, farther. I think of the world. Of the crises and of the mess. And I re-call my favorite TV show of all time, one that — as it drew to a close — highlighted what it means to be human, not Indian or American or Middle-eastern, or anything else for that matter. What we can achieve as a species, and what we are destroying. Of political power, and corruption, racism and hatred and cold war.

Is this what we are really about? If so, I genuinely don’t feel like being human on those occasions.

I could go on, but I think I want to focus on what needs to change, rather than what cannot be touched or controlled.

Over the last year, maybe a couple years, I started to find my call, and interestingly, it lies in technology (and food, but that’ll kill my point right now). Over the last few years, I’ve witnessed, thought about and complained about changes in technology, the impact it’s having on our day-to-day lives. I have some clear thoughts on what I think technology should be doing, which inturn defines what it shouldn’t.

Social Media

A lot has changed since the advent of Twitter. Facebook was around way longer, but it was always a closed network — something to help you create a close-by community, or keep in touch with your friends and family. Twitter opened it all up — by giving us access to people we’d never be “friends” with in the Facebook paradigm but could still interact with without losing the feeling of privacy and control. It became a news feed, a community builder and a conversation starter all in one. In India, this has grown over the last couple of years. Today news channels regularly display opinions collected via twitter (and even facebook). It is starting to bring people together, giving them a voice and channelize support (or opposition).

I think this will slowly but surely impact governance in India. Sadly, our political system is 64 years old (and not in the good way) and well, rubbish. In India, there is a large group of people who think the political system is pointless to bother with. But there’s a young upcoming group of this generation who is going out there to make their point too. It may take a few years, but social media is going to help improve it, and with it, things will change.

Technology

The broader technology scope is equally interesting. I frankly hate a lot about the status quo, and more importantly, the attitude people have towards technology — especially in the corporate area. I’ve been looked down upon, called an idiot and laughed at purely because one look at me makes people know I’m an Indian IT guy, and then I must be like every Indian IT guy. It’s a funny kind of racism.

I’ve even been told that people are moving away from working with Indians because the cost-reduction does not offset the time and energy required to get Indians up to speed and up to the right level of professional working since we are “so far behind”. Is this what and where we want to be?

It is time to change that.

It’s our own damned fault too, and it needs to change with us first. Indians in technology need to stop coming off as bookworms, because we can be so much more. We need to stop rejecting new technologies and fighting over stupid bans, and focus on what we can do to improve the way we do things. Starting with education. And not stopping there. In some arenas, technology is so backward it’s not even laughable. I’ve even had bad experiences even with the big names and the way they treat us, their customers, fellow Indians.

This is an open call to any organization in India who wants to change they way they do things, and the way they use technology, and need advice. Heck, I’ll even do as much as I can of it for free. All I ask is you have an open mind to embrace what I have to say and accept that there needs to be a change in attitude. If you don’t like what I have to say after that, no problem. Tweet, drop me a line on LinkedIn, Google+, whatever.

I’ve started it a little bit too. And while it hasn’t been easy, I will keep trying until technology peers in India — the local, day-to-day folks just as much as the big guns — change their attitude towards technology, operations and most importantly — the way they treat their users, customers and us in general.

It’s an odd goal, I know, but this is how I can contribute.

How will you?

After-shave for geeks…like me.

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:

• a movie like Sucker Punch wouldn’t have been conceptualized
• if we assume for a second that it could have been, no one would have been ready to fund it
• if it had been funded, not one ‘mainstream’ish actor would have found the script worthy enough (and)
• if one had, they probably couldn’t actually have pulled it off
• very few people would have gone to watch it
• some politician would have opposed the way young girls were portrayed, and possibly, banned it
• All in all, it would have been a big enough mess to deter anyone from even voicing the idea

On 100% of current Indian television, we still haven’t gotten past the ‘oh-my-god my mother-in-law is insane’ storyline.

It’s sad really.

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. They’re not bad, but they’re not great either. I only tried their pizza — I went with their garlic-and-olive-oil option — and felt mostly like I was eating a couple-hours-old manakish. The crust was overwhelming, didn’t feel too fresh and the cheese was your usual unfrozen mozzarella. The iced tea I had with the pizza was your standard run-of-the-mill restaurant iced tea and not brewed or such either.

Il Forno works with something that does look like a woodfire oven, although it’s a pretty standard one in reality. The staff were friendly though and while I’ve only tried their pizzas on a couple different occasions, it’s been with the same results.

For those following closely, the search continues for good pizza in the UAE. There are some I like, some I don’t and others I despise (and therefore, haven’t really visited since the start of this blog). But I’ve received some good suggestions and will post up once I get a chance to try them out. All in all, Il Forno is not going to be my favorite pizza anytime soon.

— -
Il Forno Italian Restaurant
Abu Dhabi Mall, Abu Dhabi & multiple locations

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. Who responds to blog comments right? A grand total of 4 minutes later, I received an email titled “Hi — just saw your comment on my blog :)”.

Today, Famished in Arabia (or FiA) as we were coined, is a group of 56 food bloggers (as of 8 p.m. GMT+4 today) covering various walks of life and blogging about a whole variety of different things — from expert restaurant reviews, expert bakers, expert pickle-makers, expert restaurant owners and.. well there’s me too. The group has seen a phenomenal growth — oh a history buff you say? you want ALL the details? — anyway, the rest of you, like I was saying…

Today Famished in Arabia celebrates a year of existance. And what a marvelous one at that. Some very creative people, some very talented people and most importantly some very passionate people. This means that as the site grows, the information flowing gets even better — new places worth checking out, suggestions on evening-outings, and even tips on cooking and baking better. Even more, how to photograph food — some of the improvements (What rubbish you say? You haven’t seen any? Pfft, go away!) you see on this blog over the past year have happened because of things I’ve picked up by just admiring all of these blogs.

Right, so what’s the point of the post you ask? Well it’s to say Happy Birthday FiA. It’s to be happy and proud to see it grow into something great — just think about it, for a country like UAE, to have 56 independent food bloggers each with their own unique voice. That’s amazing. And you know what? I’m actually sure there are more out there, waiting until the silent assassins..er…acquirers at FiA pounce and draw them in with cupcakes…

I leave you with the RSS feed aggregate of the food bloggers, and if you’re on twitter, the FiA list. Go nuts! Just don’t forget the chocolate.

UPDATE: Read other posts from the group on the 1st year celebrations here.

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.

Only men accompanied by a woman are being allowed into the store.

Because that totally solves the problem.

Oh, and enjoy the hashtag currently in operation: #unioncooppickuplines

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

“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. But over the last month or so, I was brimming. I could feel it happening with every conversation — and it wasn’t just one person. Today, I lost it altogether. I’m not happy about that. It may not have been a disaster, but it still was not good.

So today, we start again. A little rehash, a little time-alone, a little bit of introspection. The outcome, as before, will be the same: return to the patient side of me, the one that dominates without chaos, and the one who’s shoulder people like to cry on because it is offered without judgement; one that would never expect a shoulder in return.

It is time.