A space for recipes

October has been a record low on Saffron Trail and I wanted to break the jinx. Initially it was the internet. The MTNL broadband connection is still down, but I have kind of gotten used to the Reliance data card. If the see the positive, it means, Im always connected to the net even in the outdoors. And Ive got used to the slower speed.

To add to the internet problem, both the hubby and me fell sick one after the other - and since I was going under weather after a long long time, it was a heavy bout to make up for all the time the flu bugs have missed me! The loss of appetite that comes with taking medicines, made me stay away from all food blogs, even my favourite ones.

After we got up and running, I thought, Ill get back to my blog now. But that inertia and boredom of blogging had grasped me completely. Except for sneaking into a few blogs off and on, and barely making it to text Raaga a birthday message, its been total hibernation for me. Honestly, I have not been too busy with work, which means a lot of posts could have happened. Its been a strange situation where I know blogging would make me happy and yet I did not want to type blogger.com. The camera is sitting in some unknown location in the house, which has rarely ever happened with me, or any of you food bloggers. I realized it is now or never. If I do not get back now, I probably will distance myself too much from something I love so much.
With Diwali round the corner, I just did a peek into the archives of ST, and discovered that I had gone bonkers making some SIX Diwali treats last year - and most of them being tried for the first time.

Today, gingerly I went into the Another Subcontinent forums, into the Diwali treats thread, checking out on all the goodies. Also, checking out Indiras Mithai section
as well as Manishas tantalizing Orange Burfi - plus browsing through JFI Diwali Round Up -2006 at Vees Past, Present and Me - to get some inspirations.

Hope all of you are having a lovely time preparing for Diwali. What are the plans at your end if I may ask? Id like to try something new and get out of my cooking rut this festive season.

By the way after a really long while, I tried something new yesterday - a one pot Gujarati dish called Daal Dhokli from the Hungry Monster site. It turned out pretty good. Besides that, Ive been making homemade thin crust pizzas at least once a week - thanks to the super active yeast sent across by Anita. I cant thank her enough for that. I managed to gather the enthusiasm to try her Potato Bread, but may be the bread read my hastiness and decided not to rise at all, and I thought it would rise on baking, but that did not happen. It turned out to be what Id call a flop show, but clearly the recipe is not to blame. So I want to try it once more with some more patience on a sunny day.

Otherwise weve been eating out a lot, thanks to my kitchen boredom [translating into blog boredom]. Sernya, a small shack like Tibetan joint run by 78 year old Uncle John, serves heart warming Thukpas, vegetables stir fried Tibetan style, rice and noodles, all for a small sum. If you are in Bombay and youd like to try out authentic Tibetan food, Ill gladly share the address with you. We also managed to go back to Urban Tadka. I dont know if Ive already raved about this place here. We like to call it the one-hour wait place, because no matter how early you land up and which day of the week it is, the minimum wait is one hour. One look at the prices and one taste of the food, and youll know why people dont mind waiting over an hour to have grub. Its Punjabi fare at its very best. Their biryanis are out of the world and so is their simple yellow dal tadka, or Punjabi Kadhi.

Please share with me your Diwali treat ideas, I desperately need some inspiration this year.

This is Part II of our #smuts Food Blogger meet in Cheltenham but before I go any further, I have to say a huge thank you to Fiona of London Unattached for the sterling work she did in finding our two eateries.  You can read about how well we were treated at the Well Walk Tea Room in part I.  For part II we were booked for dinner at The Tavern, Cheltenham and were delighted to be treated to complimentary cocktails as Fiona had forewarned them that we would be taking photographs and writing about our experience.

Of course, I stuck to sparkling water (liar, liar pants on fire!) and loved the little tin mugs of popcorn that we enjoyed with our drinks.  My drink of choice was actually a Mojito Royal and very nice it was too.

Fried Nocellera Olives

 Moving on from the cocktails to the dinner, you can see the full menu on The Tavern website, we chose some nibbles to eat while we decided on what to choose from the menu.  We had Fried Nocellara Olives, which I really didnt enjoy, it seemed a waste of a good olive to cover it in breadcrumbs and fry it!  What we all enjoyed were the Chickpea Chips and Chilli Jam.  These Chickpea chips are made using gram flour cooked and set like polenta then cut into chips, rolled in semolina and fried. They were delicious.

Chickpea Chips with Chilli Jam

Sea Bass was a popular choice and was a delicious dish with all the juices from the fish soaking into the vegetables below.
Choclette chose this amazing looking vegetable burger, loaded with lots of vegetable goodies with more of those amazing chickpea chips.

I couldnt resist the ribs which were one of the specials for the day, they were tasty but not quite as tender as they were billed to be.

Apologies for dodgy photo!

Fiona and Karen

Im up to my ears in misenplace, and will be incognito until tomorrow, when I will share this 24-item tasting menu via video, photos, and text. Until then, grab a slice of pizza, and enjoy the day like its the last day you will be able to taste garden-ripened tomatoes this year. Some slices are such sweet sorrow.

So it ended up being the perfect place to show off my new ASOS rainbow dress, which is also the perfect dress for a rainy, summer day.
The crisscross back keeps it from being too reminiscent of something youd sleep in on a camping trip (hint: its a tent), except that it still kinda looks like a tent. But thats kinda what I like about it. Cus you know, "its a great color, its a great length, its fun, you can move in it, you can twirl in it, you can spread your legs apart, and its a great price."

Here I am holding fake flowers.
And now, Im doing the obligatory hair tuck.
Megan had an adorable outfit shell be sharing with you soon--and I thought it was worth noting that I did her make up here, too. Im officially taking clients. Call me!