Rakang

Rakang – Thai food ❤

Small and cosy with a little outdoor seating is just what we require in the summer! The place is delicious. Every dish is made to perfection and with love.

We had the Green Curry with chicken, the Noodles with Shrimp and the Prawns in white wine sauce. And I have the say the Prawns were my absolute favorite. They melted with every bite and could be enjoyed with and without rice.

Photo Credits: Emily Luque

Address: Elandsgracht 29-31, 1016 TM Amsterdam, The Netherlands. +31 20 620 9551

 

 

Banana Bread <3

I had a crazy craving for Banana Bread. I just couldn’t stop thinking about it so I googled up a bunch of recipes and made my own 🙂

I added some chocolate (Dairy Milk) and walnuts as well to give it a bit of that edge.

Recipe:

1. In a bowl, add 2 cups of flour, 1 tsp baking soda, and 1/4 tsp salt. In another bowl, mix together 1 egg, 3/4 cup of sugar, and 1/2 cup of vegetable oil.

2. Next, add the flour mixture to the egg batter and mix together. Then, add half a cup of milk, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, and the 3 mashed bananas and mix until well combined.

3. Mash a handful of walnuts and mix it with the mixture. I also broke pieces of the  Cadbury Dairy Milk (my fav chocolate bar).

Oven it up and tadaaaa! Wait around 30minutes before diving right in and enjoy 🙂

So delicioussss ❤

 

Do we live to eat or eat to live?

A lot of people ask the same question, and most will say its super unhealthy to “live to eat”. But for some of us, food especially good food can fix any broken day, week or month. For me especially, a bad day and I dig into a tub or ice cream or grab my favourite Chinese take-out.

However, it’s still important to have control and limits to this diet. A gazillion calories a day might not show on our body weight, but they do on our organs.

Good food doesn’t necessarily mean we always have to have fat filled or food from out.

Good food can be that delicious grilled halloumi that you prepared with a slight squeeze of lemon and burnt garlic. Or it could be that fresh summer salad, with just enough chilli flakes to add that tangy taste for your buds.

None of us like being told what to do, but we have to know our body, including its likes and dislikes. Because at the end of the day our body is part of us, and if it isn’t happy or satisfied we are not going to be either.

So don’t go for the extremes, maintain the control and feel yourself flourish 🙂

 

 

 

 

 

Greek Yoghurt and its wonders

I always tried to stop eating junk food, get healthier and have that clean eating attitude. However, I have realized that its very difficult for me as I seem to take food as therapy rather than a means to live.

To improve my lifestyle, I started changing few things at a time. I started with swapping out the various store bought sauces, dressings and mayonnaise with greek yoghurt. Its fairly simple, I don’t like plain yoghurt. I always need to eat it with something.

So I started putting things in my greek yoghurt to make it tastier and healthier.

Mint Greek Yoghurt

Its easy and super tasty. Just put in a bunch of mint leaves into the yoghurt with some salt. Let it set for 30 minutes at least and then use it instead of sour cream with your burgers, or fajitas. I have to say this taste much better, and if you are having greek food or something spicy the taste combination is delicious.

People eat it for breakfast as well, along with fruits. I still need to get that far 🙂

London – Dishoom

Being from India its very difficult living in Amsterdam sometimes. The food, its just not the same. You miss the smell of the street food, the extra butter melting on that bread, the tastes of the spicy chilli marinated right into the meat, or even into the vegetarian dishes and oh so much more. I miss the crackle of the tawa (huge pan) on the streets, and the guy lemoning up everything I order in front of me.

Dishoom, where I was first like oh ok could be good, turned out to be amazing. The interiors reminded me of a 90s Bollywood movie set in Bombay. Those chairs, the posters on the wall and random artifacts kept as decoration.

When I saw the menu I got so excited, was like a child living her dream. They had all my Bombay street food and more. I literally ate everything snacky on the menu.

My favorite was the okra fries, and the pav bhaji. Oh they were so delicious.

So pav bhaji literally translated is vegetables and bread The vegetable is made of carrots, potatoes and some other veges that our moms can find in the fridge. They spicy it up and top it off with butter, coriander and lemon. It’s then served with soft bread thats been heated on the pan with butter. Best meal on a weekend growing up.

I would also recommend the naans there, I enjoyed the cheese naan and garlic naan with sheehk kebabs.

Kali dal, which translated is black lentils. Its cooked with spices, and topped with a bit of cream and coriander. Again one of my favorite indian dishes, and also a vegetarian speciality. Eat it with the naan, and you cannot go wrong.

You could tell the restaurant was popular, as there were about 30 people waiting outside at 6pm, it was packed and didn’t seem to be getting any slower 🙂 I went to the one at Convent Garden but I believe there are 2 other locations as well.

Address: 12 Upper St. Martin’s Lane, London
Number: +44 20 7420 9320

Couscous Salad with Kebabs and Yoghurt Dressing

Ok, I know it sounds like a lot of work. But its not and its totally worth it.

I laid out the yoghurt dressing at the bottom, topped with couscous and then the kebabs on top. Nom Nom Nom. Spicy with the cooling yoghurt, it just tasted ah-mazing.

Yoghurt Dressing:

I covered the bottom of the bowl with yoghurt, not too much, maybe half a cup. In that I put pinch of salt, a bit of chili powder depending on how spicy you like your food, and some coriander. Let it sit for a while, as then the taste of the coriander merges with the cold yoghurt and its delicious.

Couscous

Couscous should be boiled in normal water (according to package instructions). However, I boiled it with Chicken Broth, a pinch of salt and a drop of olive oil. My package told me to do it for 5 minutes, and then let it cool for another 5.

After that I added 2 cut tomatoes, and 1 red onion and mixed them altogether.

Kebabs

This really depends on your taste, and what kind of meat you like. I used chicken.

I mixed the 300gms of chicken with 1 full lemon, 3 green chillies cut small, 1 white onion cut small, 2tea spoons of garam masala, 1/2 tea spoon of red chili powder, grated ginger, 2 cloves of grated garlic, coriander (amount depends on how you like it), 1 tea spoon of tandoori masala, 1 small spoon of rice flour (for binding), and 2 tea spoons of bread crumbs.

Mix it altogether and make little patties out of it. Now you get many patties and you don’t have to use them all for the dish :)I keep them handy for when I don’t have time to cook, as they really taste delicious and are quick to whip up.

So I first added the couscous with the vegetables on top of the yoghurt, and then decorated the kebabs on that.

Enjoyy 😀

Eggs on toast with a twist

Everyone has their favorite breakfast, and their favorite way of cooking eggs. Eggs can be made in a various ways, but what makes you want to have breakfast for dinner? What makes you look forward to the morning meal, with water in your mouth and butterflies in your tummy.

For me its simple, scrambled eggs on toast with a slight twist. The secret to my morning happiness is guacamole.

 The guacamole adds an extra zest to the flavor. I have mine spicy with extra lime and cilantro, yum yum. I used whole wheat bread just to be healthy 🙂

I hope everyone enjoys this!

Dood Biscuit (Milk Biscuit)

What is it? Its just plain milk mixed with biscuit. Allowing the biscuit to soak in the milk, get softer, and finally just melt in your mouth. Yes let it just melt and let it remind you of a simple Indian kids childhood.

This was our daily snack, what we waited for after school, and what I still indulge in a bit more often than I would like to admit 🙂 

If you have an Indian Grocery nearby I would recommend having it with Parle G biscuit. But if thats not an option you can just use tea biscuit. Also delicious.

Mumbai – Pali Bhavan

I didn´t want to enter as it didn´t have that pull on the outside, but once I did I changed my mind immediately. The decor was simply amazing. They had decorated it as an old Indian Palace – with every piece of furniture and decoration carefully thought through.

The lighting added to that romantic and tender atmosphere. It allowed for the place to be perfectly lite but dim at the same time. Even the lights were wonderfully chosen, and it was incredibly obvious the decorator took great care and thought into designing the place.     Now lets get down to the food, which was mouth watering and kept me praising them for days after.

For the starters I ordered the Bombil Fry and chicken tikka. The chicken was soft, and you could taste the tandoor on the meat. It was well marinated and a delight to eat. The bombil too tasted delicious and crispy perfect.My favourite part of the entire meal was their garlic naan. Holy Moly. It was so well cooked, soft and tender and just perfect for anyone to keep wanting more. The garlic was not overcooked, and didn´t have that overbearing flavour to it. They had added a perfect combination of the garlic and butter melting on top of the naan.

I had gone for lunch, so along with my food I had a nice chilled beer. However, they server cocktails, hard liquor and many other types of alcohol. Their cocktails did look delicious – and colourful. I would really recommend trying this place. Its worth the money, and the service was great. The food arrived well in time, and they took care of our every need! As they say in the food industry, service is as important as the food!

Location: Pali Naka, Palli Hill, Bandra West, Mumbai