Published and unpublished writing on art, books, cities, food, travel and other reportage.
Lost in gustation. ♦ Unlike its namesake, Shibuya the restaurant is relatively quiet in its first week of operation. Just a few families and groups of friends occupy the dining room and enclosed balcony of the lower floor. The bar on the upper floor isn’t open yet, but includes a bigger open area for mingling. …
bpb Review: Shibuya Food & Bar, Greater Kailash-II Read More »
Firdaus lost and found. ♦ In a million tourism brochures and travel articles, both Delhi and Kashmir claim to have inspired the Persian couplet: “Agar firdaus bar-ruu-i zamiin ast / Hamiin ast o hamiin ast o hamiin ast”— If there is paradise on earth, it is here, it is here, it is here. The bumpy …
bpb Review: Café Hameen Ast’o, Said-ul-ajaib, Saket Read More »
The Arabian peninsula’s maritime history comes alive in Oman. ♦ In 1979, British adventurer and maritime explorer Tim Severin wandered the west coast of India, the country of his birth, looking for rope. Severin had already voyaged across the Atlantic in an open boat, approximating the journey of a sixth-century monk. Now he wanted to …
For remembrance of things pasta. ♦ The era of comfort Italian food was ushered in to Delhi eighteen years ago, when Aseem Grover and his wife Fawzia Ahmed opened the Big Chill in East of Kailash, all cheesy sauces, generous portions, and thick milkshakes. When they started, the couple did a little of everything, from …
bpb Review: EVOO – Eatery and Pizzeria, Shivalik Read More »
This new “brrgrr co.” urgently needs vowels, but is sweet on the tongue all the same. ♦ Passing through the newly-shorn Def Col this week, we notice a little shop more than a bit reminiscent of New York City’s gourmet fast-food chain, Shake Shack, outside which we’ve spent many an anticipatory hour in the queue for …
Sampan in the way she moves. ♦ This writer is a fan of Andaz hotel’s stereotype-busting AnnaMaya restaurant, with its locally sourced vegetables and wall of micro-greens juxtaposed against an over-the-top dessert display. When AnnaMaya opened last year, it proved a welcome departure from the stuffy banality of most upscale hotel coffee shops with their …
bpbReview: The Hong Kong Club, Andaz Delhi, Aerocity Read More »
The old coffee store now makes drinks, because Devan is a place on earth. ♦ Stopping by recently for our go-to bag of beans (shoppers often have their own customized blends of the various grades of coffee), we were pleasantly surprised to see something new brewing at Delhi’s favourite coffee store, Devan’s. A big sign hangs …
A Delhi classic gets a (lagan) nu lease of life. ♦ The Zoroastrian fire temple on Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg has nourished the souls of the city’s small Parsi population since the 1960s. But it was Dhun Bagli’s kitchen in the Mengusi Parsi Dharamshala next-door that kept the community’s stomachs sated during social functions, and, …
bpbReview: Rustom’s Parsi Bhonu, Delhi Parsi Anjuman Read More »
On the frankincense trail in Muscat. ♦ Oman smells like Christmas all year round. Walking in out of the hot sun—whether it’s into a mosque, a hotel, or someone’s home—means being engulfed by the pervasive plumes of frankincense smoke. It fills every interior space with a rich, piney fragrance, nuanced with hints of citrus peel; …
Yum Yum Tree’s Saket sapling puts down roots in a new market. ♦ Last year, we took the news about the felling of the great Yum Yum Tree in Friends Colony market with a heavy heart. The restaurant—over 6,000 square feet of unrepentant Japanophile kitsch, with some Sino-Baroque swag thrown in—was a magic faraway land of …