Roma's Space

Here is our Sunday lunch – Vegetable Dum Biryani. This is one dish that needs a lot of patience as it needs to be simmered to perfection keeping all the grains intact. Thankfully, it was expected so I started on a Lazy Sunday Morning knowing I didnt have much to do anyway. I ground the pastes and prepared the purees, sorted the whole spices, cooked the basmati rice and microwaved the vegetables. It was a laborious procedure. No wonder it was made for the Royal Nawabs in Hyderabad as a delicacy. I remember Marut Sikka, the chef of Lock, Stock and 2 smoking tikkas creating this Biryani in a Handi. He was mentioning how this was relished by the rulers in olden times. The value of spices was so much back then that Pirates used to nab ships carrying spices more than the ones carrying gold or silver! Read the rest of this entry »

Happy New year ! May 2010 bring happiness, health and prosperity to you all. Yesterday we had the most relaxed New Years celebration. We went to Niligiris Cake exhibition in St Josephs High School Grounds. Raina was excited about the Big Taj Mahal cake. She couldnt believe it was all cake. There was a long ship, folk dancers, flower baskets, horses, etc; all made out of cake. Read the rest of this entry »

Hope you all are enjoying the Chrsitmas holidays so far. My week was really fun filled and hectic. Almost 6 parties this week – some for Christmas, some for birthdays and one wedding too. This much even before the New Year Party plans begin. I managed to bake a couple of cakes at the end of 3 days (in instalments, of course) . I’m rarely ever able to do any icing on cakes. The reason is that I love to eat hot cake. One thats fresh out of the oven. It just melts in your mouth and I dont want to miss that taste for anything. Thats why this time I baked 2 cakes. One for icing and one to gobble down as soon as its done. Read the rest of this entry »

This is one of the most refreshing drinks possible. Its an age old recipe handed down generations. Days when no soda or tang powders were available, these drinks were used to quench thirst and aid digestion alike. I happened to try this as a welcome drink at Made In India-1947. Its a restaurant on ring road (Bangalore) having a nice ambiance and great food. What strikes me about this place is the limited number of options they have in each category. If you want a cold beverage there are only 2-3 options. Same goes for soups, starters, etc; However, whatever they serve is really up to the mark. Another thing thats note worthy is that the place is always on high demand although its completely vegetarian! Yes, very few such pure veg restaurants in Bangalore which are running well. The first one that comes to mind is of course MTR! Read the rest of this entry »

The house is filled with the fragrance of roses and fresh rajnigandhas. I had got a whiff of the sweet scent a night before and knew they were there somewhere in the house. I was positive my mom would have brought flowers like she does every anniversary. Then we got a lot more flowers, from friends and family. Our house looks dressed up and now you know the air that the lucky florists breath every day. My 3 -year old baby noticed everyone giving us flowers. She went into the garden, picked a withered rose from our plant and gave it to her papa saying ‘Happy Anniversary’. Read the rest of this entry »