The Ant Blog

I recollect this evening with a lot of fondness. The Monsoon season has kicked in , and the showers are typically incessant in Mumbai. On this particular day however the rains were intermittent. We had driven down to South Mumbai to the one end of the city at the  NCPA for an evening performance. The show got over at 9:15 pm and left us with a myriad choices to catch a grub from. After debating for a while, we drove to one of the closest eat-outs The Tea Centre. I had heard of this place a lot, so was happy to pay a visit. The place has an old world charm, and has the look and feel of an era gone by. The name of the place  reciprocates in their menu, where the first few pages are dedicated to various kinds of flavors and blends available. It was late and the diners were all having their dinner. So we thought of trying our ' chai ' at the end of the meal. We ordered for our starters, Chicken with sauteed mushroom and onion , and Chicken Catchatori.       ...

It is the 28th of July, the night when Mohammedans the world over are celebrating Eid-al-fitr . While here I am sitting and recounting my Ramadan dinner experience. It only feels like the best way for me to commemorate to their celebrations, by sharing my culinary experience at the famous Mohammad Ali Road. One's experience with Mughlai cuisine, it is said is incomplete without them visiting the sacred lanes of this place and eating with the locals. In my years of growing up in this city, I have come to this place many a times to visit a dear old friend, but never in the times of Ramadan . The roads at Mohammad Ali Road are notorious for their lengthy traffic on weekends and at nights during Ramadan this place almost literally comes to life. So this was officially my first visit here to walk past the local shops, see, eat and basically absorb what I could through all my senses. It was a Thursday night,  two weeks ago and the rains were mercilessly thrashing the city. We had ...

Tell me what can possibly happen when three cheery and chattery women meet after a long time.. Well one of the possibilities is that they  turn the place around into a loud and happy hangout :) One of our last rendezvous went something like that. It was a Friday night, so spirits were high in general, we wanted to check out a place where we hadn’t been to before, somewhere where there would be music but not loud enough for us to catch up. So, we headed to Mocha cafe in Mumbai at R city mall, which was conveniently located for all of us. We opted for the sit out area, which was bright and decorated with comfy couches and lodged ourselves on one of the couches. We ordered our Chenin Blanc and The Non- Vegetarian platter because we were all hungry after a long day. One can  select 4 mini dishes in the platter, from the menu options in veg/ non-veg platter. We went with Hot Tennessee style chicken wings, Nut crusted fish fingers, Moroccan meat balls, Chicken Bruschetta. ...

Prep Time: 5 minutes Cooking Time: 30 minutes I often experience pangs for a certain kind of food, ranging from sweet to savory. And then I go about taking care of that need :) So last week I was in much need of satiating my sweet-tooth. Also there were a few guests coming over for dinner that same night, so I thought of a very simple and yet delicious way of going about it. To begin, I used some flavored Custard powder that I had with me. It was Raspberry flavor, I made a paste of 2 Tablespoons of the same with 1/4 cup of milk, so that the lumps dissolved in the milk completely. Next I boiled the remaining of the milk from a 500 ml container, added 3 heaped Tablespoons of Sugar stirring continuously to dissolve the same and to reduce the  water content to make it condensed as possible. After 12- 15 mins of stirring, add the paste of the Custard powder and stir to completely dissolve the contents. Ensure that the water content reduces sufficiently. Turn of the heat ...