If we don’t take care of it, it will be gone

If we don’t take care of it , it will be gone is a dialogue that was repeated twice in the movie, Inferno .

 The line stuck to me , I have been brooding over it . No it isn’t rocket science , oh yes! All of us know about it . But the fact that we are so driven by this “movie” called life that we are on an auto pilot mode oblivious to most things .Oblivious to the food we eat , the road we take , the tasks we do , et al . We are not humans but robots who do things for the heck of it 🙂 . We eat because we have to . We socialise because it’s cool to do it , we dance because our peers do . We smoke / drink to impress others around and this is what I have been observing  . 
 
In this state how can we take care of anything? If it sustains it’s because it ought to or it will until it can . I was wondering what will happen if all of us snap out of the auto mode and nurture what we have . The world will become such a beautiful place to live in and will be filled with prosperity and happiness . All we have to do is be aware and take care of what we have . Everything ends , we end one day which we don’t realise and chase things which may not even remain with us , chase things we can’t take to our grave . We hurt , we fight without realising we are doing it . Can we actually take care of what we have ? Can we save what we have ? Can we be aware ? Can we be humans ? These questions run on my mind . My hope is we do . I hope we live every minute , every day like a new day . Love the one who matters the way we loved the day one we fell in love , talk to our family /friends like they matter the most , eat food like it is the best meal of the day , take care of ourselves and mostly create memories we can always cherish . For if we don’t take care of it , it will be gone 

Cheela

A healthy breakfast option anytime makes me happy . One of the regular brekkie option i retort to is cheela. Its simple, its healthy and its delicious , isn’t that a match made in heaven ?

The above pics are from my insta story , I forgot to click pics because of insta stories :/

Ingredients :

Besan/ Chickpea flour/Gram Flour- 1 cup

Onion , finely chopped -1

Green chilly , finely chopped – 1

turmeric power – half tea spoon

salt – to taste

Garam Masala – about a pinch

Water – 1 to 1.5 cups

Method :

Mix all the above said ingredients with a cup of water and make sure its of a right consistency ,not very watery and not too thick . Keep it aside for 5 mins .

Heat a non stick pan and pour the batter like we do for dosa and wait for it to cook. Put a lid over it so the same cooks in steam and I prefer slow cooking at any time . The taste one can get from slow cooking can never be obtained by cooking on high flame . These cheelas are delicious and can be eaten with chutney too. I prefer it plain like this and is one of my favourite of all time .

Note 

We can add curry leaves or coriander leaves and it will only taste nicer .

Happy Cooking!

Brahmins Thatte Idli

Sunday mornings for me is all about a good workout and yummilicious breakfast and it is my endeavour to find a place every sunday 🙂 . Today was Brahmins Thatte idli , located in Ashwathnagar.

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Ms. Google took me to the place and for a while I was unsure if I wanted to be a part of the food battle however mustered the courage and went to the battle ground. The queue was very badly managed . A mini stampede was what I witnessed . The swiggy boys about half a dozen in number were a part of this group waiting for their parcels so that they can vroom away. We took over 10 mins to reach the cash counter and before I realised there was a bee line behind us.

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My order was 2 thatte idlis and one chow chow bath . As the tradition in this part of Bangalore goes there is no sambhar with the order and chutney is served by a man separately outside all this cacophony . I managed to successfully get the plate of idli and chowchow bath and headed to the chutney man . One white chutney and one red was their way of serving. We walked up to the car and decided to eat and that might explain the slant in the image 🙂

The idlis were soft like jasmine flower(a saying in kannada- soft and white ), mallige hoovu in kannada and the coconut white chutney was nice. The red one was a proxy chutney whose presence or absence will make no difference in my life as it was bleh ! The chowchow bath was nicely done and kesaribath a tad sweeter than I would have liked . But if you plan to eat chowchow bath together , sweetness is not an issue . In short we liked the place and was worth the battle to try once . I am unsure of my revisit , if I do you will know 🙂 . Its an AYE ! Enjoy

Address:

 106, 80 Feet Road, Next to DHL Courier, Ashwath Nagar, Armane Nagar, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560094
Phone:099006 44777
You can get it swiggy’d too 😉

Chai Point

India runs on Chai and I don’t drink it .. Err .. I sip green tea and I am told by hardcore tea lovers that it ain’t tea *facepalm* . I enjoy occasional black tea and one such time my chai crazy friends made me taste the lemon tea from chai point . If we happened to be in any place where there is a Chai Point in the radar then a visit is must for my colleagues . So when we travel out from the airport the pit stop both the ways has to be Chai Point .

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On one such trip  recently we stopped over at chai point and they never cease to amaze me with their innovations . Their banana cake , puffs , the bun maska are all delicious, just perfect with a chai. I also know that some prefer a little crispy snack with their chai and that has been a practice at my home too . It could be a biscuit or some mixture but little of it. This time I stumbled upon this packet which is very economical and quantity just right . I was super impressed . Innovation and service are the only differentiators in the market , if we don’t do it someone else will they remind me .

Its an AYE from me , next time you see a chai point just try ok ? did you say you are lazy? they deliver in these uber cool flasks too 😉 .  Ek Chai hojaye!

Website : chaipoint

 

 

Adigas – M G Road

It was a weekday and we at office are accustomed to the snacks at around 5 . That day we were to be out for a meeting on M G Road around same time and were starved :(.. The client called me stating that he will be late for the meeting by 15 mins and we were only happy as we could grab some food. The only option that was visible was Adigas located near the metro station . We braved the traffic and crossed MG road to reach our destination.

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There was a beeline at the cash counter and I wanted bhel for myself and my colleagues chose vada pav courtesy the man who was making them at the counter . There was a grace I cant explain and very inviting vadas . I changed my mind and ordered for pav bhaaji for self and both my colleagues stuck to vada pav. We chose the self service bay and collected the food in a jiffy .

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While Pav Bhaji disappointed me with one morsel my colleagues were singing praises of the vada pav and i gave in . It was one of the best I have eaten . I am not a vada pav fan and may not even know whats authentic , if you say Mumbai vadapav classifies as one then yes ! I have tasted the best ones there 🙂 . We stuffed ourselves and ordered for a extra one too . It was a super hit amongst us and every time we go that way the only snack I see we reaching out to is , well! let me not repeat

If you have been there then you probably know what I mean , if you haven’t please go and try I say . Its an Aye from me ..

Address :
Vasudev Adigas
MG Road
084949 11152

Website : adigas

 

Peas Upma, Uppit , Kharabath

I know , I know it may not be your favourite breakfast . It is completely dependent on how it is made in my opinion. I love eating piping hot uppit aka upma for breakfast . Matar/Peas variety is one of my favourite . I dont like the frozen peas as they never do justice to the fresh ones . So here I am sharing how I make Upma and hoping you might like it and start loving Upma like me . Oh BTW ! its a healthier option for breakfast 🙂 .

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Ingredients:

Onion- 1 medium sized

Green Chillies- 2 ( I used the extra spicy ones)

Boiled Peas- i used about 15 pods

Roasted Semolina /Rava – 1 cup

Mustard – a teaspoon

Hot water – 2.5 cups

Salt -to taste

How to make it :

Roast Rava till it turns slight brown and the raw smell of Rava vanishes

In a wok take a table spoon of oil. Add mustard and allow it to splutter then add green chillies and onions and cook well .Now add the boiled peas and stir for 2 mins . Time to add  the rava , salt and stir . Now add the hot water and stir for sometime so that no lump is formed . Close the lid and allow it to cook for 5 minutes . Serve hot Upma with lime

Notes : Rava can be roasted in Ghee for added aroma and flavour . A sprig of curry leaves and a small piece of ginger can be added for extra taste  along with onion in the beginning.  Garnish with coriander leaves

Happy Cooking!

Grilled Potato slices

I have started loving simple recipes and healthy cooking has always been my first love . One of the days I wanted to eat some crispy wafers but gagged at the thought of oil in them . So went into my kitchen and decided to make something at home . This recipe is simple and guilt free 🙂

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Ingredients :

Potatoes – washed , peeled and sliced (I use a slicer and decide on thickness basis my liking )

Chilli powder

Turmeric powder

Amchur /Dry mango Powder

Salt

A teaspoon of oil

Mix all the ingredients and simply grill them. I also tried to do this in my micro wave and it cooked well too . Since my tray is smaller , I stacked them up separately on 2 racks of grill and let it remain inside the convection for over 6 to 8 mins and voila ! yummy crispy potato crisps, chips is ready . If you happen to try this do lemme know how it turned out .

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Notes : You can replace amchur with lemon juice , add coriander powder , I sometime get lazy and all I use is sambhar powder . Alternatively I grill sweet potatoes, Okhra , Brinjal , etc . Use your creativity here .

Happy Cooking

The Super Market -Life lessons

There is this road I take everyday to work and back . It was overtly crowded and traffic almost on a stand still as the super market on the road was a crowd puller with less parking so every visitor parked on the footpath and clogged the roads . This went on for years and I never noticed anything but the traffic , chaos and so many times have found ways to avoid driving on that stretch especially a sunday as I know a 2 minute drive will take 20 minutes and life went on …

Recently they shut the store rather shifted it elsewhere and when I realised that it was a huge sigh of relief for me. No more traffic woes I screamed and punched my hands in the air . Again life went on until one night when I was driving back home. I saw the dark building from the signal and noticed that the super market and people around it were beyond mere nuisance . It provided light and also had people and security around which was missing.

The path gave a deserted look and left me thinking that we always find negatives when something is around us and start noticing the positives when it is gone . Why is that we aren’t trained to see the good first before we crib about the bad? isnt that the ideal way of looking at life? We whine and cry about what we dont want and seldom appreciate what we have . We run behind what we dont need and ignore what we have , we chase dreams for tomorrow and fail to live today . We are humans and the most intelligent “life” on this planet .. Hmm time to rethink?

 

Koshys

Koshys is an evergreen , will never go wrong place for me from years . A place that reminds me of old Bangalore and I long to visit this restaurant most times I am around M G road. There is a thing about this place I can never explain and of course I know what exactly to order and they have never let me down.

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It was a saturday afternoon and yummy food was on my mind after a month of healthy food life balance . Which place other than Koshys could I have thought of . While parking is a huge concern after 2 rounds of Koshys we finally parked in a no parking lot(sigh!). Parking woes , ok let me not go there for now. We were blessed as the table was waiting for us and we happily plunged into them and ordered prawn curry rice and pork curry rice(not in pic , sorry) at one breath . It is always accompanied by salad , pickle and papad . The waiter uncle who attended us was very serious and spoke to the point unless the other ones I have encountered and meant serious business . Food came , was polished off in no time . I also wanted to eat an ice cream , no fancy but simple good old chocolate ice cream so ordered for it . When doing a crime , do it properly no? (am referring to the cheat meal) 

 

Go Go anytime and enjoy the food , this place is all about old Bangalore and good food . Its a big Aye from me . If you are not from Bangalore then make a mental note to visit this place atleast for breakfast the next time you visit my city and if you are a Bangalorean and have never been there, what are you waiting for ?Just go I say .

Address : 39, St. Marks Road, Bengaluru, Karnataka 560001

Phone : 090071 19356