Saturday 11 June 2016

Street food sometimes beats Fine dining restaurants in taste and here is why!















I have paraded many restaurants based on the high five ratings on Zomato and social media. Barring a few good ones that got their due ratings, most other restaurants and outlets had highly over-rated stars. Not only did such visits burnt a big hole in my pocket, they did not leave my tongue wagging for more. I have kind of shunned social media recommendations for dining out and strictly go by what similar minded foodies recommend in blogs OR food sites....

I also find street food OR rather these non fuzzy food outlets with absolutely no spend on digital OR social media marketing attracting more repeat customers. And the taste is also very unique and not easily repeatable...

Here is what I have found as top reasons why street food is more authentic than fine dining restaurants:

1. The Chef and the owners are deep rooted into the cuisine and the Nativity of the place that they represent the food from. They are very passionate about recreating the experience of what they once at from their mother's kitchen. They rely less on technology - and more on actual manual labor and effort in creating the food. Even now in our native, a electrical mixer is avoided and the hand grinder is preferred in making every chutney OR spice varieties.

2. Every native cuisine has a few techniques that are to be adhered to bring out an unique taste. After all, cooking is a culmination of many chemical reactions and missing out one step and doing it later can completely alter the taste. And so with the quantity as well. This is where our local Chefs from the native have some secret, undocumented techniques that they adopt in their day to day cooking. No recipe book OR a culinary degree can teach this essential need in cooking.

3. The sourcing...which is the most important part of cooking. The small vendors have a well connected eco-system of local suppliers which bring them near native ingredients in their cooking combined with almost no refrigeration and freezing of food. This totally brings out the freshness in the food which is completely lost out in fine dining restaurants.

We also see this trend among diners, where the search for best street food continues as fervently as ever. Television Programmes that exactly meet this demand such as Highway On My Plate and Street food around the world rock on TRP ratings and provide us great insights as well. This is what we need to eat - Authentic, Local, Tasty and Affordable Food.

 

Wednesday 8 June 2016

Milkshake Madness - Creamy oreo goodness!

Hey there! Its been a while since I blogged and today's blog is about a super simple recipe. I am not the one who cooks intense food. My patience threshold is so poor that whatever I cook has to get done in max 30 minutes. Anything that takes more time ends up looking like anything but food!

That said, making milkshakes [OR for that matter anything sweet - Desserts] is my favorite hobby. My hunt for tasty and quirky milkshakes continues and this time I tried OREO cookies milkshake.
Sooper Simple to make and tasting outright delicious, is this awesome shake!

Here goes the recipe for the milkshake:

Ingredients

1. 6 Oreo cookies chocolate filled. Apart from this, Keep 4-6 cookies for decorations. Keep them crumbled/Powdered OR as it is.

2. 2 cups vanilla ice cream

3. 1 cup of milk

4. Optional  1/2 cup of sugar - I avoided the sugar because Oreo and Vanilla ice cream already had a lot of sugar

5. 4 tablespoons of chocolate sauce

6. 2 spoons Peanut Butter - Optional. Makes the milkshake more creamier and gives it a nutty flavor

6. Sweetened Whipped cream - vanilla flavored


Grind all ingredients in the blender except the whipped cream. Pour into a tall glass till it fills to 3/4th. Above this level, fill with whipped cream. On top of the whipped cream, Place 2 Oreo cookies OR spread crumbled Oreo Cookies on top of the whipped cream. Serve chilled. Enjoy!