So far, 2022 has been an eventful year, with lots of highs and lows. One of the upcoming highs is getting to spend Pujo in Kolkata after a very long time. Pujo is a time of socialisation, of meeting up with friends. And in that spirit, I have a series of four rather special articles…
Author: Utsav
Part-time radiologist, full-time foodie
Machh: The Calcutta Epilogue
Last Pujo, we dived deep into an exploration of fish in Bengali cuisine. We covered fish as a whole, right from the cacophony of the fishmarket to the stunning array of classics whipped up in the kitchen to the eating traditions. In this article, we will expand our lens beyond traditional Bengali home cooking and…
The Bong Blueprint
Pujo is just a month away. It is my first Pujo back home after three whole years, which feels great. Like every year, 2022 also has a series of great articles lined up for you during the festive season. There are guest articles and Pujo-specific writeups, and then there are articles celebrating the beauty of…
Dosa in a Time Warp
Vidyarthi Bhavan, located in the Gandhi Bazaar area in Bangalore, is a students’ eatery established in 1943, serving South Indian breakfast staples like idli, vada, and dosa. It constantly pops up in lists of “must-try restaurants in Bangalore”, and I’ll have to admit, I was a tad skeptical. I knew this place has a huge…
Farmlore : Reviving the Art of Slow Dining
Farmlore is a farm-to-table restaurant in Bangalore headed by Chef Ebenezer Johnson, that focuses on the performance art of the degustation menu. You book a ticket in advance and reach at a stipulated time. Like a piano recital or stand-up gig, you’re robbed of choice in terms of actual content, except for some basic options…
The Exactitude of Recipes
Recipes are everywhere these days: from cookbooks to websites, from television to magazines. A recipe contains instructions to make a dish, but how detailed must those instructions be? Which recipe is better, the one that goes into excruciating detail or the one that is more open to interpretation? Can you cook without a recipe? To…
The Argument for Authenticity
A well-established culinary stereotype is of the angry Italian pissed beyond belief at the insensitive American massacring their sacred cuisine. “Mamma mia! No gar-a-lic in-a carbonaaaara!” they would-a say with-a burning enthusiasm. Italia Squisita and Vincenzo’s plate in particular are two channels which feature angry Italians furiously gorging on sacrilegious YouTube content, and verbally bashing…
Chaul, Chow, Chai: Word Meanings
Semantics and Pragmatics So far in our series, we have examined etymology and phonetics, with interesting culinary digressions. This week, we will focus on two branches of linguistics that deal with meaning of words in a language. While semantics deals with the literal meaning of a word in a sentence, its counterpart, pragmatics, has an…
Cream, Crème, Crema: Word Sounds
Phonetics and Phonology Last time, we talked a little bit about etymology and word origins. This time, we’ll discuss the sound of words, which is the subject matter of phonetics and phonology. Phonetics refers to the study of sounds in language as a whole, while phonology refers to the specific sounds in a particular language….
Pesto, Pork, Potato: Word Origins
Historical Lingusitics and Etymology Linguistics is the scientific study of language. I’ve been dabbling with some of its basic concepts for the past couple of months and found certain aspects of it making perfect sense in a culinary context. This month, I’ll try my best to project my rudimentary knowledge of certain aspects of linguistics…
The Gourmet Glutton 