Nothing says Christmas in Kolkata more than the Christmas cake. With places like Nahoum’s and Flury’s overflowing with cakes and crowds, the plum cake has a much more ubiquitous presence here as compared to other Western seasonal favourites like roast dinner and eggnog. This Christmas, we will take a good look at this seasonal treat…
Category: Food Science
The Case for Molecular Gastronomy (Part 2)
Spheres, Foams and Gels Farzi café in Gurgaon has some wacky stuff on its menu. The first dish they serve is an amuse bouche which they called Mishti doi shots. It comprised a small bowl with a light brown orb, some strawberry compote and a sprinkling of panchphoron. We downed it like a shot, and…
The FATS Journey (Part 2)
Merry Christmas to all the readers of The Gourmet Glutton. As a Christmastime treat, I’ve decided to post the 2014 article I wrote for my college magazine Rupantar, the catalyst for my Food and the Senses series. Click here if you missed the first part. And here’s part 2 of the original FATS. So, that’s…
The FATS Journey (Part 1)
I started my blog in August, and the Food and the Senses series has been a dominant component so far. The roots of this series, however, goes back five years, to November of 2014. The student community of Medical College Kolkata publishes an annual magazine called Rupantar. It features stories, personal anecdotes, beautiful poems and…
Ring of Fire
Food and the Senses (Part 7) “Love is a burning thing, and it makes a fiery ring”, goes the lyrics of Johnny Cash’s 1963 country hit. Fun fact, the original version was recorded a year earlier by Cash’s sister Anita Carter. The closest thing we get to a ring of fire in the culinary world…
Of Textures and Contrasts
Food and the Senses (Part 6) We’re reaching the end of this long series which explores the five senses in the context of food. In our journey so far, we’ve talked about tastes and smells, sights and sounds, and we’re now ready to talk about the fifth and final sense. There are a lot of…
Commercial Cunning, Crunch and Crackle
Food and the Senses (Part 5) In Part 4 of FATS, we saw how appearance greatly affects our eating experience. Over the rest of the month, we examined the visual aspect of food, mostly from an aesthetic viewpoint and this week, we we will examine the psychological side. We already talked a little bit about…
Rustic Meets Trendy (Part 1)
Sarson da saag, Makki di roti aur Chaas In the last article on deconstruction (which you can check out here), we talked about the pros and cons of this culinary trend, how it can go terribly wrong and how it can completely transform a classic. We restricted ourselves to speculations and sketches with the analysis…
Culinary Colours
As we’ve discussed already, we eat with our eyes first. The appearance of a dish can greatly influence our appetite, and colour plays a particularly important role. This week, let us explore the role of colour in food, ranging from the aesthetic to the psychological. Let’s start with the obvious. Just as a beautiful garden,…
Art on a Plate
Food and the Senses (Part 4) As the saying goes, we eat with our eyes first. Sight is one of the first senses to be engaged when we are presented with a plate of food and hence plays a very vital role in our decision of whether or not to engage the other senses at…
The Gourmet Glutton 