What strikes me about South Indian cuisine each time I visit that part of India is how creative it is with a humble cup of rice! They steam, ferment, grind, slow-cook, roll, simmer, sauté to produce a plethora of interesting and very tasty dishes. Here's a few I got messy with on my trip back home earlier this month...a LOT of Tamil and Kannadiga food was eaten...
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Food travel
Earlier this month, my parents and I decided to drive up to the Chikmagalur hills in Karnataka, India, for a three-day break in the heart of a coffee plantation, just as harvest season was beginning. The Thotadhahalli Homestay is a stunning 75 acre property with a traditional Kannadiga style house complete with two hundred varieties of bonsai, about a hundred different cacti, and plush with antiques and artifacts. The hosts have let six of their rooms as holiday accommodation, and all meals are included in the tariff. We're talking 4 sumptuous home-cooked meals a day, prepared and served with great gusto and generosity, and representing some of the tastiest dishes in Kannadiga cuisine. So without further ado, let's launch into food! Most of these Karnataka dishes were eaten at the homestay, but a few of them were sampled enroute to Chikmagalur too. I do hope you have an opportunity to try some of these local Kannadiga food delights if you visit Karnataka.
As part of my epic food travelling holiday in India last year, I spent a few very tasty days in Mumbai. I went back to Mumbai last week to spend a little more time with family and to eat a little more of course. Following my trip, I have to add two more food stops to my list of top 10 street foods of Mumbai from last year!
What happens when you send a foodie to New York? Tummy space is never enough and she doesn't really want to ever leave. And a turnip cake gets photographed from every angle. I'm just back from a glorious holiday in NYC. When I wasn't making my way back and forth across the famous grid, gaping at skyscrapers and the masses of concrete and glass, or marvelling at the joys of a 24-hr tube [um Metro, I beg your pardon ;)], or bear-hugging old friends and family, or raising my glass of gin & tonic (you can take the girl out of England, but you can't take England out of the girl?) to many more such wonderful breaks, I was sampling grub from around the world, darting from one recommended joint to another across Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens, getting happier and higher as I went along.
The sea makes me hungry, just like the mountains do. Or maybe it's a holiday that makes me hungry. Either way, 40 degrees and 80% humidity notwithstanding, Goa was all about biking from one beach shack to another, lolling under umbrellas with beers, lemonades and books, and tucking into some gorgeous food. There were some dreadful meals too, but let's not talk about those. Here's my favourite Goa shack food from my trip a few months ago! f you ever visit, which I'm sure you will, give these a go.