Vijay Basrur

Beer in Brussels

Even before I left for my trip, I had read a lot about the types of beer in Belgium. While I was keen on visiting the Hoegaarden brewery, I couldn’t manage to. But I ended up sampling quite a variety of beer. If there’s one thing I’ll visit Belgium for, it will have to be for the beer.

Cooking Catharsis

After a long time I made dinner last night. It was nothing special. We had macaroni with bell peppers & diced chicken sausages. But the difference was that I did everything from scratch while Snehal relaxed.

But what I realized was that I felt really good after cooking dinner. I tend to get a bit tired once I get back home and my usual routine is to play with Mansi for a bit, lay the table for dinner and sit down for dinner. But that routine slows me down a bit and I kick myself for not feeling energetic.

Looks like cooking dinner works like a catharsis for me. I am hoping to do this at least twice or thrice every week. And I really hope the dinners are edible. Last nights macaroni turned out quite well

Coffee pourings skills

For all you coffee lovers, you’ll like this guys tricks

Biscuits and me

I have forever been a huge biscuit fan. My Mom tells me I used to lap up Parle G squashed in milk when I was a baby. Parle G ofcourse still remains an all time favorite.

I remember as a kid I freaked on Delite, Ginger & Coconut Crunchees (all from the Britannia stable and how extinct) not to forget pink wafer biscuits too. I am not very experimental about biscuits and am more prone to pick up chocolate flavoured ones like Hide n Seek (pretty good eh?)

A few weeks back while I was shopping I spotted 2 biscuits from McVities, Fruit Shortcake & Ginger. I decided to pick up the former.

Now trust me when I say it that these biscuits are really quite good. They have this yumm feeling as soon as you pop them in your mouth. And while most biscuits go well with a cuppa chai, this one does a good job on its own too.

These guys have recently launched in India (they were imported earlier). At Dollar Store you can pick up 5 packs for 100 bucks. They are priced a bit steeply but I am sure you won’t regret biting into them.

Diwali – A festival of lights (and sweets)

Diwali is surely a festival of lights. Crackers & fireworks are an integral part of Diwali too. But as the years have gone by the fireworks are getting more polluting and not to mention horribly expensive. Sweets are also integral to Diwali, like any festival.

This year we’ve had a bumper offering of sweets at home and we are constantly swaying from being guilty and being greedy. This year’s spread includes

1- Sutarpheni (This has been a Diwali tradition for as long as I can remember. And it has to be brought from D Damodar at Dadar TT, no other will do)
2- Mysorepak (Though the best is available at Shree Krishna Sweets, mysorepak from mani’s at Matunga also pretty good. The secret is in the dollops of ghee used)
3- Kaju Katli (The eternal favourite)
4- Puran Poli (This is the quintessential Marathi savoury which goes very well with ghee)
5- Gulab Jamun (My uncle got us a dozen from Sweet Bengal and they are heavenly)
6- Halvason (This is a sweet from Gujarat. Snehal’s aunt, who was visiting, got it from Anand)
7- Mande (Mom made this karwari sweet for the first time which tasted pretty good)
8- Rava Ladoo (Ladoos made from Rava & Sugar. Homemade and Mommade)
9- Boondi Ladoo (Ladoos made from fried boondi soaked in sugar syrup. Homemade and wifemade. Pretty good. Tastes best when heated a little bit)
10- Karanji (The GSB variant with dessicated coconut, poppy seeds & powdered sugar filling. Homemade, Wifemade, Yummy!)

Add to this some inflow of various chocolates and our stomachs are groaning with the decadence of sugar, ghee and all such.

An exercise routine has to soon start next week to loose all that has been gained.

Happy Diwali!

Amul Ice Cream

A few weeks back I tasted Cappuccino flavoured ice cream by Amul. It was heavenly. Infact very close to tasting like a Bailey’s ice cream. I could have finished the entire pack but then I had to behave.

So on Saturday I went hunting for Cappuccino flavour Amul Ice Cream. And man did I have a tough time. I think Amul has got it really wrong on the distribution front and as for the marketing I think these guys have some serious gap to catch up on. Frankly Amul makes pretty decent ice cream. I love their black currant flavour too. And to top it they have an excellent pricing strategy. For 130 bucks you get 2 packs of ice cream (nearly a liter). I mean how many of the mass ice cream brands can boast of it? Not that there are many brands left now. Walls is on every wall, Mother Dairy is a new kid on the block in Mumbai. Dinshaws & Vadilal have become extinct. Really where are those guys?

So all Amul has to do is play a few cards well and they can really make a dent. If you look at Walls they are pretty much all over the place. In every Udipi hotel, in every kirana store and with branding which screams in your face. Amul branding is always so discreet. You have to look into every corner to check if the store carries Amul. And as for the stocks the store never have enough of every flavour.

After hunting quite a bit I was glad to lay my hands on Cappuccino at a small store. I blessed his soul.

We finished one pack on Saturday night. The other one sits in my freezer. It may not see the light of the day tomorrow.

Haywards Stout

I had a pint of Haywards Stout a few weeks back and kinda liked it. I picked up a few sometime last week and downed one tonight. It is no where near Guinness but its not bad either. Quite a refreshing change from the conventional lager.