It’s only been a week since president-elect Obama and Haldirams is already honoring him in Ebonics:

Courtesy of nutmeg

If you happen to cross the street from the Bay Area mall formerly known as Vallco Fashion Park, you’ll find yourself drawn magnet-like to a strip-mall joint called Yogurtland. It’s partly the Pinkberry-like trance music, partly the hypnotic green tiles, partly the buzz around the entrance.
But Yogurtland, an LA-based chain, is not like […]

In 1976, California wines topped the French in a blind tasting in Paris for the first time, an event on par with the Protestant Reformation for European wine snobs. ‘We have shattered the myth of French invincibility,’ says Alan Rickman in Bottle Shock, which fictionalizes Napa Valley’s triumph, ‘and not just for California. The world’s […]

Despite many opportunities I’ve mostly shied away from doing food reviews, the chief reason being that I like to be able to simply enjoy a good meal without having to analyse or make mental notes about it (it’s bad enough that reading books and wat…

Where the Ambanis started: their original chawl

Anand Giridharadas of the NYT just penned a lengthy profile of Mukesh Ambani, who may soon become richest in the world on the strength of Reliance shares (thanks, Dad). He’s more a chowhound than a gourmand:
Ratan Tata cruises down Marine Drive on Sundays in fast cars and favors Hermès […]

Two restaurants become competitors while three become a trend: a new NYC restaurant confirms Bleecker and Macdougal as kati roll central. (The other two are Kati Roll Co. and Indian Bread Co.) Sangam actually boasts more about its fresh-ground spices, low-oil cooking and biryani:
When Ansari, who also owns Caffe Vivaldi on Jones Street, enlisted his […]

A tribute to NY’s Chinatown, land of 80-cent red bean puffs, overpriced bubble tea and Net cafés full of young rowdies playing Counterstrike or powder puff racing for $2 an hour.
Taro root bun:

Bulbs of tuber friedPopping breaded wedding leavesBubble tea slakes me
Oh, arbi. How can one root be so tasty, the breaded leaves so delish? Even your powder, extracted and extravagantly falsified, is my favorite flavor of bubble tea. Are you just aloo’s hotter sister?

Tea strainer at the local, friendly, lesbian-run megacafé:

The base for Tibetan prayer wheels in Central Square, Cambridge, say ‘dream’ in Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil and Gujarati. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to make sure it’s not Berkeley:

It’s not often that I’m struck dumb in a restaurant, but this happened at the Smoke House Grill in Greater Kailash a few days go. We had been warned by food-journo colleagues that the place is basically a bar that makes a very half-hearted effort a…

Achinta McDaniel’s LA-based dance company fused Lewis Carroll with Bollywood elements for last fall’s Paheliyan (Riddles): The Story of Alice:
Take one part ballet, toss in bits of tap, jazz and hip-hop, then blanket it all with a variety of Indian movement. You get Bollywood-Tech…
The original story remains intact, but there are changes. For […]

Licensing songs for movies is cool, and the Civic is virtually a Sri Lankan car. But Maya shilling for Bud Light is completely selling out. I mean, that swill is so weak it barely qualifies as beer:

(a.k.a. Harold and Kumar Go to Chai Castle)
After gorging on kati rolls this weekend, my cousin the orchestra conductor decided he just had to have some masala chai. I vaguely remembered a Midtown chaat house I’d been to once six years ago which began with the letter ‘A.’ We texted GOOGL and settled on Amma […]

You know what goes well with arugula? Steak.

Strolling through my local megagrocery, I noticed the salad dressing aisle has been taken over by questionable vegetarian. Don’t believe me? Check the labels: a third of the dressings are made by Wishbone, named after a bone you wish upon and break after gnawing on a dead chicken. […]