Swara Bhaskar describes herself as ‘greedy about food’. She can’t let go of a yummy dish even if she chances upon one in the middle of the night. She confides she’s no connoisseur and that she can’t cook to save her life. Neither is she someone who will take down recipes. But the best way to bribe her is to treat her to a sumptuous meal. The best part is that she isn’t a fussy eater. She can eat the same dish day after day without complaining, she can keep visiting the same restaurant, she isn’t someone who’s impressed by fancy ambience. And to top it, she has a fab metabolism, she can eat and not put on a pound. That’s cause for envy alright. Excerpts from her food related memories…
Mom knows best
My father hails from Andhra Pradesh and my mother is from Bihar, so our kitchen has the perfect blend of North and South dishes. Mom adapted herself to her husband’s palette. Today she makes the best dosas ever. And she doesn’t pick up readymade batter but soaks rice and lentils overnight and goes through the gamut of making an authentic dosa paste. She makes yummy appams, idlis, avial and kootu too. My grandmother is a good cook and I love the dum aloo, litti-chokha, trifle pudding and smoked meat that she prepares.
Childhood treats
My father is a member of the India International Centre, Delhi and we’d often visit it during my childhood. I love the ginger pudding they serve there. Eating out was a rarity those days. We used to eat out if we secured good marks and for close to 15 years, this ginger pudding was a treat for good grades. I also loved the pizza at Nirulas. Their mutton sausage, capsicum and onion pizza is a favourite.
Delhi chaat
You don’t get better gol gappas than those in Delhi. The chow mein you get there is better than what you get in China. I went to this fancy restaurant in New York once and ordered chow mein and got served soggy noodles with some black pepper on top, disgusting. I prefer an Indian version. In the South Delhi campus we used to get the best chhole kulchas at ` 5 per kulcha. I’d eat half a dozen in one go. They’d also serve a tangy cold drink – a mix of lemon and soda, which was to die for.
Mumbai cutting
Street food is best enjoyed on the streets. For instance, there is no beating the pav bhaji served at various stalls at Juhu Chowpatty. The sand and sea breeze instills a unique flavour to it. I also love the Parsi bakeries around the town. My favourite is the Yazdani Bakery at Fort, which bakes the best bread. The brun maska, ginger bread and the apple pie is lip smacking. Theobroma in Colaba, which is a more upscale joint, too serves the best snacks.
BBC calling
Mumbai’s JW Marriot’s 24 hour coffee will always be special as that’s where late Farooque Sheikh saab used to treat me. After the release of Listen Amaya, we used to go there quite often. Marriott also has a great Afghan themed restaurant. Farooque saab was a foodie. I remember he once bought 15 kilos of gulab jamuns from a roadside vendor in Delhi and distributed it amongst the cast and crew. He used to treat us all to biryanis and kebabs.
Celeb cuisine
I had a chance to savour delicacies from Salman Khan’s home on the sets of Prem Ratan Dhan Payo. He brings an enormous tiffin, enough for 10-15 people. It usually contains delicious brown rice, chicken, mutton and sugar free sweets. Sometimes, there would be continental food as a variation. Once Sonam Kapoor treated me to some parathas dripping with ghee during Raanjhanaa. She apparently eats them every day. I wonder how she maintains her figure. Deepak Dobriyal makes great pahadi daal and Mohammed Zeeshan too prepares some yummy haleem. Aanand L Rai is another foodie and pampered us on the set of Raanjhana in Benaras. We were only eating kachoris and jalebis and slurping lassis. Only Dhanush stayed away from the food orgy. He had brought along a South Indian cook.
Food quirks
The worst meal I’ve eaten is during a train journey from Delhi to Amritsar. The experience put me off railway food for life. The best meals I had recently was in Lahore at this rooftop restaurant called Machaan – where I had cheese and onion chicken, cheese nan and mint chicken. Lahoris love food. The rasmalai, rabdi and kulfi I had in Lahore were the best. The gol gappas came close to those in Delhi. I also tried a new kind of kebab called chapli kebab (flat kebab). My comfort food is pizza. I also love plain bread and butter. Maggi and milkshakes are my midnight snacks.
Cooking disasters
I don’t enter the kitchen unless it’s absolutely necessary. Once, I had fired my cook and then took some five hours to cook prawns and chicken. I like adding spices like ginger, cardamom, cinnamon and black pepper in my tea, which gives it a unique taste. Once I called some friends home and tried to make chilli potatoes. I ended up spoiling the lot as I put too much corn flour in it. Then, one Holi, I made some gujiyas but they turned out so bad that no one touched them. I stopped making mithais after that.