FOODHOGGER | HOGGER & Co. Photography

The Taj is fit for a Queen (aka Mother's Day)

Smita — Fri, 10 May 2013 11:01:15 +0000

By Queen, I mean, of course, MOM.

Although our reason for Afternoon Tea at the Taj recently were for a reason other than Mother's Day, I'm recommending this age-old custom to those of you looking for a Mother's Day outing.

Afternoon Tea has never been more elegant than at the French Room at the Taj in Boston. Located at the corner of Newbury St. and Arlington St, the Taj overlooks the beautiful (and especially lush at this time of the year) Boston Public Garden.

Once seated, service is gracious and attentive with beautiful live music wafting through the elegant high and chandeliered ceiling.

The Taj Royal is $38 and comes with finger sandwiches, canapes, tarts, scones, dipped strawberries, with clotted cream and lemon curd.

The tea selection ranges from white, green, black, oolong, herbal and chai, so there's definitely one for everyone. Reservations are recommended and be sure to wear your most floral clothes. We sure did.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Chicago: Giodarno's Deep Dish Pizza

Smita — Mon, 06 May 2013 18:08:48 +0000

Location:

730 North Rush Street

Chicago, IL 60611

Pizza is definitely a weakness for me...I could eat it all day, son. All. day.

A deep dish pizza, I've never had though, and it's obviously the thing to do in Chicago.

While asking around for the BEST deep dish pizza joint, we were referred to Giordarno's FAMOUS deep dish.

Kate of Union Jack Creative said that a deep dish 'za is like eating a lasagna...and she was correct.

This was LIGHT cheese, you guys.

LIGHT cheese.

Deep dish pizza is not for me, but I'm glad I tried it....see the left over cheese?

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Smita — Sun, 05 May 2013 16:44:38 +0000

Celebrate with tacos and margaritas!

Here's a round up of my fave taco places:

5 Napkin Burger (Miami), who knew a burger place could do fish tacos so well?

Linden Square's The Cottage in Wellesley, MA does a mean mahi taco

Border Cafe in Harvard Square, Boston

Dos Cominos in NYC

Atwoods Tavern, Boston, does a good fish taco!

And if you, like me, enjoy taco night at home, try this tilapia recipe for creating delish fish tacos!!

Product: Green Mountain Coffee

Smita — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 15:47:12 +0000

There are two smells worth waking up for.

Coffee. and. Bacon.

Not necessarily together (but that would certainly be bliss!)

Green Mountain Coffee is one of those coffee brands that just got it RIGHT. Founded as a small cafe in Waitsfield, Vermont, the brand has since grown to more than 100 high-quality varieties and most recently acquired Keurig, the single cup brewing system (my sister has one and it's brilliant!).

It's easily the best coffee I've had on vacation when Earl Grey just wouldn't do, and the Nantucket blend has such a lovely fragrance perculating throughout the house, like a promise of the weekend to come...

Many thanks to Green Mountain Coffee for refreshing my coffee stash with the Nantucket and Island Coconut blends!

Vermont: Stowe, Black Cap Coffee

Smita — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 18:42:16 +0000

Location:

144 Main St
Stowe, VT 05672

On Main Street, is the Black Cap Coffee shop, a quaint, picturesque coffee house, exactly how you would imagine there to be in a ski town.

For coffee, teas, hot chocolates, you can't go wrong. I didn't try any of there delectable delights, although the Easter sugar cookies were calling my name...

A tea to go and ready to explore a bit, although everything was closed for Easter...except Shaw's General Store...still, it made it easy to go back to our hotel.

Vermont: Stowe, Ben & Jerry's, Cabot Cheese

Smita — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 16:21:58 +0000

Locations:

Ben & Jerry's 1281 Waterbury Stowe Rd, Waterbury, VT 05676

Cabot Cheese 2878 Main St, Cabot, VT 05647

Who knew that the Ben & Jerry's factory was in quaint and picturesque Stowe?

Not to mention Cabot Cheese? I literally ran out of Lactaid, but that may have been TMI. And while the lactose-free MILD cheddar I got is incredibly sharp, I'm always just happy to find lactose-free cheese.

And hey, I didn't really spill my ice cream!

Don't forget, TODAY is Ben & Jerry's FREE CONE DAY!

Love this fake ice cream spill!

Breakfast Beyond Eggs: Appam and Stew

Smita — Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:41:23 +0000

Here's a little background on my childhood. I was born in Kerala, South India and grew up in Botswana, Africa, so breakfast was always very fresh and very local.

I was lucky to have farm fresh eggs for breakfast in the mornings. And incredibly fresh chicken. I have literally never eaten chicken as delicious as that, since. In fact, I have since stopped eating chicken!

But I digress.

With my South Indian background, eggs are just ONE of many options for breakfast, and sometimes are just an accompanying dish to other staples, like Upma which is something of a dry porridge made out of semolina flour. Upma with a side of eggs and optionally a banana with a sprinkle of sugar is delicious. Say what? Yes, it is certainly an acquired taste, but worth trying if you ever have the opportunity to do so.

Then there is my all-time favorite breakfast for special occasions: appam and stew. Appam is a fermented pancake made out of white rice. It's a breakfast treat, saved for birthdays, Christmas and New Year. And recently, my Mom has been making it for us whenever we go back to visit Toronto.

Sounds weird to have "pancakes" with something savoury like a stew, but appam is not a sweet pancake. If you've ever tried Ethiopian injera, it's similar but not quite as sour as injera and not served cold as injera.

So, if you're adventurous to try a different type of breakfast other than eggs, I'm sharing my Mother's recipe for Appam and Stew, which is her Mother's recipe and definitely tried, tested and true.

My mouth is watering already.

Thanks for the recipe Mummy! xo

Ingredients for Appam:

2 cups White Rice
1 teaspoon Yeast
1 teaspoon Sugar
1 and a half Table spoon Semolina
1 egg white
A little Milk

Preparation:
1) Wash rice and soak for 2 to 3 hours to grind.

2) SEMOLINA: Just before grinding the rice (in a blender), mix semolina in a cup of water and cook in low heat stirring constantly till it turns to a thick batter. Take off from the stove and leave to cool.

3) YEAST: Take litle luke warm water in a deep bowl and add the yeast and the sugar on top of the yeast and close it with a plate and leave it to rise for 10 to 15 minutes.

4) RICE: Drain water from the rice and grind the rice in a blender (USING ONLY MILK) little milk at a time to a smooth consistency. Batter should not become too loose by adding more milk (so be careful with that while pouring the milk). Divide rice and grind into two batches, instead of allat once. That will give more room to grind.

5) Add the cooled semolina mix and the risen yeast mix into the rice batter and mix properly and leave it to ferment for 6 to 8 hours. You may leave it in the oven, overnight. In warm countries it rises faster than in colder countries.

6) BEFORE MAKING APPAM: Take egg white and beat well with little milk and add this along with salt and one table spoon of sugar into the batter and mix well and keep it for another one hour before starting to make the Appams.

7) HINT: IF THE BATTER IS TOO THICK YOU MAY LOOSEN IT
                BY ADDING MORE MILK AND MAKE THE APPAMS
                THE SAME WAY YOU MAKE PANCAKES USING
                A NON STICK PAN OR A CAST IRON PAN.

8) Don't FLIP the pancakes, just wait until they bubble and are cooked in the center.

CHICKEN STEW OR VEGETABLE STEW RECIPE:
(Ingredients are the same whether you cook chicken with potatoes or only use vegetables)

1) One small chicken whole or Only the chicken breast : 500gm.

2) Ingredients:

Onions, 3 medium size
Green chillies, 3 (or more)
Ginger, 2 teaspoon (if paste) or a medium size
Garlic, 2 teaspoon (if paste) or three small cloves
Cinnamon sticks, 4 whole
Cloves, 5 whole
Cardamom, 4 whole (you can use powder too)
Fresh Curry leaves 2 or 3 stems. (You can use Corriander leaves instead, if curry leaves aren't available)
Black pepper, quarter teaspoon at the end

3) You can add any of these vegetables or all while cooking the
     chicken:- Potatoes, Carrots, Beans, Cabbage, Cauliflour,
     Peas, Tomatoes etc or just potato with chicken. I prefer that.

4) Preparation: Heat pan, pour oil and put the chopped oinions,
    cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and let it cook a bit.
    Then add the green chillies, ginger, garlic, curry leaves.
    Mix and after a little while add the chicken, salt with little water to
    cook the meat. (At this time, you can add the vegetables of your
    choice)
    Once the meat is cooked add 3cups of whole milk. If you want
    more gravy add more milk.
    Now add the black pepper powder, mix and boil again (not long
    though) and serve with Appams either with Chicken stew
    or Vegetable stew.

Options: Whole milk or 2% milk or Evaporated milk or Coconut milk.
                  You can use any of these of your choice.

Product: Nutella Snack & Drink

Smita — Tue, 05 Feb 2013 17:12:19 +0000

This is London: Harrods

Smita — Sat, 26 Jan 2013 13:00:50 +0000

Location:
Harrods, 87-135 Brompton Rd, Knightsbridge, London SW1X 0NA, United Kingdom

An afternoon at Harrods means afternon tea at Harrods, which is something to be savoured, not devoured. Macarons from Laduree were the best part, much better than the first time I had the french confectionery.

As elegant and sohpisticated as the dining experience was, something (perhaps the lobster rolls or salmon sandwiches?) didn't sit quite right afterwards with us and I realize it's not "proper" to say so, but there it is.

A feast for the senses, I especially liked the food halls on the ground floor, which we couldn't leave without buying armfuls of marmalade (how could you not?)

Christmas time at Harrods can't be missed, if only to take in the beautiful window displays outside, which Liberty London also does so well!

Here, a glimpse into the flurry that is Harrods starting, of course, with tea...

Boston: Salvatore's

Smita — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 15:32:24 +0000

Location:

545 Washington Street
Boston, MA

I didn't know Salvatore's was all over this city, but I'm excited about this prospect, as I've found some mighty tasty Neapolitan style 'za in Beantown, so that means I can find a it whenever I want.

Lovely and attentive service, and the best eggplant parmesan the three of us have ever had (and that's coming from two parmesan conoisseurs!)

Photo via my Instagram feed.