ZARIYA.. THE WAY TO HAPPINESS

A lot is happening in and around the globe and many a times one doesn't care about the surrounding. It takes a lot of pride and courage to do anything for some one who is not your loved on or some one who you know. Elite Delhi schools have a general perception of creating wrecks who dwell in mal-influence. However, that is not always the case - Rajiv Mishra, Hanssa Jain and Sharanya Khemka, students of Step by Step School, founded 'Zariya' in 2016 in collaboration with the NGO 'Samarpan', to fight child abuse and neglect that takes place in New Delhi. 

After months of toil and labour, Zariya hosted its first major fest - a charitable event in conjunction with FoodCloud, who were also the official food partners, to raise both awareness and funds towards their endeavours.  Hosted at Select City Walk, New Delhi, this one-day event featured over a dozen chefs by FoodCloud.in along with performances by the children of Samarpan NGO, concerts, stalls and mini fashion show.

FoodCloud believes that happiness is homemade and indeed it is. Among many home made cooks or chefs, each has their own specialty and doing justice to there passion. 

RICK RAD'S -  The lady behind Rick rad's is genius and we love genius cooking. Low fat and oil free dishes is her take on Chicken Chaat grilled sandwich, Chicken Wrap, Potato Wedges, Pita Platter and Pasta Salad. 

Moving on, we tried some delicious Lemongrass Chicken Balls. Oh ! The strong flavour of lemongrass was so authentic that it took the dish to a whole new level. Served with sweet chili sauce this dish was a winner.

Later on we tasted Veg. Spring Rolls from "Thai Crate" Crispy and flaky on the outside and perfectly cooked on the inside these thai spring rolls were delicious. Every bite was a burst of flavours and yes, some flaky scrapes.

Lastly, we ate desserts by Yamini Khemka. The desserts are a Michelin Star quality. Her chocolate macaroons can beat every high-end pastry palour and the chocoltae bomb was in itself an explosion of layers of chocolate.

Food brings people and communities together and one shall never say no to humanity and food :)

A SPECIAL VALENTINE'S WITH FOODCLOUD.IN

Love is not just a feeling. Love is a connection, affection, emotion and most importantly, Love should not have barriers. Every year on the 14th of February, Valentine's Day or Saint Valentine's Day is celebrated to embrace love, affection or friendship. 

Valentine's Day is celebrated in many ways worldwide. Some people take their loved ones for a romantic while some may decide or propose or get married. Greeting card, flowers, jewelry, chocolates are given. But aren't these these proposal ideas too mainstream ? We believe in everything sweet - sweet life, sweethearts and sweet dishes *wink*

One of the nicest way to show someone that you truly care and have have affection for them and how special they are is by presenting them with beautiful homemade gifts. But in this busy lifestyle is it too much load to take a day off and prepare things from scratch ? We guessed so. 

 ON VALENTINE'S DAY, HAPPINESS IS HOMEMADE.

The way to a man's heart is through his stomach.. In fact, the way to most people's hearts are through their stomach. And this Valentine's Day, FoodCloud.in promises to tease your appetite with a twist. So do up your home in candles, add those fragrant flowers and that special table mat, chill the champagne and let FoodCloud give you a magical dinner at home. 

We received a beautiful package by FoodCloud.in for making our Valentine' Week special with 2 chocolate cupcake with peanut butter buttercream, vanilla fondant and lots of love. 

Cupcakes are a sweet way to please anyone. These cupcakes were very moist, fresh and flavourful. It had an elegant artwork. 

The web portal which connects home chefs to customers has two special Valentine's day offering - a "Valentine's Special" page on foodcloud.in where 11 chefs have curated 16 special 2-course and 3-course meals; and the best 5 dessert chefs have curated fascinating desserts from chocolate bars that are a proposal (by Chocazure) bouquets of edible delights to smooch mini brownies (G's Patisserie), 

Take a bit, and make your V-day celebration so much sweeter !

Je suis desja d'amour tanné

Ma tres doulce Valentinée...

— Charles d'Orléans

BECOMING ASSIYA #BECOMINGBRAVE

Claiming to be a feminist is not only brave but gallant for an ideal feminist who share a common goal ; to define, establish and achieve personal and social rights for women. Simrann Keshwani, a Final Year literature student at the Lady Shri Ram College for Women, University of Delhi and the Founder of Born Of a Million Thoughts has it all to be an influential and brave female philanthropist. At such a young age of 20, Simrann fears no barriers and plans on changing the world, one word at a time. 

Unlike many, she has attained her dream to write a book on the most sensitive topic of the decade - War And Syria, and we have managed to interview her just before the launch of her first book " BECOMING ASSIYA ". Now we leave you to decide whether she deserves an applaud or maybe an award. 

Ques. What are we going to find in  "Becoming Assiya" ?

It's been 5 years that the Syrian internecine began. The world shed tears while town and cities bled to death. Now, what remains is mud and mortar while the world sleeps. I've been one of the lucky few to be able to firsthand understand the struggles of the people trapped inside War Torn areas, as their fights towards peace continues.

Becoming Assiya is a small attempt to capture Syria's moment of crumble and a look into the dystopian future we signed up for, where bullets replace lives.

Ques. Which incidence or I may say circumstances, made you sure to start writing on such issue ?

As a child. I remember visiting my maternal home in the UAE, holding my mother's hand and often asking her why people dressed differently than us to which she replied "The world has forgotten that it doesn't matter. They are human too." 

Ques. Was it a childhood dream to write or yoy had to take a step forward to enlighten the current world scenario through your bold worlds ?

It was always a dream. Inshallah, soon a reality.

Ques. Do you recall someone as your inspiration ?

Yes, the people stuck in war. They deserve empathy. I think they are the real heroes and as many words as we use are less to wash off their agonizing trauma.

Ques. Who is your favourite author ? 

Nadine Gordimer... After her trailblazing work "My Son's Story", my mind was a slab of wet concrete with sermons and stones carved in. The word was I all knew - it was my weapon ever 

since.

Ques. We know you are the founder of BOMT. How did it start ?  Enlighten your journey.

Born Of a Million Thoughts (BOMT) is my firstborn. All we need ti do is look around to realise the dire need for on ground activism. There is suffering in the air and our tragedy is more than ever. There is a fear of OTHER, fear of an UNKNOWN. It is these barriers, I and my team have always tried to erase and Becoming Assiya is a step in that direction too.

Ques. If you were given a power, what power would it be and how would you as a writer use it ?

I think all of us are immensely blessed with the power to change or to destroy, to create or to reduce to rumbles, with the dangerous power of the word.

EXCERPTS

Simrann has given a considerable amount of time and energy for causes.

She has used every opportunity available to make the world a grand place

Simrann is inpirational, dedicated 

and has a beautiful soul. 

Connect with her at  https://www.facebook.com/becomingassiya

G's PATISSERIE - A LAVISH CHOCOLATE AFFAIR !

Gauri Varma is the "Willy Wonka" of the professional kitchen. It took her full 3 years to establish as a patissier and invite us to talk about her journey, inspiration, love for the colour pink and cakes *wink*

With no formal training, she deserves an applaud for handling a unique bakery business which "does not" involve any artificial sugary items, preservatives but LOVE !

The one thing we loved about her is that she can bake anything and everything as per the demands of her customer. She creates delicious cakes, pies, tarts, cookies, muffins and biscotti.

Her signature dish "Gooey Chocolate Brownie"  is the concoction of coco, flour and liquids. These small brownies are soft and tender and gooey and melts straight away in the mouth. They have a rich bitter-sweet taste and all natural colour, adding unrivaled depth to the bake.

Gauri takes inspiration from pastry parlours in Paris and admits her tour to Paris every year for motivation and developing her personal characteristics.  Having an eye for creativity is particularly important in making pastry more than any other type of culinary. As a chef, she handles fragile and perishable items which will need complete knowledge of food safety. Her nutrition science knowledge is vital to take extreme caution while handling food items as it is about her customers' health. 

Her range of coloured French Meringue are  both visually and taste-wise 'Beautiful'. Made with whipped egg whites, sugar and natural colours are baked until crisp and can be consumed as it is or decorated on top of cakes and pies and tarts. 

When we saw Gauri meticulously in action, she challenged that no where in Delhi we could find Red Velvet Cake as perfect as at G's Patisserie.  The dark red cake was prepared traditionally with cream cheese as frosting. There are so many variation in this cake that one never really knows if they are enjoying the taste or the colour of the cake. 

Indians are ruled by Danish Butter Cookies since forever. No offense to the brand but what could taste more delicious than hand-baked fluffy butter cookies ? Nothing ! G's bake the freshest, delicious and simply buttery cookies. Homemade vanilla butter cookies are unleavened cookies consisting of fluffy butter, flour and sugar. These cookies are crumblier, crispier and more buttery in flavour than the typical cookie made with high-fat sweet cream butter. Which is exactly why one should buy G's butter cookies. 

Our last segment was filled with laugh, excitement and lessons *YAYAYAY*

The most intriguing part at G's was the dessert making lesson from scratch. Who loves tart ? WE LOVE TARTS. Who loves experimenting with flavours ? WE LOVE EXPERIMENTING FLAVOURS. 

So, for the last segment we learnt to bake tart.

STEP 1 : Kneading the dough made out of flour, cold cut butter and egg. Knead till it comes together.

STEP 2 : Rolling the dough with the rolling pin creating a flat surface and roll out the dough in the tart shell and with the heel of the hand smear until the entire tart pan has equal quantity of dough. Scrap the extra dough from the top with the knife. 

STEP 3 : Put the tart in a preheated oven and bake until golden brown and crisp. 

STEP 4 : With the tip of the finger give the tart a nice massage with hot chocolate. Then fill the tart with thick chocolate ganache.

STEP 5 : Decorate the tart with each and every thing one likes including coloured sugars, meringue, lemon curd, silver sugar balls and various sugary produces. Voila ! It's done :')

What distinguishes Gauri from other pastry chef is her detail-orientation. As we see desserts are usually multilayered, it requires proper assembling of several components together to have a decent final product. 

Gauri inculcate an art of making and beautifying desserts. Having an artistic presence in her preparations creates temptation in the eyes of the beholder, as people want something that is feast for their tongue and eyes as well. Pastry being a niche specialized area, she has good quality equipments and ingredients flown down from different parts of the world and a self-taught highly trained faculty. Chocolates, pastries, designer cakes, muffins are just a few items from the wide range of menu at G's. We wish her and entire team all the luck for their future propositions and hope they spread love and smiles with their power of baking. 

Place : G's Patisserie, Kalkaji

Price : On Request 

HINGLISH - THE MEDLEY OF CUISINES !

Conceptualization and developing philosophies and ideas for conformation of a cafe and then concocting the decor, menu and other facilities to cement a concept cafe like Hinglish - Cafe Beach Bar. The first colonial cafe introduced in West Delhi makes us wonder what could be more prominent to showcase world cuisines with the local Indian Flavours. 

We are wired up to the Tea Session with Mr. Akashdeep Singh Dhiman. It was an eye opening session for tea lovers as he did take us through each and every minute details about tea, tea dust, tea leafs, tea bags and flavoured tea. We tried Lavender, flavoured green tea, black tea and smoking ice tea. The ice tea was infused with apple and cinnamon and the smoke with the use of a smoke gun made our jaw clench. 

The tea session was followed by lunch for which we had a customized menu of the matchless food items Hinglish has to offers.

The lunch started with "Methi Thepla"  A well executed Gujrati snack with garlic chutney, pickles, red chili sauce and creamy yogurt. What a fresh and vibrant way to start a lunch. The thepla is flatbread made with dry fenugreek leaves (methi), wheat flour and dry spices. A healthy as well as a light meal to munch any time of the day. 

We preach innovation and when talk about amalgamation, "Mango Chutney filled Croquettes" is the passage merging Hindi and English style food. The small breadcrumb fried croquettes incorporates mash potatoes, mango chutney and cheese. Crispy yet creamy, these cylindrical shaped goodness was a pack of distinct flavours absconding us in heaven. The mayonnaise served along had fresh herbs and the unification of the chilled mayo with piping hot croquettes was grand *yummy*  

Whenever someone wants to have the best of both world "Mushroom on Toast" is apt for the taste buds. Baked with mushroom tossed in the mushroom sauce and large portion of cheese on triangular piece of multigrain bread. The conception of serving healthy and delectable food is phenomenal. Crispiness of the wedges gives a complementary wallop to the toasties. 

"London Bridge Burger" is a king size gigantic vegetable burger which was tough to bite in. The cottage cheese double patty burger promised the traditional way on munching a burger - squeeze and let the filling fall *smirk* With generous amount of tomato, cucumber, slices of cheese and two piquant paneer patty it was lusty to gorge. With extra mayonnaise inside every layer of patty and bun, the flavours were powerful and the soft paneer patty melted in the mouth. 

The best is always for the last and  like in movies climax is stunning, we presented with a mind-blowing dessert.

"Sweet nachos" Blown by surprise ? Tempered white and dark chocolate were cut into long triangular pieces alike nachos accompanied by three nectarous dips - pure chocolate with hot chocolate syrup, strawberry foam with strawberry syrup and mango with mango syrup. The sweetness of the tempered chocolate pieces where perfectly balanced with the sharp acidic taste of the dips. What a paradisiacal way of wrapping up a rainy afternoon *finger-licking* 

Refurbishing the first colonial cafe in West Delhi to a Cafe Beach Bar has been consummation in various ways. The cafe is divided into two parts where the first section is for casual dining with open kitchen and the second section sets the beach mood with an open bar always in action and no one would deny the ambiance of beaches and sand and shacks. 

BonAppetit ! 

Place : Hinglish - Cafe Beach Bar, Tagore Garden

For Two : Rs. 2500/-