Adhi Potoba

Besides vacation, summer in Pune meant the mushrooming of Mango stalls pretty much everywhere there was space available. If one had a sky view, the entire city would look like it had a case of saffron coloured chicken pox with the abundance of mangoes everywhere. The Alphonso mango is the greatest fruit on the surface of this planet and the naysayers who pooh-pooh the notion just haven’t had one from Ratnagiri. Mango, the Alphonso Mango, especially remains by far my favourite food and I have tried to come up with recipes that use mango, even where it is not needed. We have recently embarked on a heart-friendly diet trying to cut a lot of the fat and sodium from our diet leaving me to find new ways of make food interesting and edible. The mango never fails to come to the rescue of such ambition and I have managed to forge a couple of good heart-friendly recipes. Here's one such triumph. Ingredients : For Rice 3 cups cooked Brown Rice 3 tbsp Rice Vinegar 2 tsp sugar Pinch of salt Nor...

At the intersection of BMCC Road and Fergusson College Road stands Hotel Rangoli. A place that in all respects is pretty low key, tries too hard to be cool and for the most part, would not be missed if it ceased to exist. This is one of the third tier hotels in terms of places you want to be. If Vaishali is closed and Roopali is too crowded and you really want to eat, then Rangoli is a semi-decent option. It is also a great option if a young man has befriended a young woman whose entire family hangs out at Vaishali and the two lovebirds want to have a date, but not have the young man beaten to a pulp and at the same time have the illusion that they can express their love in public freely.... you get the idea. Rangoli's food, although pretty decent, tries to hard to be everything to everyone, but really doesn't do justice to any of it. I did spend a decent amount of time there in the days when Vaishali was undergoing reconstruction and the parathas there weren't bad. Howeve...

In Pune, there are two seasons; the one where you need rain gear and one where you don’t. Sure there are temperature variations throughout the year, but this is pretty much the only difference. Summer clothes are not that different than winter clothes, with the exception of a light sweater and I really don’t recollect there being a spring in Pune. It’s pretty much either hot or wet and the only seasonal touch to your wardrobe comes from a worn out jacket or sweater. Even after a decade here in New York, I am still not really used to the four specific seasons. Especially summer, which is so short here in the city. And even though we’re soon approaching the end of the fall season, I am still enjoying my summer salads. Ingredients 2 Beets peeled and pressure cooked and cooled 1 Apple 1 Orange 1 Mango 4 Figs cut into quarters Zest of one Orange 1 tsp Mint chopped 2 tbsp Orange Juice 3 tsp chopped Pecans Method Cut the Beets, Apples and Mango into cubes and place in a bowl Peel the orange,...

In 1998 when Pizza Hut came to Pune it was greeted with the same kind of fanfare normally reserved by the Congress junta for Sharad Pawar ’s motorcade. Residing on Jangli Maharaj road in a new construction built on the grave of a typical Puneri corner bungalow; Pizza Hut projected itself as an example of American fine dining. The Puneris ate it with a spoon, or by the slice to be precise. During the first few weeks, the line to get in was around the block. There was a host table outside the restaurant taking reservations. At the time the host had the same attitude as Sachin Tendulkar ’s public relation’s manager. Everyone was apparently wasting his time and no one really seemed good enough to have a Pizza Hut slice. I, along with a few friends managed to get a table without waiting, as we knew “people”. Even at this low level of government, corruption did butt its ugly head. Once inside we were greeted with interior decoration that was trying too hard to be cool, arrogant waiters and ...