A Traditional Slovenian Vegetarian Lunch in Bled

During our day trip to Bled , from Ljubljana, we had a lovely time walking upto and around the Vintgar Gorge – Walking amidst rainbows at the Vintgar Gorge. But all this walking left us pretty famished and we started looking for a good place to eat some traditional Slovenian cuisine. But finding vegetarian food in these traditional meat eating countries, although not difficult, can be rightly described as being a bit tricky. But after numerous trips I have grown wiser and have devised my own mini questionnaire that helps me find restaurants where I can get some vegetarian food. And in Bled, while randomly walking around, we chanced upon a local traditional Slovenian restaurant called the Gostilna Murka.

Gostilna Murka, Bled, Slovenia

Taste of Europe: Bled’s Kremna Rezina or a Cream Cake

No matter which part of the world you visit one of the most important elements of that visit is sampling the local food and cuisine. So much so that it warrants in-depth research and also a significant allocation from the travel budget. For me though, more than the food, its coffee and deserts. I have a major sweet tooth and no travel research is complete without a thorough analysis of the local deserts and a short list of “must haves” from the local ‘specialty stores’.

Bled Cream Cake at Hotel Park. Pic courtesy – Hotel Park website

5 Must Try Local Vegetarian Dishes in Switzerland

Sampling local food is an important aspect of any travel journey especially when it comes to exploring local cultures. Food is that essential link that helps us understand the place we are in better and bond with the locals. However traveling as an Indian vegetarian can be quite challenging in many countries. But on my recent trip to Switzerland I got a chance to sample numerous local dishes that were vegetarian. As one of our guides explained to us, Switzerland was traditionally a country of farmers and hence they ate what they grew or made. Thus potatoes, milk and cheese were and still are an important part of their cuisine. Also geographical proximity to Germany, France and Italy have also lent their character and flavor to Swiss food. The resulting cuisine is a vegetarians delight with a beautiful combination of local produce, flavors and traditions.

And based on my own experiences, please find below 5 local Swiss dishes that should definitely be on the must try list for every vegetarian visiting this country –

Taste of my visit to Europe – Lunch at Restaurant Furri, Furri

After spending half a day up at the Klein Matterhorn, we were all quite chilled (it was – 12 degrees there) to the bones and also felt the after effects of low air at that height. Hence we decided to finally move downwards and have some hot lunch. Tanya had already made reservations for all of us at Restaurant Furri in Furri; so we first took a ski lift and then a gondola and got off at the Furri station. From the station it was a quick walk to the Restaurant Furri.

Restaurant Furri, Furri

Taste of my visit to Europe – at Romantik Restaurant Julen, Zermatt

Switzerland as a country reminded me a lot of India with its varied multicultural and regional influences. Depending on which part of Switzerland you find yourself in, you can actually experience a bit of French, German and Italian in everything – from culture, to language, to cuisine, to landscapes. However it still has many things, originally Swiss too. During my own visit to Zermatt, I learnt that Switzerland was historically a country of farmers, hence traditional Swiss dishes tend to have potatoes and cheese as its core ingredients. But with Zermatt’s proximity to Italy (it’s just across the Alps here) there is a distinct Italian influence in the local cuisine.

Romantik Restaurant Julen, Zermatt

With Foodpanda – Delicious Food is just a click away

Foodpanda

Food 🙂  Mere mention of this word and there is a smile on my face and thoughts of tasty food on my mind. Hence it’s no surprise when I say that I am a total foodie and love my eating out time, especially for lunch. But sadly I work in a part of Mumbai where for some reason there is a serious dearth of eating options. And during one such frustrating search for neighborhood food options, I found an interesting website called Foodpanda.

Foodpanda is an online food ordering website that you can visit and order food and beverages in a few simple steps. Once you visit their website all you need to do type in your city, then your area and then a subarea – and lo and behold it shows you numerous options from where you can order. The website has tie-ups with all major restaurants in the city and across cuisines too. It also shows the online menu of the restaurant and the minimum order that needs to be placed for delivery.

An Afternoon at Amethyst Cafe, Chennai

On my recent trip to Chennai, my friend Sridhar introduced me to a coffee shop that I can only equate to being an oasis in a desert. After spending an entire morning outside in the Chennai sun (whose heat you actually have to experience to believe it) I was at my snappy best, when Sridhar suggested that we visit the Amethyst Café.

Amethyst Cafe, Chennai

This Café is built-in an old building (was earlier a mill) and situated right in the middle of a bustling section of the city. However when I walked in into the Cafe, it felt like having time travelled into an another era altogether. This café has been beautifully designed as a colonial style building in the center – with round tables & wicker chairs, and a huge garden all around it. The gardens are beautifully designed with numerous trees,  smaller zen gardens, fountains, numerous birds and even has an in-house cat.  Though the café is right in the city center with traffic all around, somehow this café seems insulated to all the noise, chaos and general city sounds.

Must Try Fast Food Places in Malls in Dubai

Shopping in Dubai offers everything that any other fun activity does – there is that thrill at the sight of beautiful new things, an adrenaline rush at finding something that you have always wanted (that too after a major hunting exercise) and the sheer joy on the swipe of the credit card for a purchase well made. During our trip to Dubai we indulged in this activity quite a bit, well to be honest, we spent 6 days in various malls and still didn’t see it all. While such mad non-stop shopping is fun, it also entails long hours and frequent energy breaks; and such breaks mean it’s time for some food and coffee. Since we spent a lot of time in malls, we got a chance to try out quite a few new eateries here, especially fast food chains, cafes, ice creams etc.

And based on my experiences, below are a few of my recommendations that you must try whenever you find yourself in any mall in Dubai 🙂

Just Falafel – This is an all vegetarian fast food chain with a menu consisting of all kinds of falafels (of course) and French fries, hummus, dips, salads, drinks and desserts. Also, their falafels are from around the world i.e. they have falafels in all the following flavors – Indian, Mexican, Greek, Japanese, Emirati etc etc. By the end of my trip this turned out to be one of my favorite places in Dubai (also a vegetarian’s delight) and I literally tried everything on their menu, though Mexican and Greek were my favorites. You can find out more about them at http://www.justfalafel.com/

Just Falafels

A Food Guide to Pushkar

Pushkar is any vegetarian and budget traveler’s food paradise. 🙂

The majority of the travelers visiting this town are foreigners and they live here for long periods of time. But the entire town is a temple town, hence any form of meat and alcohol is strictly prohibited. This has resulted in all kinds of cuisine being available here in their pure vegetarian avatars. This town is really small and for all practical purposes just one long winding road, but the number of eating options in terms of places and variety is just mind-boggling. And all this is available at dirt cheap prices.

So it’s no wonder that when a foodie like me landed in this town what happened – well I literally ate my way through the streets. My friends, Sonal and Partha had been to Pushkar a couple of months before us and they had spent about 10 days exploring this place and its hidden food gems. We tried their recommendations and found some of our own too. We were literally eating every 30 minutes here.

Since I loved the food here so much, I  am now listing the same below for everyone who is visiting this amazing town to try out and enjoy. Since I was busy eating and now reminiscing while writing, the descriptions are quite short. Hence take this as a teaser and visit Pushkar for your own experience. 🙂

• Pohas – Every morning all along the roads people come with carts and set up street side  poha stalls. Poha is a kind of flat rice which is cooked with vegetable likes potato and peas and served with a garnish of fresh tomatoes, coriander etc. This simple dish served in a newspaper for just Rs 5 is the most amazing poha that I have ever eaten anywhere in India or at home. This is a must try for at least one day breakfast. 

A Poha Stall

Rural Cruising in Rajasthan

After  an exciting Day 1 of our holiday in Bundi, we had decided to start our second day pretty early with a trip to a nearby Jain temple called Bijoliya Parasnath, then return to Bundi for lunch and then start for our long drive to Pushkar.

And in order to manage everything in time, we started pretty early from Bundi at 6.30am (in fact it was so early that we had to wake up the haveli staff to open the doors J) for our journey to Bijoliyaji Parasnath. Now the distance between these 2 places is only around 50 Kms but the drive takes around 2 hours one way, due to the bad conditions of the road.

Drive to Bijoliya Parasnath