Tag: Denmark

The best meals of 2018 – Where and what I ate

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It’s becoming a sort of ritual now…to round up the year with the best meals I have eaten and 2018 has been especially kind. It’s the year I really traveled for food and created itineraries for those who love to travel for food (I consult with Cox and Kings and created itineraries for their product Tour To Feast). 2018 was the year of learning about food of different communities and going absolutely hyper local.

So here they are…my most memorable meals of 2018.

deena kaka’s hing ki kachori, varanasi

Varanasi’s very own Soup Nazi, Deena Kaka runs this small kachori shop near Chowk area. The shop is literally on a footpath where people patiently wait while he fries the kachori. You can’t ask him to hurry up, you have to wait patiently and wait in the line or else you don’t get any kachori. . . Deena Kaka opens the shop for just 3 hours in the evening, fries 3 batches of kachoris and goes home. The price of one kachori is Rs 5 which hasn’t been increased in years. He doesn’t do it for money anymore, it’s purely for the love of food. And the love shows in his kachoris which are stuffed with aloo and fried in desi ghee. The air around the shop is thick with the aromas of hing which makes his kachoris stand out. He serves them with black gram and chutney. This plate of kachoris is the best food I have eaten in Varanasi.

Also Read: Varanasi – The city that runs on high vibration

Deena Kaka ki hing ki kachauri, Varanasi

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Fun things to do in Copenhagen

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Nyavhn, Copenhagen

My Copenhagen trip was planned in a month, between hectic work travel and planning a pop-up dinner. And so, there was barely any time for me to research about the place and things to do there. However, there were quite a few things I was looking forward to…food, of course (yes, I tried to make a booking at Noma but I don’t think I am ready to part with 20k for a meal, not yet); cycling and late sunsets. Oh yes! It’s quite fascinating to have your dinner while the sun is still out. I traveled to Denmark in July, peak summer; something the whole country looks forward to after long, cold and dark winters. Continue reading →

Where’s my hygge?

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“This is so hygge,” said our host Anett Wæber, the founder of Meet The Danes (an agency that offers Danish home experiences to travelers), as she dimmed the lights, lit a few candles and put on some music. This was my introduction to hygge – the Danish word for the feeling of cosiness, comfort or fun. Yes, the feeling that you get when you curl up on a chair with a book and a mug of hot chocolate…the Danes have a word for it…hygge, pronounced as hoo-guh. In the Oxford Dictionary, which shortlisted hygge as ‘word of the year’ in 2016, it’s described as “a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being.” Hygge is derived from the Norwegian term hugga which means “to comfort”, doesn’t it sound like a close cousin to the English word ‘hug’? After all there’s nothing more comforting than a tight warm hug from a friend or loved one.

Cosy reading nook with books, candle and hot cocoa – Perfect recipe for hygge Photo by Alisa Anton on Unsplash

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