Friday, January 25, 2008

The Day I met Sanjeev Kapoor

The Day: 25th January, 2008. Venue:Saarang 2008, IIT Madras

Sanjeev Kapoor of 'Khana Khazana' fame gave a lecture on 'Things you must eat before you die', a list of his most favorite things to eat from the Indian subcontinent. The list in no particular order is as follows:

  1. Modak
  2. Appam and Stew
  3. Banaras ki Thandai
  4. Thalipeeth and Thecha (similar to bajri ki roti)
  5. Dal Pakwan (a Sindhi preparation)
  6. Kaale Gajar ki Kanji (from Punjab)
  7. Kahwa and White Darjeeling Tea (Kahwa-Kashmiri Tea)
  8. Kada Prashad (Prasad served in gurudwaras)
  9. Bhel
  10. Gushtaba (Kashmiri meat dish)
  11. Ker Sangri (Rajasthani snack)
  12. Kakori Kabab from Lucknow
  13. Shikampuri Kabab
  14. Mande-wedding dessert served in Konkan, popular in Belgaum
  15. Karimeen
  16. Meerut ki Rewri
  17. Hyderabadi Biryani and Mirchi Salan
  18. Mishti Doi
  19. Mutton Kohlapuri
  20. Nalli Nihari (a type of mutton curry)
  21. Notun Gurer Rosogulla (made with new jaggery-notun gurer)
  22. Paan
  23. Paunk (from Surat eaten during Uttarayan)
  24. Kolambi Bhat
  25. Makki ki roti aur sarson ka saag
  26. Sattu from Bihar
  27. Solkadi (kokum and fresh coconut milk)
  28. Undhiyo
  29. Vada Pao
  30. Pav Bhaji
  31. Beef Pepper Fry
  32. Ada Pradaman (dried rice cake cooked with coconut milk and jaggery)

He graciously signed my notebook at the end of the lecture (since the best things in life happen when you don't have a camera or an autograph book handy, I had to make do with my regular college notebook for Sanjeev's autograph!)

Following his lecture was a cookery competition where we were given some fruits, veggies, milk, biscuits and other assorted ingredients and we had to whip up something nice for the judges. No cooking was allowed. My teammate, Piyush and I came in second in the competition in the 'savory' category for our starters of Monaco and cheese accompanied by onion, tomato and coriander yoghurt dip. ;)

Our "recipe" for Monaco and cheese starters and yoghurt dip ;)

  1. Monaco biscuits
  2. sliced cucumber, tomato
  3. grated cheese
  4. finely cut onions, salt, pepper and chaat masala mixed with finely whipped yoghurt for the dip
  5. sev, mint and coriander for topping

create sandwiches of the desired combinations of veggies and cheese, topped with more biscuits and yoghurt dip for added flavor. crunchy and quick snacks are ready in no time ;) goes well with just about everything ;)

I also witnessed one of the quickest disappearances of food I've ever seen. The judge, a food critic was making her way around each table, and no sooner had she taken a bite to sample the preparation, than the rest of the contestants and volunteers for the event who had already made a crowd around the judge polished off the rest of the preparation. It took just under 5 seconds for our starters to disappear off the plate after the judge had made her ratings ;)

All in all a fun day. Looking forward to more tomorrow. :)

Till then..

1 comment:

Naresh said...

Dude
That's a good thought. A talk from a celebrity chef and then a culinary competition among the food hungry IITians. I hope that the lecture was good. If not, even then the food makes up for it.
Kudos. Hope you enjoyed.