Paramount

that famous sarbet shop, which can easily fool you with its inconspicuous appearance

stuck in a corner near the of college square pool, it can hardly accommodate about 15 customers. no glitzy ritzy interior, no designer glasses, the waiters are neither swanky nor do they wear fancy cloths...

in short nothing extravagant, a complete rejection of the concept of posh packaging which is so prevalent in our globalised world,......

and that (apart from the sarbets) makes it special.

nothing flashy, just all class

.... it has been like this for ninety years, and we 'college-streeters' wouldn't have it otherwise.

I personally prefer it to the more famous intellectual hangout 'coffee house', mainly because of the handwritten 'no-smoking' sign on the wall.

to left in the picture is 'coco-malai' which they claim, and i totally agree, to be their best creation.

to the right is the drink made of coconut water and in the back is the plain old lassi with no spoons to scoop out treasures.

....gives us some idyllic moments in the midst of summer.

Shephard's Pie

Its easy to make, you can use ground beef, lamb or mutton. And loads of veggies goes well with it, like corns/broccoli/beans/carrot/tomato/cauliflower almost anything. Easy to make and with a slice of bread and some salad its a heavy meal.
Ingredient:
250gms of mutton keema.
1 onion chopped.
1 tomato chopped
6-7 cloves of garlic. chopped
Mix of vegetable like corns, peas, broccoli, carrot, cauliflower, beans. Take any number of them, more the merrier, chop them into small parts. Total amount of vegetable should be about same or slightly more than the keema.
3-4 boiled potato.
2 tbs of milk
2 tbs of butter/oil
1 tbs of soy sauce
1 tbs of tomato sauce
salt and ground black pepper to taste
Put 1 Tbs of oil/butter in pan and melt it (don't put too much oil and mutton is very oil meat so it will increase the fat content of the food anyway). Fry the garlics first, just till it starts giving out its aroma, now put in the onion. You can add tsp of sugar on it, gives the onion a nice red hue. When the onion starts getting transparent, add the tomato. Fry of a little while and then add the mutton. Now simmer down the heat and fry in low heat for 5 minutes. Add all the veggies next, and the sauces, salt and pepper. Again cover and fry in low heat for another 5-8 minutes.
Take out the cover and increase the heat till the mix becomes dry.
Meanwhile peel the boiled potatoes, put them in grinder with the milk and 1/2 tbs of butter, pinch of salt and make a smooth paste.
User the rest of the butter to grease a microwave proof baking dish. Pour in the mutton mix and cover the mix with mashed potato. Pre-heat your oven/microwave to 250 C and put in the dish for 15-20 mins or till the cover turns golden brown. And voila your own pie is ready :)

that flower....

..... by any other name tastes as good

saw a kumro phul ( pumpkin flower) dish in the anthony bourdain show
a south american(didnt get which country it was) street food...
the flower with some spices and cheese is put into a tortilla, folded in a half circle shape and fried/roasted in a tawa
looked as sumptuous as our very own kumro phul bora
that flower dipped in a batter of besan (gramflower)+molasses+a bit of rice power
and deep fried in oil