Last month I was nominated by Anjali to participate in the Real Neat Blog Award. Anjali is a friend and it was nice to see her starting her own blog which has loads of interesting recipes. Thanks for nominating my blog for this award 🙂


Rules/Instructions:
Put the award logo on your blog.
Answer 7 questions asked by the person who nominated you.
Thank the people who nominated you, linking to their blogs.
Nominate any number of bloggers you like, linking to their blogs.
Let them know you nominated them (by commenting on their blog etc.)
Who inspires you the most, and why?
I have been inspired by people who work in the education sector, more specifically teachers. These are the individuals who work relentlessly in shaping a child’s future and I have had the fortune of knowing some of the best.
One thing that is inherited in you, hobby, nature, looks (no materialistic things please). Etc and of course you are proud of it?
Whatever I try, I go for it and give it my best shot!
One thing that you would not give up for the world?
What I am as a person.
One thing that you wish was different for you?
I really can’t think of anything!
What’s your favourite colour, and how do you associate with it?
Purple or lavender is my favourite colour. The colour has a pleasing effect.
What do you enjoy more writing your blog or performing it?(like cooking, baking or whatever you do)
I enjoy both equally. While cooking, I see a story unfold in front of my eyes. While writing, I present the story in the same manner to my readers to the best of my ability.
What’s for favourite food?
North Indian, specifically Punjabi food.

So here are my set of questions to be answered by my nominees
1) What made you start writing about food?
2) How did you learn cooking?
3) Do you think its important to be neat while cooking?
4) If you started a food-related TV show, what would you name it?
5)What is your favourite cuisine?
6)What is the one country that you want to visit just to taste the food? Why?
7)What is the best item you cook according to you?

Now I nominate some fellow bloggers for this award 🙂
My nominees are:
1) Charanya from http://yesiamvegan.com/
2) Sophie from http://sophiesfoodiefiles.wordpress.com/
3) Malar from http://malarmuthu.wordpress.com/

Last week I received an invite from Maulshri to participate in the Writing Process Blog Tour. Maulshri has a lovely blog named “joie De vivre” and her recipes live up to her blog’s name. I really like the dessert recipes that she spins off and plan to try one of her recipes soon. Thanks for inviting me to participate in the writing process series.

For those who are unfamiliar with how the blog tour works, I answer a set of questions about my writing process and then introduce three other bloggers who will answer the same set of questions next week. Each of them would also introduce a set of three bloggers for the following week, and so on. On that note, let me answer some simple questions which focus more on the thought process behind writing a food blog. My blog is an outcome of sharing my thoughts as a foodie to a larger audience. I was a foodie from the start but I started cooking from scratch about two years ago. I also love to try out new restaurants and share my two cents of wisdom on them.
What am I working on?
Right now I am focused on trying out ingredients that I have never worked with before. So I end up staring at a shelf on the grocery store, reading the labels on different items and trying to imagine how flavours blend with each other. If I come across a new ingredient that I have not heard of or tasted before, I come home and read about its properties on the internet and think on how to use them in my dishes. So I would like to term myself as a student who is learning something fascinating about food everyday in some form or another.
How does my work differ from others of its genre?
I cannot confirm on the extent to which I differ from other food blogs radically. The uniqueness that I try to bring into my cooking is that I consistently break the monotony in cooking by trying out different ingredient combinations. All the recipes that I have posted on this blog have been tried by me for the first time in my cooking life. By that I mean, I have never eaten these recipes before in my childhood or at someone’s place. So the dish becomes that much more interesting to try out as I become extremely passionate while preparing it in order to get a delicious result.
How does your writing process work?
In terms of the recipes since I have cooked it first hand, I can write about it easily. My thoughts are crystal clear on the process that I followed and it is just a matter of typing it out. I do try to share a bit of my mind space at that moment which is important to me – it could typically be that I wanted a colourful dish or that I wanted to bake. I do not share my thoughts on food because I have to churn out posts at periodic intervals. I write only when I want to and since I love food and writing, the posts turn out to be a nice blend of a variety of ingredients. In terms of restaurant reviews, I am as honest to the meal experience that I can possibly be and I had the penchant to try out different restaurants way before I even started cooking or writing a food blog.
Now I nominate 5 people for this writing process tour ( I am increasing the number from 3 to 5) as it will be interesting to read their approaches towards their writing. I also tried to check and have not nominated the blogs who have already taken part in this process but there are quite a few of them whom I just love reading and have encouraged me in my blogging journey.

1) Priya from http://sugarfreesweetheart.com/: She writes a host of diabetic friendly recipes and her blog name is very interesting. To add to that, her method of writing on the cooking process is diagrammatic which is quite different.
2) Sridevi from http://coconutcraze.wordpress.com/: Her recipes have generally been something that I have not tried or tasted before. Also she gives an interesting background on the recipes by sharing some Kerala memories.
3) Shruti from http://cookingdiarybyshruti.wordpress.com/: Her chirpy nature exudes on her blog. I like the interesting quotes that she adds in between which would kind of be similar to writing in a diary.
4) Aruna from http://aahaaram.wordpress.com/: I visit her blog regularly and she dishes out interesting South Indian and Mumbai specialty dishes that I like to read. Coincidentally I identify with both these cuisines as I am a South Indian born and brought up in Mumbai till I moved to Singapore.
5) Namrata from http://myfoodtapestry.wordpress.com/: I find her presentation to be interesting and her recipes are simple and easy to relate to that they are always a pleasant read.

Since I started blogging about food, I have come to realize the food blogging community has its awards season. The unique aspect though is they run throughout the year. It is nice when bloggers from different parts of the world chance upon your blog and find it to be an interesting read. It did come as a pleasant surprise to me when I was nominated by Manasa for the Sunshine Award . Manasa has a lovely collection of vegetarian recipes on her blog (which is a deelight to read!).

This award is specially given to those bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere. It feels nice to be considered as a part of that list by my fellow bloggers. I have been asked to nominate ten bloggers whom I consider to be such inspirations to join in the list. This was hard (there are so many good blogs out there!) – but here goes…(I did my basic check and shortlisted blogs that have not featured this award on their blogs)

http://myfavouritepastime.com/
http://atspoonoflove.com/
http://deliciousdaydreams.com/
http://kelipaan.com/
http://feastingwithfriendsblog.com/
http://flourandfancy.com/
http://maulshri25blog.wordpress.com/
http://ohshecooks.com/
http://kitchensmitten.wordpress.com/
http://creativecravings.co/

The rules of the award are:
1) Display the award on your blog.
2) Show your gratitude and link back to the person who nominates you with the award.
3) Nominate 10 of your favorite deserving bloggers who positively and creatively inspire others in the blogosphere.
4) Link the nominees in your post and let them know they have been awarded.
5) Write 10 interesting things about yourself.

The 10 interesting things about me are: (I am going to limit this to the food perspective)

1. I am a planned and organized person – and that percolates into my cooking as well.
2. I neither like bananas nor dark chocolate.
3. I love trying out different cuisines and hence like to travel to different parts in the world.
4. I like to visit different restaurants in order to try their varied offerings.
5. I like to experiment with different flavour profiles with respect to food ingredients.
6. I cannot handle very spicy food.
7. I like to browse on different types of cutlery.
8. I like to read on food photography.
9. I like to cook along with some music playing in the background.
10. Last but not the least, I am a total foodie and love to eat!

The concept of time literally flying dawned on me when the post count on this blog flashed 25. Obviously I was delighted but more than anything I knew it was time to say a sweet thank you. Thank you to all the readers, food bloggers and restaurants who appreciated my reviews and recipes. A big thank you to my friends for their encouragement and support. Variety is the spice of life, and I am glad that I was able to vary cuisines, ingredients, preparation methods etc. in my recipes and reviews. Along with this, about a month ago I was nominated for Liebster award by Chintal and it felt nice to receive it from a fellow food blogger. She has a lovely collection of recipes and is meticulous in her cooking which is evident in the outcome of her food preparations. In German, ‘Liebster’ can mean variety of things like lovely, kind, pleasant, or valued and so I am honored to received this award.

Liebster award

Rules of this award:-

• Nominate 5 to 10 bloggers with less than 200 followers
• Notify your nominees by posting on their blog
• Answer the questions that I have asked
• Create 10 questions to ask your nominees
• Thank the blogger who presented the award to you and link back to their blog

As per the rules I have to answer 10 questions set by Chintal which are as follows:-
1)What is your favourite cuisine?
Being a foodie, I like to try all types of cuisines. So the list is endless but my favourite cuisine is North Indian – I am totally a dal makhani, rajma and chole person.
2) If you had to apply for a reality TV show which one would you choose and why?
I am going to take the liberty of assuming this question to be limited to food reality shows. I watch Top Chef and Masterchef but do not see myself there yet in terms of cooking expertise. So for now I see myself as a tasting expert, restaurant decor visualization, food critic, salad decoration, food reality show host kind of roles in the food domain. If there are any reality shows catering to these aspects, I might take a go at it.
3) At what age did you get your hands on cooking?
Being a “typical” woman, I would not want to disclose my age. So let me say I’ve been cooking for two years.
4) When going on holiday what item is a must and you can’t go without?
My passport and travel itinerary.
5) What is your favourite childhood memory?
Going to a library and reading detective novels with no track of time.
6) Who is your inspiration?
Some of my school teachers and a friend who is a teacher.
7) List some interesting facts about yourself.
Like to write, organized, emcee [this list is endless too 🙂 ]
8) How would you best describe yourself?
I just realized that it begins to get difficult to start talking about yourself in public domain. Having said that, I am a person who lives everyday to the fullest. Your deeds define you, your karma will catch up with you is what I think and hence leaving a mark by creating a positive atmosphere around you becomes easy. I am practical and smart and believe in doing good because that is the right thing to do.
9) What is your favourite drink/beverage?
Fresh fruit juices, especially watermelon.
10) How aware are you of allergies and could you cater for them. Give an example.
My knowledge on allergies is limited. If I have to cook for a bunch of people, I would definitely ask them if they have any unsuitable reactions to food items. In case they do, I would avoid the use of that particular ingredient.
I would have to do this post in two parts since I have not figured out who to nominate and my set of questions for them. I will try to do that soon. Till then, thank you once again for reading this post and stay deelighted!!!