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25 Easy Indian Recipes with Just 5 Ingredients | Quick & Simple Meals

on June 08, 2026

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Dining Etiquette in India: A Guide to Eating with Grace and Respect

I n Indian dining etiquette, it is customary to begin dining by washing and drying your hands. Whether in a restaurant, hotel, or urban home, dining tables and chairs are typically provided, while in rural areas, families may gather on floor mats in comfortable clothing for their meals. In contrast to Western traditions, food serving in India doesn't follow a course-by-course structure. All dishes are presented simultaneously. Nevertheless, serving styles may vary depending on the regional cultures and specific cuisines of the country. Instead of individual portions, dishes are served communally, either by the homemaker onto your plate or by allowing you to serve yourself. The customary Indian meal usually includes a variety of flatbreads such as naan, chapati, roti or paratha, along with daal, curries, raita, rice, pickles, and sweets. However, the particular dishes offered may vary depending on the region of the country you visit, such as Punjab, Gujarat, Bengal, North-East Indi...

FOOD ITEMS FROM "Q"

"Q" is an alphabet, not many food items start with. I would like to recorrect this - not many Indian food items start from "Q". Anyway, now, as they say, the world is shrinking (literally and metaphorically too), so let us take food items from Q, irrespective of their origins. Before listing the other food items, I will share what comes to my mind with Q - this one is everybody's favourite - Quaker's oats. Quaker is a popular brand that produces many healthy(?) breakfast options. The other is Quesadilla is a Mexican Pic Wikipedia dish made with a tortilla filled with cheese and other fillings. There is a post in my blog about it. Please do check here . It has an Indian cousin invented by Indian mothers made with the available leftover roti and sabzi. :) Even Quinoa (pronounced as k iː n . w ɑ) is something we have recently introduced to. When I read about it and searched online, I found it very expensive. But to my Pic : Wikipedia surprise, I went to...

Gujarati Thali @ Iscon Thaal - Review Post

When I relocated to Ahmedabad from the Delhi-NCR region over two decades ago, I found respite in the city's milder summers. Unlike the relentless heat of North India, where April through June offers no reprieve from the scorching temperatures even at dawn or dusk, Ahmedabad's mornings and evenings were once an oasis of coolness. However, over the years, the tendrils of climate change have also insidiously tightened their grip on this city. The early morning hours are still cool, duration is reduced, blending into an oppressive daytime heat even from 9 AM, and the evenings, which used to bring a soothing breeze, are often stifling. The increasing intensity and duration of heatwaves, driven by global climate change, have not only made summers harsher but also strained the city's resources and tested the resilience of its inhabitants. The transformation is a stark reminder of the broader environmental crisis, reflecting how even the most familiar of climates can become hostile...

Foods Indians Ate in Summer Before Refrigerators

There was a time when Indian kitchens had no humming refrigerators, no frozen packets, no chemical preservatives hiding behind glossy labels. Yet somehow, our grandparents survived fierce Indian summers with remarkable wisdom, stamina, and simplicity. The old Indian kitchen was built on understanding the season, not fighting it. Clay pots cool water naturally. Fermented foods soothed the stomach. Raw mangoes prevented heatstroke. Buttermilk flowed through homes like a summer blessing. Long before modern nutritionists began discussing hydration, gut health, and probiotics, Indian households were already practising them quietly — one steel glass, one earthen pot, one hand-ground spice mix at a time. I still remember the taste of matka water from my childhood. Every year, as winter slowly stepped aside and summer entered the courtyard, a new matka would arrive at home. Even today, I continue the same tradition. The fridge may hold cold bottles for guests, but for myself, it is usually roo...

From Farm to Plate: The Invisible Labour Behind Every Meal We Eat

AI image Every plate of food carries a story — of effort, struggle, hope, and countless unseen hands. Have You Ever Wondered How Food Reaches Your Plate? Yesterday morning, while eating my usual bowl of oats with nuts and seeds, a simple thought crossed my mind: How did this food actually reach my table? We often talk about recipes, flavours, restaurants, and healthy eating. But very rarely do we pause to think about the long journey our food takes before becoming a meal on our plate. Behind every roti, every cup of tea, every bowl of dal, there exists an invisible network of farmers, labourers, transporters, vendors, and homemakers whose efforts quietly keep India fed. And honestly, once you begin noticing this journey, food starts feeling very different. It All Begins in the Fields A few years ago, during a visit to a village, I met an elderly farmer standing quietly in his wheat field early in the morning. His hands were rough from years of labour, but ...