If you live in the Bay Area, chai tea is something you are likely familiar with but for Bay Area resident Anjali Kamat, chai isn’t just some trendy beverage at a local cafe, but instead a reminder of the chai culture from her experiences in India.
In the UAE you could often smell the aroma of different spices wafting through the mall food courts or from storefronts on the street. And no matter if the restaurant was Indian, British Indian, or Indian Fusion, the one dish that was consistently on all the menus was butter chicken or murgh makhani.
Butter and sugar. Almonds and whipped cream. Raspberries and pears. If your mouth is watering, don’t miss our next French Pastry Class happening on Saturday 9 December.
Hamdanil is an Indonesian who moved to Bay Area a few years ago. He and 250,000 other muslims in Bay Area are observing Ramadan this year. It’s the biggest holy month that muslims worldwide are celebrating by leveling up their spiritual game. The main focus of Ramadan is fasting, as one is required to refrain from eating, drinking, smoking, and sexual intercourse from dawn to dusk. Even one sip of water is not allowed, or else the fast is invalid.
Thanksgiving, which is held the fourth Thursday of each November, is my favorite holiday; the one I missed most while I was living abroad in the United Kingdom. I describe Thanksgiving (to my non-American friends) as Christmas, without the presents. Growing up, my mom always hosted Thanksgiving. She would spend all morning cooking and several days before doing all the prep work. Grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins arrived around noon, and the chaos began. There were usually 15 of us crowded around a couple of tables, stuffing our faces until we were too full to move. As everyone in my […]
Tipping is tricky. The customs are different for every country, and sometimes even for different regions of the same countries, and tipping too much or too little can be either expensive or offensive.
After a few months of living stateside I felt like I’d pretty much mastered the San Francisco ‘grocery store’, but one aisle still gave me trouble: the baking aisle.
To me, Oktoberfest means that fall has arrived, and with it comes change. The changes are more subtle in California, but they are there. In other parts of the United States it is the changing color of leaves that signals a switch of season. In the Bay Area, the first sign of cooler weather is the appearance of Oktoberfest activities. Oktoberfest actually begins in September but I can’t seem to get excited about it until October. A short history: The first Oktoberfest was when Crown Prince Ludwig was married to Princess Therese on Oct 12, 1810. The citizens of Munich […]
