Indian staples like idli, dosa, samosa and chaat have already won over the hearts and palates of Americans as evident from Chai Paani in North Carolina, which was named the States’ most outstanding restaurant in 2022. The new ambassador of Indian street food to have journeyed from the bustling markets of Delhi to America’s busiest thoroughfares is Momos with desi flavors that have enthralled the tastebuds, both American and Indian, equally.

Catering platefuls of momos, dim sums, and dumplings is Fomo Momo Food Truck, a ‘passion’ project by two Indian tech professionals living their American Dream thousands of miles away from home. Driven by nostalgia and longing for authentic Indian momos, Ankita Nagpal and Impreet Sodhi teamed up to enrich the cosmopolitan food scene of northeast USA with Indianized versions of Tibetan dumplings. Their food truck stands out amidst the brick-and-mortar retail stores for its vibrant pink flamboyance in Central Avenue – one of the bustling shopping districts in Jersey City, NJ.

PC: Fomomousa | Instagram

Unlike Shama Joshi who gave up her Microsoft career to become a food entrepreneur in Seattle, the owners of Fomo Momo Food Truck did not make any such sacrifice yet. They juggle both their full-time jobs and the evening food truck with equal dedication and attention to details. After wrapping up their everyday office work, Ankita Nagpal and Impreet Sodhi get into their ‘chef’ avatars swiftly for a beeline of buzzing foodies waiting to grab bites of ‘FOMO’ momos. As they engage with customers and take their feedback personally, they often lose track of the hours until it’s time to call it a day.

Fomo Momo Food Truck in Jersey City has a well-curated menu for ethnically diverse palates, ranging from spice-loving Indians to spice-sensitive Americans. It features a variety of flavors in steamed and fried versions for veg and non-veg lovers. Ankita and Impreet attribute the success of their joint venture to the versatility and adaptability of Indian street food. Bites of chicken Manchurian momos won’t let you crave chili chicken. Their Schezwan momos fulfil your longing for flavorful Mumbai bhel or jhalmuri of Kolkata. Tandoori momos, among their bestsellers, make a perfect alternative to tandoori chicken.

You name a flavor, they have it. Be it buttery makhani, Afghani, or smoky tandoori momos, they serve it with rich sauces. The familiar sense of contentment they see on the faces of their Indian customers evokes memories of their own younger selves devouring Indian momos in the streets of Delhi.

It was what Ankita and Impreet dearly missed, after moving to the US. It was what unsettled them though they were happily settled in their pursuit of American Dream, until their paths crossed at a social gathering. Their husbands are college friends. They forged a bond over their mutual love and longing for authentic Indian food (especially momos), which strengthened from friendship to business partnership. They hatched a plan to hit the streets of New Jersey and New York with a food truck at their first meeting itself.

From the very beginning, their shared vision was clear – to recreate Delhi’s vibrant street food scene in the heart of New Jersey. For Ankita Nagpal and Impreet Sodhi, Fomo Momo Food Truck is not just an entrepreneurial venture but also a means to nurture their umbilical cord with their roots and celebrate their home country’s culinary diversity. Evidently, it was not a piece of cake. Full-time IT jobs and everyday family duties did not subdue their appetite, passion, and commitment. They started experimentation using various spices and herbs to create the right balance of flavors and sought feedback from friends.

Once the recipes were honed to perfection, they put in marketing efforts, such as distributing complimentary samples from door to door, creating educative content on the subtle difference between momos and dim sums, and inviting prospective customers to take part in various activities, and engaging them with the titbits of India’s street food culture. In 2021, they started with an Indian street food stall at Smorgasburg Food Festival in NJ. Foodies from different communities started taking a fancy to their fusion momos with flavorful fillings.

The overwhelming response there encouraged them to make it to Smorgasburg Food Festival in New York, where their momos and dim sums found the same outpouring of love. Thus, what started as a food stall became a thriving business venture on bigger wheels. The transition was the hardest, yet the most rewarding journey for the techie duo. Though located in Central Avenue, Fomo Momo Food Truck with a live kitchen, travels to hotspots across New Jersey and New York. You may spot them also at Smorgasburg World Trade Centre, a popular outdoor food market in the Big Apple.

The techies – Ankita Nagpal and Impreet Sodhi – are good at branding too. They coined the name ‘Fomo Momo’ drawing upon the fear of missing out on succulent, delectable momos with fusion flavors. The mascot of their business is a modern Indian woman exuding a cool demeanor in a traditional attire and raising her left eyebrow to invite you for an unforgettable indulgence. The food truck with a vibrant pink look is easily identifiable at popular hotspots teeming with the locals.

This exclusive story is part of the series, Indian Life in America, by Indian Eagle, a most trusted travel-booking partner of Indian Diaspora in the USA. Subscribe to Travel Beats, a thriving community portal by Indian Eagle, for overseas Indian community stories, US-India travel news, visa and immigration updates.

The post Techies by Day, Chefs by Night: Two Indian Women Serve Flavors of India at Fomo Momo Food Truck in USA appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.

How it feels when you wake up to your familiar aroma of homemade breakfast dishes on a Saturday morning thousands of miles away from India? Surreal and heavenly! A working couple from South India has turned their neighborhood into a dosa-loving community of the locals and other Indians residing there in the northeast USA. They capitalized on the Indian culture of cooking and sharing food to make friends with strangers in their adopted home and started Brooklyn Curry Project in 2021. 

“Swetha and Venkat Raju’s Brooklyn Curry Project in Fort Green, a neighborhood of Brooklyn, is to dosa lovers what Queens’ Ganesh Temple canteen is to devotees in the Big Apple. What they had started as a makeshift social hang during the pandemic has now become one of the few best places for authentic South Indian food in New York City. It is their third kid (now a toddler) after a 14-year-old son and an 8-year-old daughter,” said Sourav Agarwal, the Editor of Travel Beats, a leading Indian Diaspora portal.

PC: Brooklyn Curry Project

It was 2016 when Venkat and Swetha Raju with their firstborn moved from Bengaluru to New York for a better life in the land of American Dream. “We really missed home when we first came here, so we just started cooking and inviting neighbors over,” Swetha, a software engineer, told Brooklyn Magazine, as we Indians believe that the way to one’s heart is through the one’s stomach. Soon the neighborhood began to swear by their food, and of course, their friendliness. Venkat, a lawyer by profession, is equally good at cooking; both come from families with a tiffin business in Karnataka.

Brooklyn Curry Project was born out of their daughter’s lemonade stand that was set up one summer near the weekly farmers market in Fort Greene. The sense of satisfaction, as they describe their feeling of meeting people at the lemonade stand, became a driver for their heartfelt wish to serve Bangalore-style masala dosa, fluffy idli, uthappam, and masala chai to the locals. While dosa – the king of the menu – is the crowd puller, they do also offer nutritious lunch platters with chapati, rice/khichdi, curry, pickle, and moong sprout salad.

Both Indians and non-Indians make a beeline to their humble food stand even before the first ladle of fermented batter makes it to the heated pan for a crispy dosa every Saturday morning. In addition to filling the void of authentic South Indian food in the lives of Indians in and around Brooklyn, Swetha and Venkat dispelled the most common myth of Indian food being all about butter chicken and chicken tikka masala. “Indian food is so stereotyped outside of India. There is more to our food culture; every region has its own cuisine,” said Swetha, a cofounder of Brooklyn Curry Project.

“It is like having a piece of India in your backyard. Swetha puts love into every dosa she makes. They even catered for our 2-year-old’s birthday celebration and made it extra special. The sambar she makes is probably the best. No exaggeration at all. As a New Yorker with a small child and no family nearby, their stand makes Brooklyn feel more like home,” said one of the regulars to Brooklyn Curry Project in Fort Greene. “It reminds me a lot of what my mom cooks in India. The food tastes just like mom’s. Besides, the Raju family is amazing,” said another Indian regular.

Mango lassi and masala chai are among the bestsellers in the Rajus’ repertoire. The USP of their parttime venture is their practice of environmental sustainability; those who bring containers from home for takeaways get a 5% discount. Another USP is the judicious use of spices that they source from India and ground at their New York residence. They also share various dosa recipes on Instagram and offer a weekly subscription of dosa batter so that customers make their own in home and don’t miss them on week days.

“Venkat and Swetha Raju organize an annual dosa eating contest out of their business sensibility for increasing the brand equity and brand loyalty among their customers. Indeed, Indian food is ruling tastebuds even on the other end of the spectrum, that is Washington Square Park at lower Manhattan where the ‘Dosa Man of New York’ effervescently serves smoking hot masala dosas. There is no denying that the proliferation of Indian food culture, including Payal Saha’s Kati Rolls, continues to make New York home to a majority of Indian immigrants,” said Editor Sourav Agarwal.

This exclusive story is part of the series, Indian Life in America, by Indian Eagle, a most trusted travel-booking partner of Indian Diaspora in the USA. Subscribe to Travel Beats, a thriving community portal by Indian Eagle, for Indian Diaspora stories, US-India travel news, visa and immigration updates.

The post This Indian Working Couple, a Techie and a Lawyer, Brings Indian Culture of Socializing over Food to USA appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.

What is unique to Onam, the biggest festival of Kerala? It is Onam Sadya, a festive meal of significance. It is the soul of Onam celebration at home and abroad and wherever the Malayali community is. As the festival marks the beginning of a new year for Keralites, celebrates the new harvest of the year and commemorates the visit of their most worshipped King Mahabali, Onam Sadya is evidently not just a festive meal.

Onam Sadya and the Legend of King Mahabali

Onam Sadya owes its significance to the myth of Kerala’s legendary King Mahabali, who is also referred to as Maveli and Onathappan in religious as well as non-religious literature. Mahabali was the chief of the Asura (demon) community in his time. Kerala was a beautiful, peaceful and prosperous kingdom when he was in power. Neither crime nor corruption was in his regime. There was no social hierarchy on the basis of economy or caste. Equal treatment of the rich and the poor was one of the building blocks in the societal system. King Mahabali used to be lavished with respect for his wisdom, generosity, judiciousness, impartiality and farsightedness. His rule is believed to be the golden era of Kerala.

Being grandson of Prahlad, Mahabali was an ardent devotee of Lord Vishnu, the preserver of the Universe in the Hindu scriptures. His fame and popularity was a concern with Gods who took it as a threat to their supremacy and sovereignty. Gods sought Lord Vishnu’s intervention to subdue King Mahabali’s growing popularity and curb his reign. Being charitable, King Mahabali used to grant boons to Brahmins after his morning prayers every day. Lord Vishnu disguised himself as a poor, dwarf Brahmin, which is known as his ‘Vamana’ incarnation, and descended to earth.

READ ALSO The Taste of Kerala

Under the guise of a poor Brahmin, Lord Vishnu asked the King for a piece of land as much as his three steps would cover. Despite warnings by his adviser, the King promised to give what the Brahmin wanted. The dwarf Vamana took three cosmic steps. He covered earth and the sky in the first and second steps respectively. In the third step, he put his foot on the head of the King, pushing the King to the nether land (patala). Then the dwarf Brahmin revealed his true identity and expressed his pleasure to see the King’s unconditional displeasure.

Out of his attachment with the kingdom and selfless love for the people, King Mahabali made a request to let him visit Kerala once in a year. Lord Vishnu accepted the request and granted him a boon that he would be worshipped as well as loved his people for ages. At the time of his departure from Kerala, the King blessed the people to remain happy, prosperous and well-fed for generations. His visit to Kerala is celebrated as Onam Festival every year. Onam Sadya is part of the elaborate preparations that the people of Kerala make in honor of their King and convince him that they are happy.

Onam Sadya and Traditions

Evidently, Onam Sadya is a symbol of the Malayali people’s happy living. Both the rich and the poor are so serious about the significance of Onam Sadya that they prepare this festive meal for grand feasting. A single course of Onam Sadya has 24-28 dishes. The preparation can be so elaborate that even 64 dishes are cooked for a meal.

Eleven dishes are essential prepared for Onam Sadya. Rice, coconut gratings, coconut milk and coconut oil are the basic ingredients in most of the dishes. The meal is traditionally served on banana leaves and consumed in one sitting. Both rural and urban Keralites eat the festive meal with hands. Spoons and forks are not used at the time of feasting in most households.

Onam Sadya Items

The Onam Sadya items are served one by one in an order. Even the age-old tradition of serving a particular dish on a particular part of the banana leaf is strictly obeyed. The feasting begins with the ritual of offering the Onam Sadya items to Lord Ganesha first. The festive meal begins with rasam (soup) and ends with payasam (dessert). The main dish is boiled rice served with uppari, sambar, aviyal, parippu, pullisseri, olan and pickles.

Other Interesting Stories of Kerala

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• Why You Should Visit Kerala’s Shopping Festival

Indian Eagle promises to make air travel to India cheaper than ever. We rejoice in your happy trips by booking cheap fights to Kerala from USA. Happy Onam!

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Be it south pole of the Moon, the World Athletics Championships, or Food Network TV’s reality cooking competition show Chopped, India is not only winning laurels but also leaving her footprints everywhere. Like India’s lunar mission, Indian food continues to penetrate, explore and rule over exotic landscapes. Indian-origin chef Jassi Bindra’s win at Chopped, a popular American reality cooking competition series, is the latest testimony to Indian food’s orbiting of the earth.

Jassi Bindra’s culinary journey from his hometown in India to Texas via Washington DC culminated in having won the grand prize, $10,000, in the episode that Food Network broadcast on August 15. He outpaced three other chefs in three rounds, each 20 to 30 minutes, and dominated the episode with his eclectic spin on some traditional Indian recipes. As per media reports, he kept his win under wraps for 10 months after the episode was shot in November 2022. He made it public to a watch party at his restaurant when the show was airing on August 15.

PC: Instagram.com/chefjassibindra/

In 2016, it was Aarthi Sampath who became a celebrity in the culinary world of America following her win at Chopped as the first Indian woman chef. Today, she is a most sought after restaurant and food truck business consultant in New York. She not only interned at Chef Vikas Khanna’s Junoon, a Michelin starred Indian restaurant in Manhattan, but also assisted him on “The Billionaire’s Club Dinner” that Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosted at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City.

The first turbaned chef to have won a reality cooking competition on American TV, Jassi Bindra was not born with a ladle in his hand. When he was 19, he rolled up his sleeves to work in the kitchen, an exclusively private space of his mom, grandmom and other women members of the family in India. He headed a culinary program across a dozen of restaurants in his native place before traveling to Washington, DC where he worked at Punjab Grill for several years.

His chance meeting with the Singh brothers, Surpreet Singh and Preet Singh, in DC brought him to the south coast as a co-owner and executive chef of Amrina, a fine-dining Indian restaurant in the Woodlands near Houston. The Singh brothers’ (restaurant) business acumen blended with Jassi Brinda’s culinary versatility to make Amrina (a Hindi word meaning princess) a must-visit destination for the best fine-dining experience with touches of royalty. “Amrina where a symphony of tastes unfolds in life’s most delectable moments celebrates the rich tapestry of Indian cuisine,” said Chef Bindra, a ‘Chopped’ champion.

“The moment he was declared the winner, he sprang out of joy with the Punjabi phrase – Balle, Balle…Jassi Bindra’s recipe of Fortune Cookie Rabri that he made from fortune cookies (crisp cookie wafers), gooseberries, blue Hubbard squash, and camel milk with a quick thought in the final round proved to be the Midas Touch for his win,” said Sourav Agarwal, the Editor of Travel Beats, a leading community portal for Indians in the US by Indian Eagle.

“I am here to show how Indian cuisine can be sexy,” said Amrina’s executive chef Jassi Bindra at the onset of the competition. In the appetizer round, he confidently made stuffed poblano peppers with sardines and portobello mushrooms topped with cheddar cheese fondue (using peanut butter and panko bread crumbs). His instant recipe of grilled short ribs with pea green salad and Cola-coconut sauce stole the stole the show with the judges including Maneet Chauhan, an award-winning chef, cookbook writer, and culinary advocate.

To celebrate his win at Chopped, Chef Jassi Bindra pledged to donate some of the prize money, $10,000, for a charitable cause at the Make-a-Wish Foundation. He would spend the remaining amount to buy gadgets for his kitchen and gifts for his son, as he said in an interview with the Houston Chronicle. His restaurant in Texas will soon treat diners to the award-winning dishes that he prepared on the reality show.

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Shivaranjini, a simple middle-class Indian woman, is living her American Dream though she is not a STEM professional with a US work visa. Her key to unlocking the American Dream for a happy life thousands of miles away from India is her passion for cooking – which she inherited from her parents in Karnataka. Ranjini’s journey as a businesswoman from her small home kitchen is an inspiration for other Indians, mostly on H4 visa, in the US.

Born in the family of cooks in Davanagere, the heart of Karnataka, Shivaranjini grew up learning and admiring cooking as a labor of love. When she moved to the States after her marriage in 2013, she arrived with a handbag, checked baggage, culinary creativity, love for food, the art of cooking authentic South Indian dishes, and hopes to make America her second home. Soon after having settled in California, she realized that homemade food is the way to the Indian immigrant community’s heart.

PC: Suggi Oota | Facebook

Her belief in the magic of authentic home-style food stemmed from her family restaurant, Hotel Sharabheshwara, that has been serving regional delectables with a perfect balance of flavors in the Davanagere district of Karnataka since the 1990s. The restaurant is a temple for her father, and working in the restaurant kitchen is a ritual for her mother. In her growing years, she watched her mother creating wonders with hand-ground spices, following the quality checklist, ensuring compliance with hygienic practices….

No compromise on quality – is the mantra that Shivaranjini imbibed from her family in India and instilled into her commercial kitchen ‘Suggi Oota’ in the Bay Area. Suggi Oota that Shivaranjini started early in 2020 is now a most sought-after Indian catering service in California. Be it a get-together, birthday bash, anniversary celebration, housewarming ceremony, or a community event of any size, Shivaranjini and Suggi Oota (meaning ‘feast’ in Kannada) are among the few names that influential Indian Americans recall to relish traditional Indian delights.

Her Suggi Oota kitchen has grown into a popular establishment with daily capacity of whipping up various north and south Indian thalis for an average of 100 guests. All this started with her son’s first birthday celebration in the Bay Area, their second home away from home, in 2015. “I still remember how the guests savored to their heart’s content the authentic South Indian food that I had cooked alone,” said Shivaranjini with a broad smile. “Some of them went on to ask me how I managed to cook for more than 20 people at once. I replied it is a lot more difficult to cook only for two people,” she added.

It was her epiphanic moment overwhelmed with the guests’ compliments – which encouraged her to start her own commercial kitchen service for those craving pure south and north Indian meals on various occasions. However, she started with baby steps, like taking small orders from neighbors and friends, registering with professional caterers for orders, etc.

Eventually, she became the talk of several neighborhoods in San Jose and beyond. Her name began to be circulated through word of mouth. It boosted her confidence to set up her own commercial kitchen. With her husband’s support, she obtained the official permits that she needed to start and run a commercial venture legally. She refers to the kitchen as a sanctuary where she works long hours with her team.

The USP of her Suggi Oota thalis is the use of millet and other immunity-boosting ingredients in her recipes. You name any dish from south Indian cuisines; she will cook it for you. You may wonder what worked in favor of an Indian woman in America; it is her steadfast love for food, passion for cooking, and the bond that she shares with a kitchen, no matter where it is. “While my cousins and friends would play or roam outdoors on school holidays, I spent time working and helping out in the family restaurant kitchen in Karnataka,” said Shivaranjini.

“If you have a dream and show up for it, there is nothing that can stop it from happening,” Suggi Oota’s founder Shivaranjini believes wholeheartedly. With both demand and love growing for her food, she is now aiming big to serve one million orders.

This exclusive story is part of the new series, Indian Life in America, by Travel Beats, a leading community portal for Indian Diaspora. Travel Beats is a subsidiary of Indian Eagle Travel that thousands of Indians in USA have chosen as their reliable air-ticketing partner. Subscribe to our newsletter for community stories, US-India travel news, visa and immigration updates.

The post With Suggi Oota, Shivaranjini not only Lives Her American Dream, but also Keeps Her Family Legacy Alive in USA appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.

Kati Roll, an easy-to-grab snack on the go from the street food landscape of Kolkata, has found home in the United States since Payal Saha started cashing in on her nostalgia in 2002. A newly wed bride from India back then, Payal turned her cravings for Kolkata’s Street food into her passion for a business in the US where spouses of H1B visa professionals were barred from taking up jobs due to H4 visa restrictions. She opened the first outlet in New York City, which eventually became a $16-million franchise – The Kati Roll Company – from the US to London.

Stuffed with skewer-grilled ingredients wrapped in flatbread (paratha) topped with sauces/chutneys and seasoned with chopped green chilies, Kati Rolls resonate with various emotions of Kolkata and define the vibes of different occasions. Grabbing bites of an egg roll or a chicken roll or a chicken egg roll is a ritual during a movie interval, a get-together, a friendly soiree, a holiday outing, a shopping spree, and during a lazy walk on a breezy evening in Kolkata. Even hopping across Durga Puja pandals and binging on Kati Rolls go hand in hand in the City of Joy.

Today, Payal Saha’s Kati Roll Company in New York has four outlets – Grand Central, Greenwich Village, Midtown East, and Midtown West. Grand Central is the newest one, while the oldest outlet is at Greenwich Village. Her business expanded to London where she owns an outlet near Oxford Street. Presenting Kati Rolls as a quick snack and a casual meal to people on the move in highly cosmopolitan cities like New York and London has been the recipe of her success thousands of miles away from India.

She took a flight to Kolkata from New York before making her entrepreneurial debut and visited many fast-food joints selling Kati Rolls from north Kolkata to south Kolkata. She also helped at a shop to learn the nitty-gritty of making and serving Kati Rolls the way it is done in every nook and corner of Kolkata. She went on to open the first outlet of the Kati Roll Company in New York without a business plan and any prior experience of running a business. There was no such extravagance as ceremonial opening. Her zeal to offer an authentic taste of Kolkata’s favorite street food to Americans, especially New Yorkers helped the business grow.

“She knew she may not be able to provide the vibes that treating one’s tastebuds to Kati Rolls in a typical Kolkatan setting comes with. However, she recreated the filmy ambience that many Indians are fond of by decorating her Kati Roll Company outlets in New York with vintage posters of old Bollywood movies and Bengali films. This reminds me of the décor of Google’s Indian restaurant in Silicon Valley,” said Sourav Agarwal, the Editor of Travel Beats.

The USP of Payal Saha’s Indian street food business is chapati, not paratha. She chose whole durum wheat over refined floor to make chapatis to wrap various fillings in rolls. Durum wheat is rich in protein, potassium, zinc and dietary fibre. This is what distinguishes her rolls as healthy delights from the paratha-wrapped rolls sold across Kolkata. Achari Paneer Roll and Chicken Tikka Roll are the bestsellers of all varieties, including Chana Masala Roll, Shami Kabab Roll, Aloo Masala Roll, Egg Aloo Roll, Egg Paneer Roll, and Egg Chicken Roll.

Kati Roll Company’s founder Payal Saha inherited the entrepreneurial streak from both her grandparents, paternal and maternal. Her maternal grandfather studied chemical engineering at New York University and came back home to start a business. Her rolls are so high on demand even after 20 years that she sells over 3000 rolls a day and over a million a year. The rush is so huge some days that she hires bouncers to manage the serpentine queues of customers. Today, her company is a popular brand recognized by Americans and Indians alike.

This exclusive story is part of the new series, Indian Life in America, by Indian Eagle that hundreds of thousands of Indians in USA have chosen as their reliable air-ticketing partner. Subscribe to Travel Beats, a community portal by Indian Eagle, for Indian Diaspora stories, US-India travel news, visa and immigration updates.

Also Read: Americans in Love with Desi Chai Brewed by Indian-origin Siblings

The post From New York to London, Payal Saha’s Kati Roll Company Selling Kolkata’s Street Food Continues to be a Success appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.

Binging on delicious Indian food during a trip to the Niagara Falls is like enjoying the divine bliss of laddu prasadam during a pilgrimage to the Tirupati Balaji Temple. This month the Niagara Falls got its first-ever Indian restaurant in Niagara-on-the-Lake, a nearby town with picturesque beauty, lush green landscape, old-world charm, and tranquil atmosphere. Located on the shores of Lake Ontario, Niagara-on-the-Lake is 25 km away from the Falls and 60 km away from Buffalo, New York.

Picture Credit: Aura on the Lake

Aura on the Lake, the first Indian restaurant near the Niagara Falls, is run by an Indian couple – Nittin and Anjana Sharma. Nittin, who is from New Delhi, is the head chef of Aura on the Lake. He loves creating culinary wonders in the kitchen of his dream restaurant, so that he can double the joy of visiting the Falls for Indians from across North America. The use of fresh ingredients and spices ground in the kitchen is his USP, just like that of Indian grandmothers whose secret key to any recipe is a box full of hand-pounded spices. Nittin lets the ingredients get cooked over a long period of time to ensure that dishes come up with the best texture and flavor.

The menu is Indian to the core at Aura on the Lake. It equally caters to both vegetarian and non-vegetarian taste buds. If you are vegetarian, you can savor paneer makhani, malai methi paneer, or kadhai paneer with naan. Butter chicken, kadhai chicken, malai methi chicken, and other dishes are there to satisfy your craving for non-veg Indian dishes. Rabri with Gulab Jamun, among desi desserts on the menu, is an irresistible indulgence for your sweet tooth, just as an Indian meal is incomplete without a sweet dish.

At Aura on the Lake, Nittin and Anjana pamper their guests with papri chaat and other mouthwatering snacks, among the street foods of Delhi. Nittin’s Dal Makhani makes his guests of Indian origin feel homesick. Also, there is Dahi Ke Kabab that will send you on a trip to India for sure. 2022 seems to be the year of Indian food in America, as Chai Pani in North Carolina is named America’s most outstanding restaurant.

Not traveling to India this summer because of the exorbitantly high airfares? You can subscribe to ‘fare alert’ on IndianEagle.com, a most trusted air-ticketing partner of Indians in America, and grab the best deals whenever air ticket prices plunge. Though Indian Eagle is booking cost-to-cost flight tickets to India from USA.

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No other Indian food has as many stories to tell as biryani does. Rosogolla surfaces to public notice once in a while due to the age-old contention over its origin between two neighboring states: Bengal and Odisha, while biryani is the only food to enjoy pan-India attention throughout the year. The stories of biryani are as varied as the taste and flavor of the dish across the country. If lots of conversation or discussion happens over tea in India, many incidents occur over biryani. Biryani is not just a delightful treat but a bribe, bait and gift. It puts smiles on withered cheeks, brings a ray of hope amidst adverse circumstances, pushes campaigns forward, stimulates arguments and unites people.

Travel Beats, a community portal for Indian Diaspora by IndianEagle.com, curated the most interesting biryani stories from across India and abroad to make you understand the unbeatable power and popularity of biryani.

Biryani was a Silver Lining amidst Dark Clouds during Chennai Floods     

Biryani is no compromise under any circumstance! It was evident from the disappointment of some people for being served sambar rice not biryani during the Chennai floods 2015. When a group of volunteers reached out with packets of sambar rice and other relief materials to the people stuck amidst flood waters, braving the pouring rain and shoulder-leveled standing water, they met with disappointment for not serving biryani. Paradise Biryani, a most popular Hyderabadi biryani brand, sent the dish for them.

Actor’s Love for Biryani Inspired the Name of a Tamil Film    

One of the interesting biryani stories is sourced from the Tamil film industry. Among Tamil film stars, Ajith is so fond of biryani that he loves cooking it for everyone on the shooting spot. He has cooked biryani for the filming crew multiple times. It bears out to not only his penchant for biryani but his simplicity and down to earth nature. Moved by Ajith’s unfathomable love for biryani, director Venkat Prabhu named his black comedy film ‘Biriyani” in 2013. Biriyani is a thriller which was filmed in Chennai and Hyderabad.

Cockroach Biryani Led to a Munna Bhai Style Campaign in Kashmir

The story of ‘cockroach biryani’ in Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir, is among the most interesting Biryani stories in India. When a local dentist and his friends found cockroaches in the biryani served to them at a multi-cuisine restaurant at Hazratbal, one of the outlets owned by Hat Trick fast food manufacturer in Kashmir, they forced their way into the kitchen and found it unhygienic to their surprise. When the ‘cockroach biryani’ story went viral on social media, a group of young foodies launched a ‘Munna Bhai style’ campaign and sent 1000 ‘get well soon’ letters to the restaurant owner. The campaign caught attention of the Food Safety Department and led to sealing of the cockroach restaurant.

Homemade Biryani Forced Dhoni to Vacate Grand Kakatiya in Hyderabad  

One of the Hyderabadi biryani stories is related to Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who was captain of the Indian Cricket team in 2014. He along with his team vacated the 5 star Hotel Grand Kakatiya where 180 rooms were booked for the team and BCCI officials, and moved to Taj Krishna due to a fiasco over homemade Hyderabadi biryani. One of Dhoni’s teammates brought homemade biryani for the entire team, which Hotel Kakatiya refused to allow within the premises. Hyderabadi biryani is something exclusive to die for!

Biryani Entertains Participants in National Shooting Championships   

The 59^th National Shooting Championship held in Delhi in 2015 is a memorable event for mouthwatering biryani served to the participants. The shooters from all over India were served delicious biryani at a nominal cost. Nawabuddin is the man who cooked and served the dish to them. Popularly known as Nawab Bhai, he has been cooking biryani for all shooting competitions in Delhi for past 6 years. He himself is a shooter and has participated in twenty national shooting championships. Eminent shooters are fans of Nawab Bhai’s biryani.

Biryani Failed to Make Rajnikanth’s Kochadaiiyaan a Success

Do you know that biryani was used as a bait to make superstar Rajnikanth’s Kochadaiiyaan a success in 2013 in Bangalore? When the fans of Rajnikanth felt that the film was going to be a box office disaster, they organized a rally in Bangalore to promote the film and promised the locals free biryani for watching the film. However, biryani could not save Kochadaiiyaan from being a failure.

Biryani Got People Together for a Communal Work in Kerala    

One of the latest biryani stories is how biryani is used to motivate people for a communal work. Recently, IAS officer Prashant Nair promised platefuls of Malabar biryani to a group of people for cleaning of a 14-acre lake in Kozhikode, Kerala. Removing water hyacinth from the lake was a herculean task, but his promise of biryani made it a success.

Biryani Saved a Bride from Marrying a Wrong Groom      

Anything can happen over biryani in India. Marriages can be fixed or broken over biryani. In 2014 in Karnataka, a bride called off the wedding over the ruckus created by the groom party over the taste of biryani. Even the bride’s family sent 30kg of biryani to the groom’s house but it came back as the groom’s family was fond of mutton biryani.

Biryani Energized Political Workers during Elections in Hyderabad  

Some of the stories of biryani in India are politically interesting. You might wonder what biryani has to do with politics in India. During the parliamentarian elections in 2014, Hyderabad witnessed a boom in sales of biryani. Demand for chicken and mutton biryani was tremendously high across Hyderabad during the electoral period in 2014.

Biryani Brought Good Luck to DMK Party in Chennai in 2009

Biryani not only keeps political workers on the go during elections but also plays an active role in success of electoral campaigns. Chennai witnessed the power of biryani in 2009 when the DMK party won elections in Tamil Nadu. The winning party distributed biryani packets to voters during the campaigns apart from offering usual baits like liquor, clothes and mobile phones. The popularity of biryani was so utilized to tempt common people that the 2009 election in Chennai was notoriously nicknamed ‘Biryani Bypolls.’

Biryani was a Gift from Sania Mirza to Dilwale Team        

Biryani is not just taken advantage of as bait or bribe. It is a pretty gift too. When Sania Mirza visited Shah Rukh Khan and Farah Khan during the shooting of Dilwale in 2015, she carried a box of Hyderabadi biryani for them.

Two Indian Restaurants Locked their Horns over Biryani in USA

Not only India but also the United States has interesting biryani stories to tell. Two Indian businesses in the US – Paradise Biryani Pointe and Paradise Biryani Grill – locked their horns in a legal battle over biryani at a New Jersey court. Both of these Indian restaurants in New Jersey serve the dish. In 2011, Paradise Biryani Pointe moved the court against its rival Paradise Biryani Grill accusing the latter of infringing the former’s trademark and biryani recipe which the former claimed to have developed over 7 years.

Read More Interesting Food Stories and News

Indian Eagle Travel, a leading air-ticketing partner of Indians from India to America, makes you not only travel on the best flights for low fares, but also have great times over interesting stories of food, culture, and community from India as well as America.

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Chai is an elixir of life in India. This sacred beverage in Indian households is an integral part of the Atithi Devo Bhava belief in India. Tea that the British introduced in the colonized India does sell like a hot cake and hit the jackpot across the globe today. It went through naturalization for decades before it became an iconic Indian beverage. These days, the world is cashing in on Indian chai with ginger aroma and other flavors. Brook Eddy, an American resident of Colorado in the US, has built a business empire and earned INR 228 crore so far by selling Bhakti Chai.

Back in 2002, Brook Eddy took flights to India from Denver, Colorado and took part in a social-justice movement then. Tea is what she was offered most of the time during her visit to villages in west India. She wholeheartedly fell in love with chai and its different flavors varying from one region to the other depending on ingredients used. Unlike other foreign travelers who take handcrafted artifacts as souvenirs home from India, Brook Eddy’s takeaway from India was her love for tea.

Picture Credit: Brook Eddy’s Bhakti Chai Facebook page

The myriad flavors of Indian chai that had spellbound her senses were missing from the cafés in Boulder, Colorado. She went on to brew a unique flavor of tea and named it Bhakti Chai. What started as a humble attempt to spread her love of Indian chai around has evolved into a multi-million dollar business over the years.

By 2007, she started selling jars of her version of tea at the back of her car in and around Boulder. Her homemade brew became a favorite of her friends and neighbors who often took away jars of iced tea from her refrigerator and put the money on the table. It made her realize that her version of fresh ginger tea (which she called Bhakti Chai) could be produced and monetized for cafes and retailers.

A single mother of twins, Brook Eddy quit her fulltime job and focused on commercialization of Bhakti Chai. With the first round of investment in 2008, she employed two brewers, built a team, bought a ginger press and zeroed in on the packaging of Bhakti Chai. Thus, she laid the foundation of Bhakti Chai on what she experienced in and borrowed from India.

Also Check: This Indian Chaiwala Earns Rs 12 Lakh a Month

Today, Brook Eddy’s Bhakti Chai brand also sells tea-based products which are mainly Indian-American fusion beverages including Green Chai Smoothie, Chai Latte, Chocolate Chai Energy Bites, and Chocolate Chai Truffle. Just brewing chai and selling chai-based fusion beverages is not her final destination. Looking at a bigger picture, she wants to extend the horizon of Bhakti Chai from a beverage line to a global lifestyle brand.

Brook Eddy’s Bhakti Chai is not out and out a commercial pursuit. Rather, it is driven by the ethos of social entrepreneurship. It makes donations to various organizations which work for the welfare of global communities. Gita Giving – one of the social-giving wings of Bhakti Chai – helps promote inspiring, noble, innovative projects for community wellbeing and development.

Capturing the chaos and vibrancy of India, which she loves to her heart’s content, Brook Eddy’s Bhakti Chai has earned whopping revenue of US$ 35 million (a little more INR 227 crore). Born in Colorado and raised in Michigan, Eddy feels a strong connect with India where she seeks to experience something new whenever she visits.

The post After Return from India, She Quits Job and Earns USD 35 Million by Selling Bhakti Chai in USA appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.

Pilgrimage to the Tirupati Balaji Temple in Andhra Pradesh is incomplete without a piece of laddu, the most sought after prasadam at one of the richest Hindu temples in the world. It has been more than 300 years since laddu was introduced in the naivedhyam to Lord Venkateshwara in August 1715. Surprisingly, this sacred prasadam never falls short of demand even during the peak season of pilgrimage to the hilltop Tirumala shrine. In 2018, Brahmotsavam, the biggest crowd-pulling annual celebration at the Tirumala Temple, saw a record-breaking sale of 5,13,566 laddus on a single day. This pre-pandemic sale is still a landmark event in the history of the temple.

The whole-year-sale of the Tirupati Laddu contributes minimum Rs 300 crore to the Tirumala Temple’s annual revenue of Rs 3000 crore on average. Travel Beats, a leading community portal for Indians abroad, shares with you some interesting facts about the Tirupati Laddu also known as Sri Vari Laddu.

The making and distribution of the sacred prasadam in colossal quantities makes an interesting case study for management students. The Tirumala Temple kitchen where a daily average of 3 lakh laddus and other prasadam are made is called Laddu Potu. Equipped with modern amenities, the Potu can produce 800,000 laddus a day. There are three conveyor belts for transferring ingredients from one end to the other. About 10 tons of gram flour, 300-500 liters of pure ghee, 700 kg of cashew nuts, 540 kg of raisins, 150 kg of cardamom, and 500 kg of sugar candy go into the making of the Tirumala laddu prasadam every day.

Interestingly, the Tirupati laddu undergoes rigorous checks on the index of quality, calorie count, and self-life at a dedicated testing lab before making it to the deity as part of the daily naivedhyam. Not just the final product, but also each of the ingredients used in the making of the holy prasadam undergoes multiple quality checks at the lab. It is said that the secret recipe of the signature laddu dates back to the Pallava dynasty that ruled the southern Telugu and Tamil regions for about 600 years (from 275 CE to 897 CE).

The Tirupati Temple laddu prasadam not only satisfies devotees’ yearning for divine bliss, but also supports the local economy. The daily making of 300,000 laddus or more and other prasadam generates employment for hundreds of local people. About 600 people, including 270 cooks, are employed in the prasad-making unit of the Tirumala Temple kitchen that works three shifts spanning 20 hours a day. Some of them are permanent workers, while some work on a contract basis. More contractual workers are roped in to ramp up the production of laddus for an influx of devotees during the Brahmotsavam. Some volunteers from the Vaishnava community come forward to offer free service in the temple kitchen on festive days.

Until before the pandemic, the world renowned Tirupati Temple laddu used to be made and distributed in three categories: the prasadam laddu, the big laddu, and the small laddu. The Tirumala Temple’s Potu (kitchen) used to produce some 3000 ‘big laddus’ weighing 700 gram each and 75000 ‘prasadam laddus’ weighing 25 gram each on a daily basis, in addition to the continued production of 3 to 3.5 lakh ‘small laddus’ weighing 175 grams each. Among devotees, the VVIPs would get one big laddu free of cost. The special ‘darshan’ ticket holders would get the same for Rs 200 each before the pandemic. Rs 170 was the cost of making a big Tirupati laddu back then. The temple authorities would spend Rs 39 for making a single unit of the most sought after small laddu.

Until the end of 2019, the temple administration offered two small laddus at a subsidized price of Rs 10 each to ‘Divya darshan’ and ‘Sarvadarshan’ devotees. A maximum of two extra laddus were available for Rs 25 each. Devotees wishing to take more prasadam home, in addition to the aforementioned quantity, they would have to pay Rs 50 for a single piece of the small laddu. The complexity of making laddus in three different categories, and the subsidized pricing under different ‘darshan’ systems had been incurring an average loss of Rs 250 crore every year until the entire system, from production to distribution, was simplified by removing multiple size categories and differential prices, right from the beginning of 2020.

Also Check: Tirupati Balaji Temple’s New VIP Darshan System

Now every devotee receives the blessing of Sri Venkateshwara Swamy in the form of a Tirupati laddu (free of cost) after darshan of the deity in the temple. In addition to the free prasadam, any number of laddus can be availed for Rs 50 each in the open counters.

The Tirupati laddu got a Geographical Indication (GI) tag in 2009, which prevents sweet outlets of all sizes from selling counterfeit versions of the laddu. In 2013, the Madras High Court banned the sale of laddus with the brand tag ‘Tirupati’ at a Chennai-based sweet store, in an effort to preserve the sanctity of the Tirumala prasadam as it is touched at the holy feet of Lord Venkateshwara being distributed to pilgrims.

In August 2021, the Tirupati Temple administration took a step towards the green future by replacing single-use plastic bags with biodegradable bags for devotees to carry the prasadam all the way back home. There is a dedicated counter on the premises where devotees can buy these eco-friendly bags before moving on to the laddu counters. Made of corn starch at a lab of the Defence Research and Development Organization (DRDO) in Hyderabad, the bags are not harmful for both environment and cattle. The temple authorities had distributed the prasadam in about 10 crore single-use plastic bags during the period from 2014 to 2019.

In the 2022-23 budget for the Tirupati Balaji Temple, the governing board expects an estimated income of Rs 4000 crore, including Rs 365 crore from the sale of the legendary laddu prasadam, Rs 670 crore from the interest accrued on fixed deposits in several banks, Rs 360 crore from the sale of darshan tickets, Rs 126 crore from the sale of devotees’ tonsured hair, and Rs 1000 crore from devotee’s direct contribution to the hundi.

How to reach Tirupati Balaji Temple 

About 560 km is the distance between Hyderabad and Tirupati. The distance from Bangalore to Tirupati is some 250 km. 155km is the distance from Chennai to Tirupati. Tirupati Airport (Renigunta) is a short flight from Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad International Airports. Tirupati Town is a 15km drive from Renigunta Airport.

The post A Sneak Peek into the History, Production, Sale of Tirupati Laddu: Interesting Facts about Holy Prasadam appeared first on Travel to India, Cheap Flights to India, Aviation News, India Travel Tips.