food

Poison Pot

Shylashri Shankar

Perpetrators prefer using a poisonous delicacy when they want to get away with murder. Food offers a very convenient way of avoiding detection. Despite all his precautions, rumour has it that even the Roman Emperor Augustus could not escape being slowly poisoned to death by his wife

Idle Thoughts of an Idle Feaster

Shylashri Shankar

To contemplate the art of being idle, of pottering around, drinking a tall glass of ice cold buttermilk or lemon soda, and nibbling on a cold grapefruit and hot peanut salad, seems an apt subject for the long hot summer

Food inspectors: More teeth please

Haima Deshpande in Mumbai and Anil Budur Lulla in Bengaluru

Food inspectors say they’re up to the challenge of keeping people safe, even taking on powerful business interests—if only they were better equipped for it

An (App)etite for business

Madhavankutty Pillai

The mobile internet has created a new business in the food delivery sector and venture capitalists are rushing to invest in a range of new apps

Food: Gourmands versus stoics

Shylashri Shankar

At birth, we all have about 10,000 taste buds scattered on the back, sides and tip of the tongue. But just like with the brain’s grey cells, we still don’t know why some use more of their taste buds than others

Maggi: If it’s bad, it’s good

Mohit Hira

Why the Maggi problem is an opportunity

FOOD AND THE FICTIONAL SLEUTH

Shylashri Shankar

Just as one adds a pinch of sugar or jaggery to balance the acidity of a tomato or tamarind, the sleuth’s savouring of a dish offsets and highlights the demon-like aspects of the crime

Greeks, Dukes And the Art of a Perfect Diet

Shylashri Shankar

The problem we face today in India and many other parts of the world is that we straddle two conflicting ways of thinking about the relationship between health, food and taste