Author: samskritaj

Aren’t Sandwiches just wonderful! They are delicious, hassle free and they double up as snacks or meals as and when we desire! But do you know how sandwiches were invented?

Sandwiches have their origin in England in 1700s, and the credit goes to Lord Montague of Sandwich. He was an ardent gambler and did not tolerate any disturbance during his game of cards. On one such evening, he commanded his cook to make something which could be eaten without distracting his game of cards!

The chef was a mastermind, and he slapped the afternoon meat and vegetables in between two slices of bread and created the first sandwich as we know today. Lord Montague could now enjoy his game and have a fulfilling meal at the same time!

The invention was so awesome that the word soon traveled across continents via travelers. Being a convenient and delicious food item, sandwiches gained popularity throughout the world.  Today, sandwiches are the most popular food item throughout the globe!

At Box8, we recreated this masterpiece to suit your flare for a good sandwich with a Desi tinge. And we have cracked the perfect recipe for the modern, progressive, and Indian taste.

Protein of your choice cooked in sumptuous Indian spices, is paired with farm fresh vegetables, drizzled with our secret sauce and laid between warm oven baked multi-grain bread.

So go ahead and grab a bite!

With every passing year, new life-changing innovations take place which keeps making our life simple and trouble-free. Innovation happens in every step of human life, and food is not far from it. So here are top 5 food innovations in the last five years that will always be remembered by our taste buds for their out of the box taste and looks!

1. Tomato Sushi

The words “livable” and “vegetarian” are apparently the least things on your mind when you’re enjoying sushi, But currently, we’re overfishing many of the world’s remaining fisheries.

With that in sense, Chef James Corwell arranged about making a delicious flipside to a famous fish that would match picky palettes.

Using sous vide ways to taste, he invented a palatable, tomato-based substitute for tuna that should keep us in the sushi game strong.

2. Cronuts

A Cronut is a croissant-doughnut pastry created by New York City pastry chef Dominique Ansel of Dominique Ansel Bakery. The pastry is similar to a doughnut and is created from croissant-like dough which is stuffed with flavored cream and deep-fried in grapeseed oil. A trademark was certified for the name “cronut” at the United States Patent and Trademark Office. After the release of the Cronut, similar products have sprung up all over the world.

3. Banana Flour

Here is another prime example of a young innovator taking action to put the world’s waste to use. In this scenario, it’s the millions of tons of bananas that has damaged before ever reaching customers. Possibly, some Swedish grad students had witnessed enough gluten-free belly-aching and took a decision to make a flour alternate made of bananas. Banana chapatis anyone?

4.  Glitter Latte

Clearly not all that glitters is gold. It can now very well be your morning cup of coffee.  This glittering latte was popularized by a cafe in Mumbai and broke the internet.  If you are curious, the glitter is absolutely edible. It doesn’t really have a taste of it’s own, but you’re sure to get a glittery lip.

5. Stir fried Ice-cream

Contrary to what the name the name suggests, it is not stir fried on a flame with oil, but on a cold ice-pan. Stir-fried ice cream also is known as Thai rolled ice cream is a handmade ice cream dessert formed with milk poured on an iced grill, mixed with fruit or various ingredients on the ice-pan. It reached worldwide in 2015 from internet viral videos.

6.   BOX8’s Fusion Box

We’ve invented a unique concept of Desi Fusion with our signature 8 layer desi meal in a box! It comes with an amazing fusion of flavours and is super convenient

Know more about such out of the box food innovations?  Hit us in the comments section below 🙂

Article contributed by Siddesh Bhoir for BOX8

There’s no sight on earth more appealing than that of a food lover crafting a masterpiece in the kitchen.  Watching a chef cook is definitely more pleasing than doing it yourself.  It is wonderful to watch some bake, saute, or fry ingredients to create something so perfect and beautiful. It has the power to tickle your food fantasies and inspire you to fulfill them. So to appease the food lover in you, here’s a list of 8 must watch movies for foodies.

Chef

There is no second question to why this movie tops the list. This heart-warming tale of a chef who wants the word to experience his food creations will surely stimulate your salivary glands. All those Cuban sandwiches will surely make you want a sandwich like none other.

Ratatouille

The concept of who you are has nothing to do with what you can do, cannot be explained better than Ratatouille does. It is a true labor of love for fine cooking, and it goes about its story in an adorable way. The animation is top notch, and the dishes look so amazing that you can’t help but appreciate the much celebrated French cuisine.

Julie and Julia

This movie is inspired by the true story of Julie Powell, a new-yorker who discovers her passion for cooking and blogging inspired by the celebrated American cookbook author Julia Child. They both discover that with the right combination of passion, fearlessness and butter, anything is possible. Her adventures with cooking and the delicious scenes will keep you engaged and wanting more.

Luv Shuv Tey Chicken Khurana

For any Punjabi style chicken lover, this movie is paradise.  A grandson tries to recreate the celebrated chicken recipe of his grandfather to save his family dhaba. His trials and tribulations give us a lot of laughs, a few tears and an irresistible craving for Punjabi dhaba style chicken.

Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Unlike an artistic movie glorifying food making, this is a documentary which follows 85-year-old Jiro Ono, a world-renowned sushi chef. Watching the relentless pursuit of perfection he demands from all his apprentices, is equal parts of awe-inspiring, soul-crushing and totally mouthwatering. If you decide to work at Jiro’s you may just be making eggs for 10 years till you absolutely perfect the craft.

Charlie & the Chocolate Factory

A movie dedicated to chocolate. Like really! Get ready to enter a fantasy land full of candy and other weird things. While seeing the movie you will feel like you are on a joy ride enjoying the irresistible candies. Good luck with the chocolate cravings. Umm.. a chocolava cake may help. Just saying!

The Trip

Steve Coogan is asked to tour the finest restaurants of Northern England. When his girlfriend backs out, he invites his best frenemy and fellow comedian Rob Brydon instead. Get ready for some mouth-watering incredible cuisines and lots of grumbles in your tummy.

The Lunchbox

This classic Irfan movie will make you crave for some good and simple homemade food. Right from aloo gobhi to simple beans and chapatti, you would want it all cooked in the quintessential lohe ki kadhai. After all nothing beats good Desi khana.

Can you think of more foodie movies? Tell us in the comments below!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Indian food has a vast intriguing history. Over the years, many of its recipes have traveled to foreign lands. Take the case of the humble Haldi Doodh which is becoming a fashionable drink to sip beyond our shores and is known as Turmeric Latte.  Here are the other 7 Indian foods which have been adapted over sees and are served with different names. While the debate of where they originated will always remain, for some we can happily say that they have been copies from India with fancier names.

1. Basbousa

The name of this dish is truly a tongue twister for this Egyptian dish. Want to hear what do we know it as>- Sheera!  Basbousa is Sheera — the Indian rava/sooji  dessert made in pretty much every state across the nation.  The egyptian counterpart is the baked version of sheera.  We are not sure if the sweet originated in India and then traveled to Egypt or it was the other way round. But the uncanny resemblance cannot be ignored.

2. Chamucas

The close cousin of our beloved  samosas. Chamucas are found every where in Lisbon.  Samosa is just the Indian pronunciation of  Portuguese Chamuca or vice versa, we may never know. Since, different kinds of samosas recipes have traveled to different places for centuries, we may never have the answer to it.

3. Tinadaloo

It is likely the Brits wanted to give a new name to Vindaloo — the spicy curry with vinegar and spices — so they named the dish Tindaloo. But what’s in a name? This dish is a distant relative of the Goan chicken Vindaloo, but Tindaloo is spicier. It is said the British living in Goa were so inspired by Vindaloo that when they went home, they made and sold it by a different name.

4. Phaal Curry

If a Punjabi samples Phaal Curry, he would lick his fingers and exclaim, “This is our very own chicken curry”  Except that Phaal Curry has lots and lots of red chillies thrown in .  Voted as one of the spiciest curries in UK, it finds its origins in Indian eateries/curry shops in Birmingham.  Is your mouth watering for some Phaal curry? Try the Desi version here.

5. Kedgeree

Kedgeree is nothing but the British version of the comforting, lightly-spiced Indian Khichdi. Traditionally, British Kedgeree is made of rice and lentils with spices and some dry fruits thrown in. The cooking method is identical to that of Khichdi.

6. Almond Brittle

Lonavala Chikki just got a new, fancier name. Almond Brittle has two major ingredients: almond and sugar. You can garnish it with dark chocolate, maple almond butter and sea salt.

7. Turmeric Latte

Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a new latte that you (Indians) haven’t tasted yet! We have been sipping it for ages . Turmeric Latte is nothing but Haldi Doodh known for its soothing flavour and aroma! Quite a sophisticated name for the good old mummy’s favourite cough cure, isn’t it?

Know more such food? Do share them in the comments below.

Caution: Read Only if Biryani is Bae

We have all heard of the famous Hyderabadi Biryani and may be even the Lucknowi version. But we bet that the most ardent Biryani lovers like yourself may not have tried these varieties!  Here are 5 lip-smacking non-conventional biryanis from different parts of India that are sure to make you question- where were they till now!

Ambur Biryani

Ambur is leather tanning city in Tamil Nadu. This tiny city is famous for making one of the best types of Biryani in Southern India.

#Fun Fact: Ambur has more biryani shops per km than any metropolitan city in the world!

Kolkata Biryani

The Nawabs of Lucknow were exiled in Kolkata after the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny. In days the of exile meat was scarce, so the Nawabi cooks added potatoes to the biryani. That is why, the present day Kolkata biryani contains potatoes. True example of necessity is the mother of invention.

Sindhi Biryani

Sindhis in India have truly given Biryanis a delectable twist of their cuisine. Of the many different types of biryanis, this is the only one that uses yogurt in large amounts.

Bombay Biryani

Every kind of food has a Bombay version and Biryani was not spared either! The Bombay biryani is typically sweeter and has more fried onions than other varieties. It has been adapted from the Irani biryani that is eaten with gravy. Slurppp..

Srilankan Buryani

Well, technically this is not India, but has desi roots. When the Tamils from India went and settled in Sri Lanka, they took the recipe of biryani with them. The first shop that sold biryani in Colombo was called Buharis. And the Sri Lankan biryani that is much spicier than any Indian version is thus called ‘buryani’. It’s getting hot…

Tahiri

Tahiri is an Awadhi dish popular in Uttar Pradesh. Many UP brahmins do not eat meat. That is why, Brahmins started preparing a vegetarian variety of biryani called tahiri. Happy Biryani to all vegetarians 😉

And..

BOX8’s Paneer Tikka Biryani

For all Paneer lovers, we have created a special paneer tikka biryani with fire grilled soft paneer tikkas slow cooked with extra long grain basmati rice.

Know any other kind of amazing biryanis in India? Let us know in the comments!