Khabar Magazine. Feb 2024 print. A retired couple strives to bring Indian flavors to schools across the U.S. As an Indian kid growing up in the U.S., taking pungent curries and oily achar in your school lunch box may have been a head-turner in the past. Today, a growing diversity of student population, along with […]

Khabar Magazine. January 2024 print issue. From eclectic museums and international festivals to global cuisines and ethnic conclaves, TORONTO offers everything one expects from a modern metropolis. When I arrived at the Toronto Pearson Airport, a blue-turbaned man filled the giant digital screens overlooking the baggage claim area. Advertisements for a Marathi Indian restaurant (located […]

Khabar Magazine. January 2024 print issue. Whenever I visit India, I can’t help but admire the slim waistlines and petite figures of the beautiful ladies who cook and clean around homes. I asked one of them what her secret was, other than the fact that she is quite physically active all day long. The woman, […]

Khabar Magazine. Dec 2023 print issue. Indian restaurants sorely failed to make a mark in the recently launched Michelin Guide for Atlanta. Here are six things they can do to step up their chances to get the highly coveted Michelin star. October was somewhat of a milestone in the annals of the dining scene in […]

Khabar Magazine. November 2023 print. Finally a place where Atlantans can enjoy eggs the Indian way! Eggmania, a New Jersey-based franchise offers egg keemas and Indian-style omelets that desis had been missing amidst a sea of American breakfast places. The restaurant goes a step further with creative, contemporary egg offerings such as Egg Katori, a […]

Khabar Magazine. October 2023 print cover story. If the first thing you do when you wake up in the morning is reach out for a cup of tea and biscuits, if you reminisce about having friendly banter with college friends by a tea stall on a street corner, if you crave hot masala tea and […]

Khabar Magazine. September 2023 print. Relive your childhood with flavors like tutti-frutti, mitha paan, chickoo, lychee, sitaphal, cassata, and more at the two locations of Kwality Ice Cream in metro Atlanta. Growing up in the ’80s in India, there were not many ice cream stores around us. Brands like Vadilal and Baskin Robbins emerged much […]

Khabar Magazine. August 2023 print. On most weekends and evenings, you can see thousands of locals and visitors biking, running, and walking along the paved trails of Atlanta’s BeltLine, making their way past various restaurants, parks, and street art. With several cuisines to choose from, the hardest decision they make is where to settle down […]

Khabar Magazine. July 2023 print. When one is in the mood for alcoholic drinks with Indian meals, the question comes up time and again: what pairs well with the bold flavors of Indian cuisine? Is there something that accentuates the spicy flavors rather than ending up a mishmash that ruins both experiences—drinking and eating? Beer […]

Khabar Magazine. May 2023 print. Over three decades back, they started out by selling wet grinders for making idli and dosa batter. Now, thanks to the ingenuity of this husband-and-wife duo, they are designers and manufacturers of innovative stone grinders that are revolutionizing the bean-to-bar chocolate industry. Andal Balu, in her conversation with Khabar, talks […]

Khabar Magazine. April 2023 print. I’m embarrassed to admit that even as a well-seasoned traveler, I did not know much about the country of Rwanda until recently. About the same size as the U.S. state of Maryland, this tiny landlocked nation in the Great Rift Valley of Central Africa has made headlines for the gruesome […]

Khabar Magazine. April 2023 print. Walking into Kailash Parbat, I am reminded of those carefully decorated, modern Indian restaurants I grew up with in big cities like New Delhi and Mumbai. Dark velvet green booths, Arabic-style lanterns, and shiny gold mosaic floors contrasting against the playful, colorful wall murals are attention-grabbing. As my eyes wander, […]

Khabar Magazine. March 2023 print. Besides being a festival of colors, this is also a festival of flavors. Here are some classic food customs associated with this joyous thewaar. Holi is all about play, laughter, celebration, vibrant colors, and… food! This joyous Hindu festival marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring, the triumph […]

Khabar Magazine. Feb 2022 print. If you have driven down Peachtree Road near the Ashford Dunwoody Road intersection, you may have seen random neon signs for Indian or Bangladeshi restaurants. An old stand-alone building here has changed hands a number of times, introducing a few tried-and-failed South Asian restaurants. But Ruchi is the first that […]

Khabar Magazine. December 2022 print. During the holiday season in India, I remember shopping at the local halwai shops for colorful boxes of freshly made sweets and gold foil-wrapped hampers filled with dried fruits. We would purchase dozens of these to give to colleagues, friends, and hosts. Over the years, these gift baskets became more […]

Khabar Magazine. Nov 2022 print. With Indian cuisine becoming mainstream in the U.S., kitchens, grocery markets, and online stores are stocking up on new varieties of instant frozen, canned, and boxed Indian dishes. Over the years, I have tried many of these and have been disappointed with the cardboard stale aromas and chalky flavors. Also, […]

Khabar Magazine. Nov 2022 print. Thanks to modern tourism, one can experience the rugged beauty of Antarctica the coldest, driest, and remotest continent, juxtaposed with savoring homely indulgences like uttapam, poori-chana, and chicken tikka masala. Of course, it is the breathtaking vistas and wildlife of the planet’s final frontier that will stay in your memories […]

Khabar Magazine. Oct 2022 print cover story. This collection of cherished memories and recipes from food enthusiasts is sure to put you in the mood for the holidays. Kheer: Nothing beats my late Grandma’s Punjabi recipe! Growing up in northern India in a multi-religious household meant that I had the rare opportunity to celebrate many […]

Khabar Magazine. Sept 2022 print. Devour soft, fluffy, steaming momos stuffed with minced chicken and a fiery chili dipping sauce. Pick them off paper plates while looking over a scenic backdrop of snow-covered mountain ranges. You may think you are somewhere at a hill station in the Himalayas,but you are actually right here in the […]

Khabar Magazine. August 2022. For the longest time, one of the pet peeves of Indians has been that our cuisine does not get its due credit in the American dining scene. Well, that has changed in 2022, and how! In June, the Asheville, North Carolina-based Chai Pani (which also has a location in Decatur, Georgia) […]

Khabar Magazine. July 2022 print cover story. In a 2011 cover story published in Khabar, we looked at the Indian-American organizations that are at the forefront of philanthropy. Here, we look at individual patterns of charitable giving among us: how, where, and why we give. (This article has portions that have been reprinted from the […]

Khabar Magazine. July 2022. After a long hiatus during the pandemic, one of Atlanta’s favorite restaurants, Zyka: The Taste, reopened for dine-in. The iconic location at Scott Boulevard, Decatur, which has been around since 1997, offers the same, familiar experience with its modest interior renovations, while the newer Alpharetta location that opened in 2020, is […]

Khabar Magazine. June 2022 print. How to source, store, and cook the most important ingredients in your Indian pantry.  Spices are an integral part of the Indian kitchen, and most of our knowledge about them has come naturally through tasting and observing. Most of us never went to a formal cooking class or read the […]

Khabar Magazine. May 2022 print. The mixed-use State Farm building on Hammond Drive in Dunwoody has a new addition. Sankranti Indian Kitchen is a fast-casual restaurant, aspiring to deliver “Chipotle style” healthy made-to-order Indian cuisine. Walking in the modern and clean space, there are subtle hints of the restaurant’s Indian origins. Flower motifs, stenciled in […]