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I am going to the Paris Book Fair!
The Festival du Livre de Paris has a joyful homepage. India is the guest of honour this year and so there are several wonderful authors, [...]
Has fine wine reached a tipping point?
How can fine wine stay relevant? In this age of climate change, are wine drinkers going to be looking at other parameters when they buy wines– sustainability for instance. Unlike dark chocolate, which grew from its niche obscurity to its current keto-diet popularity, wine is taking the opposite route. Fine wine—the term is used so often and in so many situations that it has almost become meaningless—has now reached the tipping point in terms of affordability, access and most importantly, status.
What to eat if you go half-way vegan?
It is depressing. Here I remain, perched on the higher end of the weighing scale, basically hating myself for over-eating, over-boozing and falling off my exercise routine. How to detox now? How now to stop the steady upward march of my Body Mass Index? How to stem the not-so-steady ballooning out of various body parts? The answer, I say, is tambli. Tambli is a cross between a chutney, raita and a lassi. It is served in coastal Karnataka-- Mangalore and upwards, usually before the rasam course. Which brings us to the key question for this column: is there any other culture that is as obsessed with the yogurt-coconut combo as we South Indians are?
Bangalore’s trendy restaurants: don’t believe Zomato
Let’s face it. A lot of what is considered best is subjective. Even if you go through crowd-polled websites, it is hit or miss. So what’s the takeaway? Mine is not to trust Zomato ratings because while they are crowd-polled, they aren’t customized, as in geared to your taste. My technique is to ask trusted friends and then account for their biases. When a Kashmiri friend says the food is too spicy, I automatically think it is probably perfect for spice-loving me. So what’s new, what’s hip in Bangalore? Read on.
Thank you Khaleej Times for the plug
Khaleej Times is big in the UAE and now they have revamped their entire paper. I am glad they carried an excerpt from Food & Faith-- the chapter on Sufism.
Where to Eat in Bengaluru (Bangalore)
What are the top ten restaurants in Bangalore? I try to find out. Use this list as a suggestion for visiting friends. I know, I know. Lots of terrific restaurants that are left out of this list. Email me with a few glaringly obvious ones and I promise to use your suggestions in future writing. Thanks.
Nine features I wrote for Condenast Traveler (US edition) a while back
Interviews with His Holiness The Dalai Lama
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Shoba Narayan is an award-winning Indian author, journalist, and freelance travel writer based in India. She specialises in luxury travel, immersive journeys, and Indian culture with a focus on food, wine, culture, cities, and identity. With over two decades of experience, she has contributed travel features to Condé Nast Traveler (US edition), Travel & Leisure, DestinAsian, Mint Lounge, The National (Abu Dhabi), Taj Magazine, and Hindustan Times, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Telegraph UK, The Guardian UK, and Robb Report among others. Her awards include the James Beard food-writing award and a Pulitzer Travel Fellowship. Her travel writing spans India, Southeast Asia, Japan, China, the Maldives, Bhutan, Costa Rica, and beyond — always with a focus on the sensory, the cultural, and the deeply human. Based in Bangalore, India, Shoba is a leading voice on South Asian travel, reviewing luxury hotels in India and abroad, and writing immersive features on traditional Indian crafts, and contemporary Indian culture. As a freelance travel writer and memoirist, she writes evocative, deeply researched features on everything from birding in Costa Rica to spiritual tourism in Bhutan.
For editors: Shoba Narayan is an Indian travel writer and food writer, who contributes to assignments on travel, food, culture, and Indian cities. She has reported from across the world and writes narrative-driven features with a strong sense of place.
Key Expertise: India travel writer, freelance travel writer India, South Asia travel journalist, luxury travel India writer, food and travel writer India, Indian food writer, Bangalore travel writer, South India travel writing, cultural travel writer, narrative travel journalist, travel features India, heritage travel India, slow travel India, sustainability travel writer, hotel and destination features India, travel essays South Asia.