‘If they cant afford bread, let them eat cake.’

During French revolution, when Queen Marie- Antoinette was informed about the peasants not having bread to eat. She responded in absolute opulence, ‘Let them eat cake.’  In French, the sentence is Qu’ils mangent de la brioche! Or, literally means, Let them eat brioche!  Since cake is a familiar word to English speakers, it was conveniently mistaken for brioche, a form of French bread enriched with eggs and butter. Sounds 'miam, miam' (yummy in English).

Brioche bread





Sadly, the French Queen will always be remembered infamously for her famous words and history will continue to dispute the authenticity of her statement. However, we will move our focus to French breads.  Historically, breads have been particularly important to French people since the French Revolution days. An average Frenchman reportedly ate three pounds of bread a day. And if the supplies fell short or went bad, it resulted in riots. Even the English phrase of: ‘to be the bread-winner’ was made common to boast their victories over French territories. Impressive headline!

 

Get ready for some breakfast lessons on breads.

 

The most famous French bread is the 'Baguette', considered to be the obvious and perfect ally of a French cheese like a camembert. A baguette is a long and crispy loaf of bread can be up to one metre in length and weigh around 250 grams. Other popular names of the famous baguette in English are 'French bread' or 'French stick'. Baguettes are ideal for sandwiches. When eaten with cheese, they are at their delicious best. The other French baguettes variations consist of different ingredients like rye, sesame, hemp and poppy seeds. The contemporary variants include dry or candied fruit like raisins, nuts, oranges, pineapples or even figs. Looks like they can swallow anything.   

 Country Bread is named Pain de Campagne,   meaning "county bread".  It used be sold only in the suburbs, and was later introduced and sold in Paris by "bread sellers". The original French country bread was made for suburban people who could only go grocery shopping once in a while.

Today it is still made so that it is preserved for days thanks to its slowly fermented yeast or natural leavening agents. Country bread in general is made of wheat flour, rye flour, water, salt, and yeast.

 

 

Croissant

 

It is believed that the croissant has its origins in Vienna. It was first introduced to Paris by a bread artisan who was taken to Paris along with the Austrian princess, Marie-Antoinette (Oh God! her ghost follows us here too). Giving her a skip, this bread with its enriched ingredients and sweet pastries is called Viennoiseries, meaning "Viennese" in French. The croissant, in general, has layers of butter and thinly rolled out dough that is made of wheat flour, water, salt, and plenty of eggs and butter. Danish pastries are called Dannoise in French, and they also have several varieties, such as pastries topped with sweet cream, fruit and nuts, shaped like an apple, a fan, a bear’s paw, etc.

Apart from these types of bread, France offers a whole range of other breads, including whole meal breads (pain complet or pain aux céréales), rye bread (pain de seigle), sourdough bread (pain au levain), etc. 

 

And finally, why are we enlightening you on breads?

1. To add a slice of knowledge to your healthy mornings, much kneaded
2. Most importantly, you are not deprieved of breads or cakes at Bunk the Junk, we offer both in abundance

If only Queen Marie-Antoinette lived to see this day!

 

Bonjour!

 

Peas to all

Saffron: Paradox in your palate

As we continue to recover from curd clubbing (Dahi handi) celebrations hangover, the Tri-colour strikes us at the stroke of midnight. Once again everyone will be painting and posting their food for thoughts with the Indian tri-colours.

Saffron-The world’s most expensive spice for world’s most treasured commodity, freedom. After courage and sacrifice, its priceless resemblance to freedom makes it perfectly eligible on the Indian flag. Today, the taste of bitter honey will thread culinary conversations, spreading its flavour and aroma across networking shares too.

Keep in mind

As a colour, white in food is referred to processed and refined food; like flour, rice, pasta, bread, crackers, cereal, and simple sugars like table sugar and high-fructose corn syrup.
What an irony!  White is certainly a healthy cuisine for the mind and soul, containing saturated truth and purity filled fats.
We don’t mind it as it keeps our mind in its place.

On the flip side, "white food" rule also forces some stay away from eating very healthy foods, such as cauliflower, radishes, onions, cottage cheese, and fat-free milk. Apply a little more mind to your choice of food by choosing unprocessed foods such as quinoa, minimally processed foods such as whole wheat bread, or whole grain options than highly processed foods such as white rice, white bread, or sugary cereals.

 

Don’t pluck flowers, pluck leaves

It goes without saying how everyone wants to go green with the environment, power, clothing, fuel, food and everything else you can get your hands on. With its powerhouse packed nutritional benefits including magnesium, chlorophyll, fibre, vitamins, and yes essential fats (those omegas), green foods are undoubtedly the most powerful healing foods on earth.

When a country plants peace and prosperity, it feeds humanity with health healing helpings.

 

 

 

Whatever be your choice of colours on other days, try and wake up to the tri-colours every day of your life.

Happy Independence Day!

3 square meals for 1 round metal

83 member squad lead, Mahesh Vs Paes home turf Olympics buried, history of mystery girl revealed and finally 1 bronze in the Indian kitty for now.

While all of us are effortlessly turning into couch potatoes and flexing our fingers between ESPN and Star Sports to catch the action live, the competing athletes’ lives are enough to give us a complex. How the hell did they get their bodies there? Rather, Kaunse chakki ka atta khata hain?

Their fitness can give you a fit of consumption fear. With a stuffed gut and my light weight, I decided to dig in a little. I didn’t need to surpass page 1 of Google search to click on Olympians calorie count. Here starts the tales of irony.

Contrasting calories

Athletes have to get 4,000 to 6,000 calories in their bodies a day. I’m feeling stuffed already and the super markets must be running out of their stuff.

Some of these diet staples include a pound of pasta with olive oil, cheese pizza, Ben & Jerry's cheesecake-brownie ice cream, Snickers candy bars, Pop-Tarts, a dozen eggs, and even beer.

Now I'm starting to understand why the International Olympic Committee still considers marijuana to be a performance-enhancing drug, even without hot dog eating as an Olympic event.

http://olympics.yardbarker.com/blog/olympics/article/olympic_athletes_diets_are_more_insane_than_you_think/11329870

Now compare this to our homegrown diet. Desi diet is enough to give everyone a power packed fight.
A boxer on a weight loss programme? A wrestler strictly vegetarian? This happens only in India!

http://blogs.wsj.com/indiarealtime/2012/07/24/what-indias-olympic-athletes-eat/

No junk food. This is one of the things Thapa says he dislikes most about being a professional boxer. Burgers, soft drinks and fried food are forbidden to him.

Yes, it’s natural to make a platter performance comparison. Again there is more to winning than watching what you eat. I personally believe that to get everything right in life you’ve to get something wrong. But then who plays referee? As we wait to weigh more medals, the junk Vs health food Olympic debate continues.

Flying thought: Wonder what the Queen had for dinner on the inaugural night?  

Assassination of procrastination

I proclaim healthy food is procrastination personified.  Hands up all those who agree!! There are too many hurdles that come along healthy way and by the end of it, you wonder if it’s worth it. Why go out of the way to think about it, step out with an unadulterated healthy shopping list and then scan through cooking books, channels and friends for help.

Instead picking up the greasy pack of chips or frozen food is so easy to indulge taste and time. It’s fast to cheat and eat and makes your feet run towards it without provocation. See, daily dose of exercise also taken care of.  My sentiments too!
Having said that, contradiction stands tall with health and diet increasingly gaining likes as a conversation and networking starter.

Recently on one fine day, my conclusion of health food got redefined over a hurried healthy lunch at Swati’s home. The table was well laid with healthy homemade desi and Middle East food and I conveniently set my eyes on the hummus dip spread on a crunchy toast. To be true to myself, I had few glaring in my face reasons to why my mouth dropped by at the toast. Firstly, it looked unfamiliar and fast to get over with. Secondly, it looked unhealthy and didn’t want to correct Swati that she had actually served me sin. I even borrowed few roasted peanuts from the Suran ki sabzi and topped it on the hummus toast to give the freshly garnished tomatoes some company.

Swati quickly corrected the look in my eyes by elaborating on its healthy, fresh and preservative free ingredients. Euphoria ends and Mumbai’s monsoon lightening strikes reality at me with the realisation that healthy food is tasty, fun to cook and doesn’t tax your efforts.  And most importantly, you don’t have to go out of your way to consume health food; it’s all there in your kitchen. All you need to do is open your mind and your eyes will look for themselves. There is enough health in your monthly grocery list, rearrange them and you are set.
Guess what, health food is fast to cook, easy to digest and tasty to your buds (Good Lord! I almost sounded like Maggi). But on similar lines, you don’t need to spend your life by the fire because it’s never over cooked…just cooked right and enough. That’s why it’s called ‘health food’.  And believe me, there are no hurdles to harm your health.

No doubt fat and calories are a must for every diet, but so is moderation of intent and ingredients. 

Try it! It won’t kill you; least a healthy appetite will grow on you. The rest is a healthy history!

Cakes can walk the talk!

This is a dated post, but I INSIST on sharing it.

Swati and I baked cupcakes for Maya’s 3rd birthday celebrations. It was Swati’s hand that was doing the culinary talking and my mouth with the ingredients to befriend them. It was Bunk the Junk’s first assignment, Swati and me cooking together for the first time, my first baking experience, my first photo shoot with Revant (Swati’s son… christened as Revanthadu, couldn’t help but give his name an Andhra assortment)  and the incredible win of Mumbai Indians (not their first). What a team treat… in more ways than one.

I took my first baby steps into the kitchen to be introduced to a squad of strangers… wheat flour as against the predictable maida, master blaster Wakefield cocoa powder, coffee powder (Café cake day), baking molds, cup liners, baking oven with a disciplined timer (love its timer tone and it religiously returned me to the kitchen in between strategic tie-ups). The list is endless like Pollard’s rain of runs on that humid day.

Inspite of Swati’s warm welcome ceremony, not every ingredient was forthcoming towards me. I was excited to be in their company and Swati was effortless with them. In fact, the ingredients were holding on to her like a child to a mother when confronted by a stranger. Kewal (Swati’s husband) further played peace maker, pacifier and the icing creator. The ready to be cracked egg misbehaved by sheepishly dropping his little shell piece in the beating bowl. My eyes caught it just before I blinked but my fingers struggled for a good 5 minutes to spot it. I had to sweet-talk and finally adopt it as my ‘babuu’ before it conceded defeat. Whew!!!

Swati was a patient spectator to this drama and like a true mentor guided and explained the baking recipe, rules and rituals. As we moved on, the rising Celsius degrees of the baking oven was equivalent to the apparatus thawing to me. The sugar was now grinding faster and finer, almost managed hairline crack with the eggs (felt like Karbonn Kamaal catch winner), and the rhythmic flow of the milk with chocolate/coffee/ground sugar mix in the beating bowl was creating an orchestrated music. In the background, the cheer girls were actually dancing to this tune.

As the night passed, the baking batter gave me the ‘apron of approval’. I was now the proud orange cap winner. Gradually, in a batch of 12, the batter found residence in the cup liners which lounged themselves in the baking molds. The heat flirted with the batter within the oven walls and created sensuous dance in our taste buds outside the walls. Without getting carried away by this tantalising tease, we let out feet do the talking. The oven fresh cupcakes were cradled for cooling and we were set for a replay till we reached a score of 40. I personally grew friendlier with every batch of 12 and so did the squad of ingredients. They started sending me Facebook friend requests and I was quick to confirm them.

It was time to retire for the night and wake up to create icing in Disneyland. When we woke up, the baked cakes rose like the bright risen sun and needed little diamonds looking up at the sky. The cakes posed a well-toned body with chiseled muscles at the right places. Here comes the sexy part. Creating icing cream in different tones and textures is the most therapeutic unison experience. I partly helped Swati by holding the cone while Kewal and she laced the cakes with creative imagination.  Pink paradise, blue bliss, purple pastels and white wishes icing shades adorned as cupcake crowns. Wow!!! It just got better and sexier with chocolate shavings sprinkled on them. The sprinkle created a twinkle in our eyes.

Just few more tail ends to achieve the taste ends. We quickly treated ourselves with few bites and pleasantly surprised ourselves. Aunty (Swati’s mother-in-law) asked us to thank God, seek his blessings and we obliged.

One last thing, create Disney touch of land. I stuck Disney character stickers on each of the pulp wood skewers. They found their due place on the cupcakes just before being served to a stadium of 40 kids.

Time to pack the cup cakes. Bunk the Junk begins. We let the cupcakes to do the talking!

Happy Birthday Maya.

6.90 MB of Guts!

I still can’t get over the fact that we publically exposed our guts to create a folder antonymous with our personalities. One could have never imagined health food, Swati and Chatty in the company of an almost final concept note, pic references from Google and logo options in a folder residing in my C: drive. One look at Swati and you would term her pleasantly plump (diet diplomacy served here). And the less said about Chatty, the better… she weighs less, thinks less about discipline of any kind (and mind) and selectively suffers from short sightedness towards healthy living.

Start-up problems for starters
For starters when we talked “Why health food?”, Swati stalked my mailbox with links, mails and information on healthy living, healthy food, healthy alternatives and food blogs… believe me, Latin and Greek seemed like a cakewalk. Speaking of which, she taught me how cakes could be made with healthy alternatives and still taste too good to be true. Maya’s birthday cupcakes — a health freak’s dream come true — are still fresh in my memory, egging me on for the healthy, fresh food we are planning to plate up. Swati has acquired more knowledge about health food preparation than the portions of junk food I can digest. My loved ones who hate my consumption vices will vouch for my gluttony. Fortunately, my long sightedness to see merit in the venture and my personal cause to start living healthy left me with less health information indigestion.

Got to eat what you dish out!
To conceptualise the brand, brand name, logo and its imagery was the ultimate invention test. Thesaurus, dictionary, competitive sites, Travel &Living channel… you name it and I was there attempting to attain creative enlightenment. Nothing attained, nothing gained! My creative cuisine landed in an alien planet taking the road never travelled and with no ray of light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve realised, when you are a self-appointed client for your brand, you are your worst enemy. Kept telling myself, ‘Gotta eat what you dish out’. Hmm...

Cuisine meets character.

I’m now slowly getting close to the tunnel and the ray. Swati and I are self-designated devil’s advocates with insight garnished with a halo. Swati loves to ‘bunk’ short-cuts to take the long road ahead in life and I love ‘junk’ — junk food and the thought of living a junkie’s life. All of the above sparked a fire and fiery ideas in my belly and I quickly extinguished external creative inspirations. Cliché… two negatives (bunk and junk) make a positive and that feels like flood lights ignited in an idea bulb.

Bunk + Junk =

We’ve right clicked to rename the folder.

Bunk the Junk

Finally I reached the finish line… for now. Whew! A name that speaks what we make, what makes us and the health style we endorse. We gave each other a standing applause! Ha ha…

Teen log aur 3.5 logosAfter the appetising celebrations it was time to design the logo. My excitement was similar to that of Ronald’s… who diligently greeted me with the largest pack of French fries and cola. Yippee! I can’t wait to see portions of my logo options and finalise a design with my little morsels of changes. My enthusiasm was eaten up by the time I finished my pack of fries.
3 designers, 3 and a half logos designs. My laptop is craving for abtjfinal_approved.jpg file. Like our brand name, Swati and I are graciously junking the options in my inbox. With no offense meant to the teen log, we are awaiting the ‘hatted’ logo to descend on us. (Thank God for Master Chef; my food slang has improved).

Work is Progression

The logo is Work in Progress, but we’re ready to serve the health evolved, respect-your-body-and- nourish-your-soul tribe with a smorgasbord of soups, salads, and health cereals, breads, burgers, muffins, cakes, cookies, fruit preserves, dips, wraps, roasted nuts and other munchies.
Post her recent qualification from IHM-Summer Bakery Course, Swati is a charged-up chef. She continues to sneak in healthy ingredients even in 100% unhealthy food concentrates with a vengeance. As her sous-chef, I try to keep pace with her and make sure there is something to write to (to every) home about.
At the cost of sounding pompous, you have to give it to us… our resolve to aim high is akin to our appetising, high resolution food images in the ‘Bunk the Junk’ folder.

Sales pitch
Time I bunk the sweet something’s and get straight to my sales pitch. It’s time for you to explore our health food platter by getting in touch with us to place your order. Start wearing a healthy halo before the junk wears you out.

swati@bunkthejunk.com
gchatty@bunkthejunk.com

 Bon appétit!