Idea #43: Sugarless but Tasty Nevertheless!

“Sugarless but Tasty Nevertheless” is a concept restaurant specially aimed at people with Diabetes and branded as such. By 2010 India will have close to 60million people with Diabetes and is already the world’s capital for Diabetes.

As we all know Diabetes is largely a lifestyle and diet related disease. Although occurrence of this disease is influenced by genetic factors the control and care is much dependent on change in lifestyle and diet.

Nowadays it’s a trend, a fashion to make sugar free sweets and packed sugar and oil free snacks which are showing up in many retail outlets. These concepts however have not spread effectively to restaurants and eating out at large. Mostly hotels have a selection of salads and soups and some so called healthy food options but mostly it ends up being a sham. Take for example a simple dish like Dal Tadka, the amount of ghee and oil that most tadkas have defeats the purpose of taking Dal which most people assume is healthy because it’s only plain Dal, they just don’t consider the oil content and unfortunately hotels do not provide calorie or other nutrient related information. Same is the case even if you take soups and salads, they end being so rich with cream etc that it defeats the purpose of ordering these dishes.

“Sugarless but Tasty Nevertheless” is new, path breaking concept in restaurants sector. The restaurant promises to use no added sugar, use extremely low quantities of oil and publish calorie and nutrition information for everything that is on the menu which in itself will be developed very scientifically and by a panel of experts, every ingredient is carefully assessed keeping a diabetic in mind.

However, just because the restaurant is focussing on diabetes related diet it will not compromise on the taste. Every dish on the menu will be tasty beyond imagination and people will not feel compromised about the taste. Also the restaurant will cater to regular day to day Indian + popular international dishes and not some obscure exotic dishes. Lastly the dishes will be affordably priced to cater to all strata of the society.

To summarise the USP of “Sugarless but Tasty Nevertheless” will be the following,

• A restaurant chain that is specifically focussed on diet of Diabetic people
• The restaurant will be branded as a restaurant for the diabetic and not in some garb of a health food/nature fresh restaurant
• Will offer regular day to day food but made in very healthy ways and with published information and ratified by experts
• Pricing will be affordable
• While being very healthy the food will not be compromised on taste

Idea #33: Dosa and Phad Thai Outings

Today I ate at 2 of my (used to be until now) favourite eat outs and was utterly disappointed and dismayed with the deterioration in quality of the food and general standards of these 2 places.

First was morning breakfast at Vidyarthi Bhavan. Personally I abhor people who say anything against the Vidyarthi Bhavan Dosa, it’s a sacrilege in my dictionary. Such is my devotion to the legendary Dosa that they have been dishing out since several decades.

But alas today even I was dismayed by the steep decline in taste and quality. The chutney had become little sour, there was hardly any salt in it and portions of the Dosa was under cooked. Vidyarthi Bhavan has never been known for its idli but today’s idli was especially bad, the coffee was too sweet and the poori crumbled like a papad. It was bad, bad and bad all the way and I told this to Mr. Adiga’s son who was at the cash counter. He did sound a bit surprised but I was surprised that he was only surprised and not shocked and shaken by the feedback, but I do hope he will take the feedback seriously and do something with it. After all I won’t stop eating at Vidyarthi Bhavan based on today’s experience. Nobody’s perfect and everyone deserves a second chance!

Evening I went along with friends to Magnolia, again a personal favourite amongst the Thai restaurants in Bangalore. But it had been quite a while since I had visited them and in fact they have changed from the original location to a new place in Kormangala. Boy oh Boy, it seemed that with the new location everything has changed. I don’t know if they have got the Vaastu of the kitchen wrong or something but the food was badd, to put it mildly. The coconut milk soup which I used to love seemed like a new being that I could not even recognise. The appetizer, main course and everything else that followed was disappointing one after the other and overall we left pretty disappointed.

I don’t know if I have become a better cook or they have become worst but the two outings today left much to be desired.

Quality, more than anything is about consistency, more so in food business!

Idea #24: The Mama-Mami Corporation

The Mama-Mami Catering Corporation is a web service that facilities home based individuals to enter catering services without having a commercial unit or establishment.

Let me play out a scenario to explain what this idea is all about. Let’s say there are 5 bachelor working professionals staying in one house in Bangalore. Typically what would they do for food?

Cook their own food, eat outside in office or restaurant or get hold of home delivery person and get food delivered to their place. Each of these modes has a problem or limitation. Cooking their own food is mostly not preferred and working professional don’t have the time, eating in restaurants over long period of time is not healthy and catering services will supply limited options and one get soon bored of it but cannot be changed on a daily basis.

This is where the Mama-Mami Catering Corporation comes in. Imagine you had a web service where you could the following,

1. Go online to a one stop website

2. Look at dozens of meal options provided by various catering services and individuals

3. Look at user ratings for each of the service providers

4. Book the type of meal and the quantity of meal that you need for that day

5. Pay online

6. Get the food delivered at home or pick up from the provider

7. Customise your meal preferences and ingredient used

8. Etc etc

What is USP of this concept?

The USP here is that you are enabling home based individuals and not just hotels or catering units to participate in this service. Think of a housewife who let’s say is an exceptional cook but is not interested in starting a hotel or a commercial catering unit and wants to earn some money working from home but does have any other skills. This person can just create a profile on the website, create menu for the day, limit the number of food orders that she can take on a given day, take advance food orders etc etc.

No big investments, no major wastage and income sitting at home. Now extend this to other things beyond food. Say someone is good at making sweaters, small jewellery, toys, dresses, packaged food etc etc…basically provide a gamut of services thru the web, sitting a home, no upfront investment and highly flexible….that would be the “Mama-Mami Corporation” and this idea is dedicated to all the wonderful home makers of this world!

Idea #22: Cooking Basics from an Amateur Cook

1. Cooking is therapeutic and this is a little known secret

2. Too many cooks not only spoil the broth but end up squabbling

3. Every ingredient deserves respect. Dare to ignore the salt and it will show its worth

4. Listen to music while cooking and you will never go wrong

5. If you are happy about what you have cooked then you have not cooked it yourself

6. If you cook with love you will dish out something lovely

7. If you are too eager to cook a particular dish you will inevitably mess it up

8. Don’t compare home food and restaurant food. It’s never the same

9. Most people can cook nowadays, don’t think of yourself as a great cook

Idea #21: American Corn Sandwich

I am a bit of an amateur cook. Of course my friends laugh at it because I am a vegetarian, have never eaten meat and have never tasted alcohol. They wondered how anyone can claim to know anything about cooking without eating chicken or drinking beer. I remember one incident when I told my friends that I had cooked superb vegetable biryani. Their uncontrollable laughter did not make sense to me till the time they mockingly said, “Vegetarian Biryani? What’s that?”

I was fittingly shown my place and have not ventured to discuss my cooking skills ever since! But anyways I AM an amateur cook and can dish up decent, largely Indian or Indianised, vegetarian food. I like to experiment and create my own dishes and often dream about creating a brand new recipe that will acquire global fame!! (As an aside, did you know that only 6% i.e. about 400million out of 6.6 billion people are vegetarians globally and of the 400million about 300million vegetarians are in India?)

Anyways, a couple of years ago a friend and I created this “American Corn Sandwich” recipe while playing with some ingredients. It turned out to be fantastic and has become a big hit ever since with many friends, relatives and acquaintances. We have dished out dozens of these sandwiches over the last couple of years. Thought I will share the secret but simple recipe with you.

Here’ what you will need.

Sandwich Bread, Frozen or Fresh American Corn, Green Chilli, Red Chilli Powder, Salted Butter, Eggless Mayonnaise, Dried Oregano, Chopped Coriander and salt.

Method

• Boil frozen Corn for few mins till it becomes soft and fresh but not soggy
• Drain out the water
• To this corn add proportionate amounts of all other ingredients except Butter and Bread!!
• Apply butter to both sides of 2 slices of bread and then spread generous amounts of the corn and spices mix over the bread
• Grill this as a sandwich till both side become crispy and golden brown
• You will be eating one of the best ‘vegetarian sandwiches’ and may seriously consider giving up non veg food!!

I will add a photo the next time I make this sandwich. After all a picture speaks a thousand words, isn’t it? Let me know how it turns out if you happen to make it.

Idea #4: A Concept Restaurant

This is an idea for a concept restaurant.

1. Every country has its most popular, loved by all kind of dishes
2. Take the 3 most populous countries in every continent
3. Take the top 3, most popular recipes from those countries
4. Get authentic recipes from original sources for these dishes
5. Use ingredients that are closest to the original recipe
6. Create a franchisee model
7. Set up these restaurants in each of the represented country