Monica Bhide

I man after my own heart!

Now for a short boring bio - I am a writer, I write mostly about food and am starting to write short fiction and about parenting issues. I have been writing full time for a year and a half. I was an engineer before that. (GEEK ALERT). I am not very verbose and tend to post in short spurts so I hope that will be okay. I have never blogged before so this will be a learning experience for me.

Hi all - After many months of procastinating, I am your humble blogger this week. I signed on to eGullet about 2 years ago and remember being terrified to post -- everyone knew so much about food and I wondered what I could contribute. That feeling is even stronger today -- the food blogs so far have been outstanding. I feel like the kid who goes on after Sammy Sosa! I was very inspired by Lucy's blog and finally decided to do it. So here I am today -- the week will be quiet for the most and thankfully so. I will be making shrimp, chicken and much more. I am sure all the recipes and creations will not be Indian so this is NOT the "Real Indian" blog that Soba kept referring to in the last blog! So good morning, welcome on board and in a few minutes I will show you where I live and what I see when I wake up each morning!

Paula is a great mentor. Truly a wonderful author and caring individual. I think you said it all.

They were some very nice cucumber sandwiches - I think I inhaled them, I was so hungry.

I tried it last week and it was very nice -- I had the finger sandwhiches -- yum. I liked the clean look of the interior. I am told I need to return for their great desserts

Just read it - very very nice & very nice! (Bith the book and the New Yorker review)

I will have to check this out - normally I dont like fancy chai's - they have too much sugar in them.

I ate here recently and what a pleasure it was. The Filiphino spring rolls were divine.

I guess I must be starving

I must be starving -- I just had a vegetable and hummus wrap at Borders here in NoVA and it was really really good. Anything good cooking at your Borders?

I agree with this sentiment wholeheartedly. I turned off the email on my cell phone so I am not constantly in cyberland and missing out on the rest of the real world. Edited to add - Lucy please PM me your mailing address, I have something for you.

Wonderful - just wonderful. Reading this blog brings me back to why I joined eGullet in the first place. Your pictures are beautiful. I hope to meet you someday - I have so enjoyed your writing. I look forward to much more here -- keep going..please

I have been so looking forward to this, Lucy.. thanks for doing this. Now I am going to go back to reading

Thanks to all those of you who send me PMs. I will be in touch. If anyone else is interested please PM me. Thanks - and no more of this on the board per the new rules

me too! let's meet up!

Has anyone been? Thoughts?

[Ah, ah, ah, he says, shaking his finger disapprovingly and with scorn... this will either need to be submitted as an eGullet Calendar Event, or if it's within seven days, to be posted on the ISO DC Dining Friends thread and organized via private mail. Sincerely, Luca Brazzi. ] ← yup. i am on it.. off the boards.

My internet explorer is acting weird.. I cant see the number of stars online. I guess I will wait for the print edition

Washington TImes reviews Passage to India Has the WP done a piece on their new menu yet?

Have you all read that stuff about Zaytinya and the server? Interesting stuff going on behind the scenes

The south Indian ones are very different from the one featured here. Yes, you are correct that they do not use any eggs. This one, with eggs, is a unique combination.

Today's NYT has a feature story on chaat -- Mumbai to Midtown, Chaat Hits the Spot Enjoy!

What an awesome blog. I need to go to the top and read all this. You are one amazing lady. Are you going to share the recipe for your scones that you made for me.. they were awesome