Article by Master Chef Irfan khan
President and Secretary General
WAMC India

If you have not already, you can Read Part One Here

Indian Spices are world-famous for their flavor, fine texture, and Aroma. every single spice used in Indian dishes carries some or other nutritional as well as medicinal properties.
In India, food is one of the most important parts of religious ceremonies. The role of food in religious culture is an important part of showing respect among their communities and many of these religions obey the religious commandments, hence food is prepared in different ways. In India, Food is often used as a means of retaining their cultural identity. People from different cultural backgrounds eat different foods.
Indian food is different from the rest of the world not only in taste but also in cooking methods. It reflects a perfect blend of various cultures and Traditions.
Each region of India has its own food/dishes/cuisine.
Northern Indian cuisine reflects a strong Mughal influence. It is characterized by a high use of dairy: milk, paneer (an Indian mild cheese), ghee (clarified butter), and yogurt are all used. meat, are a distinctive Northern snack. Clay ovens known as tandoors are widely used in North India, and dishes like Tandoori Chicken and Naan bread their distinctive charcoal flavor. A significant number of Northern dishes make regular appearances on Indian menus.

Whereas Western Indian cuisine is distinguished by the geographic and historical particulars of its three main regions: Maharashtra, Gujarat, and Goa. Maharashtra’s coastal location is responsible for its fish and coconut milk-dominant cuisine. Gujarati cuisine is mostly vegetarian and has an underlying sweetness to many of its dishes due to Chinese influence. Since the dry climate of this region produces smaller vegetables, this region is well known for its chutneys, which are popular Indian condiments that use cooked, fresh, or pickled vegetables and fruits with sweet, sour, or spicy flavors. Goa acted as a major trade port and colony for Portugal, resulting in a distinctive and unique blend of Indian and Portuguese culinary elements. Goan cuisine uses pork and beef with greater frequency than other regional cuisines in India. Vinegar is also a characteristic ingredient of Goan cuisine, another result of Portuguese influence. The prevalence of coconut milk, coconut paste, and fish in Goan cuisine results from its coastal location. Vindaloo is a traditional Goan dish that is an Indian restaurant mainstay, its name deriving from Vinho de Alho, a Portuguese marinade consisting primarily of garlic, wine, vinegar, and chilies.

Let’s talk about Eastern Indian cuisine. it is primarily known for its desserts. These desserts are not only favored by other regions in India but are frequently found at Indian restaurants, their light sweetness making an excellent finale to a meal. Rasgulla is a popular sweet treat consisting of semolina and cheese curd (chenna) balls that are boiled in a light sugar syrup. Eastern dishes favor mustard seeds, poppy seeds, and mustard oil, giving dishes a light pungency. Rice and fish also feature prominently in Eastern cuisine. Overall, Eastern dishes are more lightly spiced than those from other regions of India.

 

On the other hand, Southern Indian cuisine is not typically found on many Indian restaurant menus and differs greatly from other regions. Its “curries” contrast differently in their textures and can typically be categorized according to the drier consistency, or those favoring a more soupy or stew-like presentation. Poriyals, dry curries consisting of a variety of vegetables and spices, accompany rice dishes. Sambars, rasams, and kootus, three common stew-like dishes, each differs in their primary ingredients and degrees of liquidity. Sambars are essentially tamarind-flavored pea and vegetable stews that are more watery than curries from other regions but are thicker than rasams. Rasams are more similar to soups in their consistency and are composed primarily of tomato, tamarind, and a myriad of spices.
Indian cuisine includes a variety of spices, and every spice has many health benefits. Including a variety of spices and vegetables in your diet is important for living healthily. Eat local and seasonal vegetables and fruits at the right time for good health and strong immunity.

 

If you find yourself right at home in the kitchen, perhaps a chef career would be right up your alley. When the thought of a chef career comes to mind, it may project thoughts of slaving over a hot, smelly grill, flipping burgers and hearing endless orders shouted through a loud speaker. While that may be the scenario for some chefs, there are actually many different options for this occupation.

Cooks for fast food and restaurant chains are always in demand because quick employee turnover is almost guaranteed. Many high school students take on these less-paying jobs solely as a summer gig. Others use the opportunity to bring in income until a more profitable job is found. However, restaurant, fast food and short order cooks are still categorized within the chef career spectrum and having the skill of producing high quality, tasty food is a talent that not everyone has. Everyone has to begin somewhere, and working for one of these kitchens provides cooking experience, looks good on resumes, and can act as a jumping off point for beginning a chef career.

If baking will be your forte in your chef career, perhaps a job at a cafeteria or nursing home would be a good job selection. While fast-food workers are constantly frying up and scooping out the same food products daily at a lickety-split pace, an institution kitchen is a more relaxed atmosphere where a variety of traditional, slightly more healthy dishes are prepared.

For instance, many cafeteria kitchens designate two or three items in which an employee is responsible for preparing and baking daily, such as a cook who makes bread products, one who creates casseroles, and others who hand-bread and roast chicken. Having a set food prep schedule gives a cook or chef the opportunity to ease into their specialty and, over time, perfect their craft.

After a few years of experience, it may be possible to advance to a head chef position at a prestigious eatery, such as a steak house or hotel restaurant. This chef career is a bit more stressful, as you are not only in charge of a kitchen full of employees; you are also required to insure the food going out to the paying customers is first-rate and superlative. A chef career at this high status will pay a higher income because cooking skills must be paramount and management skills proficient.

Possibly the most sought-after chef career is as a personal or private household chef. To be selected as a personal chef because of your impeccable cooking skills, creative dishes and flawless meal presentations is the height of honor for a chef after years of hard work and practice.

If you are considering a chef career, knowing how to cook is not enough. You must perfect your craft and stand out from all the rest who are your competition. Enrolling in a vocational school which provides cooking instructions or even a specialty college or institution could help mold you into the cooking expert that will send you on your way to the world of chef careers.

   

One of the absolute best ways to save money in summer is to grow your own food. Food can be grown in more or less any season apart from winter. In summer, you have just enough time to plant crops like legumes that take about three months to mature, without the risk of your food getting ruined by the cold.

==> Can You Grow in Your Home / Apartment?

The ideal place for growing your own food is naturally your own back yard, front yard or patch of soil. This will allow you to plant seeds the way mother nature designed them. They’ll be able to soak in water from the rain and soak in the sun every day.

What if you don’t have a garden? Don’t fret; you can still grow your own food. It’s a relatively new science called apartment gardening or window gardening.

As the name suggests, this technology allows people to grow plants in their own apartments. You can just hang up a special contraption that drips water by your window, and grow plants from your window. This is called a hydroponic device, also known as vertical gardening.

Unfortunately, with vertical gardening plants only get sunlight for a portion of the day rather than the entire day. That can restrict some of the kinds of crops you can choose.

==> Decide What You Want to Grow

Growing certain foods is very easy, while other kinds of foods is extremely difficult.

As a beginning gardener, you should probably avoid grains. Grains have a very specific harvest period and don’t produce continually. You plant it once, you harvest it once and you’re done for the year. If you miss the harvest, your entire crop is ruined.

Legumes on the other hand are extremely easy. They take about 2-3 months to mature. Once they’re mature, they’ll keep on producing all the way till winter. You don’t just harvest once; you get to keep harvesting again and again and again.

Most fruits require some sort of tree to grow on and can take a long time before a seed bears fruit. Most people who’re looking to save money now will want to avoid planting fruits.

Gourds like squash and cucumber grow relatively quickly. In as little as a month and a half to five months, you can have a whole array of free vegetables.

Growing your own food indoors or outdoors is a great way to save money. The trade-off is that it does take a lot of time and attention. If you don’t enjoy gardening, it’s probably not worth it. However, if you like the process and you enjoy learning about planting, gardening and harvesting, this can be a great way to both save money and learn a new skill.

If you are interesting in eating a healthy diet compared to your current diet, I have good news or you—you don’t have to be rich to do so. It is fully possible to involve yourself in healthy eating, even if you are on a very tight budget. This may require a little bit of extra time and effort to plan your meals, but you can make good and inexpensive food choice in order to provide your body with excellent nutrition.

First, it is important to plan for your healthy diet. When you go shopping, take a list with you of the healthy foods you need to purchase instead of walking up and down the aisles without a plan. When you have a shopping list, you are less likely to purchase random junk foods that you do not need, and so you’ll save money as well as be good to your health. Planning ahead with a list also allows you to look through store sales fliers in order to choose healthy foods that are offered at discount prices that week in particular. When you do go shopping, make sure that it is not on an empty stomach, when you will be craving fatting foods and will be more likely to overspend and waste money on unhealthy products.

You should also consider purchasing items in bulk. Many club stores have a membership fee, but you can save a lot of money if you have an adequate amount of freezer and pantry space. Look at the healthy foods you need, and then head to the bulk-food supply store in order to grab enough of the item for the next month. Remember to choose foods that are both healthy and the freeze readily.

Eat at home as much as possible. When you go out to eat or stop at a fast food restaurant on your way to and from work or during your lunch break, you will pay extra money for the convenience of someone else preparing the food. These foods are also usually high in calories and low in nutrients. Instead, calculate the money you would normally spend to eat out and then use it to buy more expensive healthy ingredients at the supermarket. You can make breakfast and dinner and also pack a lunch to carry to work or school.

Purchase foods that are in season. Fresh fruits and vegetables are usually very high in nutrients, but when you want strawberries in January, you’ll end up paying the extra price. Learn when fruits come into season in your climate and purchase them at those times of year. You can learn to can or otherwise preserve these fruits and vegetables if you want to have them all year round! Of course, heading to your local farmer’s market is a great way to purchase these items and save money. Healthy eating on a budget is all about being creative with the money you do have.

The diet industry is a multi-million dollar industry and of course those companies that profit from this industry would like to continue making those profits. So if there was a list of foods that could actually speed up your metabolism and as a result help you to lose weight easily, the diet industry will not want you to find out about it. What if that list of foods contained the sort of foods that you love to eat – not possible, that would be going against diet rules wouldn’t it? After all, don’t all diets tell you to avoid those foods that you love the most? You should only eat low fat foods and avoid things like nuts and grains. You should stay away from healthy fruits and vegetables because they contain too much natural sugar – right?

Wrong!

If all these super fad diets were right – eat low-fat foods, eat low-carb foods, eat protein only, eat cabbage until it comes out your ears – if they were all right, then why are obesity numbers rising?

The diet experts out there don’t know all the answers or if they do know, they certainly aren’t telling you or if they do they will make you pay a hefty price for the information. People pay hundreds of dollars to find the right way to lose weight and will still usually fail, so instead of spending anymore money on the latest weight loss fad, use common sense. No matter what type of diet you are on, the bottom line is that you need to burn more calories than you eat. So common sense will tell you that if you keep your calorie intake within a healthy range and do some exercise you should lose weight. There are some other things that you can do though to make losing weight easier and maintain a healthy and nutritious diet and this includes eating foods that give your metabolism a boost which helps you burn calories faster.

Some foods high on the list of foods that speed up metabolism are tuna, salmon and sardines. These foods are great sources of Omega-3 fatty acids and heart healthy fat and they also help to lower your levels of leptin. When your leptin hormones stay in a low range it is much easier to lose weight. So eating more fish will help to lose weight faster. If you don’t like fish then you can always take some fish oil supplements instead. Olive oil is also another good source of Omega-3 and monounsaturated fats to boost metabolism.

Some other fat burning foods are the hot and spicy types, like cayenne, habanero and jalapeno peppers. These peppers contain capsaicin which is the substance that makes them hot, it is also the substance that gives your metabolism a big boost for up to three hours after you eat. To get the most benefit from these fat burning foods you can choose lower-fat, good carb spicy dishes.

Whole grains are also great for speeding up the metabolism because they have a slow digestion rate and they keep your blood sugar levels even. Cinnamon is another food that has blood sugar regulating properties and can keep your metabolism running at a high speed. Then there are the protein rich foods like eggs, nuts, lean meats and beans that give your body the much needed protein that it needs to keep it running smoothly.

Water, although a beverage and not a food, will also assist on keeping your metabolism on high speed. When you are trying to lose weight it is important to keep up the recommended daily intake of water to keep your body operating at peek performance.

Forget about all the new fad diets around, just change your diet slightly to include some of these super metabolism foods, add some exercise to your routine and drink lots of water and I bet you will start to notice a difference in your weight very quickly.

When learning about healthy eating, one of the most important nutrients is protein. Of course, all nutrients are crucial for our bodies to be as healthy as possible, but without protein in our diets every single day, our bodies will not be as strong as they should be. Protein can be found in a number of food sources, so if you’re interested in eating a healthier diet, you should consider learning more about protein.

We need to eat foods rich in protein every day because, unlike some other nutrients, it cannot be stored in the body.

That means that if you eat more protein than necessary, your body will simply cause it

to pass through your system. Therefore, you really can’t eat too much protein! However, because protein cannot be stored in the body problems may arise surrounding this nutrient as well. If you don’t get enough protein on any given day, your body has no back-up plan for producing protein on its own or using reserved protein from previous days. Therefore, protein is very important to consider when you are planning your meals.

 Essentially, protein builds muscles, which is why you will see bodybuilders especially concerned with protein. When you lift weights to work out, you body makes tiny tears in the muscles. Proteins are then used to repair these healthy tears in the body, building the muscle slightly bigger with every workout. Even if you do not work out, your body’s muscle deteriorates, as you body needs the energy. Muscle provides energy, just like fat. Having protein in the body helps you to rebuild any muscle lost.

Protein also helps a person’s body in other ways, mainly with the maintenance of hormones. Hormones in the body do a number of things, such as regulate organ function, account for stimulation, create metabolism, and affect mood. Proteins are used in the making of some of these different hormones, so if you go more than a day or two without eating foods rich in proteins, your entire body will suffer.

How can you make sure that you re getting enough proteins? Simply put, look for foods with protein as a key component on the label. Some great foods to consider include chicken, beef, pork, eggs, and fish, although vegetarians can also get proteins into their diets by eating nuts, beans, soy products, and a variety of other foods. You should have some of these foods in your diet every single day to ensure that you are providing your body with the proteins it needs to stay healthy.

“Eat more fruits and vegetables.”

This is probably the world’s most common health recommendation.

Everyone knows that fruits are healthy — they are real, whole foods.

Most of them are also very convenient. Some people call them “nature’s fast food” because they are so easy to carry and prepare.

However, fruits are relatively high in sugar compared to other whole foods.

For this reason, you might wonder whether they are truly healthy after all. This article sheds some light on the subject.

Excessive Sugar Is Bad, But Its Effects Depend on the Context

A lot of evidence has shown that excessive intake of added sugar is harmful (1Trusted Source, 2Trusted Source, 3Trusted Source).

This includes table sugar (sucrose) and high-fructose corn syrup, both of which are about half glucose, half fructose.

One reason that excessive added sugar intake is harmful is the negative metabolic effects of fructose when consumed in large amounts.

Many people now believe that because added sugars are bad, the same must apply to fruits, which also contain fructose.

However, this is a misconception. Fructose is only harmful in large amounts, and it’s difficult to get excessive amounts of fructose from fruit.

SUMMARY

Evidence suggests that fructose can cause harm when consumed in excess. However, there is not enough fructose in fruit to cause concern.

Fruit Also Contains Fiber, Water and Significant Chewing Resistance

Eating whole fruit, it is almost impossible to consume enough fructose to cause harm.

Fruits are loaded with fiber, water and have significant chewing resistance.

For this reason, most fruits (like apples) take a while to eat and digest, meaning that the fructose hits the liver slowly.

Plus, fruit is incredibly filling. Most people will feel satisfied after eating one large apple, which contains 23 grams of sugar, 13 of which are fructose (4).

Compare that to a 16-ounce bottle of Coke, which contains 52 grams of sugar, 30 of which are fructose, and has no nutritional value (5).

A single apple would make you feel quite full and less inclined to eat more food. Conversely, a bottle of soda has remarkably poor satiety and people don’t compensate for the sugar by eating less food (6Trusted Source).

When fructose hits your liver fast and in large amounts, as is the case when you drink soda, it can have adverse health effects over time.

However, when it hits your liver slowly and in small amounts, as is the case when you eat an apple, your body is well adapted to easily metabolize the fructose.

While eating large amounts of added sugar is harmful to most people, the same does not apply to fruit.

SUMMARY

Whole fruits take time to chew and digest. Because of this, you feel fuller and your body can easily tolerate the small amounts of fructose.

Fruits Contain Lots of Fiber, Vitamins, Minerals and Antioxidants

Of course, fruits are more than just watery bags of fructose.

There are lots of nutrients in them that are important for health. This includes fiber, vitamins and minerals, as well as a plethora of antioxidants and other plant compounds.

Fiber, especially soluble fiber, has many benefits, including reduced cholesterol levels, slowed absorption of carbs and increased satiety. Plus, studies have shown that soluble fiber can help you lose weight (7Trusted Source, 8Trusted Source, 9, 10Trusted Source).

What’s more, fruits tend to be high in several vitamins and minerals that many people don’t get enough of, including vitamin C, potassium and folate.

Of course, “fruit” is an entire food group. There are thousands of different edible fruits found in nature, and their nutrient compositions can vary greatly.

So, if you want to maximize fruits’ health effects, focus on ones that are rich in nutrients. Try fruits with more skin.

The skin of fruits is usually very rich in antioxidants and fiber. This is the reason that berries, which have greater amounts of skin, gram for gram, are often considered healthier than larger fruits.

It is also a good idea to switch things up and eat a variety of fruits because different fruits contain different nutrients.

SUMMARY

Fruits contain large amounts of important nutrients, including fiber, vitamins, minerals and various antioxidants and plant compounds.

Most Studies Show Health Benefits

Multiple observational studies have shown that people who eat more fruits and vegetables have a lower risk of various diseases.

Many of the studies pool together fruits and vegetables, while some only look at fruits.

One review of nine studies found that each daily portion of fruit consumed reduced the risk of heart disease by 7% (11Trusted Source).

Also, a study including 9,665 US adults found that a high fruit and vegetable intake was associated with a 46% lower risk of diabetes in women, but there was no difference in men (12).

Furthermore, one study that looked at fruits and vegetables separately found that vegetables were associated with a reduced risk of breast cancer, but this didn’t apply to fruit (13).

Many other studies have shown that eating fruits and vegetables is associated with a lower risk of heart attack and stroke — the two leading causes of death in Western countries (14Trusted Source, 15Trusted Source).

One study looked at how different types of fruit affect the risk of type 2 diabetes. Those who consumed the most grapes, apples and blueberries had the lowest risk, with blueberries having the strongest effect (16Trusted Source).

However, one problem with observational studies is that they cannot prove that the associations they detect are direct causal relationships.

People who eat the most fruit tend to be more health conscious, less likely to smoke and more likely to exercise.

That said, a few randomized controlled trials (real human experiments) have shown that increased fruit intake can lower blood pressure, reduce oxidative stress and improve glycemic control in diabetics (17, 18Trusted Source).

Overall, it seems clear from the data that fruits have significant health benefits.

SUMMARY

Plenty of evidence shows that a high fruit intake is associated with a lower risk of serious diseases like heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.

Eating Fruit Can Help You Lose Weight

It’s often forgotten that fruits are incredibly filling.

Because of their fiber and water contents and the extensive chewing involved in eating them, fruits are very satiating.

The satiety index is a measure of how much different foods contribute to feelings of fullness.

Fruits like apples and oranges are among the highest scoring foods tested, even more filling than beef and eggs (19Trusted Source).

This means that if you increase your intake of apples or oranges, you will likely feel so full that you will automatically eat less of other foods.

There is also one interesting study that demonstrates how fruits can contribute to weight loss (20Trusted Source).

In this six-month study, nine men ate a diet consisting only of fruits (82% of calories) and nuts (18% of calories).

Not surprisingly, these men lost significant amounts of weight. Those who were overweight lost even more than those who were at a healthy weight.

Overall, given the strong effects that fruits can have on satiety, it seems beneficial to replace other foods, especially junk foods, with fruit to help you lose weight over the long term.

SUMMARY

Fruits like apples and oranges are among the most filling foods you can eat. Eating more of them should lead to an automatic reduction in calorie intake and ultimately, weight loss.

When to Avoid Fruit

Even though fruit is healthy for most people, there are some reasons why others may need to avoid it.

One is intolerance. For example, eating fruit can cause digestive symptoms in people with and intolerance to FODMAPs.

The other reason is being on a very low-carb or ketogenic diet. The main goal of these diets is to reduce carb intake sufficiently for the brain to start using mostly ketone bodies for fuel instead of glucose.

For this to happen, it’s necessary to restrict carbs to under 50 grams per day, sometimes all the way down to 20–30 grams.

Given that just a single piece of fruit can contain more than 20 grams of carbs, it’s obvious that fruits are inappropriate for such a diet. Even just one piece of fruit per day could easily knock you out of ketosis.

SUMMARY

The main reasons to avoid fruit include a relevant intolerance or being on a very low-carb or ketogenic diet.

Fruit Juices and Dried Fruits Should Be Limited

Even though whole fruits are very healthy for most people, avoid binging on fruit juice or dried fruit.

Many of the fruit juices on the market aren’t even “real” fruit juices. They consist of water mixed with some sort of concentrate and a whole bunch of added sugar.

But even if you get 100% real fruit juice, keep your intake moderate.

There is a lot of sugar in fruit juice, about as much as a sugar-sweetened beverage.

However, there is no fiber and chewing resistance to slow down consumption, making it very easy to take in a large amount of sugar in a short period of time.

Similarly, dried fruits are very high in sugar, and it’s easy to eat large amounts of them.

Smoothies are somewhere in the middle. If you put the whole fruit in the blender, it’s much better than drinking fruit juice. Still, eating the whole fruit is best.

SUMMARY

Although eating whole fruits is very healthy, the same isn’t necessarily true for fruit juice and dried fruit. Both are high in sugar and easy to overeat.

The Bottom Line

Fruit is healthy for most people.

While excessive sugar intake can be harmful, this doesn’t apply to whole fruits. Rather, they are “real” food, high in nutrients and satisfyingly filling.

If you can tolerate fruit and you’re not on a low-carb or ketogenic diet, by all means, eat fruit.

Try eating more whole fruits as part of a healthy, real-foods-based diet to enjoy their health benefits.

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Writte on May 31, 2018

If you are the owner, operator or manager of a restaurant or other type of establishment at which food is sold, you will regularly find yourself in the market for different products to stock your commercial kitchen. Chances are that you find yourself very frequently searching for cookware products for your commercial kitchen.

There are a number of different avenues available to you through which you can shop for cookware items and products for your commercial kitchen. One …

If you are the owner, operator or manager of a restaurant or other type of establishment at which food is sold, you will regularly find yourself in the market for different products to stock your commercial kitchen. Chances are that you find yourself very frequently searching for cookware products for your commercial kitchen.

There are a number of different avenues available to you through which you can shop for cookware items and products for your commercial kitchen. One avenue that you might want to pursue when it comes to looking for cookware items for your commercial kitchen is the Internet and world wide web.

In this day and age there are now a number of different websites that cater specifically to people who are involved in the running of a commercial kitchen. Oftentimes these websites can assist the owner, operator or manager of a restaurant to obtain what might otherwise be hard to find.

In addition to being able to locate hard to find cookware products, some of these specialty websites also are able to provide those involved in the running of a commercial kitchen with advice and suggestions about what types of products will be helpful to the running of a successful commercial kitchen. Many of these sites have people on their staffs that can provide direct suggestions on what types of products, what types of cookware items, that you should purchase and obtain for your own commercial food operation. In addition, some of these sites also sponsor and maintain open forums through which fellow commercial kitchen — restaurant — owners, operators and managers can come together to swap ideas and share opinions about what works best in a commercial kitchen operation.

If you are running a commercial kitchen, you will also want to stop by one or another of the overstock sites that are in operation on the Net. At times, even commercial kitchen owners, operators and managers can find products — including cookware — that can be very useful in a restaurant or similar setting.

Finally, when looking for cookware online for a commercial kitchen, be sure to stop by one or another of the auction sites that are in operation on the Net today. Through these sites, the owner, operator or manager of a commercial kitchen generally can find a solid deal on a wide array of different types of cookware products that are invaluable in the proper and successful operation of a commercial kitchen in this day and age.