August 2025 | My Kitchen Table
- Ashwini Achutharaman
- Sep 16
- 7 min read
Updated: Sep 19
Welcome back to another edition of My Kitchen Table. I had the best month of the year so far visiting family and friends in India. The nice part about visiting family while on vacation is getting to have a mix of homecooked food and try new restaurants that are vetted by locals. I am working on making full India and Singapore travel guides based on where we went, but until then here is a recap of my last month.
Fuel my stomach
👩🏽🍳 Inside my kitchen
I barely stepped foot in my kitchen so here are some more favorites from the archives.
A fusion between korean and italian cuisines, packed with flavor and veggies
One of my staple lunches inspired by mendocino farms
A quick weeknight meal to pair with rice or roti
🥡 my table picks
Lots of new restaurants added to my list. Here is the quick rundown of the places we went in India:
Minerva Coffee Shop (9.0 🌟)
Himayat Nagar, Hyderabad, Telangana
Longstanding casual establishment perfect for a hearty breakfast. Got onion masala rava dosa and vada.
Geetham Veg (9.0🌟)
Multiple locations, Chennai, Tamil Nadu
Wide selection of north and south indian and indo-chinese dishes. Good for a casual meal at any time of day. Expect a slight wait.
Kashi Chat Bhandar (9.0🌟)
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
One of the top rated street food joints in Varanasi. Must get the tomato chaat.
Ghoomar Traditional Thali (8.9🌟)
Connaught Place, New Delhi
Fun experience with live music and constant supply of traditional rajasthani food. Bonus points if you can get the hat to stay on your head.
24/7 Restaurant (8.9🌟)
Connaught Place, New Delhi
Buffet inside the LaLit hotel. Worth the 5-stars.
Kake di Hatti (8.9🌟)
Chandni Chowk, New Delhi
Famous for their giant naan which comes out the size of a pizza. Server claimed naan has no dairy but they were missing most of the flavors.
Vibrant Living (8.6🌟)
Hyderabad, Telangana
All vegan cafe inside the domestic terminal with thalis, snacks, and drinks. Food is made fresh to order so expect a wait.
Haldiram’s (8.0🌟)
Multiple Locations, Delhi
Classic chaat spot with multiple locations all over india.
Taro - Pan Asian Restaurant and Bar (7.8🌟)
Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, Telangana
Japanese-inspired food with a nicer ambiance good for taking visitors. Ramen broth tastes more like a spicy tomato soup and is loaded with garlic.
Cafe Niloufer (7.7🌟)
Multiple locations, Hyderabad, Telangana
A must-visit hyderabad spot for both the teas and the food.
Yi Jing (7.5🌟)
Hitech City, Hyderabad, Telangana
Chinese restaurant on the upper floor of the ITC Kohenur hotel. Generous portions and good selection of veg dishes for sharing.
Thyme and Whisk (7.5🌟)
Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad, Telangana
Unique asian-mexican-indo fusion spot in jubilee hills with plant themed decor and hearty sizzlers.
Park Hyatt Dining Room (6.7🌟)
Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, Telangana
Diverse buffet of indian and western dishes. Staff is helpful to make custom orders.
Chowk (6.7🌟)
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
Casual restaurant in the Taj Ganges. Supposed to have a breakfast and lunch buffet though the lunch was closed because of limited visitors. Breakfast was tasty and filling. Must get the kachori subzi.
Neelu Kachori Bhandar (6.6🌟)
Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh
Another street vendor known for kachoris. The actual kachori was okay but the subzi it came with was the real star.
The Rameshwaram Cafe (6.6🌟)
Madhapur, Hyderabad, Telangana
Bangalore establishment with a new location in Hyderabad. Interior looks like a temple with the black granite walls. Standing tables only. Known for putting ghee on everything so make sure to ask if you are vegan.
Zeeman (6.6🌟)
Jaipur, Rajasthan
Small cafe near Amer fort. Rajasthani special thali is large and can easily be shared between two people.
Joshh (6.2🌟)
Mumbai, Maharashtra
Airport food so did not go in with high hopes. The sabudana khichdi was bland and the samosa chaat was mostly chole and no samosa.
Rawat Misthan Bhandar (6.2🌟)
Jaipur, Rajasthan
Known for their pyaz kachori and dal kachori. Skip the upstairs seating and just order those two from the to go counter downstairs.
Gallery Cafe (6.1🌟)
Bodh Gaya, Bihar
Restaurant inside the Hyatt Place in Bodh Gaya. Limited vegan menu and not super open to making special dishes.
On our way back to the US, we had a one day layover in Singapore. Here’s what we got to try there:
Ahimsa Sanctuary (9.2🌟)
Chinatown, Singapore
Quaint ayurvedic inspired cafe located in chinatown. The food is better than the drinks. Favorites were the tomato dipper and the spice gals burrito.
Greendot Plus (6.4🌟)
Changi, Singapore
All vegetarian restaurant in the basement of the Jewel. Large portions, especially for the hotpot. The curry sauce is very flavorful and pairs well with both the laksa noodles and the roti appetizer.
Managed to squeeze in a few New York spots as well:
Sappe (9.2🌟)
Greenwich Village, Manhattan, NY
Sister restaurant to Soothr, though I liked this one better since it had more substantial veg options at a reasonable price. Long wait on the weekends and outdoor seating can be noisy since it is on 14th street.
Avant Garden (9.1🌟)
East Village, Manhattan, NY
Part of the overthrow hospitality restaurant group. Whimsical interior design. Dishes look small but are actually quite filling.
🛒 grocery gems
Annie’s Vegan Macaroni and Cheddar → yes, even dietitians eat boxed mac and cheese. I was on my weekly whole foods run and saw these on sale. These colorful boxes that took me back to my childhood when I would open a thermos to the cheesy warmth of shells and white cheddar. Now that they have a vegan version, I had to try it to see if it still satisfied the nostalgia. I like the Annie’s brand for having clean and organic ingredients. The mac and cheese is a good base for adding veggies and a protein to make it a more substantial meal. If I was in a pinch for a quick dinner, I would buy this again.
Icelandic Provisions Mango Passionfruit Oatmilk Skyr → if you need a hint of sweetness but still want to nourish your gut, try this. I personally would not have it every day since I found it a bit too sugary. But if you pair it with some fresh fruits and nuts/healthy granola, it could make for an easy on-the-go breakfast.
Fuel my brain
🎧 Worthwhile listens
One of my goals for 2025 is to diversify the selection of podcasts that I listen to. I tend to gravitate towards ones that are more self-help related or lifestyle/science related. Here are some of the episodes that stood out to me this month.
🧪 Science made simple
What fat should I use for cooking?
The debate over oils seems to be a neverending one. Some years ago, coconut oil seemed to be the best oil ever. Then coconut oil got demonized for being too high in saturated fats. For a while we only used grapeseed oil because some self-proclaimed health guru said it was the best. But now seed oils are seen as a big no-no. So, what cooking fat should you be using? It comes down to the building blocks of fats: fatty acids.
All fats are made up of a combination of two types of fatty acids, saturated and unsaturated. There is a good amount of biochemistry related to the structure and functions of fatty acids but for the purposes of this blog let’s use the simple analogy of a stack of paper. If all the sheets of paper are flat, they easily stack on top of each other. If the papers are crinkled, they will stack but with gaps between each sheet. Saturated fats are like flat papers while unsaturated fats are like crinkled papers.
If you eat too much saturated fats, they are more likely to buildup because of their flat structure. This buildup can make you more likely to get heart disease (more on that in this post). Examples of saturated fats are butter, ghee, coconut oil, palm oil, and animal based fats. Many packaged snacks and baked goods are filled with saturated fats because of their food chemistry properties.
Unsaturated fats are further broken down into monounsaturated fatty acids (MUFAs) and polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs). Both MUFAs and PUFAs are considered heart healthy fats as they lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels. Unsaturated fatty acids are found in fatty fish, nuts and seeds, vegetable oils, and avocados.
PUFAs are broken further into omega 3s and omega 6s, both of which are essential to get from diet since your body cannot make them. In short, omega 3s are anti inflammatory and omega 6s are pro inflammatory so you want to increase your ratio of omega 3:omega 6 as much as possible (more on this in another post).
Based on this, what would be the best cooking fat? I lean towards avocado or olive oil (check out a visual guide on olive oil here) for a staple cooking oil as they are higher in MUFAs and lower in omega 6s. I also stock toasted sesame oil and coconut oil in my pantry to use for more special cases like drizzling on a bowl of noodles or for making dishes when I need a solid fat at room temperature.
Thanks for reading! Please leave any feedback in the comments below, and if you know of someone who would also enjoy share it with them. Until next month, @quinoaconscience signing off.
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