Smita Bansal

Is food the elixir of life? Not for me. I find eating a waste of time and energy.

Are you a foodie? No, my appetite for food is less.

Are you a veg or non-veg? I am a vegetarian. I have never tried non-veg in my life as I was born into a pure vegetarian family.

Favourite cuisine: Mughlai. This is the cuisine that is generally cooked at my place.

Favourite dish: Kali dal and Rajma.

Favourite restaurant: Mezzo Mezzo at JW Marriot. Since I eat Mughlai food at home, I prefer to try Italian and Chinese food outside.

A must at my breakfast table… orange juice.

Sugar or sugarfree for my tea/coffee… sugar. I have never tasted sugarfree.

Lunch generally consists of… two Rotis, sabzi and dal.

For high tea I have… only tea but the idea of having pastries and cookies with tea sounds good to me.

Dinner generally consists of… soups, rotis and sabzis.

Dessert delights… I don't have a sweet tooth; I am not a dessert person.

One thing I can't resist… Rossogulla. I don't go out of my way to have it but if it is kept in front of me, I just can't resist it.

My favourtie drink (non-alcoholic)… lime juice.

My favourite drink (alcoholic)…I don't drink alcohol.

For a date I usually prefer… I am a complete romantic. I would like to have a candle light dinner with music in the background. For a date, food is secondary to the ambience.

At parties, I usually eat… salads.

Experiment with food? No, I don't like experimenting with food.

Most unusual dish I've tasted… I was in a restaurant in Cape Town when I ordered a salad which had some strange vegetables in it. Something in it seemed like a fish but they were adamant that it is a vegetarian salad. I still don't know what it was made of. It looked strange, smelled weird and tasted horrible.

On the streets, I love to have… Chaat. I like every variety in chaat.

One place I would never eat again… Once I was dragged to a lane behind Jamia Masjid in Delhi by my friends. They said that the food out there is very tasty but I didn't like it as vegetarian people like me don't have much to eat out there. Even the vegetarian food that is served there smells like non-veg.

Do you cook? I hardly cook.

Your favourite recipe... It is a Rossogulla dessert.

Melt vanilla ice cream

Crush Marie biscuit and add to the melted vanilla ice cream.

Take a few Rossogullas. Cut them into pieces, drain out the liquid content from it and add it to the vanilla mixture.

Decorate it with grated chocolate.