Niki Article!

Thought for food

I begin my day with a cup of tea. Later, I have Vitavix, a wheat cereal with cold milk.

For lunch I have a salad with baby corn, iceberg lettuce leaves, tomatoes and peppers — green/ red/yellow. I add a dash of salad cream, Italian dressing and curds to my salad. If I am still hungry, I have khichdi or a roti and sabzi. I go well equipped to the sets. I carry rusk, herbal tea, cream crackers etc.

I love vegetarian food. I began eating chicken only after I got married because my husband does not even touch vegetarian food. Now when we go out, we order a common dish between the two of us.

In vegetarian fare I savour palak. saag, stuffed capsicum and paneer.

My husband survives only on an English diet. He is a toast-eggs-ham-bacon person. His meals consist of Italian pastas or Chinese food. He was born and brought up in England, so he has never tasted dal chawal. He eats plain parathas with eggs sometimes.

I cook very rarely because my husband does not eat Indian food and secondly there is no need — what he eats is quick to make.

I can make excellent tomato pasta. My husband will vouch for it. I did make butter chicken once when I was in England and my mother-in-law was certified that it excellent.

When I come home after my shoots I am generally done with dinner because I have eaten little of this, little of that. I generally come home and make myself a chicken grilled sandwich or eggs and toast as my husband really likes that. Often, Sonny and I just go down to Pizza Hut for dinner.

When Juhu beach was not so crowded I used to like to eat golas. Golas are my weakness.

For dessert I love Natural ice-creams, especially the choco-bite flavour. I am very fond of the coffee flavour so I treat myself to a chocolate mousse. I am not fond of Indian sweets.

I drink a lot cappuccino and latte.

I don't work out I keep telling myself I need to lose some weight but I just don't come around to doing so. But I am not as 'healthy' as I look on screen, the camera magnifies it.

My favourite restaurants are Yokos, China Garden, Olive, Rain. Every time Sonny comes down from England, the first restaurant he likes to visit is China Garden. Another favourite is J W Marriott, I love the place.

My favourite cuisines are Italian, Chinese and mere mum ke haath ka khana.

In fruits I love apples, watermelons, kiwis and strawberries.

While shopping for food I recommend Foodland and Alfa. I like Alfa because my husband is English and one can get all the imported food one wants. For my greens like fresh parsley and basil, I visit the Juhu church market.

I like to munch on sev ghatiyas and bujiyas. I like to eat samosas from Punjab Sweet House with my drinks.

I love Gujarati thalis. I relish meetha kadhi and undhiyo — not surprising, since most of my friends are Gujaratis.

I enjoy my drinks. I love a Baccardi with coke, frosted beer, white wine and Chantilly.

I am a Tangoholic. Orange tang is my favourite. Since the lights on the sets make you dehydrated I drink a lot of tang.

My favourite food ingredients are parsley and pepper.

My favourite kitchen appliance is my microwave, sometimes I even make my morning tea in it. I do not have any domestic help in my house, I do everything myself.

For an anniversary or a special occasion I am normally out of India or in Goa.

We have candle-lit dinners once a month at home; sometimes it is candle light and salads. I love candles.

My fridge always has orange and pineapple juice. Pineapple is Sonny's favourite and prawns are his favourite food. Besides these things I also stock mayonnaise, salad creams and chocolates.

Sonny and I fight only over chocolates as there are HIS chocolates and there are MY chocolates and if he eat my chocolates, he is in trouble.

During the summer I stick to milkshakes, cold salad sandwiches and cold pastas. I boil the pastas, add salad, a dash of salad cream, white cream, lots of mixed herbs and fresh parsley. It tastes divine.

I love the rains and snow. When it pours my friends Priti, Deepshika, Shewta and Shweta's fianc, pile up in a car and we motor it down to Sun 'n' Sand. We get drenched in the rains and later eat at the coffee shop. After that we drive down to some less populated street of Mumbai and dance for a while. We return home, drink and laugh all night. We sleep over at the house we have all ganged up at and next morning we are back at work.