u/ChaiWaliLoser

Hey everyone,

If you grew up Bengali or have ever been dragged to an authentic wedding feast (biyebari), you know the feeling: sitting in long rows, fresh banana leaves rolled out, and a succession of courses that take hours—starting from bitter shukto to cleanse the palate, moving to rich mustard gravy, and culminating in slow-cooked mutton jhol and claypot mishti doi.

After living in Bangalore and constantly craving that exact ceremonial feast (restaurant buffets just don't capture the slow, course-by-course pacing), I’ve decided to host The Biyebari Club at my home (Begur-Koppa Road area) next Sunday, October 4th, starting at 12:30 PM. It’s 3500 per person.

It’s strictly an intimate table capped at 10 guests. Everything is cooked from scratch using heirloom family recipes (including my mamarbari’s Chingri Potoler Jhaler Jhol). 

Edit - one seat booked. 9 remaining

I am 40yo. I think my skin is okay. But I always feel either something is missing or something is wrong or off. I’m not so inclined to skincare to be honest. My only consistent practice is applying body lotion and face cream after shower. If I am in mood I mix aloe Vera gel and coconut oil and apply in lieu of lotion, extend it to the face as well. Some days I apply serums. Forget about makeup, my knowledge on makeup and hair care is pretty negligible. I don’t know what is my shade. I am a smoker, can’t quit at all, so I am not sure how it affects my skin. Any help you guys can give is greatly appreciated. I wanna know what are the flaws I have. Please

Maybe not the prettiest picture.

We are a Bengali Tamil household. And our cook is a Bihari lady. My Tamilian partner was bored of eating North Indian food and I wanted to do something nice for him. So I made mutton pepper fry, rasam with mutton shorba, and cook didi made rice. Got banana leaves too. There was prawn biryani from last night too. And you won’t believe what happened today, I bought Vatha Kuzhambu and had that with rice too. It was so delicious. I did use ready made pepper fry spice paste and rasam paste but I did zhuzh it up. I am low key proud of myself. We do it again for dinner.

Despite me being a Bengali woman, I have been living in Bangalore for almost 19 years. And I am what GenZ kids call Upma Paglu, Pongal Paglu, Vada Paglu and Chutney Paglu. Love. Love. Love. ❤️

Recently I found out the word Paglu and I can’t stop using it

I can’t eat without a green chilli ☹️

I think I love English Breakfast because I can hog on carbs and butter.

My Tamilian partner fell ill suddenly and was craving rasam. Can’t give him regular ass rasam. Ordered mutton and dosa mav to make Thatte Idli and Mutton Rasam. Easily can be titled as Tamil Penicillin. After having this, that fellow is full netflixing. Until then sneezing and coughing. I am a Bengali so my Tamil is awful but this thing tasted wonderful. Proper Sapadu.

I genuinely don't understand what is happening in the beauty community right now. Over the last few years, I feel like I've been forced to buy an absolute mountain of sunscreen because the internet keeps telling me a new "holy grail" dropped. Apparently, my skin type is supposed to magically change every single month just to justify the next purchase.

I recently laid out my current lineup on my table—Minimalist, Re'equil, and Cetaphil. I’ve easily dropped a good ₹2.5k to ₹3k on this pile alone, and I am legit pissed.

The biggest offender? The most expensive tube in the entire pile: The Cetaphil SPF 50+ Light Gel. It cost me ₹1,014, and it is a complete disaster. It leaves a criminal white cast that makes me look like a Victorian ghost, and the minute I try to apply anything over it, it pills violently like eraser shavings. It’s completely unwearable. Meanwhile, my absolute cheapest find (the Re'equil Aqua Gel for ₹280) blows it entirely out of the water.

Has anyone else been completely robbed by this specific Cetaphil tube, or am I just doing it wrong? Help me understand.

Edit - Used ChatGPT to articulate properly.

I recently came across this community and I found out many people are finding it difficult to bake a cake. I get it. It’s intimidating for a first timer. Thus, I am going to try and give you the easiest formula to make your first cake.

Disclaimer - most cakes are some variation of a pound cake, so let’s start with that one. A pound cake is a cake that weighs a pound - about half a kilo, 500g.

To make a pound cake you need these things.

200g butter
200g white sugar
200g eggs - which comes about 4 medium eggs. Room temperature.
125 mL milk, if using milk powder - 4tbsp milk powder and 125ml of warm water.
200g flour
1 tbsp of vanilla essence
1tsp of baking powder
1/2 tsp of baking soda
1/4tsp of salt.

And to mix the batter, use a mixer.

Process - melt the butter in a microwave if you have one. Don’t fully melt it, 45s is enough. If doing in a pan, melt it for 5-6 minutes on low to medium heat. It should be softened or room temp butter otherwise.

Add butter and sugar with salt in the mixer and blend. There should not be any granular sugar left after blending.

Break the eggs individually into a small bowl and add one by one in the same mixer, DO NOT ADD EGGS DIRECTLY IN YOUR BATTER. Add vanilla essence and blend.

Sift your flour and add BP and BS. Put it in the mixer jar, add the milk, and blend. The milk actually hydrates the flour. All the flour should be mixed into the batter. If you dunk a spoon and lift it, the batter should be ribbon like and make an 8 on top of it.

This is your basic batter. If you want to make chocolate cake, replace 30g of batter with same amount of good quality cocoa powder. And always add 1/4tsp of any instant coffee powder in it. It brings out the chocolateyness of the cocoa powder. It’s a non negotiable.

PS - if you have some orange or lemon lying around, add about 1/2 tsp of the zest. It gives a beautiful flavor to your cake.

Now baking. Always grease the tin. If you are out of butter, use any neutral oil. It works great. Always, always, I mean always, you need a cartouche. Use baking paper. Cut as per the tin size and place it at the bottom. Pour in the batter and bake. You can add a few embellishment on top if you like. Bake for 40-50 minutes at 180C or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. If you are using a pressure cooker, put a plate underneath the baking dish, then cover WITHOUT THE WHISTLE. Cook for 35-50 minutes on low medium heat. Again use the toothpick method.

Always, I mean always, take the cake out once done, let it cool. Your cake needs to rest. It should feel coolish when you touch it.

Enjoy.