1. What is your favourite food?

     Sushi

2. What would you serve if you were hosting tea for good friends?

Menu for an evening tea gathering (Morning tea would be completely differentJ)

Tea buffet

Soy Chai latte / Green Tea lemonade / Earl Grey milkshake (I used to work for Starbucks, so most of these tea cocktails are my own creations. I mix and match and play with different ingredients).

Entrées/ snacks

- Savory Cheese toast (my special recipe)

- Guacamole and salsa (my special recipe) with tortilla Chips

- Hummus and Pita

Desserts/ Sweets

- Mini éclairs

- Toffee banana (or) apple

- Eggless crepes with strawberry jam (Eggless crepes actually taste better than the traditional crepe- I think)

3. What food do you refuse to have in your fridge?

- Stinky cheeses (because it makes me sick every time I open the fridge) and Ben and Jerry’s (bad news because if I pick up a pint of Ben and Jerry’s, I will not put it down until I empty it.)

4. What is the healthiest food you serve at home?

- Bean sprouts and celery salad with mushroom soup, avocado cubes and carrot sticks on the side (vegan dinner nights)

5. Name one comfort food you can’t do without.

- Mac and Cheese

6. Name two of your favourite restaurants here in Colombo. And tell us why you like them.

I have three:

1. Gallery Café – good food/ great atmosphere/ good service

2.  Navratna – amazing food!!!

3. Cricket Café – in my opinion Cricket Café burgers beat ESPN café in NY, NY!

7. What is the one thing you can’t stand people doing at the dining table?

Burping out loud. L

8. What is the most unusual food you’ve eaten? What was the experience like?

This is not the most unusual food I’ve eaten, but is certainly the most unusual and confusing encounter with food service/ cuisine design.

In Singapore one time we visited a Vietnamese restaurant. It was a fine dining type sit down dinner.

For appetizers, they brought out a roasted duck – which got me very excited because it looked absolutely amazing and the aroma was so fine. BUT… instead of serving the duck meat they carefully cut out the roasted skin of the duck and served it. I frankly didn’t know what to even do with it, but followed what the others at the table did. They used the duck skin to roll up some salad. So I did the same, although I would have loved to devour that duck meat with the salad.

I thought they’d serve the left over Duck meat with the main course or something.. but it didn’t get served!!! So yes, very strange – they would roast a whole duck to only use the skin to wrap the appetizers.

Interviewed by Shabnam Farook