Nonchalant Gourmand

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Nonchalant Gourmand

This blog is about life, its experiences and its engaging effect coupled with a propelling force which drives me to my ultimate destination-a world of food

My name is Nikhil Merchant and I write this blog. When I am not otherwise riding the 9 to 5, I don my toque and dole out interesting gyaan on drool worthy dishes and cooking techniques. This blog is about life, its experiences and its engaging effect coupled with a propelling force which drives me to my ultimate destination – a world of food, cooking and creating dishes which I share through the e

yes of my persona. This blog will open up an exciting world of food for you and my inexhaustible penchant for simplifying fine dishes from around the world and creating taste will entice you to whip the same in your kitchens. Bon Appetite !

22/08/2026

A return to Kashmir, and somehow, it feels even more beautiful the second time around.

The first time I came here, I stopped by Welcomhotel Pine N Peak Pahalgam almost in passing, completely absorbed by the experience that had brought me to Kashmir for the first time. I remember being mesmerised then; returning now, to a slightly renewed and beautifully revamped Welcomhotel by ITC Hotels, Pine N Peak, I find myself noticing the place in an entirely different way.

Perhaps because, for me, the best way to understand a place is always through its food and its people. From river trout and doon chutney — that wonderfully earthy walnut chutney — to the magnificent Wazwan feasts, Kashmir has a way of making the table feel as much a part of the landscape as the mountains themselves.

But this might just be my favourite setting of all.

I’ll let the first frame tell one story, and then zoom out a little to show you what I’m actually looking at.

Swipe.
(And this, really, is only a very small fraction of the beauty that resides in India itself)

20/08/2026

Arrack has always been around. I (we) just hadn’t really been paying enough attention.

The word itself comes from ʿaraq, broadly meaning distilled spirit, and across South and Southeast Asia it has historically described spirits made from what the land offered — palm, coconut, rice, sugar, fruit. In Sri Lanka, its most famous expression begins with the sap of the coconut flower, fermented into toddy and then distilled.

Ropewalk ( # 93 on The World’s 50 Best Bars Asia), Dennam Spittel took us through a fascinating vertical tasting.

The process itself is beautifully elemental: the unopened coconut flower is tapped, its sap collected, fermented and distilled. What comes off the still is clear, potent and intensely expressive. Double distillation pushes the coconut-flower character further; triple distillation makes it smoother and more intense.

Aged arracks take on an entirely different personality — tropical fruit, vanilla, musk, earth, spice, wood and, in some, that wonderfully elusive petrichor quality. Some are aged for years, others for decades, and the transformation from a potent clear spirit into a layered, nuanced and remarkably elegant one which is quite extraordinary.

What fascinated me most was the journey arrack has taken. Once largely relegated to homes and what we might loosely call “local liquor”, Sri Lanka is now proudly reclaiming it as its own indigenous spirit — refining it, ageing it, bottling it beautifully and, increasingly, putting it behind serious cocktail bars.

Nabeel Kenny The brains behind RopeWalk’s cocktail programme, he is taking arrack beyond the obvious and showing just how naturally it works in contemporary drinks. Shayan Kannangara, the ever-warm and impossibly hospitable host, made sure it felt like being invited into a particularly good Sri Lankan drinking story.

From the everyday expressions to the old reserves, from white arrack to double and triple distilled bottles, this was a rather wonderful reminder that sometimes the most interesting spirits are the ones sitting quietly in their own backyard, waiting for someone to look at them differently. (And yes i got behind the bar)
🥥🥃

19/08/2026

There are lunches that surprise you. This was one of them.

Thotalagala, Sri Lanka : Amrit Rajaratnam beautiful home, opened 10 years ago to the world.
Chef Danushka Ranasingha cooking outside in the open air, mise en place laid out, tea plantation stretching out behind us (Champagne in my hand) I thought I was in for a simple afternoon.

Then came the Kalu Uru-Mas.

Sri Lankan black pork curry — one of the most important recipes on the island, built on a black masala of dry roasted spices taken all the way to dark, and goraka — a souring agent unique to Sri Lanka that tenderises the meat and gives the curry that characteristic deep, almost lacquered gloss.

Punchy. Peppery. Deeply savoury. Tropical in the way Sri Lankan food is — coconut, pandan, curry leaf — but grounded and complex in a way I wasn’t expecting from pork.

I got involved in the cooking, as I always do. I also got involved in the eating…

Full recipe including the black masala from scratch and where to find goraka — on the blog. Link in bio.

*(The pineapple curry alongside it deserves its own post. Coming soon.)*

17/08/2026

Wrote about the quiet, unglamorous work of building a category — for Slurrp App

Craft chocolate in India isn’t new anymore, but “not new” isn’t the same as “established,” and that gap is where this piece lives. I spoke with makers across the spectrum — Mason & Co, Paul And Mike Farm To Bar, NAVILUNA ನ, Bon Fiction Tree To Bar, All Things Chocolates, and Manam Chocolate®— about what it actually takes to move a customer from “I tried it once” to “I know exactly which bar I want.”

The line that stuck with me came from Chaitanya Muppala, founder of Manam Chocolate®: consumers who start asking for something specific they remember are the ones telling you the category is finally working. That’s a harder thing to build than a good bar. It means fermentation protocols, post-harvest consistency, a technically precise process — not just better packaging.

At Paul & Mike, roughly 40% of sales now come from repeat buyers. That number, more than any tasting note, is the real headline.

Full piece linked in bio / at slurrp.com

13/08/2026

My first meeting with the Wadhwa family happened over their celebrations for their restaurant’s two year innings: next day brunch at The Fio Table, and the afternoon turned to be about the people around the table as what was on it.

Vineet Wadhwa has spent over three decades in hospitality, building successful businesses and gathering an immense show of love from local diners. His daughter Vanshika Wadhwa is now carving out her own space in Delhi with two projects very close to her heart, and Fio Table gives you a lovely sense of where that next chapter is headed.

A Mediterranean bistro with an easy all-day feel, Fio feels contemporary yet deeply comforting. The open, light-filled room, done in olive greens with a chic European sensibility, brings together a wonderfully mixed crowd — young diners dropping in for a quick bite, families, old friends and everyone in between.

The food follows suit. Familiar flavours get a fresh, thoughtful treatment. I loved the avocado tzatziki, which had plenty of personality, and the warm, beautifully puffed pitas were dangerously easy to keep eating. The hummus and mezze were beautifully put together, while the soft, airy pizzas were another favourite. An off-menu chicken and gnocchi dish was pure comfort in a bowl.

And then there is the bar, which carries well through the day. The cocktails riff on classics without losing their foundations, using carbonation, flavour and a little playfulness to give them their own character. The head mixologist and bar manager is also quite a vibe, which makes the whole experience rather more fun.

What I really enjoyed, though, was discovering the Wadhwas through the place they have created together — Vineet’s years of hospitality experience meeting Vanshika’s contemporary instinct, with plenty of warmth in between.

A rather lovely first meeting, and a table I’m glad I found my way to.

12/08/2026

You are never going to believe what I ate. At the Wynn Palace, Macau. A four-hands collaboration between two of Asia’s most celebrated chefs — Chef Yoshihiro Narisawa from Tokyo and Cantonese master Chef Tam Kwok Fung of Chef Tam’s Seasons. Number seven on Asia’s 50 Best.
It was an extraordinary menu. But then one dish stood out when a clay pot materialized...
Stewed soft-shell turtle with bamboo shoots and mushroom.

A centuries-old Cantonese delicacy — and before the comments arrive, the Chinese softshell turtle served in fine dining is farmed, not wild caught. Wild populations are listed as vulnerable, which is precisely why the farming industry exists. Chef Tam’s kitchen operates within those boundaries.

I have never ordered turtle in my life. I didn’t order it this time either. It simply appeared, the way things do when you trust a chef completely.

Gelatinous. Deeply savoury. Medicinal in the way the best Cantonese broths are. Ancient, almost.

I didn’t expect to finish it. I did.
Would you eat it?

10/08/2026

When in Chandigarh… drive like a local. 😎

My friends clearly weren’t going to let me miss the vibe — thanks to Vernika Awal | ਵਰਨੀਕਾ & Shouvik Das for putting me behind the wheel of the EQS and letting me scuttle around town in style. ⚡️

The EQS SUV is an interesting proposition — all that imposing SUV presence and cosseting Mercedes luxury, but with the eerie silence and instant shove that only a big electric SUV can deliver. No wonder it’s found such a willing audience in India.

PS: it’s a hot-seller at BrokerDalal Premium

09/08/2026

You have probably eaten there. That is one of the most uncomfortable parts of every one of these FSSAI videos doing the rounds. Hygiene is not rocket science and a diner expecting it is not being demanding. So the question worth asking is not how these kitchens got caught, but how a basic standard became breaking news.

The latest edition of Portion Control tries to answer it through the tangle of systems, monsoons, conscience and a law that most do not even read. Navigating the world of rodents, rules and roadblocks this time are Nachiket Shetye, Ravi Wazir – Restaurant & F&B Business Strategist + Operator and KAMLESH BAROT

Writers: Nikhil Merchant, Phorum Pandya, Sayoni Bhaduri
Editor : Jyoti Kumari

07/08/2026

There are some evenings that leave you full but some leave you with something far more enduring.

I’ve often believed that heritage isn’t preserved in museums or monuments. It survives in stories, its rituals, in music and perhaps most profoundly, around a table. Food has always been one of our greatest storytellers.

That thought stayed with me through The Heritage Gathering by Ikk Panjab at Ikk Panjab

Each course was like opening the pages of a history book. The provenance dinner retraced the journey of an undivided Punjab through 1947. Lahori Sajji to Kadhi Pakora, Maah Ki Dal, Butter Chicken, Shakkar Ki Roti weren’t simply recipes. They were memories that crossed borders when people did, carrying with them pieces of home that no map could divide.

What made the evening even more moving was that these stories weren’t told by food alone. Listening to Des Raj Lachkani Ji—born Taj Mohammad in Lahore before Partition—sing at eighty-seven years of age was like hearing history breathe. His voice carried the same sentiment the menu did: that identities may be displaced, but culture always finds a way home.

Rajan Sethi spoke about hospitality not as an industry, but as something deeply personal. A responsibility. And perhaps that’s exactly what preserving heritage is. It isn’t about recreating the past; it’s about refusing to let it disappear. Along with Deepika Sethi, and through Vernika Awal | ਵਰਨੀਕਾ thoughtful curation, the evening wasn’t any more of an anniversary celebration but rather a reminder that traditions only survive when someone chooses to carry them forward.

I’ve always felt that the greatest inheritance we receive isn’t wealth. It’s memory. It’s recipes scribbled into notebooks. Songs sung in languages that almost disappeared. Family stories retold over dinner. These are the threads we’re woven from. And perhaps the greatest responsibility we have is not just to hold on to them, but to weave a few more of our own, so that those who come after us inherit a fabric richer than the one we received.

If this evening reminded me of anything, it’s that no matter how the map changes, the table stays firm.

06/08/2026

Mumbai doesn’t stop. And neither does the chaos — the traffic, the crowds, the humidity that sits on you the moment you step outside.

But you still dress up. You still show up. And the last thing you do before you walk out — the one small act entirely for yourself — is the fragrance.

I’ve been reaching for Montabaco Intensivo by lately.

It threw me at first. Spray it and the spice hits — cardamom, clary sage, you realize it’s going to go deeper. And then it does … to***co, leather, quite brooding and dark. And suddenly the florals show up. Magnolia, rose, violet — cutting right through all of it. Gentle. Almost summery. There’s a fruit in the dry-down I still can’t place.

Ormonde Jayne. Twenty five years out of London. Linda Pilkington called this one simpatico. Named after a Latin American to***co plantation. And that temperament comes through — warm, generous, lingers without overbearing.

I’ve worn it out for late night drinks in this grey city a few times now. People don’t know what it is. They just know something different just waved by.
It’s yum.

Montabaco Intensivo by Ormonde Jayne, available exclusively at — link in bio for the full blog post.

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Udaipur
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http://www.nonchalantgourmand.com/

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