Back home in our sleepy hometown called the City of Joy, we often woke up to the aroma of onions being caramelised on a tawa, and as we groggily made our way to get refreshed, we would be subsumed in the fragrance of pure ghee. More than the strong mint in our toothpastes, it was the robust smell of freshly grounded garam masala that woke us up. We knew then that guests were coming over. The pile of clean, washed and ironed bed linen that was usually locked away was another indication.

So, when part-owner-part-chef Navin Kacherla of SoBo's popular North Indian eatery, The Charcoal Kitchen, confirms that they have a new menu, we are as ecstatic as we are inquisitive. "Food can be poison or medicine. What we are doing here is that we're going back to the days when food was healthy and nutritious. We try to focus on the best of the stuff with respect to ingredients as well as methods such as slow-cooking," Kacherla tells us.