Travel Tips
First trip to India: the things that actually catch people out
Not the dramatic warnings. The ordinary logistical assumptions that turn out to be wrong, and cost a day each.
Recipes
Caramelised onions take forty minutes, and no recipe changes that
Onions have to lose their water before they can brown. That step takes as long as it takes, which is…
Things to Do
The Taj Mahal: getting the timing right matters more than anything else
The building does not change. The light, the crowd and the temperature change enormously, and all three are decided by…
Indian Recipes
Why a chapati puffs, and why yours does not
The puff is steam trapped between two sealed layers. Everything that prevents it is a leak, and most leaks are…
Weekend Getaways
Two days in Udaipur, and why it asks for a slower trip than Jaipur
Udaipur has fewer must-see sites than Jaipur and rewards you for noticing it. The mistake is arriving with a Jaipur-shaped…
Indian Recipes
Why homemade curd does not set, and the temperature that decides it
Setting curd is keeping a bacterial culture in the narrow band where it works. Almost every failure is milk that…
Mystery Stories
The 19:40 to Carlisle
Every Thursday she bought a ticket to Carlisle. Every Thursday the train left without her. It took Reeve four months…
How Things Work
Why a room feels colder than the thermostat says
Your body does not measure air temperature. It measures how fast it is losing heat, and air temperature is only…
Travel Tips
Indian train classes, and which one you actually want
The class codes look like a hierarchy of comfort. They are really a set of trade-offs between price, privacy, air…
Indian Recipes
Why paneer goes rubbery, and when to put it in
Paneer is a protein network holding water. Heat makes it contract and squeeze that water out, which is the whole…