India, April 18 -- They say that your taste buds are formed in childhood. That it is the tastes you were weaned on that are the ones that remain your favourites no matter how old you get.

That is certainly true in my case. I only started eating meat in my mid-twenties when I met my now-husband. And while I enjoy a kakori kebab and a mutton biryani as much as the next person, given a choice I will still choose a vegetarian dish when I eat out. That's the taste I grew up with; and that's the taste I go back to every time, despite the occasional experiment with a prawn balchao or a pork sausage.

More specifically my taste buds were formed in Calcutta (as it was called then) and those are the tastes I still hanker for. Give me a bag of jhaa...