THE FEARLESS OLIVE | The Daily Star

  • Sri Lanka — Ayobowan (welcome)

    A teardrop in the ocean, Sri Lanka is known for many things, like its tea, and for us South East Asians, its cricket. However, one of the last things to be expected is the amazing diversity of its people.

  • Seasoning Halloween

    Come October and our senses start to focus on the last day when we can watch the best horror movies on repeat as we try to spook ourselves with a variety of scares. October also heralds cooler days and the arrival of pumpkin season, in all its gourdy gloriousness!

  • Treasured desserts

    October is here, and we can finally enjoy the slightly cooler weather, which will hopefully roll into a winter that lets us all enjoy our hot soups and steaming mugs of tea. With that in mind, here are a few recipes to encourage you to get more creative in the kitchen this week.

  • Zagori – beyond the mountains of Greece

    Greece is possibly one of the last countries you would expect to find rocky, snow-capped mountains, interjected by stone forests and gurgling streams.

  • The big Greek wedding

    After spending a year on the island of Crete, attending a thoroughly traditional wedding that lasted till 7AM, and a more modern one in Athens, where the festivities wrapped up by 4AM, my take on Greek weddings is that they give our versions a stiff competition when it comes to rituals and traditions.

  • Tweaking tradition

    Durga Puja has been for centuries an occasion to rejoice, a festival celebrated by the masses irrespective of religious beliefs. With everyone preparing the most traditional platters throughout the days that mark the final homecoming, there is plenty of scope to go for slight deviations.

  • Vegetarian restaurants: a Holy Grail

    The Dhakaite's palate was further polished with the advent of the café culture and now, people either crave for a black, sugar-free coffee, or the multitude of flavoured ones, as opposed to the 3-in-one Nescafe affair from about a decade ago.

  • A different touch

    A time for sacrifice but more importantly, a time for sharing, arrives once again for us as we celebrate Eid-ul-Azha. While we run

  • Broccoli Soup with Rice

    Another Fearless Olive rendition of the classic broccoli soup, now with some carbs and a bit of milk to replace the heavy cream that many prefer. Slurp away!

  • Dinner in Disguise

    With the world cup at this final exciting home stretch, it warrants people staying late, or staying over completely to enjoy the matches. And what goes great with an exciting match and even heated arguments over who will win the cup?

  • A different kind of Iftar

    The Italians love eating bread and have found all kinds of combinations to satiate their love of it. Focaccia is one such example of the many types of bread and it is consumed throughout the Mediterranean. I attempted a Fearless Olive version of this bread which can be placed as an accompaniment to the other iftar items.

  • Timeless cuisines for the month of Baishakhi

    Baishakh is the one celebration bringing all us Bengalis together, and the fearless Olive in Greece celebrated the day in spirit as well. Although Pahela Baishakh is just a renewal of business transactions and closing accounts, for the rest of the nation it is madness beyond belief and a celebration that is unparalleled.

  • Rosted Pumpkin

    Have a Fearless Women's Day

    As we entered the new year buoyed by the #metoo campaign and a renewed sense of awareness regarding women's rights in the work place, allow me to bring you some recipes that you can enjoy with your girl friends as you plan and plot to rule your world and assert yourself! Here's to more equal opportunities and no extra kilograms, regardless of what you eat! ladies, have a Fearless 2018 and may everyday be one for women!

  • The Olive Harvest in Crete, Greece

    As winter approaches, the Greeks start preparing for the olive harvest season. With the third highest production worldwide, more than 80% of which is extra virgin olive oil, harvesting this fruit is still very much a family affair for many Greeks.

  • delectable mix

    A delectable mix

    The year began with a cold wave that made us all want to curl up into a ball and stay hidden under the warmth of our blankets. It also left most of us sniffling and coughing with the seasonal flu.

  • food

    A winter's tale of warm desserts!

    With Christmas around the corner and wedding sea son in full swing, it's that time of year when the eve nings get cooler and the

  • Cheers to the newlyweds

    Give me a sun, I care not how hot, and sherbet, I care not how cool, and my Heaven is as easily made as your Persian's.

  • Pumpkins galore

    An ancient Celtic festival, a goddess of gardens and fruits, and a mixture of many rituals over the centuries leaves us celebrating the macabre on the last day of October.

  • 'Bhuribhoj' on Durga Puja

    Bengali Hindu households respond to 'mayer dak' as Durga Puja arrives in all its splendour and people prepare for this autumn festival of welcoming the mother home.

  • Greek bovine delicacies

    The Venetians are credited for bringing in the stifado when they came to rule Greece around the 13th century CE and the dish is full of… onions. Tiny ones, but just load it up with them!

  • The Exotic Cretan Menu on Eid

    As I sit writing this article on the Greek island of Crete, the song of the cicadas serenades me and I think of Dhaka and the festival of sacrifice just around the corner. Goat meat is high on every Cretan menu so I take this opportunity to share some Greek meat dishes and one from across the border in Turkey. Eat healthy and may your bellies be filled with good food and your hearts with the best wishes of loves ones.

  • Warm, comforting soups

    No matter how healthy we eat during the day, late in the afternoon we tend to get peckish and often experience a sudden craving for fried snacks.

  • Sheep Shearing or Kouraes in Crete

    One of the first things you notice on the mountains of Crete are the goats and the sheep. Hordes of them.

  • Healthy is the new delicious

    O moon-faced Beloved, the month of Ramadan has arrived, Cover the table, and open the path of praise.

  • It's all Greek!

    The Greek version of a typical bhorta ideally has mashed potatoes with garlic, as skorda is garlic in Greek and comes in all forms with boiled beet or zucchini.

  • The magic of aphrodisiacs

    Almost all food items at some point or the other have been cloistered under the title of an aphrodisiac, with distinct qualities of not just increasing libido but also making us seem more attractive and appealing to the opposite gender.

  • For a healthy 2017 and beyond!

    As the wedding season hits Dhaka with its onslaught of dinners and lunches that make you totter out of the door feeling like you consumed your life's worth of food, here are an assortment of items you can offer those in-between-wedding 'dawat' guests while keeping their palates craving for more.

  • Chilli and chocolates: a match made in heaven

    As the days get colder, appreciate the full bodied flavours of chocolate is all its savoury glory! Rich in minerals, chocolate is known to help combat heart disease, fight the LDL, the so-called 'bad cholesterol,' and also aid in losing weight.

  • Of freshness and Greek salads

    The Greeks love a salad that embodies everything about a Mediterranean diet: greens, freshness, olive oil and the zest of a lemon, or perhaps balsamic vinegar.

  • It's all Greek!

    As the year rolls into its final trimester and shorot makes way for hemonto to hopefully bring in cooler days, I bring to you recipes from a land far off, far removed from the deltaic flat lands of Bangladesh.

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