Love for Himachali cuisine; Shilpa Shetty’s Bastian

Online food delivery platform Zomato has received a tax demand and penalty order of Rs 11.82 crore related to GST on export services provided to its subsidiaries located outside India from July 2017 to March 2021.

Earlier this month, the company received a GST demand notice from the Assistant Commissioner of Commercial Taxes (Audit), Karnataka, demanding a GST of Rs 11.27 crore. With applicable interest and penalty, the amount totals Rs 23.26 crore for the financial year 2018-19.

In other news, the Indian environment tech sector has raised a total funding of $7.3 billion to date, according to data platform Tracxn's Environment Tech India report.

Meanwhile, Digi Yatra Foundation said it does not store the personally identifiable information of passengers, and the personal data of the Indian users is safe.

For context, news reports earlier this week raised concerns about the privacy of data shared with Digi Yatra in connection with a former vendor Dataevolve, which has come under investigation.

ICYMI: NASA has released incredible photos of Jupiter and its moons.

Lastly, researchers have found the remains of the world’s largest snakes to have ever lived in Gujarat. 

Now called Vasuki indicus, the snake was about 15 metres long and weighed nearly a tonne!

In today’s newsletter, we will talk about 

• Love for Himachali cuisine 
• Shilpa Shetty’s Bastian 
• Vintage art at Goa’s Circa

Here’s your trivia for today: In official secrets, what does the acronym NCND stand for?

Food 

Love for Himachali cuisine 

Himachali cuisine has more or less remained unknown outside of its land of origin. Now, as this distinct cuisine is slowly finding favour, chefs from the state are giving their unique spin to traditional dishes.  

Swati Seth, the co-founder and host of the women-only farmstay ‘Seeking Slow’, recently began organising pop-ups under the name ‘A Cook On The Loose’. She likes to add local Himachali ingredients to her preparations. 

YS Life takes a closer look.

Tasty treat:

• What makes Himachali cuisine distinct are its clean flavours that are starkly different from the cuisines of the neighbouring states. 
• Chef Sherry Mehta, a home chef and an expert in Northwest Frontier and Himachali cuisines, points out that there’s a slight influence of Tibetan cuisine in Himachali food. 
• Chefs who prepare the dham–a Sattvic vegetarian thali– have to follow certain protocols; the preparation of this elaborate luncheon begins the night before. Copper utensils are used to cook the dham and special masalas are also added. 

Wine and food 

Inside Shilpa Shetty’s Bastian restaurant

Bengaluru is synonymous with a strong beer culture, but the city’s obsession with larger-than-life breweries and pubs is a fairly recent phenomenon. Byg Brewski opened  India’s largest microbrewery in 2018, in Hennur, followed by a slew of others—BLR Brewing Co, Ironhill, Oia, and, more.

Earlier last week, another larger-than-life F&B outlet–Bastian, co-founded by Bollywood actor Shilpa Shetty–opened its third outpost in the Garden City. 

Cosmopolitan:

• Housed inside a more than half-a-century-old family home on the bustling St Mark’s Road, Bastian Garden City has created a world within itself, engulfed in lush greenery. 
• The decor—featuring African tribal art and bamboo-mesh chandeliers—creates a boho-chic ambience, inspired by global travel, transporting diners to a beach getaway. 
• Headed by Chef Daniel, Bastian’s kitchen offers an array of signature cold dishes including salmon jalapeno, aburi miso salmon sushi, crab roll, and avocado toast.

Luxury

Vintage art at Goa’s Circa

Co-founded by television actor-turned-fashion designer Mayank Anand, Circa houses paintings, drawings, sculptures, traditional art, vintage collectibles, and rugs that have all been carefully curated—ready for bespoke personalisation, based on the buyer’s preferences. 

Antique:

• Along with Savita Suri, Shraddha Nigam, Namrata Wadhwan, Anand opened Circa’s first store in 2021 in Goa. 
• Circa sources from all over the country—auction houses, flea markets, individual sellers, artists, designers, collectors, and even friends and family– “who have a piece but do not know what to do with it.” 
• Going forward, Circa aspires to open a larger and more interactive store with curated collections.

News & updates

• Facebook: The Dutch government said that it may be forced to stop using Facebook after a warning from the Netherlands’ privacy regulator about the Meta-owned social media platform’s privacy risks.
• Pandemic: Influenza is the pathogen most likely to trigger a new pandemic in the near future, according to leading scientists. An international survey, to be published next weekend, will reveal that 57% of senior disease experts now think that a strain of flu virus will be the cause of the next global outbreak of deadly infectious illness.
• Bitcoin: A highly anticipated Bitcoin software update called the “halving” has been completed which cuts mining rewards in half, dealing a potential blow to the companies that make money by ‘mining’ Bitcoins and ensuring that the digital currency functions smoothly and securely.

In official secrets, what does the acronym NCND stand for?

Answer: Neither Confirm Nor Deny

We would love to hear from you! To let us know what you liked and disliked about our newsletter, please mail [email protected]. 

If you don’t already get this newsletter in your inbox, sign up here. For past editions of the YourStory Buzz, you can check our Daily Capsule page here.