Lounge Loves: gourmet dog food, Triple Crown watch and more

Racing Time 

I have never been a watch aficionado, but was recently given one I ended up liking more than expected because it touched on my love of race cars—the Delhi Watch Co.’s (DWC’s) Triple Crown watch. The Triple Crown is an unofficial title for a driver who wins the Indy 500, Le Mans and the Formula 1 World Championship. DWC has the watch in three colours, all inspired by iconic livery. I wear the green and yellow Lotus 38-inspired watch with a strap made of vegan leather, and that is the one thing that bugs me since I’m not comfortable with leather. But the dial size is perfect (I hate dainty watches) at 39 mm, and it has three sub dials—one for 24-hour time, a seconds dial, and a chronograph. I might be tempted if DWC launches a watch in the colours of Ayrton Senna’s famous McLaren.

— Dakshayani Kumaramangalam

The Dog's Life 

My seven-year-old son and I are currently obsessing over a dog food account, @thecedlife on Instagram. It’s about two adorable dogs—a dachshund and a chihuahua named Cedric and Edith—and their very-very fancy food experiences. The host demonstrates the recipes, while they watch in anticipation, almost always wagging their tails and drooling until she’s finished serving it in fine bone china. Although she cooks human food, they are made using dog-safe ingredients. We learnt about carob, a lesser-known natural sweetener derived from the pods of the carob tree. The dogs also have their own “all-pup seasoning” (much like all-purpose seasoning), wine made with frozen blueberries, and fro-yo using yogurt and spirulina. Bark wellington and pup ramen, anyone?

— Rituparna Roy

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Orange Harvest

There’s nothing like a twist of mandarin orange, whether santara or kinnow, to elevate a drink. Mumbai bar Bombay Daak has found a way to extract the zesty sweetness of the local orange with its Santra Season, a cocktail that combines gin with orange juice, strawberry wine, pea shoot lillet and pickled karvanda (local berry). The simple, tangy cocktail is batched in old, screw-top quarter bottles as individual serves, each bottle with a kitchsy calendar art sticker as the label, reminiscent of tipple bought over a counter or stuffed through a grille at a corner wine shop of the 90s. Served over ice, it’s an unusual combination of fruitiness, zest and sharpness that combines all things Maharashtra. 

— Shalini Umachandran

Like Mother, Like Son 

A few months ago, Indian-born, Los Angeles-based musician Avie Sheck took the internet by storm when he released a cover of Radiohead’s classic, Creep. In a twist, he had his mother, Uma, who is a Hindustani classical vocalist, sing along with him. As Avie Sheck presented the original in English in his beautifully haunting voice, Uma riffed along, weaving in with her sonorous timbre a traditional bandish, lifting a familiar song to the level of sublime genius. Mother and son are back again with Coldplay’s Yellow, with Avie Sheck leading in with the original and Uma filling in with another lilting bandish. These songs, and more, are on Avie Sheck’s YouTube channel and Instagram handle. 

—Somak Ghoshal

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