Order of the Day: Ordering directly from outlets means not shelling out high margins to aggregator services

In another avatar, I’d hate myself for telling people to stay home and order in when they can go out and enhance the experience manifold. But right now, not only am I encouraging all of you to order in as and when you can (and support our F&B industry), I am also strongly advocating ordering directly from the outlets, so that they don’t have to shell out inexplicably high margins to aggregator services which (given the current circumstances) amounts to opportunist extortion of the arm-twisting kind. Here is my pick for this fortnight:

Ojolife: Healthy first. I am always apprehensive of tailor-made meal plans, even more so when they flash terms like ‘detox’ and ‘weight loss’. Well, Ojolife was a pleasant indulgence, in that all the food was varied, carefully planned and superbly prepared. You sign up for a week or so and, every morning, a box turns up with a detailed menu for the day, which includes juices, energy-booster shots, warm and cold meals, hot drinks and even a dessert. If anything, I struggled to finish the food on any one day and yet was surprisingly within my daily calorie intake limit. Well, medically speaking, I don’t think the body ever needs to detox, but, in a less stringent sense, this five-day bout of healthy eating sure made me feel better and more conscious of my consumption pattern. Order at ojolife.in

LIFE Artisanal Foods: Simple home-cooked meals delivered to your doorstep for a modest price. These are vegetarian meals with quite a varied menu, prepared fresh everyday, not too heavy on the oil and spices. For now, this service is limited to certain parts of NCR. To order, call 9313447353.

Call Chotu: Next comes decadence and Call Chotu is perfect, in that it leaves no greedy gastronomic desire unrequited—from kebabs to hawker Chinese, from rolls and snacky affairs to heavier staples. Think of it as an aggregated cloud kitchen that picks up the “best hits” from its other cloud menus, so you get an expansive list of offerings from one service provider, all modestly-priced. Order at callchotu.in

Hung Li: This is a moderately-priced take on desi nostalgia-inducing Chinese fare served in those boxes that we have seen people in American sitcoms eat out of. Overall, the menu is fairly exhaustive, but non-complicated enough to order from and not too adapted to seem un-southeast Asian. It’s for those late-night movie binges when you want some flavourful grub minus the service hassle. Order at hungli.co.in

Chickeera: They do everything chicken, from New York cart-style to Mexican and Middle Eastern versions (pita-wich, anyone?), and even gyros and burritos. They also do deep-fried Snickers bar, which has enough calories to feed a family! Back to the mains. Given how for Indians, non-vegetarian equals chicken, these guys have nailed it spot on. Order at chickeera.com

Habanero sauces: Now for some self-effort. The range of sauces and dips from Habanero are a great way to spruce up a simple meal, from a bowl of ramen to a quick-toss pasta dish. I even made some tortillas (using their wraps too) and their spicy barbecue sauce. A special shoutout to their very versatile Sriracha chilli sauce. Order at habanero.in/shop

Living Food Company: This is a gourmet delivery service with a mix of comestibles, breakfast cereals, chocolates, oils, dips, sauces, spreads, even fresh-ground podi powder mixes that are otherwise hard to come by, and a solid range of tofu. Definitely worth browsing if you want to up the ante with minimal effort in terms of what you concoct in your kitchen. Order at livingfood.co

The writer is a sommelier