EASTERN EYE March 4, 2011 29

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I THINK if you’re going to have fast food, you need to have something to entertain you while you are waiting for your order to be cooked.

The choices are limited – my local Indian take-away has a small portable telly with such a bad signal that it looks like it’s snow-ing on every programme. The local Chinese take-away has no TV but a pile of three-week-old local newspapers. And for a differ-ent neighbourhood.

With options this good, the winner has to be the take-away where the entertainment is actually getting to watch your food go round before you eat it. I’m talking, of course, of the kebab shop. Every high street has one – that big hunk of meat spinning slowly round with fat dripping down it and drunk men salivating as they wait for their order.

The poor old doner kebab has had it’s fair share of bad PR – mention the word ‘doner’ and someone in the room will tell you about the rumour they heard from their friend’s dad’s cousin’s neighbour about the ‘meat’ that was actually in their kebab.

Despite the rumours, the kebab has firm-ly established itself as the night-time dish of choice, beloved of drunks and late-night revellers all over the country.

Though it is often seen as bringing an ar-ea down, the humble kebab shop provides the perfect environment to people watch. My local has customers from all walks of life, from the teens pouring in after a night out to the exhausted office worker standing in a daze while trying to decide between chilli and garlic sauce.

I’m a bit of a kebab snob; I don’t go for the doner but opt for the freshly grilled shish kebabs instead. Let’s be honest, they actually look more like real food.

But if we’re talking real entertainment value while you wait for your fresh box of take-away food, the fried chicken shop is where it’s at – it’s where all Asian teenagers hang out thinking their parents don’t know where they are. So if you really want, you can eat chicken skin while watching the efforts of young Asian males trying to woo young women with a £2.99 wings meal deal. If she’s really special they might stretch to two pieces

and fries. But I don’t go to fried chicken shops myself – my friend’s

dad’s cousin’s neighbour told me a story about what’s actual-ly in the ‘chicken’...

You can follow Yasmeen on www.twitter.com/yasmeenkhan1 or www.yasmeenkhan.co.uk

HairCareWhat is the best hairstyle if I am overweight?Some women who are overweight lack confidence, and a great way to get that back is with a striking new haircut that shows off the most beautiful as-pects of your face.

The right hairstyle will depend on the shape of the face and body. The main aim should be to re-duce the width of the face and show off your best features. The best way to do this is with short but striking hairdos. Some options include a medium-length layered cut with side bangs, which will help lengthen the face and reduce the forehead’s width. Wearing the style correctly will also em-phasise your femininity.

The ‘pixie’ cut, when done right, will add full-ness to the crown and is perfect for women with naturally wavy hair. A flip that ends between the chin and the shoulders will create a curtain of hair on the sides of the face and clever shoulder-length layers are good for overweight women with a square face. If you want to keep your hair long, there are different things you can do, from tying it up to adding different curls. A great way of getting ideas for hairstyles for fuller faces is by browsing the web or magazines to look for celeb-rity cuts you want to recreate, and don’t be afraid to discuss all the options with your stylist.

Celebrity stylist Asgar is at Daniel Galvin Hair Salon, 58-60 George Street, London W1U 7ET

with Asgar

Is Gordon Ramsay really as scary as he is made out to be?Not at all. I found him charming and inspirational to work with. He’s incredibly talented and he knows what he is doing around the kitchen. He’s highly energetic and you can feed off his energy.

In your opinion, are men just as good at cooking as women?I think men and women are very different types of cooks. Men are more about the ego and sports-manship, and want to do the dishes which are have the best presentation, whereas I believe women are far more emotional with cooking.

Do you think it’s true that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach?Erm, it certainly helps if you can cook, but it should depend on your sparkling personality really.

How do you handle all the male attention you get?I’m a terrible flirt so I never really notice when people are flirting back with me. Because I do it, I just assume everyone does. How do I handle it? I don’t really have time for a man in my life right

now – it’s just full of food.

Have you ever had a re-ally big cooking disaster in the kitchen?I’ve had several because one thing a lot of people don’t know about me is I’m impatient in the kit-chen, so I’m always tak-ing things out of the oven when I shouldn’t, like a cake, which will then fall. Recently I was making a yogurt-based cheesecake and I hadn’t put enough gelatine in it so that was a disaster. Once I made alco-hol cocktails but I had put too much alcohol in them, so my friends were sitting on the couch with their tongues burning.

Would you ever open a res-taurant and what cuisine would you serve?Yeah, that is something I aspire to do but I’m not sure

about the cuisine. I could do Indian but that’s not the only thing I’m about. One day I might eat Indian, the next day Thai, then Chinese and that would have to be re-flected in my restaurant.

Would you ever write about something apart from food?Well, I do fashion and beauty too and if you read the blog, which is at www.cn-traveller.in under the blog section called English Accent, you can see the range of stuff I do. I trained as a journal-ist so I want to keep writing about differ-ent things and aspiring to do more.

Do your friends always insist you cook for them when you hang out and does it get on your nerves?

It never gets on my nerves because I’m such a control freak in the kitchen. I have a friend who bought my book and told me

he was going to cook me a meal entirely from my book. I turned up early and I was a

nightmare because I took over the kitchen.

Apart from cooking, what else are you bet-ter than your mates at?

People always ask me to do their make-up because that’s another thing I guess I’m quite a dab hand at. But otherwise just feeding peo-

ple really, until they burst.

Do you have any unfulfilled ambitions?Well, there’s always world domination.

What can we expect from you this year?I’m in talks about some more TV stuff, again I

can’t reveal much more, but it might involve some work in America. My books are being published in three editions – it’s being translated into German and Dutch too. So it’s all very exciting.

Finally, what is your top cooking tip?My tip would be to buy the best produce you can get and let the ingredients speak for themselves. And cook things simply. Some of the best dishes only have four ingredients, so remember that.

Catch up with Ravinder at www.cntraveller.in/blog/4784 and twitter.com/cookinboots

Can cook, will cook

RAVINDER BHOGAL ON ALL THINGS FOOD

don’t really have time for a man in my life right now – it’s just full of food.

Have you ever had a re-ally big cooking disaster in the kitchen?I’ve had several because one thing a lot of people don’t know about me is I’m impatient in the kit-chen, so I’m always tak-ing things out of the oven when I shouldn’t, like a cake, which will then fall. Recently I was making a yogurt-based cheesecake and I hadn’t put enough gelatine in it so that was a disaster. Once I made alco-hol cocktails but I had put too much alcohol in them, so my friends were sitting on the couch with their tongues burning.

Would you ever open a res-taurant and what cuisine would you serve?Yeah, that is something I aspire to do but I’m not sure

about the cuisine. I could do Indian but

Entertaining feast