What's cooking?

Whether we eat to live, or live to eat, there is no denying that we all enjoy good food. And many of us would recall the times when we craved for something more than, and other than the usual everyday cuisine. Normally we end up picking up the first menu card that we can reach, and order a pizza, or burgers and sink our teeth in the forbidden delights. Yet, there are times when our taste buds would rather opt for a scrumptious home-made recipe — but something that is different from everyday fare.

Recipe Zaar (http://www.recipezaar.com) is your answer to all these cravings. This website is must treat, not just for those who love cooking, but also those who enjoy good food. What is more, this website is not just about searching and printing recipes only. There is so much to do here that it can easily keep you occupied for hours.

But before anything else, create an account here, which is free and easy. Of course, you can browse many sections of this website even without signing up. But it is always smarter to create an account and then sign in as soon as you visit the site so that you can thoroughly enjoy all the member benefits.

The website has been divided into recipes, cookbooks, menus and a community. In the recipes section, you can browse more than 2,45,000 recipes which have been categorised in various ways. You can either browse them by courses (salads, appetisers, desserts etc.) or ingredients (say, if you want to make a chocolate flavoured dish) or for mealtimes like, brunch, lunch, dinner etc.

There are many other categories of browsing recipes as well, which you can use according to your requirement.

With each recipe that you view on the website, you have various options. You can correct typos or other errors. You can even review the recipe (and you do not necessarily have to have tried it beforehand). You can post your comments and suggests improvements or alterations to recipes as well.

The cookbooks have been uploaded by the members. If you feel you are a chef-in-making, or just are a cooking enthusiast, you can write your own recipes and upload your own cookbooks on the website. Other members will then be able to read, review and rate your recipes. Cookbooks are searchable by tags, for instance, Asian, cookies, desserts or vegetables. There are hundreds of tags and once you click on a tag, all cookbooks which have been tagged with that particular keyword will be displayed for you.

The community section is the place where you can carry on conversations with other cooking enthusiasts, and discuss the recipes that you tried and tested. If you are looking for a specific recipe, you can request it as well, and someone just might have it for you. As mentioned before, it can easily keep you occupied for hours.

There is also an elaborate help section for you, along with the frequently asked questions regarding the usage of this website and there is a kitchen dictionary too. Plus, there is a measurement converter in case you need to convert any measurements given in the recipe.

Probably the best thing is that unlike other cooking websites which have recipes with ingredients one cannot comprehend, let alone buy, this one has recipes for things as desi as ‘green chutney sandwiches.’ So basically, recipe zaar is the place to be for all the cooking buffs out there.