Daily Times

As the year draws to a close, we look back at the events that happened in the last 12 months from the prism of culture, food and lifestyle.

While 2021 continued to be dotted by Covid-19 pandemic, 2022 was refreshing in terms of vaccine/booster availability, a new lease of life and more freedom and some ground-breaking global happenings from a socio-political standpoint, among others.

According to ‘Google Year in Search 2022’, which shares interesting snippets of what people looked up online, food lovers seem to have rustled up some dishes by looking at their recipes online. Among them were ‘modak’ recipes, which was in continuation from previous year, along with ‘pornstar martini’, which is a passion fruit-flavoured cocktail.

‘Paneer pasanda’ recipe topped the list that also featured the famous cocktail ‘sex on the beach’, containing vodka, peaches, orange juice, cranberry juice, etc. Interestingly, ‘paneer pasanda’ also topped the list of global recipes. Indians also looked up recipes for ‘chicken soup’, ‘malai kofta’, ‘pizza margherita’, ‘pancake’, ‘paneer burji’ and ‘anarse’, which is a famous rice-based biscuit, commonly consumed during Diwali in states like Maharashtra and Bihar. It is made with jaggery, rice, poppy seed, ghee, etc.

Beyond food, Indians also looked up ways to play Wordle, searching specifically for ‘Wordle how to play’. They also wanted to know ‘how to make banana bread’ and ‘how to stop motions during pregnancy.’

In terms of personalities, there was an interest in Sushmita Sen and Lalit Modi, who were Googled, along with UK prime minister Rishi Sunak and Hollywood actor Amber Heard, who was recently embroiled in a defamation case with ex-husband Johnny Depp.

Under “events that created breaking news”, Indians were curious to read up on singer Lata Mangeshkar’s passing, Queen Elizabeth II’s demise, singer KK’s death, and Bappi Lahiri’s passing, among others.