Stats: The puzzle page was loaded 392 times. 43 solvers had a go at it. 40 solvers completed the puzzle and the bonus forms. The remaining solved it partly. As many as 34 solvers got the full score.
Food For Thought<<< Click Here for the Puzzle Post
Here is the solution grid:
Bonus Questions:
1. What is the word that can be formed from the extra letters? (12)
Ans: ENTERTAINING
2-7. Any 6 of theme words
Ans: Any 6 of CHEF, NAAN, MASALA, KISSEL, BROTH, SALVER, PIE, SALSA, BAKED, HOST, TREATS, FRIED. Although not in the original list, points were also awarded to ALE, CHILLI, PASTA and AGAR.
Annotations
| Ref. | Clue | Solution | Annotation |
| 8A | Matter of brief article on beheaded monarch (5) | THIN(G) | TH(e) (k)ING |
| 9A | After giving up drug, the Asian is back (6) | ASTER(N) | EASTERN-E |
| 10A | Singed by fight in the outskirts of Berlin (5) | BROW(N) | ROW in B…N |
| 11A | Rich female’s complaint after a net got tangled (8) | AFFLUENT | F FLU<=>A ENT* |
| 12A | Takes care of parties (6) | TREATS | DD |
| 13A | Not one to copy it and lose (6) | FORGE(T) | FORGE IT-I |
| 15A | This place is in the resort (4) | HER(E) | (T) |
| 16A | Most loved son going out to get a cabinet (6) | CLOSE(T) | CLOSEST-S |
| 20A | Spicy preparation like one politician consumes (6) | MASALA | AS A in MLA |
| 22A | Dessert son likes madly (6) | KISSEL | SLIKES* |
| 24A | Hot pepper sounding cool! (6) | CHILL(I) | ~CHILLY |
| 25A | Thanks to President for transportation (4) | TAX(I) | TA XI |
| 26A | Fellow the French engaged in a last act (6) | FINAL(E) | IN A in F LE |
| 30A | Maybe you will lose nothing welcoming a dish! (6) | SALVER | S(-O+A)ALVER |
| 32A | Most of the four in gang became prosperous (8) | THRIVING | TH(e) R(IV)ING |
| 34A | Pakistani cooking this food with one kin (5) | PAST(A) | PAKISTANI-KIN I |
| 35A | A bit of reduction in supply causing depression (6) | CRATE(R) | R in CATER |
| 36A | Attracted by green in the outskirts of Dehradun (5) | DRAW(N) | RAW in D….N |
| 1D | Manager firing one cook (4) | CHEF | CHIEF-I |
| 2D | A French journal about clubs is free (6) | UNCLOG | C in UN LOG |
| 3D | Roasted bread with a little ketchup served up right away (5) | BAKED | B(r)EADK* |
| 4D | Stammer in street talk (7) | STUTTER | ST UTTER |
| 5D | The duo checking recipe for soup (5) | BROTH | R in BOTH |
| 6D | This fictional colonel is able somehow to conquer the Spanish (3,5) | ABE ELLIS | ISABLE*<<EL |
| 7D | Spicy snacks finally in great quantity (4) | HOST | S in HOT |
| 14D | Low returns after poor harvest starts. No, the opposite, is it? (5) | OOMPH | MOO<-PH |
| 17D | Dance included in drama’s last review (5) | SALSA | (T<-) |
| 18D | Dudes essentially have this drink (3) | ALE | (m)ALE(s) |
| 19D | In between exercise one getting food (3) | PIE | I in PE |
| 21D | Drool as another eats ravioli without starting to ready other items? (8) | SALIVATE | (EATSRAVIOLI-ROI)* |
| 23D | A chianti cocktail, not cold, for the countryman (7) | HAITIAN | (CHIANTI-C)* |
| 27D | Drunk diva hugging knight at the close of fete creating storm (6) | INVADE | N in DIVA* (fet)E |
| 28D | Judge’s daughter getting caught gets reprieve (5) | GRACE | GRADE-D+C |
| 29D | Partner deserting buddy is grilled (5) | FRIED | FRIEND-N |
| 31D | Dessert ingredient from a fish (4) | AGAR | A GAR |
| 33D | Bread shared between Selena, Andrews (4) | NAAN | (T) |
Here’s the list of Top Scorers (For the full list, please check the Leaderboard in the Hall of Fame)
Out of 43 solvers, 40 completed fully and 34 got the full score. Each of the following scored 149 points (Grid Score – 142, Bonus – 7).
Arun Hiregange
Arvind Ramaswamy
Ashit Hegde
Bhalchandra Pasupathy
Harish T K
Ian VanderSchee
Jyothish Balakrishnan
Koteswar Rao
Krittibas Dasgupta
Lakshmi Prakash
Lakshmi Vaidyanathan
Madhusudan H
Max Jackson
Mona Sogal
Mukundala Balasubramanyam
Nagendra Prasad R.
Narayan Mandyam
Narayana Swamy D
Narayanan R
Nilesh Parmar
Prakash Arumugam
Ramki Krishnan
Rathnakumar V
Ratna Rao
Samit Kallianpur
Sampath Srinivasan
Samraat Saxena
Sandhya Paruchuri
Sparsh Sinha
Supriya Mithal
Tejas Siddharth
Usha Dronamraju
Venkatesan P.
Venkatraghavan S
Congrats to the toppers and to all the solvers who participated.
Grid Rating: The puzzle got a good rating of 8.07. It was rated a perfect 10 by 7 out of the 41 folks who voted (17%). The lowest rating was 3.
Favorite Clues: The Top clues were
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- Thanks to President for transportation (4) – 8 votes
- Judge’s daughter getting caught gets reprieve (5) – 8 votes
- Spicy preparation like one politician consumes (6) – 7 votes
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Thanks Veeyares. Nice concept and theme. Keep them coming 🙂
| Name | Comments / Feedback on the puzzle |
|---|---|
| Jyothish Balakrishnan | Beautiful spread! |
| Mukundala Balasubramanyam | Enjoyable grid |
| Rathnakumar V | very interesting & entertaining grid |
| Al Sanders | Fun puzzle, wasn’t able to get the anagram |
| Lakshmi Prakash | A very entertaining grid |
| Arun Hiregange | Sweet theme, apart from that this was a tough challenge … loved it. |
| Ian VanderSchee | Nice puzzle and great theme! I’m not a fan of three-letter answers with only one cross-letter, but fortunately, those were clues were easy to solve. |
| Venkatesan P. | Nice treat |
| Sandhya Paruchuri | Indeed entertaining! |
| Prakash Arumugam | Nice surface in all the clues. Great treat for the solvers. Thank you. |
| Madhusudan H | Thanks for a well constructed grid. |
| Sparsh Sinha | Some doozies , some wonderful clues |
| Narayana Swamy D | Nice clues for a good theme |
| Usha Dronamraju | Enjoyed solving the puzzle. Well done with the hidden letter clues |
| Samit Kallianpur | Good one! |
| Supriya Mithal | Entertaining grid, many good clues with smooth surfaces . |
| Sampath Srinivasan | Mouthwatering clues ! |
| Ramki Krishnan | Nice puzzle! |
| Narayanan R | nice grid |
| Lakshmi Vaidyanathan | Nice puzzle |
| Mona Sogal | Innovative grid…liked many clues :)Anno for Oomph? And Grace? ( If my answers are right!) |
| Max Jackson | Some convoluted clues. 28dn took me an age. |
| Koteswar Rao | EASY ONE |
| Bhalchandra Pasupathy | Nice grid concept with interesting clues |
| Nagendra Prasad R. | AFTER SOLVING THIS, I WENT STRAIGHT TO THE KITCHEN |
| Krittibas Dasgupta | Enjoyable puzzle with smooth clues |
| Ashit Hegde | Reasonably straightforward clues. Surfaces okay. Only wish the clues were a bit wittier. |
| Tejas Siddharth | Not convinced about some of the clue structures. For example, spicy snacks finally in great quantity = host … I can see how the setter intends it to be read, but it seems to me that it reads differently, with s outside hot (which I guess is not possible) |
| Arvind Ramaswamy | good fun solving this themed grid. |
| Venkatraghavan S | Good stuff. Some surfaces could be better |
| Ramesh Swaminathan | Bonus is difficult. |
| Paul Henderson | Never keen on three letter entries where only the central letter is checked; here this was compounded by some of them actually being four letters long, meaning that the solver had a maximum of one letter out of four to work with – not very helpful. |