Noodle Savant Sanskriti Bist Hosts Her First Pop-Up at Home

In late August, food stylist and photographer Sanskriti Bist hosted her first-ever noodle pop-up at her home in Indiranagar, Bengaluru — and it could have been a scene straight out of a Bourdain episode. To complement the flavours of the noodle bowls, her friend Harshala Reddy crafted dessert bowls that echoed the same spirit of thoughtfulness and creativity. The evening was documented by Bhavya Pansari, whose photographs carried the grainy warmth of film-camera polaroids, capturing not just the food, but also the imperfect joy and beautiful chaos of the night. We spoke to Sanskriti, Bhavya, and Harshala about what went into planning the meal, the countless iterations and creative choices, and the behind-the-scenes work of hosting a pop-up at home—while making sure the moments stayed as authentic as the experience itself.

Sanskriti Bist, Noodle Savant

I am obsessed with noodles.

I’ve tried everything to make them at home, from a pasta machine to hand-pulled noodles. I finally went to Cambodia and got myself a noodle machine.

This pop-up was focused on North-western China (very Muslim-Chinese but also Sichuan flavours), and the noodle dish was inspired by a dish I tasted in Chengdu, when I went to China last year on my noodle tour — I went to a lot of rural and tier-3 places.

I have been cooking and hosting for friends, and making noodles since 2018. I thought maybe it was time to open it up because so many had reached out wanting to eat this. A lot of this was only possible because I have a crazy support system of friends, who did the photography, the posters, etc.

The set up was inspired by Vietnam, where you see people sitting on tiny stools and crates, and I really wanted to recreate that experience. I walked around Thippasandra market with my friend, Ruchira and asked people to give me 4-5 crates.

The pop-up had Sichuan cowpea pork noodles and bao. My bestie, Harshala, made ice creams inspired from the Sichuan bowl. It was an insane buckwheat and black sesame ice cream that paired so well with the noodles.

I have been scared to do this pop-up because it feels so personal, so intimate to share your obsession this way. The flavours are so different, I was afraid people wouldn't like it. This pop-up made me realise I needed to feed people! I am so glad I finally did it! It was really fun! I’ve been wanting to do this for almost 3 years.

Bhavya Pansari, Photographer

I wanted the images to feel very personal, very imperfect and as close to the real moment as possible — as the images from the disposable camera era tend to feel be. They used to feel so real, and for me it always made we want to live inside those images because the moments felt so real.

Sanskriti, Harshala and I were doing a shoot for another project together, and our meal for the day was S & H’s trials for the noodles and ice cream pop up.

We were having so much fun together, and it occurred to me that the three of us must hang together more, and only do girl shoots / girl hangs / work with more women. So as they planned their pop up, we planned for me to be a part of it by photographing - since I have zero skills in the kitchen!”

The three of us simply wanted to hang out and spend time together. I personally wanted to support the girls by doing what I know the best!

I use this app which has a lot of old disposable and film camera settings — I’ve been using it for years now to take all kinds of fun photos of my friends in flash mode, which is especially hilarious, because it catches them off guard and makes for very interesting photos! I simply went around flashing peoples faces, capturing great behind-the-scenes moments of what S & H were doings without making it seem very official where things felt like they needed to be perfect. I wasn’t even looking at what I was shooting, but everyone seemed to love the images when I showed them.

Harshala Reddy, Head of Dessert

Sanskriti has been meaning to host a noodle pop up for a while now, and as someone who has been eating her food for years, I was so excited for her to do this — and for people to finally taste her food. I offered to make dessert for the pop-up. From there, we just started spitballing ice cream ideas, deciding on flavours and ingredients that were common to the specific region in China that inspired her dish.

Bhavya, Sanskriti, and I were working on another project when Sanskriti made us taste the noodle bowl that she ultimately served at the pop up. We ate the noodles, then we soaked up the leftover sauce fin the bowl with some milk bread that Sanskriti had on hand. That’s when she decided to serve baos with the noodles, so people could soak up the sauce.

Once I’d actually tasted the noodles, and knew we were doing baos, it became clear that a lot of what we were initially considering for the dessert wouldn’t work — such as a sichuan peppercorn ice cream, or a ma lai gao. Peppercorn was pretty heavily prevalent in the noodles already. Ma lai gao is yeast leavened and steamed, similar to baos. But the development and testing stage is always so fun, and I really enjoyed every version of the dessert I went through.

Ultimately, I made a black sesame ice cream with orange tuile, and buckwheat ice cream with burnt honey caramel and crispy buckwheat. They both paired really wonderfully with the noodle bowl, and we were really happy with how it turned out.

The entire process was so fun. It’s always just a good time doing anything with Bhavya and Sanskriti. I’m obsessed with both of their work; they’re so good at what they do. The day of the pop up felt like an elaborate ruse for all of us to hang out.