Highway Dhaba - between Kolkata and Kharagpur

     A quick small post for the weekend before X-Mas... a week back I was traveling along the eastern corridor of India.. had to make trips to Kolkata and IIT- Kharagpur. I should be hinest in saying that this trip had me worrying quite a bit days before it actually happened... the main reason being food. Having heard so many horror stories I just was not sure what to expect. But everyone that I met, who were familiar with the locality, advised me to stop at a small place called Kolaghat (somewhere between Kolkata and Kharagpur) - a highway dhaba called Sher-E-Punjab. Recommended to have the best highway food in that place. Not requiring more incentive than this, we decided to break here for our lunch.

I was literally starving when we walked in here at 1 pm or so. All I wanted was food... and lots of it.. and quick... The place and ambience is as you would expect of any highway dhaba. Neat, compact and functional usage of space. I let my traveling companion (my boss) who was a native of this area do the ordering. Niceties and proper etiquette went out of the window when we directly ordered the main course - a basket of butter naans, special chicken korma and fish masala. All it took was 5 minutes and the food was on our table.. service and promptness - a big check.

The naans were soft, buttered to perfection and hot. It took quite a bit of will power for me to hold back and click pictures before digging in. The chicken korma is specialty dish out here and is served with a boiled egg in the center. Had never before seen this variation in any other restaurant. But was brilliant to taste. The tomatoes were fresh and it showed in the tangy base that made up both these side dishes. Not too spicy and not too sweet, it was just perfect - a rich dish. The fish masala was equally good. Fried bhetki soaked in the same tomato based tangy gravy. The fish was fresh, tender and well cooked. Fresh herbs were chopped and sprinkled liberally over both the dishes lending a welcome fragrance to the final product. Needless to say, the plates were cleaned out within 5 minutes (including an extra plate of butter naans that were ordered later).
With the main course out of the way, it was time for dessert and of course being in this part of the world it was a no-brainer. They gave us a choice of gulab jamoon or rasogollas... 2 plates of rasogollas for each of us were ordered immediately.

I was told by my boss that these were made out of buffalo milk and hence would be slightly inferior to the ones made out of cow's milk (hahahah not that I knew the difference). But let me tell you, I will not be eating any more rasogollas any more in Bangalore or for that matter any other part of the country. These were amazing... simply exquisite. Light, fluffy and the minute you pop them into your mouth, they just break down effortlessly. Unbelievable and I was informed that the ones in the city (Kolkata) were infinitely superior. Not too big a fan of Bengali sweets, this one dish made me a convert. We could have easily had another plate or so.
With that, the meal was quickly wrapped up - a mere 25 minutes since we entered the place at peak lunch time. The bill surprised us pleasantly topping off at around 500 Rs. only for both of us. Feeling totally stuffed, we waddled to our car and dropped off into a blissful slumber as the drive continued.
Bottom line.. DO NOT miss this place if you are traveling in the regions of Kolkata or Kharagpur and the non-veg options are really worth the ratings.

An evening of Italian Fun at Caffe Pascucci

      I know it has been quite a while since my last post but I had been tied up with some banal stuff.. like work :-) Hope this one makes up for the break.
    Most of us love Italian cuisine and why not.. fresh bread.. olive oil.. huge amounts of cheese.. fresh herbs and veggies. But finding a restaurant that actually does justice to the cuisine has been a pretty tough task for me so far. When i heard that a new Italian restaurant had opened up in JP Nagar Bangalore, I made up my mind to try it out at the earliest. Last weekend saw 4 of us (my wife and I, her cousin and her husband) head over in the evening for dinner. It can be found at 690/8, 14th Main, JP Nagar, 2nd Phase, Bangalore and the contact numbers are +91 9739969767. The place looks like an independent house with a small lawn space out that has been converted into the restaurant - pleasant and comfy.

They have both outdoor seating and A/C inside.We were very quickly shown to our table. The place was not empty nor was it jam packed. The ambience was neat and well-lit inside with a pastry / dessert window bar at the entrance. I was starving (as always) and quickly rattled off a few starters - mushroom caps and fish fingers. The caps were essentially cheese and herbs stuffed mushrooms while the fish were your typical deep fried fingers.

Both the caps and the fish tasted ok but I felt they were a little bit too deep fired for me. That kind of over powered everything else inside, especially the herbs and spices. The fish though was tender and fresh. The crumb fried outer covering felt a little hard for me with excessive flour in it.

A little disappointed in the starters, but I told myself that these were not typical or traditional Italian dishes as we went ahead and ordered the main course - Fusili Florentina (fusili pasta with spinach in creamy sauce), Spaghetti Dellarocca (spaghetti, fresh veggies in creamy sauce) and Pizza Formaggio (mozzarella, buffalo mozzarella, parmesan, feta cheese with jalapenos and olives). First the fusili- it was definitely one of the top two dishes for me. Very well made and perfectly balanced.

The saltiness of the olives blends well with the cheese and the fusili was cooked to perfection. The spinach was fresh and crackled when you bit into it. I would have liked it a little bit more sauce but that was just an afterthought.

Moving onto the spaghetti - very well done and presented again though the sauce lacked the flavors. It seemed an amalgamation of spices without nothing coming clearly out on top. There was a lot of cheese which masked the other flavors probably. But in totality, the dish tasted brilliant and was very enjoyable.

 Finally the pizza - the best dish of the day for me. The specialty and USP of this place is the wood fired ovens which lends a remarkable flavor to their pizzas as they cook. Being a melting point of four different cheese varieties, the richness of the dish really took our breath away. You could clearly taste the different layers of cheese, the pizza was perfectly cooked... even the crust was done right. The jalapenos and olives add to the spice and variety of flavor apart from the cheese. In spite of eating an entire pizza on your own, it felt remarkably light.

 Coming to the only unfortunate part of our entire meal so far. It was just so that my cousin found a small piece of shredded chicken in her vegetarian pasta and that really freaked her out. She did not eat anymore that evening. The restaurant and staff were extremely apologetic and I could only imagine that the offending piece might have dropped onto our plate in the kitchen while preparation. They offered to replace the same but we just moved on. These kind of mistakes should not be happening in the kitchen, as this is a serious matter for quite a few people. So, we moved onto the dessert section - Confuso Caramel and Cappuccino Argemtino. The caramel drink was a mxiture of espresso, amaretti biscuits, confuso coffee cream, chocolate crunch and chocolate syprup. It was absolutely heavenly and a treat indeed.

The bitterness and sharp flavors of espresso blends well with the burnt saltiness of caramel and the syrup and cream balance it with the sweetness. The Cappuccino Argentino was another fantastic concoction - gold espresso, hot foamed milk, Dolce di Latte syrup). The flavors were impeccable and it did remind me of what a perfect coffee should be - hot, intense, bags of flavor and the aroma to go with it. 

That in a nutshell concluded our evening. With the exception of the shredded chicken finding its way into our veggie dishes, I think the place itself is worth more than a few credits of mention. Stick to the traditional Italian dishes and you won't be disappointed. The pizzas and pastas are delectable while their starters can be left out if you want to concentrate on the main course. The range of coffees, cappuccinos and espressos are also fantastic. Now coming to the most important part - the cost. Yes, it is a tad expensive but believe me its well worth every penny. The entire meal described above came to roughly Rs. 1400/- for four of us. I would definitely head back there at the earliest. 

Quick Starters at home - Stuffed Potatoes

Here's a quick recipe to try out at home... very easy and simple to try out in your microwave. Who does not love potatoes.. and stuffed with spices and cheese.. :-) well, you get my point.. right..??!!


Masala Stuffed Potatoes
Take 2 large size potatoes. Pierce them all over with a fork and then wrap them up in kitchen paper towels. Place them in the microwave. Set it on High and heat it for 9 minutes.
The potatoes should be soft to hold and press when they are done. Remove them out of the microwave and let them cool.
Cut them into halves and scoop out the centers.
Put all the scooped out centers into a separate bowl, add a small slab of butter and heat this for 30 seconds on high.
As the butter melts, whip this mashed potatoes mixture thoroughly while adding salt, red chilly powder (lal mirch), asafoetida (hing).
Take finely chopped capsicum, onion and corn kernels and heat them for 2 minutes in a separate bowl in the microwave with a little bit of olive oil thrown in.
Add the heated corn, onion and capsicum to the mashed potatoes mix now.
Take this mixture and put it back into the scooped out potato shells. Make strips out of cheese singlets (slices) and drape them on top of the stuffed potato shells.
Rub some salt, black pepper mixture, a dab of oil on the skins of potatoes to help reduce the wrinkling effect on skins (if you do not like them that way).
Put the filled up potato shells back in the microwave and heat it on High for 2 minutes or till cheese melts.

Take them out and they are ready to be gobbled up.. enjoy..

Oriental Fare - East Winds

Oriental cuisine and in particular, Chinese food has taken quite a twist in India. Most of us are very familiar with the Indo-Chinese version, which we love to no end (the veg fried rice, chicken chowmein and of course the famous 'gopi manchuri') :-) Authentic Chinese cuisine while not too drastically different is really good with quite a bit of variation across the geographical confines of the region, very similar to India. But today I will not be looking only at Chinese cuisine but Asian cuisine in totality. S Hotel in JP Nagar has 2 restaurants of taking note - one an Indian called Swad-Desh and the other which serves multiple Asian cuisines called East Winds. My wife and I, feeling in the mood for Chinese dropped into East Winds last weekend. Located conveniently on 13th Main, 2nd cross, JP Nagar 3rd phase, right behind Mandovi Motors, its a roof top restaurant with an open view of the city at night. Alcohol is served, both vegetarian and non-vegetarian fare is served here and it is not air-conditioned being open roof-top.
The ambience is so-so and can definitely be spruced up. The tablecloths were a little dirty and I could see furniture not being maintained properly. Off the bat, we ordered steamed momos (veg) or dimsum as starters with a pint of Fosters for me. Kimchi salad and some cut veggies in vinegar were offered on-the-house  while our starters were getting done.

The Kimchi was a little spicy as expected from the dish and slightly overpowered the tanginess of the salad and the crispness of the leaves. The momos are exceptional here, I always try them here as my first choice for a starter. The filling was perfect with the right balance of spices and crunchiness to the veggies while the sauce was brilliant with a shade of ginger drifting above its natural spiciness. If there was one thing that put me off, it was the momos texture itself. With the flour not setting properly the momos broke open while being steamed. Hence they kinda crumbled when we tried to take them out, not to mention that they were fused together.
Next up was the main course and we decided to be a little exploratory here. The Thai curry (green and red) are brilliant here which we usually order. Today we decided to try the continental fare for a change. My wife ordered the Cannelloni Florentine while I chose the Chicken steak Singapore.

First up the Cannelloni Florentine - tubed pasta filled with spinach and creamy white cheese sauce. The marinara sauce was good, fresh and vibrant while the dish itself presented a pretty picture. The cannelloni did seem a little big to me and over cooked a bit on top that it resembled a tawa cooked kathi roll with stuffing in it. Generous portions of spinach and less cheese sauce inside ensured that the taste was a little bland. Could have been balanced a little bit better - neither the fresh spinach nor the cheese stood out on our palate.
Next was the Chicken Steak Singapore - chicken burger steak served with mashed potatoes, boiled veggies garnished with pineapple slices.

This dish was a big let-down for me. Here are the points:
a) No pineapple (don't put fancy descriptions in your menu if you are not going to follow it)
b) One big thick chicken steak - too dry, over cooked and just too much to eat
c) Sauce was plain and had no flavors - tasted like ketchup with a few chunks thrown in
d) Boiled veggies were ok but again no flavors - no trace of olive oil or butter. The scattered herbs were too fine and too few to make a difference

All in all, the moral of the story - go to East Winds and stick to Asian fare which they are pretty good at. Skip the continental fare - its too much of a mess to comprehend.
Cost being not too expensive - this above meal for 2 cost us 950 Rs/-
Service - pretty quick and efficient but the waiters have no clue about the dishes

A 'Little' taste of 'Italy' in Jayanagar - Eurasia

Italian food has always been my weak spot and my favorite cuisine to boot. Hence it is no surprise, that I try to find out the good Italian joints in Bangalore - be it authentic or the ones that have 'Indianised' it perfectly. Last Thursday was a holiday and we hate cooking at home :-) We quickly decided to go to Eurasia for dinner - an old favorite for the missus and I. A quick background to the place - its an Italian vegetarian restaurant run by the Little Italy franchise in Bangalore. It contains a huge variety of dishes in the menu - pastas, pizzas, salads / soups, appetizers, barbecue and a nice wine bar. As the name suggests, its an unique mixture of Europe and Asia offerings. Situated in the heart of Jayanagar, 7th Block, 32nd Cross (near Channel 9 and Coffee Day), its a small 2 floor independent house that has been tastefully converted. It has valet parking (which is a big plus) since its usually hard to find parking in Jayanagar. Walking in, the host took us to our table on the first floor.
First off, it was the appetizers... I love their bruschetta (freshly made toasted rustic bread with tomato, basil toppings with olive oil dressing) and crostini (essentially the same - toasted bread with multiple toppings). But their all time best starter (hands-down) is the Spinaci Salsa. It is nothing but piping hot creamy spinach salsa with oodles of molten cheese served with thin slices of toasted bread.

The dish is fantastically simple but it works.. and how well... there can be nothing wrong with excess molten cheese. The crispy slices of toasted bread act as perfect dippers and we have never left even a crumb on the plate so far. I also ordered a salad to go along with it - Insalata Dello Chef which was a julienne of salad with mayonnaise, artichokes, olives, capers and olive oil.

The salad was fantastic with the mayo providing the rich creamy texture that balanced the acidic and tangy taste of olives and capers. Olive oil balances the entire structure and is extremely pleasant to taste. The warm slices of fresh bread as sides only add to the strength of this dish.
With the starters warming our belly, we decided to move onto the main course. I ordered a Pizza Alla Vodka while my wife ordered the Mongolian Barbecue Wok. All the pizzas out here are thin crust - just the way I like them with a generous amount of cheese, olive oil and fresh toppings.

The pizza has a fresh tomato sauce base with mozzarella and parmesan cheese topped with jalapenos, red peppers, capers, pineapple and vodka. Now for all the non-alcoholics, I am not sure if its real vodka or only flavoring but you can find that out from the host. The pizza was fresh, hot and well baked but somehow I felt it lacked something basic - it felt incomplete. The cheese was the only thing balancing all the acidic toppings plus the vodka and it showed in taste. A smattering of herbs like sage or rosemary along with freshly chopped tomatoes would definitely add a boost in flavor and balance.
Now to the Asian part of the meal - the Mongolian Barbecue Wok. This is a unique dish that I stumbled on by sheer chance and I have not regretted it yet. It is essentially a stir-fry of ingredients that you are allowed to choose with wok-tossed noodles or rice and a bunch of toppings and sauces. Noodles are either steak type, glass or the flat variety. You can pick one sauce from the following (Teriyaki, Schezwan, plum, yakitori, sour ginger pepper) and a choice of 5 toppings from a list of around 15-20 (like broccoli, tomatoes, jalapenos, onions, mushrooms etc.). We went with the flat noodles, sour ginger pepper sauce and for toppings - onions, mushrooms, american sweet corn, cherry tomatoes, capsicum.

As an alternative i would also recommend the steak noodles with Schezwan sauce. The dish was carefully crafted and brought hot to our table. The noodles were perfectly cooked - they were not sticky nor paste like, a sign of under-cooking. The sauce was a tad too light as i could not taste the flavors of ginger over the pepper but that did not take away the final taste of the dish. If I could probably change something, I would have preferred them to have reduced the amount of soy sauce which kinda made the dish too dark to look at and the taste a bit tangy. Overall, a great dish for the main course.
Now, we stopped here foregoing the dessert section but i would recommend the Tiramisu and the Cheesecakes which are heavenly here, not to mention the gelatos which are freshly prepared.
All in all, one of my favorite places to go, in spite of being totally vegetarian.

Ambience: Nicely decorated house with an outdoor sitting option on the balcony
Cost: Average (the above meal came to Rs. 1200/- )
Quality: Extremely good, authentic and tasteful - 3 stars out of 5

Taj Kuteeram near Nrityagram

   Weekend time again and my wife and I decided to head out to Nrityagram to spend a lazy Sunday there. Nrityagram is a Gurukul type school set up for Indian classical dances by Protima Gauri Bedi way out of the city. It is in Hesargatta, a good 1.5 hours out of Bangalore. Set in a rural backdrop, amidst Nature and serenity, it is a place to go and enjoy yourself even if you are not a lover of arts. Thanks to the whacky weather of Bangalore, we reached Nrityagram at 2 in the afternoon on Sunday when it was pouring cats and dogs. Unable to do anything at Nrityagram (since most of the activities is outdoors) I focused on the next best thing - food. Starving due to no breakfast, I started checking options. Only thing there in that wilderness is Taj Kuteeram, right opposite Nrityagram. Taj group of hotels... that kinda started me salivating and quickly the choice was made. We quickly went across and sat down to order.

Beautifully set up, a rustic environment awaits you at Taj. Its a beautiful serene place, with lots of water bodies, huge trees, ducks wandering around, absolutely one with nature. We quickly realized that there's no a-la-carte service here rather a fixed menu. They do have some starters (both veg and non-veg) that you can order along with sandwiches but the lunch option is standard fare. Already close to starvation limits, we all chose the lunch option which includes a soup, salad, main course(veg / non-veg), rice, rotis, daal and then dessert. All this priced at budget range of Rs. 625/- (inclusive of taxes). First of all, the ambience... It is a rustic cottage environment but that does not excuse Taj hotels providing us with stained dirty table cloths and unclean cutlery. Gave 'budget' a new meaning. The soup arrived along with salad. Vegetable soup with coriander and lemon was perfect. Not too sour or tangy and the right amount of coriander made it a great start but the salad was a let down. A bunch of hastily chopped veggies thrown onto the plate with loads of oil oozing off the plate, kinda put me off the salad (who said salads are healthy..??)

Off to the main course i was.. between the 5 of us we covered all options. I took the traditional fish curry while the rest took veggie options - an eggplant (brinjal) dish, bhindi (okra) masala, mix veg curry. The other non-veg options include a chicken curry.

The veggie dishes were ok, nothing special or great. The mix veg curry tasted like what you would get in any decent dhaba - sweet, tomato gravy with butter thrown in for good measure. All tasted good, but not Taj standard (its hard to take some factors out of your mind). Now onto the fish curry.. the gravy was fantastic with the rigth amount of spices but the fish was a tad overcooked and dry. The portions were more than sufficient for a single person to eat. These dishes were accompanied by Kerala paranthas (bread basket), some Daal and portions of steamed white rice.

The Kerala paranthas were awesome... right flour thickness and consistency, soft and easy to tear and eat. Having finished this, we moved onto Dessert, which was Gulab Jamoons.

Let me tell you at the outset, the jamoons were bad. They were not fully and properly cooked leaving a solid raw chunk in the center. The syrup was way too sweet overpowering everything else. That kinda ended the lunch for me. All in all, I had expected to really enjoy the food since we were starving and anything hot should have been ok. But I felt a little let down especially considering it was Taj group of hotels that we are talking about and the price you shell out for an ordinary lunch.

Location: Hessarghatta, Bangalore Rural District, opposite Nrityagram
Cost: 625 Rs for a meal for one (expensive)
Ambience: fantastic, rustic cottage environment set in nature
Quality: a let-down by Taj standards 

A Sunday evening at TGIF's...!!!

Thank God It's Friday is a movement for many people. I have been to the chain countless number of times when in US. So, when the restaurant opened pretty close to my house in Meenakshi Mall on Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore, I just had to try it out. The mall was unusually empty on Sunday night and we actually got places to sit immediately in spite of not making advance reservations. But I definitely would recommend making reservations as this place gets really crowded on Saturdays and Fridays and waiting time can be as long as 45 minutes. We were quickly ushered to our seats and I looked around. The ambience and surroundings have been faithfully adhered to the original and looks sprightly.

They have a good selection of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages but we decided to skip it completely with the next day being work day. Looking at the appetizers, I would recommend their non-veg samplers or the veg equivalent of it, if you were in a big group. Their buffalo-style original chicken wings are extremely good with a punchy sauce to go with. We finally decided to try the Dynabites or their version of Jalapeno Poppers. Essentially cheese balls stuffed with jalapenos, bread crumb fried and served with a Tabasco - Mayo sauce.

They were crisp, perfectly fried and melted literally in your mouth. If at all I had a crib about this dish, it was that the sauce was cheese heavy and so was the stuffing the cheese balls, totally suppressing the jalapeno bite. It was tad too cheesy for me. A sharper tangier sauce to go with the cheese balls might have accentuated the dish better.
Off we went to the main course. With my wife being a veggie, she chose the Tuscan Melt sandwich - sliced mushrooms between Jack and Mozzarella cheeses,  roasted onions, tomatoes on a toasted buttery bread. You can opt for this with a choice of the soup of the day or salad or Friday fries. Little doubt that we went for the fries. The dish arrived and mildly put, was a massive let-down. In my wife's words, it was like tasting a plain tomato, onion sandwich. The cheese flavoring in this case was too less and mushrooms hardly discernible. Needless to say, she did not complete it bringing a tear to my eyes considering the price of each dish there.

Saving grace being the fries, TGIF standard and awesome...!!!
I decided to try the time-tested fan favorite, the sizzling chicken fajitas. This is a meal on its own with no need for any starters or soup or sides. As a student, if you wanted just one dish and you wanted it to fill you up, this was it. Here the dish meant marinated, flame-grilled chicken with chimichurri sauce served with roasted onions , red and green peppers and rice. It is accompanied with tortillas, pico de gallo (fresh salsa), sour cream and cheese.

As the picture above depicts, I found it pretty different from what I was used to. Food is meant for all senses, especially the eyes, nose and then the taste buds (in that order). My sizzler had just a smoked smell to it, I could not smell the meat. It looked pretty bland and uninviting. The chicken fajitas sizzler is meant to be a carnival of colors exploding on your plate.. with the grilled chicken, green yellow and red peppers, bright green sauce, white sour cream and flavored fried rice with tomatoes and bacon bits in it. As the picture above shows, I was a tad disappointed. Well, 2 out of 3 senses down.. hopefully the taste works. Let's break it up. The chicken was well cooked and succulent enough but the green chimichurri sauce on it was thick, bland and not appetizing. The onions were not roasted and pretty raw. The sour cream did not have the sourness in it and the pico de gallo was pretty bland with low flavors. Salt was lacking in the dish and the flavored rice was spicy but not seasoned in balance. Put together, it drove me crazy. I just quietly finished the chicken separately, the tortillas separately and the rice at the end on its own. Quite a let-down, unfortunately.
Now to the kicker... its an expensive fine dining restaurant concept here in India and it shows on your bill. But if I am going to pay that much, which I don't mind, I expect carefully crafted dishes that explode in your mouth  in a multitude of flavors. It would be a really tough day for me to venture again to TGIF... probably if i have no other choice at all and I just want to go nearby.

Location: Bannerghatta Road, Bangalore, in Meenakshi Mall
Cost: Very expensive. Above meal for two came to Rs. 1500 / -
Ambience: Nice, enjoyable and comfortable

Barbeque Nation - Grill Paradise

 With both of my brothers-in-law visiting me from the US, and a day off from office resulted in quite the day out. Started off with some shopping and by noon we were starving. Being around the JP Nagar area in Bangalore, we decided to head to Barbeque Nation there. The concept of grilled food with low amount of spices, oil and fat seemed to coincide with their views, being from US and all :-) 

 We reached the place around 2 pm and were promptly shown to our table. Being a weekday, not much of a rush or wait. The waiter promptly gave us all our options. There is no A-la-Carte menu here. You have a Starters package followed by a buffet lunch with a welcome drink thrown in. Two of us chose Non-Veg while the other chose the Veg starter package. Coming to the details - the center of the table is hollowed out where a grill is kept. This is where the food is cooked on skewers. Right at your table - served piping hot.

As can be seen, food is cooked at your table and you have an array of sauces and dressing to spice up your fare. Reminds me a lot of the street fare you would get prowling the alleys of Hong Kong. For the veggie lovers, the choice was any and all of mushrooms, potatoes, pineapple, mix veggies, cutlets and paneer. For the meat lovers it was 3 types of chicken, prawns, fish, mutton seekh kebabs and chicken leg pieces. The food is unlimited, meaning you can keep ordering as much as you want of any item and the waiter would keep replenishing the skewers. They also served us a welcome drink (which is part of the package). I would recommend the Masala Cola which is a mixture of jal-jeera and coke and spices with a healthy dose of pudina floating on the top. 3 sauces (curd and pepper, tomato salsa and hot chilly) along with 3 dressings (vinegar, soy chilly and mustard) are provided to flavor the meat as it cooks.

 Once you are done with this, you can proceed to the buffet lunch spread which is typical of most Indian restaurants (salads, rotis, rice, 3 side dishes - veg and non-veg, biriyani and curd rice). We skipped the buffet lunch by just taking a small peek at the curd rice and then proceeded directly to the dessert array. Dessert had a mixture of cakes, tarts, Indian sweets, ice cream and cut fruits. The fruits were fresh and they promptly found their way into our plates. Out of all the dishes, 3 dishes stood out for me - the Moong Daal halwa soaked in creamy milk with saffron and pista, the phirnee (a form of rice pudding) which was not too sweet and was slightly spiced to perfection and finally the Angoori Jamun (mini gulab jamuns) hot and perfectly made.

Fully stuffed and almost half-asleep from food intoxication, we walked away. Let me tell you the best part, all this and more at a fixed price of Rs. 475/- + taxes only. I found that absolutely worth every single penny and the quality of the food was delectable indeed.

Location: 67, 15th Cross, JP Nagar 3rd phase, near Daily Bread bakery, Bangalore

Cost: Value for Money

Ambience: Good

Service: Extremely friendly staff

Quality: Exceptional

Recipe for Avial

Continuing our journey on food, let me start off with one of my favorites. Avial - a wholesome healthy dish made of various veggies and unique to Kerala and Tamil Nadu cuisines. It can be had with hot rice or with Adai (a type of dosa made with mixed daals). This is a very simple to make dish with low level of complexities.

Ingredients

1 potato, 2 carrots, 100 gms each of runner beans, broad beans, colacasia or yam, raw banana, 1/4 kg of white pumpkin, 1 drumstick, 3-4 green chillies, 1/2 shell grated coconut, coconut oil, curry leaves, 1/2 cup of thick curd

Steps

1. Chop all the veggies (potatoes, carrots, beans, colacasia, banana, pumpkin) into small cube shapes (not too small nor too big and lumpy). Cut the drumstick in the usual manner i.e. lengthwise.

2. Add all the veggies+drumstick along with salt into a pressure cook and boil them. Take it off after one whistle and let it cool.

3. Once it can be removed, transfer the entire mixture into a vessel, add a bit of water and start heating them on a simmering flame.

4. Take 1/2 shell grated coconut along with finely chopped 3-4 green chillies and put them in a mixie to grind them together. Just add sufficient water to build a thick paste which will form the base for your Avial. The paste should be thick and not runny.

5. Once the paste is done, transfer it to the vessel where the pressure cooked veggies are boiling already. Let the mixture cook till the veggies are all soft to eat. Switch off the flame and let it stand.

6. Take 1/2 cup of thick curd and add it to the vessel containing the veggies mixture. Mix it properly.

7. Take a couple of teaspoons of coconut oil and curry leaves and fry them together to prepare the tadka.

8. Finally add the tadka to the mixture in the vessel and let it stand. Your Avial is ready to be eaten now.

As in with most dishes, consistency is the key and taste is of utmost importance. The picture below would give an idea of how the finished product should look like. Go ahead, enjoy the dish which has always thrilled me since when I was a child. And do let me know if it worked as well for you as it has done so far for me...

Howrah Bridge at Bangalore Central Food Court

Who does not love Kati Rolls..?? Succulent kebabs wrapped in layered paranthas with grease dripping off the plate make for a fantastic treat, be it lunch or dinner. A brief background on the humble Kati rolls from the streets of the 'City of Joy' - Kolkata. Stories all lead to a restaurant called Nizam in the city which made kebabs and had a monopoly on the same. Somebody came up with a brilliant idea of wrapping it in layered parantha and the rest they say is History..!! The word 'Kati' derives itself from the local language meaning stick which in this case referred to Bamboo skewers for the kebabs.

Having always loved Kati rolls, I have always been ready to try them out wherever I could find them in Bangalore. Bangalore Central (a shopping mall) has a food court where you can find an eatery called Howrah Bridge who claim to serve authentic Kolkata fare. My eyes lit up when I saw the menu - Double Chicken, Double Egg Rolls. Priced under Rs.100, the cook quickly throws the paratha onto the open tawa and adds a few dollops of what looked like butter (I was too scared to confirm the same..). He breaks a couple of eggs and as they cook, he shreds them on the hot plate along with the chicken pieces. Lastly he adds the veggies, onions and capsicum to finish his job. The cooked veggies with the chicken and eggs are scooped onto the parantha and served hot, all wrapped up. Take a cup of tomato ketchup and a glass of cold coke and you are good to go. Greasy, succulent and spicy.. Street fare at its authentic best.

Cost: Slightly expensive (Just under Rs.100 per roll)
Taste: 3 Stars (out of 5)
Location: Bangalore Central Food Court, Jayanagar, Bangalore