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. 

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