Year: 2014

Breaking the jinx with Mushroom Melts

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The thing about leisurely cooking in the afternoon, is that I get to take pictures. And that is a privilege that I seem to have lost with my current work schedule. Add to that, the imagined pressure of blogging about something fabulous and you have yourself a pretty non-existent blog over a couple of months. (Sorry Shwe!) So I’m breaking the jinx and blogging about something. Even if it’s something really simple. Something I make myself pretty often and something that I really like. My normal grocery shopping always includes a packet of button mushrooms. I like to toss these babies into omelets, pulaos, stews and casseroles. But what I like to do most is just sauté them in butter and garlic and pile them mile high on some good bread. The key to making this more than ‘mushrooms on toast’, is to know how to sauté the mushrooms. What we are looking for is a nice seared brown outside and a juicy plump center. Overcrowding mushrooms in the pan and/or adding them in before …

Breakfast and Gossip @ Church Street Social

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I hate having to get up at unearthly hours on a weekend (10 AM of course) to catch breakfast at a decent joint. Church Street Social serves Breakfast throughout the day. That’s reason enough for me to like them. I also like their industrial design, quirky prints, funky trays and fun drinks, but we’re not focusing on that today. We are paying homage to bacon and sausages and pancakes and eggs and French toast and sugar and spice and everything nice. Just like God intended. Word. They don’t have valet parking in the morning, but they also don’t have the mad crowds that throng this place every hour of the day post 12 PM. So you win some and you lose some. Shimmy in and you have a variety of seating options. I always like the big tables next to the windows, although if it’s just two of you, the leather couches are way more comfortable. The menu is a newspaper style roll shoved casually in a box made of wooden rulers with a toilet …

Poush – Kashmiri Pundit Cuisine @ Cubbon Pavillion

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You would be hard pressed to find Kashmiri Food in a restaurant in Bangalore. The last time I relished Kashmiri Food was at a special Wazwan arranged by Bangalore Foodies Group and that was well over a year ago. A wazwan is a great way to experience the cuisine of Kashmiri Muslims – it constitutes a royal banquet of over 30-40 dishes shared family style between groups of people.  Most Kashmiri Food Festivals dish out the Wazwan style meal and the Gushtaba (velvety meatballs in a yogurt gravy) is its crowning glory. But the Cubbon Pavilion decided to showcase the less populist but equally exquisite cuisine of the Kashmiri Pundits. While both the cuisines share a lot of similarities (same ingredients and style of cooking) – the Kashmiri Pundit cuisine is unique in the fact that they do not use onion and garlic in their dishes. The tomato is also an oddity here and they resort to yoghurt based dishes to provide the same tangy taste. The most interesting aspect for me was that even …

Candlelight and Surprises – Grasshopper

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I really wanted to hate this place. I wanted to turn up, eat there and then call peoples bluff on it. Give people fancy, mastercheffy, pretentious food and they all go gaga over it, just to avoid being called pedestrian. After eating out in *insert any five star restaurant* the squiggle of reduced Modena balsamic vinegar on that white plate or the lego-like placement of grilled meat over asparagus spears over celeriac mash, was frankly getting boring. And here I was, heading to a place that exalted in doing just that. Why? Because I am a seeker of truth. (Yes, the profoundness of it all boggles my mind as well!) It’s a backbreaking ride from my side of town. Bannerghatta was and will always be the ‘The Zoo’ to me. No matter that the animals now, are the ones behind the wheel of a car in peak hour traffic! A small board (unlit) announces ever so subtly that you need to take a right to your destination. Follow the mud path and you end up …

The FPD Buzz: Citibank Chef’s Table Week – Jul 14-20, 2014

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Citi Chef’s Table Week will run across Bangalore, Delhi and Mumbai from July 14th to July 20th. This one-week culinary event is now open to all credit / debit card-members giving diners a unique opportunity to experience a six-course customized chef’s tasting menu as well as interact with the Head Chef of some of the finest restaurants in Bangalore.  Customers can enjoy exceptional signature dishes as well as off-menu specials as part of a six-course Chef’s Tasting Menu experience. These bespoke menus are priced across restaurants at INR 2,000 in Bangalore, (taxes and service charge extra). GH Mumm Champagne and Jacob Creek Reserve wines, will be available by the glass or per bottle at half the restaurant’s wine list rate.  Here’s a list of participating restaurants:  Alba ( JW Mariott Hotel Bengaluru) Blue Ginger (Taj West End) Dum Pukht Jolly Nabobs (ITC Windsor) Edo (ITC Gardenia) OKO (The Lalit Ashok) Ottimo (ITC Gardenia) Rim Naam (The Oberoi) Riwaz (The Ritz-Carlton Bangalore) Yauatcha (MG Road) Zen (The Leela Palace Banaglore) Blue Ginger and Edo are on …

Geek is the New Cool @ Aloft Bengaluru Cessna Business Park (Sarjapur, Bangalore)

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  Somebody finally decided to design a place where Bengaluru’s techie community can feel right at home. The Aloft Hotel (part of the Starwood Hotels & Resorts Inc) at Cessna Business Park mixes technology, architecture, art and music to create a cool new space that appeals to the social, tech-savy global-traveler. It literally takes geek and makes it cool! Conveniently located in the emerging IT hub of Sarjapur, bang in the middle of a tech park, it already spells business. But who said business needs to be boring? (Re:Mix Lounge, the Cessna aircraft suspended from the ceiling, Tactic – the Boardroom) If you’re the type who likes to work hard and party harder, Aloft has figured out your needs. Hash out your business plans for the year in their board rooms called Tactic or if you’re focused on developing your own cool app, ‘In-touch’– their 24 hour fully equipped, gizmo loaded office space will help. If you prefer working in a less formal setting – their lobby called the Re:Mix Lounge is a quirky mix …

Pure Indulgence with Royce Chocolates

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 At the mention of luxury chocolate, the first thing that comes to mind is a Swiss or Belgian brand. So it was natural that I let out a faint sign of disbelief when JW Mariott, told me that Royce Chocolates (which was due to launch on the 20th of June at the Bengaluru Baking Company) was actually a product of Japan! Like most laymen, my association of Japan was with Sushi and Sony (yes I’m a bumpkin like that!). The team explained that the chocolate is produced in the Hokkaido region of Japan which is a doppelganger for the Swiss Alps with its green pastures, snow covered mountains and dairy farms!  Somehow, the world seemed less crazy now. Royce(pronounced like Rolls-‘royce’, but having no connection to it), has been around since 1983 and is a pretty familiar name to the well-traveled in Asia. The most popular of their offerings (and in my opinion the one with most fanfare) is their Nama range of chocolates. We tried the Ghana Bitters (48% Cocoa) and the Mild Cacoa …

Mixology with Shatbhi Basu @ Harry’s

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Indiaranagar’s bars have one more watering hole to compete with – Harry’s! The famous Singapore bar choose this location in Bangalore to open its fourth outlet, hot on the heels of the Mumbai one. Most bars these days are moving from glass and chrome finishes, to more casual and warm interiors. Harry’s adopts a mahogany and exposed brick look that is reminiscent of a speakeasy, albeit a modern one. With the days of our prohibition (11 PM deadlines 😛 ) coming to an end, I’m sure Harry’s is going to ride on the wave of general elation in the months to come. We were invited for a mixology session by the godmother of bartending in India – Shatbhi Basu. For anyone who’s watched her show on NDTV Good Times, you already know the level of celebrity she is. But what you probably don’t know is that her joie de verve is all natural and not just for the TV show. We got to witness her finesse in churning out creative cocktails and keeping her audience …