All posts filed under: Product

The Flying Squirrel gives us Cold Brews this summer

Most people can’t function normally without their cup of coffee in the morning. This post is for them. This post is also for the rest of the folks like me, who sit on the fence when it comes to coffee. Espresso, Americano, Cappuccino, Latte, Pour Over, Nitro Brew, Cold Brew – ordering coffee is no longer restricted to the customary ‘one-by-two’ kapi in a darshini. With hipster Roasterys making their appearance across Bangalore, I thought it’s best we educate ourselves. Ready?

Cookbook Review: The married man’s guide to creative cooking

With the gazillion cookbook’s I own, it would be a shame to let them collect dust. I do pick up my favorites and rummage through the pages greedily for some ‘flashbulb’ recipes, but the rest of them are read once and relegated to the back shelf. Samar’s book runs the ambiguous path of a cross between ramblings of one’s life and recipes that relate to that phase, scribbled onto pages of a scrummy diary. As he states in the preface to the book – he is a glutton. And if he needed to feed his rambunctious appetite without upsetting the balance at home (his wife is a vegetarian), he had to learn how to cook. Years of living away from home, coupled with hosting innumerable impromptu parties has given him the ammunition to be creative with his cooking techniques. The book is a result of him documenting his attempts to create palatable meals through a blog in the Hindustan Times and a column in the Mint.

The Double Black Experience @ Blue Bar (Race Course Road)

Eventually, everyone who drinks alcohol will graduate to Whiskey – at least that’s the general consensus among the drinking population. I’m not a Whiskey drinker, give me a Gin and Tonic or a nice glass of Wine any day. The husband on the other hand, swears by his single malts and his peaty blended Whiskeys. Every trip abroad is a happy occasion because he gets to bring back his loot of interesting Whiskeys. So of course the Double Black Event at Blue Ginger was welcomed with much enthusiasm.

On Trial – Chef’s Basket Recipe Kits

Busy lives have a direct correlation to the number of times a packet of Maggi is ripped open for dinner. Unfortunately as I’ve grown older and more conscientious of what goes into my system, the packet of Maggi doesn’t fit into the scheme of things (often at least: P). But a hungry tummy needs to be fed, and though going out for dinner or ordering in seems the most logical option – we can now add one more avenue into the mix. Recipe Kits with a complete set of ingredients and minimal prep and cooking time to rustle up World cuisine at home! Chef’s Basket sent me two of their recipe kits and I put it to the test last week.

Pure Indulgence with Royce Chocolates

 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 …

Easy Drinking – Deva Wines (SDU Winery, Bangalore)

I am a food nerd – a sucker for little pieces of information, a gatherer of trivia and a lover of all things food and drink related. Which is why, I could not pass up an opportunity to visit the SDU vineyard and their boutique winery last week. I came away a little wiser and a whole lot more drunk than anticipated! If you are a wine snob or a wine connoisseur or have a serious interest in digging deep into the anvils of the universe of wine – this post might not intrigue you. But if you, like me, enjoy drinking wine and have always wondered if there was an easy way to unravel its mysteries, read on!  The Nandi Valley appellation is considered by many to have the perfect conditions for growing wine grapes in India – a mixture of clay and red loam soil but with poor fertility. (Trvia 1: Poor fertility forces the vine to develop deep roots to dig for nutrition, which in turn contributes to a more concentrated flavor …

Raspberry Mascarpone Pie

Raspberry Mascarpone Pie @ A Spoonful of Sugar, Indiranagar, Bangalore I drove furiously; a few motorists were roughly pushed to the pavement. Six kilometers was nothing to satisfy a craving. And this time it was bad. I couldn’t think straight, I needed the fix…now. I had the rest of them on speed dial, but this one was different. If I wanted it, I had to go there myself. The anticipation builds up as you come closer. Maybe that was part of their plan? Parallel parking was not my scene, but I did it anyway. I didn’t want the moment to be interrupted by the cops. I walked into the space. There were others like me, reverently consuming their poison. He looked at me from behind the counter. The clear glass displayed everything that I wanted and more. Which one would I choose today? Something dark and dangerous or something sweet and exotic? There was one in Red calling out to me. I looked with scare concealed desire. He smirked and handed it over to me. …

The Bork

Bork @ Monkey Bar, Wood Street, Bangalore I walked in to a familiar setting. Friends, food and getting wasted on drinks in the afternoon. It was the same this time. Like a warm blanket, familiarity can be comforting. There was a blackboard menu. Some new items of interest had made their way up there. A Beef and Jalapeno Potsticker, even a Salmon Khan! Should I shake things up a bit? The guy in the red t-shirt said yes. But of course he would… he worked there. So I tried it. Nice, but it wasn’t my warm blanket. I stirred my Mandarin Caprioska and told him I was shaken. I need to settle into my grove again. I ordered the Bork.  The pork was double cooked till he turned black. From that point on, he was called Bork. I gently removed the spring onion frills that he had chosen to be dressed with. Sesame seeds stuck to him like thick friends. No matter, the more the merrier. I cut into the Bork, gently lifted a piece into …