All posts filed under: Indian

Aquafest 2014 @ Karavalli (Residency Road)

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My favourite festival at my favourite restaurant in Bangalore is back! Aquafest at the Karavalli started 24 years ago and has become an event to look forward to every year. A seafood lover is assured of a sublime experience till the end of this month! Karavalli (the land by the sea) has distilled the best cuisine secrets from the bunts of Mangalore, the Kodavas, the Malayalees, and the Goan Portugese to bring them under one roof. And Aquafest is the crown jewel, where twenty new Sea food preparations with as many seafood varieties, will be dished out from the kitchen as well as the ‘West Coast Grills Station’. And for those who love their classics, the Karavalli Signature Collection is also part of the festival.

Weekday Hunger Pangs @ Dalma

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My blog might be replete with posts of eating out at fancy places but trust me that’s restricted to once or twice a week. The rest of the times (ok, I do eat out a lot) are confined to no-frills places with simple but satisfying meals. A restaurant that sees me going back a couple of times every month, ever since I moved to Koramangala, is the Odiya restaurant called Dalma. I was first introduced to the secrets of this place by an Odiya colleague who insisted I try their absolutely scrumptious Rasagullas. After listening to (in length) the story of how the rosagulla actually originated in Odisha and how the Bengali’s usurped this sweet, made it whiter and more spongy and popularized it as their own, I was more than intrigued to taste the original one. And so one fine day, a couple of years ago I stepped into the building at the Titan Eye signal that declares in bold red font – Dalma, tasteful Odishan cuisine. Orissa and West Bengal are located next …

Jamva Chalo Ji – Parsi Cuisine @ ITC Cubbon Pavilion

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I’ve grown up lusting over Dhansak. The Jehangir Kothari Memorial Hall and the Fire temple was very close to where I lived and the sprightly Parsees always had some fair or event where one on them would be doling out Dhansak! I also had a Parsi friend in school whose lunchbox came crammed with delicious treats. So it’s pretty fair to say I know and love Bawa cuisine. The ITC is playing host to Chef Parvez Patel’s (of Ideal restaurant fame from Mumbai), to showcase the best of Bawa cuisine.

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 …

Dining in Style – Riwaz @ The Ritz-Carlton (Bangalore)

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A New York style maven once said, ‘Style is a way of saying who you are, without having to speak’. In the matter of The Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore, luxury seeps through every pore of its being! From the awe inspiring driveway, to the elegant and intricate jaali work, to the splashes of gold and the fire and stone décor – you just can’t escape it. Riwaz their North-West Frontier cuisine restaurant envelopes itself in this richness while somehow managing to still keep the décor modern. Chef Ramandeep Kukreja heads the culinary team at the restaurant and is clearly passionate about the cuisine. While I felt this type of cuisine was done to death in all the ‘North Indian’ restaurants in Bangalore, I still could not turn down an invite to sample the new menu at Riwaz. (They make a conscious effort to come out with something new every six months.) Why, some of the recipes are sourced from the chef’s own family and that gave me the necessary incentive to accept a dinner invitation on a …

Syrian Christian Delicacies @ Karavalli (The Gateway Hotel, Bangalore)

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Karavalli has a long standing tradition of training its chefs in the kitchens of traditional homes and still continues to procure ingredients from the original source. As a tribute to household recipes that can be lost in the pages of time, Karavalli makes a conscious effort to bring this back into our memories and taste buds by hosting traditional food festivals. This February it plays host to Mathai Achayan and his Syrian Christian delicacies.  God’s own country has a host of different communities that call it home and each one of them has a special way of treating local spices like red chillies, coconut, pepper, fresh fish and meats to bring out something completely unique. In Kerala, the Syrian Christian food is a little different from the regular Kerala Hindu Sadya, becaue of the addition of non-vegetarian elements to the meal. The most noted contribution of the community to the cuisine of Kerala has been the hoppers, duck roast, meen vevichattu and the istew (stew). Mr. Mathai hails from the Vattukulam, in Kottayam district, which …

Aquafest 2013 @ Karavalli (The Gateway Hotel, Residency Road, Bangalore)

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One of my favorite restaurants in Bangalore – Karavalli at The Gateway Hotel, runs a seafood festival every year. This year’s Aquafest runs from the 15th to the 30th of November and is truly a gastronomical delight. For those of you who have never heard of Karavalli (face turning blue), it is an award winning restaurant that focuses on home-food recipes sourced from the coastal regions of South West India. (Think Mangalorean Bunts and Konkanis, Kodavas from Coorg, Malayalees, Calicut Muslims and Syrian Christians of Travancore, Havyaka Brahmins of Vitla and the Portuguese of Goa). The only restaurant in India to feature in the Top 50 list of The S. Pellegrino Asia’s Best Restaurants, Karavalli has always lived up to its legacy of creating fantastic food and amazing memories for me. Last week I had the chance to dine with the most affable, humble and accomplished Chef Naren Thimmaiah during the preview of the Aquafest menu. I have to thank dear Monika Manchanda of Sin-A-Mon Tales, for taking me along as her date for the …

Sussegado – Goan Food Festival @ LIDO (Hyatt, Bangalore)

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My love for seafood is a direct result of Goan cuisine. There’s nothing I like better than good prawn curry rice or a pomfret recheado or a kane rawa fry. I’m not Goan by birth…not by a good 485 kms 567 kms, but I love that place and it’s sussegado (laid back) culture like my own! So when a friend invited me to the Hyatt for the Goan Food Festival, it was hard to say no. Especially because the delicacies on offer were from the kitchen of Chef Edrige Vaz from Casa Sarita at the Park Hyatt, Goa! My biggest grouse that night was the mood lighting. Apart from the fact that I wasn’t with my better half, it also didn’t make for the best photographs! (Sorry S…it’s the truth J) But I shall choose to regale you with my tangy tale nevertheless. Amuse Bouche was a Rissois de Camarao – a beautiful half moon shaped fried dumpling. Filled with a mildly spiced prawn mixture and served with a smudge of chilli sauce, it was …