Samarkhand

Firstly, the delay in the posts coming up was because I have shifted to my new house, and there's no net connectivity for a while. And also, the fact that the USB drives at work have been disabled, which means the methods of uploading pics and posts needs to get a little craftier. Sometime back, VP said he got a decent hike and so he took P and me out to dinner. After watching a movie (One of those Narnia movies) at Garuda Mall (where they've put up miniature models of famous landmarks like Statue of Liberty, The Kremlin, Eiffel Tower, etc), we were wondering whether to have dinner at Kobe's, or to go else where, when finally VP said he wanted to go to Samarkhand.

A miniature model of the Kremlin

Hey, he was paying, so who were we to say no :) and so Samarkhand it was. Saturday night, no reservations, the trio enter and are told to be seated in Hypnos (same management, and they also told us same food would be served here as well). It was nice. A mixture of rustic and crude, old school au natural. The air inside was cool, bordering on damp/dank, depending on where you're coming from.

The complimentary bread sticks with the dip is usually a big hit, and there was no exception to the rule here. and what's more, apart from whetting your appetite, they photograph pretty well too! We also decided to have something to drink, and since we were driving, you guessed it, no -OH group compounds would be entering our bodies that night. All I remember now is that I had a passion fruit based rink, P had a pineapple based drink, while VP settled for some raspberry based one. My drink turned out to be the winner for the night :)

For the food, we started off with shorbas - tomato, chicken, and mutton. All turned out to be really good.

Bread sticks

Shorbas

My mutton shorba

For starters, we had the Peshawari paneer tikka (something I'd had 5 years ago when I first visited Samarkhand) - 3 large chunks of creamy, juicy paneer blocks that just crumble into divine oblivion inside your mouth. And I didn't ask whether they make their own paneer or source from elsewhere, but this thing was rich - like to the point where you eat one and you'll go "oof, that's filling!". Apart from that, we also ordered a plate of cheese balls or something like that from the Hypnos menu. These were OK, and P stated that he was quite full already and may not be able to eat too much. I think he's getting old - I mean this is the guy who once ate two main course dishes at Miller's 46 (so what if they were vegetarian, it was after a full round of soup and starters).

Peshawari paneer

Cheese balls (middle), with our drinks

For the non veg option that VP so badly wanted, we ordered a dish (whose name now eludes my fragile memory) that comprised of chicken breasts stuffed with minced chicken. This looked awesome when it was served, with steam coming out of the sliced breast pieces, and it tasted just as good. P was a little flabbergasted at the prospect of food being stuffed into food, but we didn't bother humouring him with explanations.

Chicken stuffed with minced chicken...awesomeness!

Another shot of the above

P said he couldn't eat another morsel after the cheese overdose, and so VP and I ordered a mutton biryani. This biryani was not as flavourful as it was fragrant, but even I was a bit stuffed, and since VP doesn't eat the meat pieces in biryani (he usually tosses them into my plate), I had to contend with some extra protein and at the end of the meal, I wished we could carry extra storage space for our stomachs - some kind of a compressible unit that can be attached to our bodies like a USB...those of you rolling your eyes back, hell, I'm an engineer and I know my breed (engineers) can do it, but we just choose not to at the moment (unless someone's already done it and I don't know about it).

Mutton biryani

Food: Wonderful
$$$: Slightly pricey...with non-alcoholic drinks, a full meal could cost you about Rs. 1000 per head.
Service: Good
Verdict: Go, go, go already if you haven't. They have valet parking, and go early on weekends...like at 7:30 itself if you don't have reservations...or just make a reservation, but still go early.

Peppa Zzing

Before going on my long leave to attend a classmates wedding in Lucknow, I'd visited a new burger joint on Infantry road called Peppa Zzing. Now actually I'd visited the place with the intention of reviewing it, but there was some mix up at the BM office and eventually Manuscrypts also ended up going and reviewing the place a few days back, and his review seems to be the one that's going to appear. So here's my 2 cents on the place since it's not going to appear on print.

It's run by Mark Rego. For those of you unfamiliar with Mark, he's an MC, voiceover artist, and also the host of the famous 'booze & brains' event that used to be conducted at The Opus. Apparently, Mark was diagnosed with cancer a few years back, and the docs gave him only 6 months to live. He said bollocks, went into radiation therapy, and finally decided to open a restaurant (which was a dream of his). And so Peppa Zzing was born.

Essentially a burger joint, this place also serves hot dogs, wings, and a smattering of pastas. But I think it's the burgers you should be visiting for. Now since Thulp has set the bench mark for burgers in Bangalore, I'll have to compare Peppa Zzing with it.

I visited the restaurant with Kappelmeisterin and a couple of her (ya)hooligan friends. It was going to be burgers all the way. What I hadn't factored in was the whammy. Remember the Mother of all moos from Thulp? Well, this is it's twin. I wouldn't go all the way to say evil twin, because both were big and tasted great. And as usual, I was the sacrificial lamb who was offered to this monster called the whammy.

Apart from the fact that the patties had bread crumbs in them, I didn't find too many faults with any of them. The only bummer for all of us was the chicken wings. Good sized wings just smothered in sauce, hardly any spices or seasoning, so essentially we could taste only the sauce.

Close-up of one of the whammy burger

The whammy burger

Cheese burst burger

Chicken wings

The burgers come in chicken/lamb/beef. And according to Mark, the kitchen follows strict rules when it comes to using knives. The knives are all colour coded, and the knives from one section are not used for another section - a habit from his stint at The Oberoi and The Taj group of hotels. So I guess people who might be offended otherwise can also breathe a slight sigh of relief.

Kappelmeisterin and her pals aren't heavy eaters, something I learnt during the meal. Once burger and they seemed to be done! Hmppf, imagine that. I finished my whammy and then walking back towards the car, I was heard mooing like a cow all the way till Manipal center (where I''d parked). Truth be told, I continued mooing till the next day.

Food: Burgers are really good. Wish they didn't use bread crumbs though.
$$$: Decently priced
Service: Prompt
Verdict: If Thulp is too far, then this is your other alternative for good beef burgers.

Peppa Zzing, G18, Kedia Arcade, 92, Infantry Road, Bangalore. Phone: 41232843.