Merry ol' London - gastronomic memoirs of a travelophile

It has been almost forever since I last visited this hitherto blank page, where once I used to visit it every 10 days. A lot of food has passed between my lips, and many a drink has splashed into the pit of my stomach since November, and sadly, not a single one of those adventures has found its way onto these pages here. Well, I think it's about time that changed.

November end (2012), I flew to London on work, to help launch Zomato in London. Post that, the last 10 days of January 2013 I flew to Doha (Qatar) - again to help launch Zomato in Doha, and in early February I was in Colombo - same reason. March set in, and I was in Manila. In between all these trips, I was in Delhi. Right now, I'm back in Bangalore, and will be here for a short while before I probably head out someplace again. Since we're gearing up for the IPL T20, I think I'll first put up a highlights package - just to set the mood, and dish out the detailed posts in the following days.

I'll start off with merry ol' London, and work my way through the winter onto the other cities and the other gastronomical delights that came up before me. Hopefully this little preview will be enough to whet your appetite for the details that will follow soon.

Turquoise - The European

The post for Turquoise has been long pending, and in fact, I had written it once, was about to 'publish' it, but ended up doing something while sleepy and the entire post got deleted. And then I wasn't able to find any of the pictures! Thankfully the horror story ended there, and I'm back with the details about Turquoise - The European (I'll need to visit the Indian a couple of times more to gauge the place fully and type it down).

The menu at Turquoise is expansive, and can leave you spoiled for choice. When Mr. P and I are together, we've just got to get ourselves some soup. The creme de Porcini and the cream of broccoli are the ones we tried, and both are quite good, with the Porcini soup taking the cake for me simply because I like mushrooms over other veggies, especially when it comes to soups. That isn't to say the broccoli wasn't good. In fact, the consistency of the broccoli soup is to be appreciated for not being 'grainy'.

Creme de Porcini

Cream of Broccoli

Some of the starters we had were the Mezze platter (we asked for 3 dips; you can ask for 6 or 9 as well). The dips we asked for were the muhammara, hummus, and falafels (OK, so falafels aren't dips, so sue me!), malazane con pomodoro confit (baked aubergine with tomato confit and cheese), kefta kebabs (ground lamb) with tzatziki, veg tapas platter, grilled prawns (day's special), and chicken wrapped with sage.

The Mezze platter, especially the muhammara, was simply superb. The texture was spot on, although the levels of heat were a little less than what it could have been. I'm not a big fan of falafels, so won't comment, and the hummus was creamy and just the way it should be. The kefta kebabs, similar to the Indian sheekh kabab, was again spot on. The meat was tender, well seasoned and flavoured, and most important of all, the meat wasn't dry (most common issue with most sheekh kebabs in Bangalore). The baked aurbergine was good! So much so that Mr. P, who initially wanted to go with the mozzarella fritters, was actually polishing the thing off. But we did agree that the tomato confit and/or the added tomato puree on top made the dish a little too acidic. The hash browns on the side were quite a treat (if you're a fan of hash browns).

Mezze platter with falafels, muhammara, and hummus

Kefta kebabs with tzatziki

Baked aubergine with tomato confit

The chicken with Prama ham and sage was a nice little package. However, I don't think this is available on the menu now. Sad, because if you like and appreciate subtlety in flavours, then the marriage between the sage and the chicken with the ham is something that you should try. The grilled jumbo prawns were good, but I have an issue with jumbo prawns - I don't like the smell of the shells. Only of the jumbo prawns. I know! Weird, but true. The meat itself was sweet and nice, but when it comes in the shell...boy! not happening I tell you. A Thin crust pizza is always a delight, and Turquoise makes a mean thin crust pizza. Since every time I visited the place I was with a sizable number of vegetarians, I ended having the same vegetarian pizza every time - the fig and ricotta cheese pizza. Leaving aside the disappointment that there wasn't any meat on the pizza, the pizza by itself was soooo good!

Chicken with Parma ham and sage

Grilled jumbo prawns (day's special)

Fig and ricotta pizza

For the mains, there are a multitude of pasta options that you can choose from. Mr. P had the raviolini stuffed with spinach and ricotta and it was quite superb. The tomato and asparagus sauce though was a little too acidic - not sure if that particular batch of tomatoes had a higher level of acidity or what. The braised pork belly on a bed of red cabbage was divine. As hard as I tried to find a fault here, I couldn't! To nit-pick, the fat had peeled off the meat and for some reason the meat tasted better WITHOUT the fat (I know some people who aren't too find of pork fat), but when the fat isn't giving you the jollies, something's gotta be up! The red cabbage underneath was simply to die for. Pickled, or made sour, the acidity was the perfect balance to the pork. The fish Florentine, rolled and stuffed with spinach and mushroom is quite easily one of the best fish dishes I've had...it's right up there at the top. The rolling of the fish without breaking it is quite remarkable (it may be a simple, commonly known thing, but was a first for me), and the stuffing complimented the fish perfectly.

Braised pork belly on a bed of red cabbage

Fish Florentine

Spinach and ricotta raviolini

Another of the vegetarian dishes we had was the grilled eggplant rolled in parmigiano. I seem to have developed a liking for eggplant in the last few years, but somehow I just didn't think this worked for me, although Mr. P thought it was quite good.

Grilled eggplant rolled in parmigiano

The desserts we had every time were fabulous, especially the Pavlova. The first time, we ordered the Turquoise trio - chocolate pâté, crème brûlée, and Pavlova. The chocolate pâté was sinful and rich, and had the perfect soft texture with the right amount of 'butteriness' (sorry, my vocab eludes me now). Typically, pâtés are made from ground meat (liver being the most common) along with some fat. So in other words, pâtés are slightly heavier, or denser that a mousse. Now imagine that with pure chocolate. Pure delight.

The crème brûlée had the perfect crust, and the inside 'custard' was baked just right. We were actually jostling and sparring with our dessert spoons to see who gets a little more of the crème brûlée. I'd never had a Pavlova until then, but I'd seen enough of it on Master Chef Australia, so I had a fair idea of what it ought to have been like, and it was. The meringue was nice, the base was crispy, and light. The only dip in an otherwise consistent graph was the mango mascarpone mousse - not because it wasn't good, but because the rest of the dishes were far better. Also, it seemed a little too gelatinous for my liking.

(L-R) Chocolate pâté, crème brûlée, Pavlova

Mango mascarpone mousse

Crème brûlée

After three visits to the place, and with consistent levels of service and quality of food, I can happily say that Turquoise - The European is a place to be.

Also, if you're reading this, from the month of June, I have made it a point to post at least 2 posts per month, pushing for 3 a month. Should I not achieve that target by the end of each month, the first person to point it out to me through any media will win a free lunch. OK scratch that, we'll make it 600 bucks off a meal you have. We'll work on the 'how' once this actually happens.

Food: Very good
$$$: Expensive (~ 800 per person). I think the pricing could hurt them in the long run in spite of the quality of the food.
Service: Decent
Verdict: Must visit

Turquoise - The European, 9, 2nd Floor, Above Mom & Me, 1st A Cross, 5th Block, Koramangala, Bangalore. Phone: 65776588, 9739942912

Baking eggs

It's been a while since I cooked something at home, and this morning, after my morning run, I was in the mood for something sinfully heavy. Looking around the house, the only thing(s) that could qualify as heavy were egg and cheese, so I got to work with it. I was soon reminded of a post by Ms BakeAnything and Ms Quiche about mixing stuff with an egg and baking it. And so I got to work on the same.

Now even while making simple omelettes, to make things a little exciting, we add a host of things - onions, tomatoes, spinach, bacon, ham, cheese - to name a few, so I thought of doing the same. I had a little pork pickle left (purchased at Thulp a while ago), a new bottle of Tom Yum soup paste (that Ms Quiche had bought for me recently), and so I decided to toss in these two along with some cheese, onions and garlic. For seasoning and flavour, I used paprika, salt and pepper. Although I started out with 1 egg, I soon realised two was the optimum number.

So I cracked two eggs into a mug, beat them with a fork, chopped up a quarter of an onion, bashed the daylights out of one clove of garlic, added some salt and pepper, and then went on to add a teaspoon of the Tom Yum paste and the remainder of the pork pickle in the jar (about a table spoon). Feel free to substitute the pork with ham, bacon, mushrooms, bell peppers or whatever you love to go into you eggs. No real substitute can be suggested for vegetarians for the the Tom Yum paste, so just add whatever flavouring you desire. Top it up with cheese - as much as your heart desires. I also added some paprika for flavour.

Preheat the oven at 200C and cook at 200C for 18 minutes (Ms BakeAnything had suggested cooking time of 20 minutes at 180C). The end result was quite fabulous and a wonderful meal for brunch.





Ingredients
2 eggs
1 tsp paprika (optional; use chilli powder if you want it spicy)
1 clove garlic, crushed and make a paste
1/4 onion, chopped
1 tsp Tom Yum paste
1 tbsp pork pickle (use ham/bacon/chicken/ground beef/musgrooms/bell peppers)
Cheese, as much as your heart can handle
Salt & pepper to taste

Method
Chop the onion fine, make a paste out of the garlic, whisk the eggs and add the onions, garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, Tom Yum paste, and pork pickle. Add all these into a ramekin (I don't have one, so I used a ceramic mug). Preheat the oven at 200C. Once preheated, place the ramekin/mug into the oven and bake at 200C for 18 minutes. Alternately, preheat at 180C and bake at 180C for 20 minutes. Ensure that ehatever dish you use for baking is evenly shaped so that the heat is distributed evenly and cooking happens evenly.

Phobidden Fruit

So the last time I visited Phobidden Fruit in Indiranagar, I was a newbie to Vietnamese cuisine, to the point where I knew only about Pho (had heard about it) and was a little blank when it came to more or less everything else. Well, I spent some time learning (if you can call the description that follows as learning) about the cuisine - reading Wiki to watching videos, including one having the bad boy himself, Anthony Bourdain, I had a more sound 'theoretical' knowledge about the cuisine when I went in the second time.

Vietnamese cuisine is a classic example of east-meets-west, and how tây (Vietnamese for 'western') culinary influences have been absorbed and seamlessly integrated into the local cuisine - in this case, the western influences are French, and although the cheeses that France is famous for may not be on the list, it's a little more than just the baguettes that were introduced. So we were all very thrilled to visit the place, this time around with a bigger group (12 of us).

The seating downstairs is a little limited - two 4 seaters, and one longer table behind the spiral stair case. However, upstairs, (after you've twisted yourself up via the stairs) the seating capacity improves.

The view as soon as you reach the top

We started off with something to drink. While a couple of caffeine fiends had cold coffee, some of us had iced teas, Pandan iced teas, and a tropical fizz (lime and mint in a fizzy mixture). The drinks were indeed quite refreshing, especially given the fact that the mercury seems to have already started on it's northward journey this early in March (hopefully they'll come up with some way to shift+del the month of May year). The snap right below here is that of Sriracha (pronounced si-ra-cha, after the town in Thailand it originates from, which is a mixture of red chillies, vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt). Try a spoonful of the Sriracha and it'll bomb you outta your skin!

Sriracha (L), pickled carrot and radish (R)

Lemon iced tea

Pandan iced tea

Tropical fizz

Cold coffee

Vietnamese cuisine wouldn't be complete without pork. And when you have spare ribs on the menu in a sweetened bbq type sauce, you'd be crazy to miss out on it. The ribs were wonderfully done, although we'd hoped that either there'd be a few more pieces, or at least slightly bigger pieces. The beef spears were minced beef, seasoned and drizzled with sesame seeds and grilled. These were quite juicy and although they weren't the melt-in-your-mouth type texture (this isn't like a seekh kabab), it was still very good.

Spare ribs

Beef spears

Vietnamese cuisine involves the use of a lot of vegetables (crunchy and fresh ones at that), either directly in the preparation process, or indirectly in the form of condiments served along with any dish. Bean sprouts, raw onions, and greens of various kinds are the most popular. We ordered a rice crepe-like dish called Banh xeo, served along with the fish sauce nước mắm (don't ask me to say it - I tried and I sounded retarded, I swear). This was stuffed with mushrooms and sprouts, but was a little difficult to eat without looking clumsy, with the stuffings falling out all over the plate. This tasted ok, but certainly wasn't a 'hit' at the table. What was a hit, however, were the chicken spring rolls (also served with nước mắm). These too were stuffed with sprouts and a few strips of carrot and choice veggies along with the chicken, and the taste and texture was excellent. These spring rolls were made with the thin rice paper wrapper and weren't deep fried with flour-based wrappers (thankfully!). I tell you, rice is soooo much more easier to deal with than wheat (spoken like a true South Indian).

Banh xeo with nước mắm

Spring rolls with nước mắm

To round up the starters, we had a plate of chilli beef and pork momos. The chilli beef had small pieces of beef that were very nicely done and not chewy at all, while the pork momos tasted very nice, although the outer casing a touch too thick.

Chilli beef

Pork momos

For the main course, we knew we had to have Pho, which enjoys the status of being like Vietnam's national dish. So we had planned to divide the Pho and has asked for extra bowls (and let me say this categorically - the wait staff actually had an issue giving us extra bowls, claiming there weren't as many as we wanted! Yikes). Anyway, with that out of the way, we also ordered a Bún riêu (a north Vietnamese specialty) that involved crab meat in it. I loved this dish, although there was one fundamental flaw in all the Pho and Bún dishes. Vietnamese cuisine involves the use of rice noodles in most of the dishes, especially in Pho and Bún dishes. Phobidden fruit has substituted the rice noodles with the flat wheat noodles, thereby making the dish heavier and not the moderately light dish it's supposed to be.

The Pho too was filled with the flat noodles, and had a dash of extra cinnamon (like the last time I visited), but was otherwise it was nice (considering this is the only place I've had Pho). Apart from the Pho, the Bún bò too was filled with the flat wheat noodles. Now, the Vietnamese word Bún is for a clump of rice noodles. So when you call something A, but give B, then, hmm, that's not right, is it? The Bún bò was spicy, look at the image to see the amount of chilli flotilla on it. But there was flavour too, and I'm not being sarcastic. But the only disappointment was the fact that since the noodles weren't made of rice, they didn't absorb anything, and were slithery and slippery.

With some of the typical Vietnamese dishes out of the way, some of the other dishes we had were a reef soup, a Vietnamese chicken curry, and tamarind fish noodles. The chicken curry was very good - well flavoured, tender, and juicy. The reef soup too was quite nice, but the tamarind fish noodles was a little insipid - nothing special. My last grouse was that a particular dish called the Bánh mì (a pork sandwich) was not available. This wasn't available even the last time I visited. The Bánh mì is almost as iconic to the Orient as the Cuban pork sandwich is to the Occident. Having something on the menu and continually saying "It's not available" is just plain stupid.

Bún riêu

Reef soup - stirred, not shaken

Vietnamese chicken curry

Pho (vegetarian)

Tamarind fish noodles

Bún bò

Pho (beef)

I'm not too big on south-east Asian, or far eastern desserts for that matter, and we were quite full after the meal. All in all, a very satisfying meal, and coming from an authenticity angle, a few changes here and there (most noticeably with using rice noodles instead of flat wheat noodles, and actually having the Bánh mì) would go a long way in making Phobidden Fruit a much sought after culinary destination in Bangalore.

Food: Very good
$$$: Around 500-600 per head
Service: Decent; could get a little cold with larger groups :P
Verdict: Must visit

Phobidden Fruit, #965, 12th Main, Next to Yamaha store, HAL 2^{ndM/sup> Stage, Indiranagar, Bangalore. Phone: 41255175}

Silver Wok

Silver Wok is almost an institution if not a just a landmark for Bangaloreans who've been in the city for more than 10 years and haven't confined themselves to only a few pockets of the city. Nestled next to the Lakme beauty parlour on Richmond Road, this Chinese restaurant has been there for almost forever, and even after repeated mentions from various mouths that it serves some of the best Chinese in town, something or the other kept me from visiting the place, until last Wednesday, when a friend told me it's going to close down shortly. But before I even get into the details of the food, let me clarify one thing: we found out that 'closing down' was a temporary thing, from the 31^st of December 2010 to February 2011. So post Feb, you should be able to visit the place again.

I visited the place with Suhas and Santosh (guests at Khazana and Saffron) and a colleague of Suhas. I'm guessing they have seating in the cellar as well (which is where the repairs are happening that will cause them to close temporarily), because the seating on the entrance floor isn't too much, the walls are drab, and while the linen and cutlery are decent, I think it's about time they went in for a makeover. Perhaps all that leaking that took place leading to repairs and a temporary shutdown is a sign of fate, destiny, the hand of ... oh crap, what'm I saying! Bully, serves them right for not being ship-shape :)

The menu at Silver Wok is fairly big, and has sufficient options for vegetarians as well as options in poultry, pork, lamb, and sea food. We decided to start off with soup. While Suhas, Santosh and Rameez, settled for a crab manchow soup (initially they wanted to try a crab soup, but were told that it was plain thick crab soup and would be bland), while I had a shrimp clear soup, the menu stating that it also had a little bit of fish sauce in it. I loved my shrimp soup - hard to describe the how and why but it tasted the way I love seafood soups to taste (and no, not fishy!), while the others too seemed to enjoy their soups. Also, there were quite a few shrimps in my soups, a welcome sight when compared to most other places that would add a piece or two, giving an impression that they're doing you a favour by adding the shrimps in...a shrimp soup! No such inhibitions at Silver Wok though.

Crab Manchow soup

Shrimp clear soup

One of the main attractions at Silver Wok, I was told, was the chicken with crackling spinach, and this dish lived up to its reputation. Well cooked and well flavoured, the chicken was nice and tender, while the spinach was just brilliant - crispy, sweet, and best of all, it could be eaten alone and gelled well with the chicken as well.

Apart from the chicken, we ordered a portion of bacon wrapped prawns. My word, we were served 12 huge pieces of thick bacon slices wrapped around prawns. Unfortunately, these were again coated with a little bit of corn flour and fried - I really don't know whether this is done to hold the bacon and the prawn together, or for flavour, because I'd be gobsmacked if just grilling it wouldn't produce the desired effect. Nonetheless, thankfully, the amount of corn flour on this wasn't as much as the one we had at Xian, and so it was more palatable.

Lastly, no visit to any Chinese place that serves momos would be complete without ordering, well, momos! So a plate of steamed chicken momos it was, served along with a spicy salsa and spicy/tangy sauce that was kinda like the peanut paste you get with satay. Just as well that the salsa was spicy, but then again, I think I enjoyed it without anything as well. Again, not the best steamed momos, but certainly one of the better ones I've had.

Chicken with crispy crackling spinach

Bacon wrapped prawns

Chicken steamed momos

After getting thoroughly stuffed with 12 pieces of bacon wrapped prawns, out main course was certainly going to be a tame affair. So we ordered one rice dish, called Thai fried rice, which was a delightful mix of chicken, egg, prawns, and veggies. Since we hadn't had any lamb dishes, and since there were only 3 lamb dishes for the main course, we zeroed in on the Hunan lamb, which was a mixture of soy, ginger, corn starch, but again, not the best lamb dish I've had, but passable I guess.

And finally, like as if we hadn't had enough, we ordered a Cantonese roast pork, a sweet and mildly sour sauce, almost, in fact, if I'm right the same as char siu pork. It was really very good, and we were very full - not the ideal comforting combo when you're craving to eat as much as you can, especially when it's pork. Oink.

Thai fried rice (r), Hunan lamb

Cantonese roast pork

Food: Very good
$$$: Moderately expensive for a Chinese joint, but then again, their food is much better.
Service: Quick, to the point where I thought they wanted us to leave soon! :)
Verdict: Must visit for good Indi-Chinese food.

Silver Wok, #85, Sheriff House, Next to Lakme Beauty Parlour, Richmond Road, Bangalore. Phone: 22242288

BM Review: Xian

Last Saturday, I finally visited Xian, along with the owners of the blog Purple Cinnamon and Salt, Pallavi and Upasana, along with Sreeja (a friend of a friend) and her friend Snigdha. The full review for the paper along with a snap of the guests can be read here.

I don't know the exact reason, but someone at the paper seems to like articles in the English language very much, so much so that they added a 'The' to the start of the title I'd given for the write up. I'd titled it as 'Yin yang harmony', to indicate the balance between the good and the not so good at Xian (and there being a giant yin yang at Xian contributed heavily to this title). By adding the 'The' at the start, it sort of makes it sound as an attribute almost exclusively meant for Xian (which obviously isn't true - almost all places could be recipients of this phrase as most would have some not so good things to go with the good...thus, yin yang). But anyway, what do I know about English, I'm just a techie who happens to love and know a little bit about food, so let's put an end to the English grammar lesson here.

We started off with some chicken and pork steamed momos, and then moved on spare ribs, crispy spinach, chilli prawn balls, and bacon-wrapped prawns. The momos were good, but I've found the momos served at delicacy to be better because the outer casing of the momo is not hard, but still soft (at Delicacy), but here, it was a little hard, but taste wise, they were good. The spare ribs stole the show, like totally! Served in a sweet-ish sauce that probably was a mixture of barbecue and a bit of Worcestershire (for a little tang and zing), the meat of actually so yummiliciously flavoured and tender that all of us had to struggle to remain civil at the table. In short, it was good. Then, things slid a little down hill. The crispy spinach was nice, but had flour added to it to 'hold' it together I'm guessing. Bad idea! not only did it add an unearthly whitish-cream colour to the green of the spinach, it cut into the taste as well.

Spare ribs...some of the best I've ever had

Crispy spinach with vegetables

On the menu, this chilli prawn balls was under the 'chef recommends' section. This dish was a little spicy (and some found it a little too spicy). Flavour wise, there was the distinct prawn flavour mixed with a little coriander and chilli, however, what was missing was something to go with the dish and probably cut out a little bit of the heat from the chilli. After talking to Pallavi, who thought a lemon-honey based sauce/dip could've helped as opposed to my garlic-mayo dip suggestion, I tended to agree more with her idea for the simple reason that a bit of acid WAS precisely what was needed for a sea food dish, and the lemon would certainly have provided that while cutting into the chilli. Some garnish on the dish would've helped as well - rather plane-Jane if you ask me.

Chilli prawn balls

Bacon-wrapped prawns. On any given day, I'd have to say that even in my sleep I'd answer that this would be a winner. now I'm not sure if this is the trend everywhere, but here the dish came batter-fried!!! Oh dear, my fat, crumbled heart nearly skipped a few beats when I saw it. And the batter coating was too thick to enjoy the salty, bacon-infused flavour on the prawns. Tch tch, I think even the prawns felt bad, and I felt bad that the prawns didn't get to be more physically intimate with the bacon.

Bacon wrapped prawns

For the mains, we ordered a Malaysian flat noodles and a Thai red curry with a portion of steamed rice. Along with this, we ordered a char-siu pork, dragon lamb, and Xian pickled prawns (with black bean paste). The flat noodles looked nice, with nice colours, and tasted good as well.

Malaysian flat noodles (kway teao)

The Thai red curry was quite lovely - coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves, galangal, and red chilli paste... yummmm-meee!

Thai red curry

Pork was a bit of a specialty here I think, and the char-siu pork served was quite good, save for a few pieces of meat that were a bit chewy. But otherwise, the honey-sweetened pork (generally flavoured with Chinese five-spice powder) is quite a good side dish to be had any time. the dragon lamb seemed and tasted almost like the char-siu pork, with the only difference being in the texture of the meats - they are different animals after all!

Char Sui pork

Dragon lamb

The Xian pickled prawns had got us a wee bit excited. We were anticipating a slightly sour, and probably fermented dish (it did say pickled, and was in a black bean paste, which is normally fermented and pungent). However, what came was a bowl of a thick gravy with prawns and vegetables, with tiny flecks of black bean in it. On it's own, it tasted good, but having being primed with the word 'pickled', it was a let down.

Pickled prawns in black bean sauce

Overall, quite a decent place, and since the prices are slightly on the higher side when compared to any of the other 'Chinese' joints in town, the good thing is the dishes, decor, cutlery, etc do live up to a slightly higher standard that you'd expect while paying this kind of money.

Food: Some good, some not so great, overall - pretty decent.
$$$: Not your average Chinese joint...maybe around 500 or so per head.
Service: Decent
Verdict: Worth a visit if in that part part of town.

Xian, #132, Gangadhara Chetty Road, opposite Ulsoor Lake, Bangalore. Phone: 41515163