Ants Cafe - photos

Sometime back, in December, I met these two amazing ladies, who not only blog about food, but they're also awesome cooks. Some of the awesome things they've cooked can be read on their blog Purple Cinnamon and Salt. And with food being the common link, one of them had featured as a guest at Xian, while the other one waits her turn. Both have become good friends of mine, and I shall call the two Ms Quiche and Ms BakeAnything.

Some weeks ago, we'd visited Ants Cafe in Indiranagar as Ms Quiche had been called for a photo shoot (not just for the food, but for the clothes and accessories sold at the Ants Store as well). And being the wonderful person and friend that she is, she invited me to tag along for the photo shoot, to experience the whole thing. So although this technically isn't a review of the cafe - certainly not the way I usually do it - there are photographs of the dishes put up here, and suffice to say that the food was actually quite good, although Ants would primarily like to be known as a store that sells products made by the artisans in the North-East, the popularity of the cafe could certainly bring in more customers for the store as well. Boy, that was one long sentence, wasn't it? :P

One the many artifacts available at Ants. This one is a mask from Sikkim

Also, on the food front, every now and then there are North-East food festivals that take place here. Won't explicitly guarantee it, but this blog should be able to update the junta about whenever this may be happening.

Blue curçao?

Iced tea

Blueberry and something

Mango (R), and forgot the name of the drink on the left

Mango

Bruschetta, or simply garlic bread with various toppings

Salad

Salad

Spinach soup

Vegetable something

Chicken breast with herbs and cheese

Open sandwich

Fish with mustard sauce something

Lasagna

Lasagna, different angle

Third angle for the lasagna

Spaghetti and meatballs

Waffles with ice cream and maple syrup

Waffles with ice cream and maple syrup

Ants, # 2023/B, 14^th A Main, 1^st Cross, Hal 2^nd Stage, 100 Feet Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore. Phone: 41521742

Hari Super Sandwich

On Sunday, I visited this sandwich and chaats joint in Jayanagar upon the insistence of Roopashree, a big time foodie and regular contributor to burrp. The review can be read here.

Chili cheese sandwich

Gulkand and cheese sandwich

Chocolate sandwich (yup, chocolate)

Bread masala

Dahi boondi

Om puri masala

Hari Super Sandwich, 121/A, 8^th Main, near Presidency Hotel, 3^rd Block, Jayanagar, Bangalore. Phone: 9901117355, 9844417049.

BM Review: The Hole in the Wall Cafe

So here I am, back from a short visit to Visakhapatnam, where it was hot and humid and I'm all tired. Here are the pictures of the food from The Hole in the wall Cafe in Koramangala. The review can be read here. My guest for this trip was Paul Nixon, an Englishman who's been living in Bangalore for seven years now. Paul has a great blog called India-aagh, which is a must read.

Watermelon (part of the fruits of both breakfast options)

The continental breakfast is something I'll never get used to - not with my appetite. Fruits, juice, toasted bread, and tea/coffee. The All American, though, was much better - cereal, eggs with salami/bacon/sausage, toasted bread, fruit juice, cut fruits, and tea/coffee. Paul said the sausage was quite good indeed.

Cereal

Eggs & pork sausages

Waffles & honey

Pancakes & honey

The waffles and pancakes were both good. Although served with honey and not maple syrup, the freshness in them gelled well with the honey.

Bacon, mushrooms, and cheese omelet

Breakfast sliders

Food: Good
$$$: Cheap
Service: Decent, but most people come here to chill out, and when they're in a hurry.
Verdict: Good place for breakfast if you're a late riser.

The Hole in the Wall Cafe, # 61, 1st 'A' Main, S.T. Bed, Koramangala 4th Block, (behind Hotel Maharaja), Bangalore.

BM Review: The Hole in the Wall Cafe

I've been way too busy to do anything these past few days, and to top it, I may be going out of town for the weekend, so for now, here's the link for the review. Pictures once I return on Wednesday. Stay tuned, and sorry for the delay.

Café Noir

I visited Café Noir on Saturday with my food group. Café Noir is in UB City and is a cafe in the mould of a Parisian street cafe (similar to Toscano, which is Italian, also at UB city). The menu is essentially sandwiches with a couple of quiches and burgers, with a whole host of coolers and coffees (Duh! Café, coffee, obviously!) as well. This was my first visit to this place, and boy has UB City changed! The last time I'd been here, Noir hadn't opened up and there was just Rajdhani, Toscano and Subway. Yeah, I know, that's almost ancient...it's been a while.

Some of us got there early (and here, when I say early, I mean on time) and we while some ordered cappuccinos, I had a Blue Mint Froz, a drink with blue curacao and mint. It looked really nice, but the mint taste overpowered the tangy curacao. I love the taste of curacao, and was hoping to get a bit more of its taste, but there was more of the mint taste and flavour to it. Another drink that is worth mentioning was the Mint Honey Dew, and one of the persons who had it, PS said it tasted good. I didn't care how it tasted, but it looked awesome. The deep red at the bottom of the drink (from the honey mixing with whatever else was there, and also because of the sunlight) seems to have come out nicely in the snap.

Blue Mint Froz

Mint Honey Dew

Although I was tempted to have the chicken and bacon quiche, I went with the tide and ordered a sandwich. All the sandwiches are priced at Rs 160, and trust me, they are well worth the money, both in terms of quantity and quality. The group 'president', Lil, who's also come with me on a review before to Café Mondo, said that the Orsay (having salmon in it) was heavenly. If I'm right, there were about two or three people who ordered the Orsay (with different bread options). The bread options available are baguette, panini, white, and wheat. The Orsay was indeed good, and it was good to see that the amount of salmon meat added into it wasn't 'reduced' in any way when compared to any of the other sandwiches.

I went for a St Germain (having ham) with panini bread. The ham seemed fresh, with the taste gelling well the usual lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumber inside it. Lil herself had a Cafe Noir sandwich, which I think had roast beef in it. There weren't any complaints from her. Another member, VR, had something called a Paris-Nice sandwich. I'm not sure whether it was the option of the bread he chose, or if that was the way the sandwich was served, but it looked awesome with cheese covering the top of the sandwich, and from what he said, it tasted pretty good as well.

Orsay

Paris-Nice

Orsay with Panini

Café Noir sandwich with wheat bread

St Germain

One of the three burgers on the menu was also ordered (Café Noir burger), and this one tasted amazing. Since I've been on the lookout now for the best burgers, this one came pretty close, but surprisingly, they hadn't got the construction right. The lettuce and veggies were below the patty as opposed to above it. I'm picky, ain't I? :) A couple of guys came in a bit late, and they ordered a St Lazare (roast chicken) and a Croque Madam, a veg sandwich, having zucchini I think.

Café Noir burger

St Lazare

Croque Madam

The dessert counter looked simply fabulous. It took most of us quite a few minutes to decide what to order because we weren't able to make up our minds. Lil had suggested earlier that the crème brûlée was to die for, so one crème brûlée was ordered. If you've not had crème brûlée before, you'd probably like this, but the one we had wasn't all that great on this day. The 'fired' sugar top snapped off, and the texture of the inside wasn't all that creamy either. I ordered a 3 chocolate ganache, and this was the best dessert of the afternoon. Thick and creamy, it was truly sinful. Lil ordered a Mille Feuille [thanks to boozy g for the correction] (yeah, if you can pronounce that, let me know...it's French!), which was a layered pastry with vanilla inside. It was very nice, but that was only on the sides, the middle seemed barren :( The last of the desserts was a tutti frutti sable, which seemed to have kiwis and figs.

Mille Feuille (Vanilla)

Tutti Frutti Sable

Crème Brûlée

3 Chocolate Ganache

Overall, I loved the food and the desserts, so no complaints from me. Although Lil and a few others complained that the desserts weren't the best this time around (my ganache being the exception), I still thought it's a very nice place to visit, especially on a bright sunny day.

Food: Primarily sandwiches, which were very good.
$$$: Actually not that expensive. Sandwiches are priced at 160, and most of the drinks are around 100-125, and given the quantity (size) served (and the quality), it's well worth the money.
Service: Decent.
Verdict: Amazing sandwiches, although my vegan friends may not agree. Desserts seemed yummilicious, and although when we visited, some weren't done to perfection, it still is worth visiting.

Café Noir, 2nd Floor, The Collection UB City, 24, Vittal Mallya Road, Bangalore; Phone: 40982050

Mother's day: Sandwiches

"Finish the cheese that's in the fridge", that was mom's 'warning' before she left in the morning. I had a photography workshop to attends, so on my way back, I stopped at Spar Hypermarket and bought some minced chicken and some bacon, a couple of loaves of bread, and made use of the tomatoes and peppers that were there at home to make some sandwiches for dinner, into which I was going to toss in the cheese.

The ingredients

And so the better part of the evening/night was spent in the kitchen, with a few moments sneaking out to check if Chelsea would miraculously lose or draw their game against Wigan Athletic to allow my team Manchester united to win the title, and sneak a few moments out to watch a woeful Indian cricket team capitulate under their own cocoon of bullshit in the T20 World Cup.

No snaps of the chicken or the bacon being cooked because...I have a brand new lens, a Nikon 50mm F1.8 (with which I've taken these pictures as well), so there was no question of getting it close to the flame or oil or grime etc. The end result, nonetheless, was great, although the snap here is of the sandwich before it was toasted/grilled. Suffice to say, it was superb.

The mother's day sandwich

PS: Reviews aren't appearing on the blog because of a few things happening at the BM office that are being sorted out. Hopefully, things'll be back on track from this Friday onwards.