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.

Aroy

I know there's been a really long delay, and my apologies for the same.

Aroy is one of those places in South Bangalore that would lead some people to believe that it wouldn't 'fit in'. It serves Thai food primarily, and a smattering of dishes from the neighbouring areas.

This post has been so long overdue, I think I've lost a few of the snaps I'd taken! Anyway, so given that my experience with Thai food in Hyderabad was quite delightful, and given that I came to a conclusion that there is a huge market for Thai food in Bangalore (if done right), Aroy would end up a shade paler compared to my experiences in Hyderabad, but it's nevertheless quite good (at least better than that place Benjarong).

To start off, one slight disappointment with Aroy is that they do not serve pork and beef, but I'm guessing that's more because of the fact that they're located in south Bangalore than anything else. I wish people weren't so fickle, and wouldn't stop going to a place just coz something THEY don't eat is served there. I keep hearing that we are a tolerant society and all that, what bull! This kind of behaviour says otherwise.

Aroy is located on top of the Crossword building. They have an open air seating as well as air conditioned indoors. When there isn't any hint of the acclaimed Bangalore rain, then the outdoor would be the better option. Each table has an 'umbrella' made of cane and iron and does a good job of shielding the table from the prospect of water draining from the clouds, but it isn't wide enough to cover your backside.

That said, let's move on to the food. I'm really a sucker for the Tom Kha soup, and Aroy makes a delightful Tom Kha. Creamy, with just enough heat that comes from the chillies in them but not so much that you can't taste the rest of the flavours from the galangal, lemongrass, and coconut milk. Available in veg, chicken and prawns, this is must have, especially if you're in a group as you could split one portion with someone else, unless you're the kind who's usually described by your friends as a bottomless pit (or other such phrases).

Before I continue any further, there aren't any vegetarian dishes that I can talk about exclusively here, but since most of the veg dishes are more or less the same minus the meat component, you can draw a fairly accurate conclusion about the dish.

Among the starters, the Pandan chicken is a must have. Medium sized chunks of boneless chicken marinated in soy sauce, sugar, and a hint of ginger juice, wrapped in the Pandan leaves and deep fried, these little parcels are guaranteed to keep you licking your fingers clean.

If you're a fan of crispy lamb, then there is a version of that available, although I would suggest you skip that and head for the seafood, even if you don't eat/like seafood - it's better than the lamb. One of the things that ticked me off now is that during all the visits I made (3 in total), they did not have the crab stir fry that is on the menu. So we settled for the crab meat balls. Crab meat with corn flour and some seasoning and spices, stir fried, wok-tossed and served. Tasted nice, but I'd have liked to have had the whole crab stir fry instead (especially since it's on the menu!).


Having eaten the crab, we moved on to the prawns - wrapped in banana leaves and cooked. The spices were a combo of red chilli, ginger, garlic and something I couldn't quite place my finger on. This is was quite liked by everyone at the table, with the prawns cooked well.

For the main course, we stepped slightly away from Thai for a bit and settled for the Burmese dish of khow suey, or khao soi. The dish is essentially a noodle dish that is served with a coconut milk based curry. Apart from this, there are several condiments that are served alongside this, which once mixed, provided some much needed zing and add a different texture (adding peanuts). The one served here is quite good. The chicken gravy served with the noodles wasn't spicy, and overall, the dish is quite a nice one, especially if you' prefer subtle flavours as opposed to the more robust ones typically seen in Thai food.

Condiments for the khow suey
Khow suey
The pahd kee mao, or drunken noodles, unlike other noodles, consists of flat noodles and has bean sprouts and seasoning. If you like the flat variety, then you'll probably enjoy this one. And once again, the peanuts and the bean sprouts in this give it a nice texture, and if you haven't figured it out already, I like peanuts in the noodles. Just to have a side dish, we tried the chicken with cashew nuts and bell peppers. The dish went well along with the noodles, the gravy being mildly sweet and the chicken being not to spicy.




They also have the standard dishes like the Thai read and green curry, and there are a couple of stir fries involving duck meat. I've never had dessert here, primarily because I've been quite content at the end of my meal. Overall, Aroy gives a decent account of Thai food in south Bangalore in more than a decent setting.

Food: Good
$$$: About Rs 500 or so per head, depend in how people are present.
Service: Decent
Verdict: Must visit if in south Bangalore

Aroy, #74, 15^th Cross, 3^rd Phase, JP Nagar, Bangalore. Phone: 40939311, 41290535

Benjarong

Last week I'd visited Benjarong with P and VP (for dinner). As usual, P happened to be working the weekend, and so VP and I had to wait up for him. So while waiting, and soaking in some of the, well, finer sights that walked in and out of the restaurant. So while waiting, we decided to order something to keep our palates occupied. I latched onto a Siam Sparkle, that was a drink having ginger and some Thai spices. It also had a cardamom pod and a slice of a red chili (bird's eye chili?). VP had a ginger and lemon cooler. Hands down, the Siam Sparkle won over the ginger lemon, which isn't saying the latter wasn't good, it's just that the former was better; way better.

Siam Sparkle

Ginger Lemon cooler

When it came to ordering something to nibble, VP suddenly said that he wouldn't be eating non-veg today! WTH! So much for sampling non-veg Thai food. I ordered a dish that had a star against its name (to indicate a signature dish) - chicken wrapped in pandan leaves. The chicken was soft, succulent, and well cooked and juicy. Although unwrapping the leaves was a bit messy, it was well worth it. VP took the liberty of ordering a veg dish (which could be had by P as well once he came). So he ordered a plate of broccoli cooked in an apricot sauce. It was a nice sweet-savoury mixture, and the crispy texture of the broccoli was very nice as well.

Broccoli in apricot sauce

Chicken wrapped in pandan leaves

Finally, P arrives, and immediately he and I ordered and split a veg Tom Kha Phak soup. It's one of the best I've had (the other being at Thulp). The lemongrass added the zing to the sweet taste of the coconut milk. Awesome.

Tom Kha Phak

We also ordered a plate of bean curd satay. It took me a bit to realise that bean curd was nothing but tofu. Tch tch, signs of aging I suppose. Oh what crap, what aging? I just liked the fancy way they'd mentioned it and so didn't realise it. The satay tasted good along with the spicy peanut sauce. I just wish tofu had a firmer texture - haven't gotten used to its ultra-soft texture.

Bean curd satay

As I mentioned earlier, there were quite a few sights to take in, enough to make our conversations drift in the general direction. Time for main course. We knew we didn't want to have too much, but the jungle fried rice and pineapple fried rice caught our eye. There was also a mushroom dish (button and woodear mushrooms) with water chestnuts in an apricot sauce.

Jungle fried rice with a mushroom dish

Thai pineapple fried rice

For dessert, P and VP has something consisting of coconut milk and water chestnuts (this meal had a lot of ingredients repeating). I settled for a coconut pumpkin custard, which was actually coconut ice cream with pumpkin custard. This was a superb! Being a Mangalorean, I'd love anything coconut, and so the ice cream was never going to be a problem. However, the pumpkin custard was a delightful surprise. I guess it must one of those things that either you straight away like, or don't. Me, I liked :)

Coconut ice cream with pumpkin custard

So here ended our meal at Benjarong, and I realised that none of the dishes we had (or for that matter that were on the menu) seemed to mention nam pla, or the Thai fish sauce, which is an integral part of Thai cooking. Now I know that not everyone who relishes meat would want authenticity as well, but when you're charging this kind of money, you'd have thought authenticity would be a given, almost taken for granted.

Food: Tasty.
$$$: On the higher side. Our bill, with a 5% service charge, came to a tickle over 2500.
Service:Decent
Verdict: Can visit if you're looking for tasty food, although I'm not sure about the authenticity (of course, I could be wrong).

Benjarong, #1/3, Ulsoor Road, Bangalore. Phone: 42066166

Mugen

About 3 weeks back, I was supposed to go for a review, but because of last minute cancellations by my guests, I had to cancel and settle for dinner with P and VP. And since P was done late at work, we had to meet someplace near Indiranagar, and so we decided to go to High Note. But when VP and I got there, there were no seats available, and so the next option was Mugen (and I"m glad we went there).

Since P was going to be late, we ordered soups for ourselves. A mushroom clear soup for me and VP had a chicken wonton soup. Just as our soups arrived, so did Mr. P and he immediately zeroed in on one of the Thai soups - Tom Kha Pag. The soups were good. The mushroom soup had three kinds - button, shitake, and oyster, while P said his Thai soup was also pretty decent.

Mushroom clear soup

Chicken wonton soup

Tom kha pag

Once done with the soups, we moved on to some starters. Since VP has some allergy towards lamb and mutton dishes, we had to stick to chicken and sea food, and also since he has an allergy to most oils, we have to be careful not to pick dishes that are deep fried. Boy, talk about making things difficult! We ended up ordering some Thai grilled chicken and some peppery prawns, while P ordered some veg stir fry which was glazed in a plum sauce, giving it a nice sheen and a sweet taste.

Kai yang horappa (grilled chicken with Thai herbs & basil)

Pag pad namboy (veg stir fry in plum sauce)

Kung pad kra tiem prik tai (peppery prawns)

I don't if it's a sign that we're becoming old or what, but we were quite full by this time. So main course was a tame affair (and a struggle). I ordered an egg white and olives fried rice (it had olives, ans so I wondered if we were at an Italian place or an Oriental place!) while P ordered a veg Pad Thai. VP had some allergic reaction to something even before coming to the restaurant which made him sneeze right through dinner and so he decided to skip the mains in the interest of continuing sneezing. Also, the side dish that we ordered, okra and bamboo with spring beans, had bamboo shoots in it, which VP doesn't like the smell of, so out he went, while we dined.

Both the main course dishes were nice, although being tired and kind of full didn't allow P and I to enjoy it as we'd have liked to.

Egg white and olives fried rice

Pad Thai (veg)

Dry cooked okra, bamboo shoots, and string beans

Overall, a nice meal, but I wish we weren't so bummed out at work - it would have allowed us to enjoy the meal a whole lot more.

Mugen, #2011, 3^rd Floor, Above Indigo Nation, 100 feet road, Indiranagar, Bangalore. Phone: 41481414

Delicacy (Jeevan Bhima Nagar)

Several months ago (around the month of October 2009), I had visited Delicacy in Cooke Town to review it for Bangalore Mirror. The food there was amazing, and also, one of the few value-for-money places. Even the vegetarians wouldn't have complained much (although the options are limited, whatever is there is quite good). Moreover, like most Indianised Chinese joints, the quantities are huge. So this past Friday, P, VP and I decided to try out some place close to P's house as he was going to get back late from work. He told us about some 'small Thai place' on Jeevan Bhima Nagar main road, and since I was going to be there early (I'm always the first to reach), he told me to keep looking out for a 'red board and a glass facade' on the first floor on my left (while coming from 80 feet road). And so I did, and when I saw the red board and glass facade, I saw the letters that spelled 'Delicacy', above a restaurant called Spicy Hub serving Andhra food. Delicacy! Woohoo. Why did P say "Don't expect much, it's a small place"? Probably going by external appearance, that's all, coz this Delicacy has the exact same menu as the one in Cooke Town, and I was thrilled.

As seems to be the custom at Delicacy, they served up some complimentary veg fried wontons with a sweet sauce. And since I was alone and didn't want to wait, twiddling my thumbs, and pretending to be ok (I would have been if I'd got a book, but I'd left it in the car and walked up), I decided to order a soup, and I asked the waiter for a thin soup, and he suggested the Tom Yam soup, and that's what I went for, and boy was it good. Initially, I just found it wonderfully flavoured and piping hot, but after a while, the spices started to tingle my mouth, and then when I realised that I still had half a bowl left, P walked in and after downing his complimentary wontons, ordered a sweet corn soup. He liked his soup, and since it'd been a loooooong time since either of us had good sweet corn, this was a welcome change from the messy crap that we've been eating at weddings and god-knows-where. You'll have to excuse the image quality - I was using the camera on the phone in an area that wasn't very well lit.

Vinegar, Soy Sauce, Chilli sauce

Veg fried wontons (complimentary) with a sweet sauce

Tom Yam soup

Sweet corn soup

With the soups out of the way, VP walked in along with a friend, and let's call her MysoreCanon (she's from Mysore, and uses a Canon, and there's a huge fight between Canon users and us Nikon users - luckily I'm playing Mr. Switzerland on this one). Ms MysoreCanon is a vegetarian, so P had company, while VP was the same old allergic, food-wasting, spoiled brat. We ordered steamed pork momos and Cantonese roast pork for us, while P ordered spicy soya balls and steamed veg momos.

Cantonese roast pork

VP got a call from one of his US counterparts at work, and so I got to eat a lot of the roast pork (devilish grin), and it was terrific. Some time back, I had written that the roast pork at Wanley is one of the best in Bangalore (among the cheap Indianised-Chinese joints), but now it'll have to be a toss-up between that and this (that = Wanley chilli roast pork, this = Delicacy Cantonese roast pork). Although the dishes are similar only in the 'roast pork' part, the sauce and seasoning does make a difference.

The momos were huge and were yummy. Very often, in the not-so-expensive-joints, the dough of the steamed momos isn't great, in fact it's not even and thick in most places, and also tastes 'raw'. These, however, were superb, just as they were at the Cooke town branch.

Steamed momos (veg)

Steamed momos (pork)

The spicy tofu balls were true to the name given - looking at the picture below, you can see the chilli seeds coating the balls, but when served hot, they were nice and crunchy, and weren't turn-you-into-a-fire-breathing-dragon spicy, but it the spice levels actually made the whole thing taste good.

Spicy tofu balls

P and I were stuffed by now, especially since we'd each downed a full soup, while VP and MysoreCanon don't eat too much anyways. I suggested we try out a starter again rather than go down the main course path, but P wanted some egg fried rice, while VP said he wanted some chicken dish - boneless. MysoreCanon said she'd watch us eat or die trying to. So I ordered a thunder chicken (no idea what is was), and the waiter told us it was a good choice. I liked the chicken that came (although I'm sure it'd have tasted better with the gravy as our waiter had suggested, instead of dry as VP asked for), while VP, being VP, said he didn't like it, and ended up wasting his share of the chicken and the rice.

Thunder chicken (left) and egg fried rice

Overall, a very satisfying meal, one where you usually leave with a smile on your face and have a good night's sleep. The bill for all this came to 740 - well worth the money spent.

Food: Superb - not just because of the quantity, but because it actually is very good.
$$$: Cheap, and for the quantity served, total value for money.
Service: Decent
Verdict: Must visit
Extra info: Parking on the main road isn't allowed, so try finding space in one of the side roads.

Delicacy, 22, 1^st floor, Above Spicy Hub, Jeevan Bhima Nagar main road, Bangalore. Phone:2529 9333

BM Review: Catch Marine

Last week I'd visited a new seafood restaurant in Indiranagar for Bangalore Mirror. The review can be read here.

The pictorial review is below.

Roasted Mushrooms and Tortilla soup

Cioppino

Captain's Platter (Calamari, Sole fillets, Mussels, Prawns)

Louisiana Seafood Combo

Nasi Goreng Combo

Lamb Chops Combo with Prawns and spring vegetables

Lamb Chops Combo with Prawns and mashed potatoes

Tiramisu

Chocolate Volcano

Food: Good, but nothing amazingly different from other seafood restaurants for what they charge
Service: Good
$$$: Expensive... our bill came to Rs 4500 for 5 people (including VAT + 10% service charge)
Verdict:Food is good, but overpriced.

Catch Marine, #760, Above Van Heusen Showroom, 100 Feet Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore. Phone: 41122303/4

Shiok

Last weekend we went out to watch the second part of the Twilight saga (remember the first part, where I said it was a joke) called New Moon. But this time, before we went for the movie we decided to catch dinner at Shiok. We'd never visited the place since it moved out of CMH Road to the inner ring road the foot of the flyover. Since we were in a hurry (P & VP were late as usual), it was a quick affair, with us reaching the movie about 5 minutes late.

On a night that India were actually going to go on and beat Sri Lanka in the second T20 match, it also surprisingly drizzled outside (effects of the cyclone near Chennai), we started off with soups: Broccoli, tofu and mushroom, along with a chicken and celery soup.

Broccoli, tofu & mushroom soup

Chicken and Celery soup

VP and I had a plate of calamari with pepper and a plate of chili beef. The beef was cooked perfectly. The calamari was a little bland, but the sauce it came with made up (and coming to think of it, calamari can never really be infused with spices because of its rubbery texture - I'm not certain but that's my educated guess). P ordered a plate of tofu or corn I guess (don't quite remember coz we were in a hurry remember).

Calamari with pepper

Tofu Something

Chili Beef

Once this was done, we split a Thai red curry with a bowl of rice (we being P and I, while VP was still munching on some calamari).

I didn't feel what we had was enough to conclude about the place (but rest assured what we had was very good), so I'll defer my usual ratings after another visit.

Shiok, #96, Amar Jyothi Layout, Inner Ring Road, Domlur, At the foot of the flyover, Bangalore. Phone: 65715555, 65716666

BM Review: Delicacy

I've hit a 100 posts! Woohoo! I'd visited Delicacy on Wheeler Road Extension to review the place for Bangalore Mirror. The review can be read here.

Complimentary Fried Wontons

Singapore prawns

Chicken steamed momos

Roast chilly pork

Chicken in pickle chilly sauce

Nam Prik pork

Manchow chicken fried rice

Delicacy, #97, Wheeler Road Extn., Cooke Town, Bangalore. Phone:41250055