New menu at Shao - Park Plaza

Shao is the Chinese restaurant at the Park Plaza hotel in Marathahalli, located next to the multiplex. Recently, Shao went 'under the knife', and the surgery in this case was a complete revamp of their menu. I wasn't able to attend the launch of the new men; however, I did get invited to a dinner where a select number of dishes from the new menu were put on focus and served to all the guests who were staying in-house, as well as a few select folks.

The customary Chinese tea was served into some very nice China, and the chilly night wind that had managed to seep through my thick skin and was tingling my bones while I was outside was quickly contained. I limited myself to just one cup - any more and I knew I'd be over doing it, and declining completely seemed...rude (I don't know why). The real 'warmer' came next - a Thai mojito. With an almost freaky red colour, the Thai mojito actually did the trick. It wasn't too potent, but had enough buzz in it from the spices and the alcohol to actually whet my appetite. The last time I was here for the Melange brunch, the cocktails were quite a hit with my friend and me. This time around wasn't any different.

 Thai mojito

We started off with a lemon coriander soup. The soup tasted good, but I'd have really liked it if it was a clear soup and not a semi thick soup. And then, the starters began to arrive. Two kinds of sui mai - chicken and veg - made their way to the table, and in no time were these dim sums polished off. Going through the menu, I'd have liked to see a slightly larger variety of dim sums on the menu, given that this is a Chinese place. It would have been a great way to differentiate themselves from the other Chinese restaurants.

The prawn tempura with the wasabi mayo sauce was a really very good - just the right amount of tempura flour used to coat the prawn, and fried to perfection. I didn't want to seem greedy, so settled for two pieces. In hindsight, I should have had a couple more :) The veg spring roll is a good option for vegetarians, and it's surprisingly not very heavy in spite of being deep fried.

The chicken with roasted chilli paste and yellow rock sugar sounded very Thai - roasted chilli pasted, yellow rock sugar - very Thai, and the taste didn't disappoint one bit. While the lack of several other Thai ingredients in the dish can be questioned, and also the spice levels, the taste of the chicken and the amount of time it was cooked for were great. The chicken was still succulent and juicy, and the spice levels didn't make you reach out for your glass of water. The last of the veg dishes, the crispy fried wild mushrooms was pretty decent, but I didn't really pay too much attention as to how many types of mushrooms were int he dish.

Lemon coriander soup

On to the mains, but before that I had another round of the mojito. The chef had come and spoken to us in between and checked on us before heading in to work on the food. For the main course, there were quite a few options that were presented on the special menu that was on offer, but I was a bit disappointed that there was not a single pork dish offered, given that Chinese cuisine wouldn't be complete without pork. The menu did have Cantonese roast pork or roast pork ribs, and that would've been perfect!

The two non veg dishes in the main course - the sliced chicken with pokchoy and mushrooms as well as the sliced river sole with mint and pepper sauce - were brilliant. The river sole in particular was quite refreshing as most places now used that blasted basa for white fish. The sole had a mildly sweet taste to it, and a slightly firm texture. The fish went perfectly with the mint and pepper sauce it was served with. The sliced chicken, on the other hand, was a slight contrast to the fish. The meat was tender, and the mushrooms in the dish gave a slightly musty flavour to the dish.

Vegetarians who like tofu, the tofu and pokchoy stir fry with Schezwan sauce is one of those dishes you could opt for. Silky in texture, and slightly spicy in taste, this is perhaps ideal to club with a simple fried rice. The assorted string beans with garlic and chilli seemed like a very blah dish, but the beans we were served were crisp and tender, with the garlic-chilli combo providing in taste what the beans provided in texture. The shredded potato stir fry with spring onions and soy sauce seemed better as a starter is the sauce wasn't as watery, as it would be fun to pick up the string thin potato and munch on it. The standard carbs were provided in the form of fried rice and noodles.

Tofu and pokchoy stir fry with Schezwan sauce

Sliced river sole with mint and pepper sauce

Sliced chicken with pokchoy and mushrooms

Finally, after all this food, there was dessert, and a fresh fruit roll with ice cream was served. The fruit rolls, although seemingly deep fried, was quite nice and didn't feel too heavy at the end of the meal. Maybe it was just the ice cream and some psychological thing, maybe it wasn't.

Overall, we had a nice meal. When it comes to the new menu that Shao has put out, it still seems a little conservative in terms of the dishes on board, almost as if they were playing it a little safe. A little more adventurism and a little more depth in the menu would have set them apart from the rest by a long shot. However, this could just be the first of many changes, so hopefully this brings them the success it was intended to, and hopefully that in turn leads the chef to get a little more bold with the selection of dishes.

Chinese Feasts

Chinese Feasts was a restaurant on MM Road in Frazer Town, in the not-so-busy part of MM Road. And before I start off about this experience, I have to state that I've been told Chinese Feasts has closed - the owner was having problems with the rent being raised exponentially by the landlord. Sometime in the month of October, I was invited by my friend Chung Tham (a third gen Chinese Indian) for dinner along with his family at a restaurant that is owned by a person of Chinese origin, and we were going to be eating some real Hakka Chinese food, and not the MSG loaded and/or manchurian dishes we usually get at most 'Chinese' joints.

We started off our meal with a soup - battered meatball (beef) soup with tiny shrimps in them as well. The beef is 'battered' - actually, thrown against the walls of a steel bowl repeatedly. the tenderisation that happens and the resultant texture is different from what you get using a meat tenderiser. The meat is them rolled into meatballs and cooked and added to the soup. When I tasted it, I was amazed to note that the texture was actually more tender that traditional meatballs that I've eaten. Since the dishes served were all off the menu, I don't know the exact name.



Chinese tea

The next appetiser was pan-fried chicken momos. This one had fillings that tasted quite nice, but I wasn't too sure why they pan-fried it when steaming it was an option. I didn't ask that though. I guess I'll never know now :)

Chicken pan-fried momos
The food just kept on coming. We were served a chicken dish that had a sauce that seemed a mix of tomato, vinegar, ginger and chillies. The ginger though was pungent and strong, but was a more mellow. The addition of sesame seeds, to me, seemed unnecessary, but who cares - the dish tasted great. Chinese version of chilli chicken!

Chilli chicken
The chicken was followed by fish - again, in a sauce that was more glazed, but the fish was very nicely cooked, and came apart very easily in the mouth. The flavour wasn't spicy, and was more sweet, but it made for a wonderful balance with the other dishes. The fish was followed by another cousin from the sea, prawns, in a coriander gravy, and this was absolutely yummy.

Fish
Coriander prawns
A stir fry and a couple of bowls noodles later, we were almost purring in pure delight and satisfaction.



It's too bad that Chinese Feasts has closed down. Would've been great to have the restaurant around, but I'm glad I got to visit it at least once.

BM Review: Tangra

A few weeks back I'd been to Tangra, a new Chinese restaurant in Jayanagar, part of Hotel Eden Park. The review for Bangalore Mirror can be read here. Some desk monkey has gone and changed the title from "Buddha ain't laughing" to "Hakka steaming the neighbourhood". What's the connection, I have no idea, but whatever...their paper, their wish.

Tangra is a region in Calcutta that housed a large number of tanneries owned my migrant Chinese, commonly known as Hakka Chinese. The food brought to India by them was adapted for the Indian palate (actually the Bengali palate), and the result is there for us to see all over town (and the country).

Unlike many 'Chinese' restaurants, Tangra thankfully isn't set in dingy, dim red lights with clichéd images of dragons and Chinese writings all over the place.

The wanton soup we had was quite a pleasant way to get started. The clear soup was well flavoured and there weren't too many flotillas to mask the taste of the wantons in them. The other dish that brought a warm smile was the prawn dumpling, with it's soft exterior shell and delicately flavoured contents. The Hawker's style Singapore chilli crab came quite close to the real deal, but we all agreed that there was hardly any chilli and it would have tasted better if it were a soft-shelled crab.

Wonton soup

Hawker's chilli crab

The veg sui mai was quite bland and felt sticky inside the mouth, while the lemon chicken — strips of batter-fried chicken with a lemony flavour — felt a little insipid; perhaps a more robust dip would’ve helped. Spring rolls that are deep fried need to be served piping hot or else the charm is lost, which was the case here.

Tangra lemon chicken

Spring rolls

Among the mains, perhaps the sapo chicken caught our fancy because of the use of rice wine in it. The sizzling noodles too were nice, but why it's called Japanese sizzling noodles has left us flummoxed.

Sizzling noodles

Date pancake

The service is quite nice and guests are helped with suggestions for what to order.

Food: Standard Chinese fare
$$$: Not too expensive, given the setup and all. Maybe around Rs. 800 for two.
Service: Good
Verdict: Can visit if in the area and if you want to dine in a little more comfort.

Tangra, Eden Park Restaurants, 722/2, 36^th Cross, 10^th ‘A’ Main, Jayanagar 4^th Block, Bangalore. Phone: 42777333

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: Oriental Wok

A couple of weeks ago, I'd visited this place called Jin's Hut... at least that's the name I was given to believe it was known by, but it turned out the owner had rechristened the place as Oriental Wok. shortly after opening as Jin's Hut. The review can be read here.

Steamed momos

Kimbap

Chicken satay

One of the many ramen noodles we had

With the different kimchis

Bibimbap

Needless to say, I've been very busy at work and haven't been to update the blog, so apologies for the same. Also, there was some problem at home with the UPS which kept cutting off power to the computer whenever I turned the comp on. Now that that is resolved, hopefully things will pick up.

Food: Good
$$$: Cheap
Service: You order, they serve. Expecting more is lunacy.
Verdict: Since they're the only ones serving Ramen, it's worth a visit, but given the seating limitations (a total of 12 people can sit inside, not any more), I wouldn't recommend it to those across town.

Oriental Wok, 5th A Main, 2nd Block, HBR Layout, opposite Barista, near Jal Vayu Vihar, Bangalore. Phone:9972252368

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