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.

Ramzaan food walk

In a bid to reduce the backlog and get back on track as soon as possible, I shall try to post one blog entry a day for the next 5 days. Yes, it's difficult, but then so is life, and you don't see most of us kicking off our shoes when the going gets tough, do you? So, backlog, and hence a post on Ramzaan that dealt with a food walk on M M Road is coming up now!

The caramel custard is something that is a must have. Buttery soft, with a touch of rose water essence (a little too much in our case)... you know what, this was over so long ago, I don't think it's fair to bait y'all with talk about the food, so let's just take a pictorial journey on this one - that way the pain will be less for both you and me :)

A breakdown of the things I ate: caramel custard, seekh kababs, qubani ka meetha, dry fruit sherbet, anda keema roti, satays, and an entire chicken leg and thigh.

Elements Heritage

Deepavali night 1, mom out of town, bro out with his friends, so me out with mine - it's only fair right. There's this place called Elements Heritage on Mosque road I've been wanting to visit in a while, ever since VP told me about it. So on Friday night, after visiting P's house (his mom invited us), we bolted off to Elements for dinner.

Apart from the wonderful ambiance this place has, another unique aspect about Elements in Frazer Town is that the starters all come with a bread or a rice-based thingy to eat with. So the shorba we ordered came with iddiappam, while the paneer tikka and the mushroom dishes came with a naan-type bread.

Shorba

Paneer tikka

Mushroom

For the mains, VP suggested I have the nalli nihari (something he'd tried the last time he was here) as it was really tender and tasty great. I had to take his word on this because normally he doesn't eat lamb/mutton because his gums swell up, and so he eats it only when it's really tender. Every main course dish comes with a piece of Indian bread, a portion of white rice and a portion of some kind of flavoured rice, along with a customary salad.

Nalli nihari

Another angle of the nalli nihari

P had the dal makhani, which turned out to be very good, while VP tried the Lucknowi khandvi, which turned out to be some kind of besan dish, where the gravy was amazing, but the actual 'khandvi' didn't work all that well for us.

Dal makhani

Lucknowi khandvi

For desserts, we had a shahi tukda and a zaffrani phirni, both of which turned out to be quite nice. The phirni gets special mention, since it didn't fell to heavy on our stomachs.

Shahi tukda (l), zaffrani phirni

Elements special chai (aka dancing tea)

Note to readers: do not have any milk based drink after a heavy dinner. You are liable to throw up ;)

Elements also has a buffet with a very large spread, but they don't seem to have enough options for vegetarians in it (3 items if I remember correctly), and since both VP and P were vegetarian on that day, I guess the buffet wasn't an option. But purely by the size of the spread, I think it's worth a shot. The menu and the cuisine seem to have been constructed and designed after not just Mughlai cuisine, but the cuisine of all Muslim rulers throughout India. That's the only explanation I could think of without asking the owners - how else would you explain iddiappams in a restaurant serving Mughlai food?

Food: Very good

$$$: Moderately expensive ~ Rs. 500 per head if you eat non vegetarian food

Service: Good

Verdict: Must visit if in the area

Elements Heritage, Mosque Road, Frazer Town, Bangalore.

After hours...iftaar raid in Frazer Town

Ramzaan is that time of the year when almost all the Muslim dominated areas of Bangalore (for that matter anywhere in India) are abuzz with a lot of activity post the evening prayers (after the fast is broken). M M road, the one perpendicular to Mosque road in Frazer Town, is one such area where even someone like me, who is kind-of a cleanliness freak, won't mind stepping into for the feast that is set up before our eyes. Last Saturday, I'd been there with Suhas and Santosh (from Saffron and Khazana), along with Ruth's husband Sudhakar (from Pizzeria Romano and Veekes & Thomas), we set about in the hope that we'd be able to cover some decent round.

The first attempt at this turned out to be a washout as the rains showed no mercy, and this Saturday (28th), the rains didn't seem to want us to have a good time. But by 6:30, thankfully, things cleared out, and by the time we met at 7, it seemed like we were late! The crowds swarmed both sides of the streets, and popular joints on the road had set up stalls outside selling anything from skewered chicken to roast legs to kababs to rolls... it went on and on.

Since Sudhakar had to leave in a rush (he plays for a couple of bands, and had a performance that night), we had to initially rush through a few things, and so the first bunch of snaps are on his phone, so you'll have to see them on Ruth's blog once she puts them up. We had some batter-fried chicken on skewers, which in all honesty, was the kind of stuff you'd wanna give to people to make them quit eating chicken! It was bland and dry. The other two dishes - the gosh (the first name eludes me now) and the caramel custard were very good. The cara,el custard especially, for just Rs. 15 a piece, was a steal if you ask me.

Once Sudhakar left, Suhas, Santosh and I had a little more leisure in selecting where and what to eat. We moved over towards Kababbish, and immediately realised that this was where the hard-core stuff was at. A plethora of beef items with a smattering of chicken dishes. Santosh would have to wait (he doesn't eat beef), while Suhas and I tried some roast tongue. Crunchy, 'meaty', and very spicy. I initially thought we'd been conned as I didn't expect the tongue to have a similar texture to that of beef, but then realised that the tongue is pure muscle, and hence it wasn't surprising that it did have the same texture as the beef. It'd have been better if we could have tasted the meat more, but the overdose of spices seemed to have killed it.

Tongue roast

After a glass of 'paani kum chai' each, we crossed the road onto another shop selling anda mutton kheema fry, or eggs and minced mutton in a thin roti and fried. Just looking at these things being fried can give someone a major arterial clog, but what's life without indulging in a few such activities! Quite a meal in itself.

Anda mutton keema fry

Anda mutton keema fry up close and personal

Once this was done, we hopped into Bombay Chowpati Kulfi and downed a coupled of kulfis before calling it a night, but agreeing that we needed to have a revisit to do 'justice' to this place.

M M Road, Perpendicular to Mosque Street, Frazer Town, Bangalore.

Ali Baba Cafe

The Gourmet Group had decided on visiting Ali Baba Cafe this past weekend (April 10), and so that's where we went.

Some of the furniture (below), and above is the entrance when viewed from the inside.

Although I've covered Ali Baba before, there were a lot of things that we had that I'd not had before. The doogh, which is a yogurt and soda drink is very good and refreshing for the hot days we have.

Doogh

Another drink we had was the Tausha, which was a cucumber based drink which was also pretty darn good. This didn't have fizz, but I immediately knew why they say 'as cool as a cucumber'.

Tausha

The third drink was a mint+lime drink. Again, another winner.

Mint+lime

For starters, we had an Ali Baba jumbo platter (non-veg), and also a couple of veg dishes, one of which was the Kadang Fry, which was slices of sweet potato that were batter fried. This is a very typical coastal dish.

Kadang fry

The hummus was superb, garlicky and the olive oil used made the hummus taste good.

Hummus

The other veg dish was the Bhendi Fry, which was fried lady's finger (okra).

Bhendi fry

For the main course, we had decided to have the weekend special biryani, called Maqboos. So we had the chicken and mutton biryani, dajaj maqboos and laham maqboos. In the laham maqboos, the laham (mutton) was a bit stringy, but I liked the dajaj (chicken). Along with there, we also had some roti with keema, and some vermicelli dish mixed with mutton, which I liked, but some of the others thought would have been better with something a little more firm instead of the vermicelli./

Keema + roti

Dajaj Maqboos

For dessert, we had a kunafa, which was made from semolina, dried fruits and had a base made of cheese.

Kunafa

Qahwa with dates

This was nice, but a little hard to cut with the spoons. Overall, a wonderful meal, and even though we had a record number showing up, this was quite a pleasant meal.

BM Review: Albert Bakery

Last Sunday, I'd been to Albert Bakery (to review the place for Bangalore Mirror), one of Bangalore's oldest bakeries (more than a 100 years old). And here's an interesting piece of information: it's owned and run by a Muslim family, not a Christian family. In fact, it was Nawab Jaan's grand father who started the bakery (Nawab Jaan is the current owner). The politics at the time of the British Raj was what probably resulted in it being christened with a Christian name (from what I gathered after talking to the owner). The review can be read here.

A couple of the snaps that I took are here:

Chicken Roll (not your typical roll - a larger puff)

Cocktail samosas and mini chicken burger

Albert Bakery, #93, Mosque Road, Next to Barista, Frazer Town, Bangalore.

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

Richies

Mr VP and I decided to head towards Frazer Town, specifically to Richies to try their biryani, which is supposed to be fabulous. And it being Ramazan, we expected them to get it right at least on this special day. And we weren't disappointed. We also ordered a half plate of mutton chops, which sadly were a little chewy, and nowhere near the melt-in-your-mouth tenderness of the mutton in the biryani.

Mutton Biryani

Mutton Chops

The biryani lived up to its reputation, and both VP and I left extremely content.

Richies, #82 MM Road, After Alibaba Cafe, Opposite Bata Showroom, Bangalore. Phone: 25486696

Alibaba Cafe

Mr VP and I went out for lunch to Alibaba Cafe in Frazer town on Saturday, the same place I'd first visited with my brother. Mr P was supposed to join us but he had a lot of work to finish and so was at office on a Saturday - that guy's becoming a deranged workaholic!

Since my last visit here (which also happened to be my first), I'd told Mr VP about the place, and he's visited the place twice after that, making this his third visit in 3 weeks. Surprisingly, he was ready to have lamb dishes as well, hearing which I was thrilled, coz Mr VP has an unusual 'syndrome' where the teeth on the left side of the lower jaw 'hurt' every time he eats lamb. Yes, weird, I know. We started off with a Moroccan tea pot,
and I tell you the tea these guys make is simply the best in Bangalore. It's not your regular tea powder and milk chai, and just like the Iranian tea I had during my last visit, this one was great. In fact, in terms of flavour, this one scores over the Iranian tea.

The menu is divided into three sections, detailing the cuisines of three different regions: Bhatkal (coastal Karnataka, above Mangalore), Arabian, and Persian. We ordered a chicken appetiser from the Arabian section called shish taouk, which is actually a Turkish shish kebab. The Persian equivalent is the jujeh kebab, which is what I had when I visited the last time.
Since Mr VP agreed to try lamb, we went in for a Persian lamb starter called kebab koobideh,
a Persian (Iranian) kabab made from ground lamb and put on a skewer. Although it tasted good, paying Rs. 165 for two kababs left me a little miffed, especially after the Rs 4 kababs I had in Delhi :)

For our main course, we wanted to have biryani, and so the weekend special dijaj machboos, or chicken biryani (half plate) was ordered.
The guy who took our orderd (I'm guessing he's also part of the management, and certainly not the wait staff) asked us not to order any side dish with the biryani as the taste of the biryani would be lost. Who were we to argue with him, and I'm glad we took his advice, because the biryani tasted heavenly. Not pungent, yet tasty, not greasy, yet smooth. It was great.

Sadly, just as the last time, they didn't have all the items in the dessert section, and so we settled for a shaufa pana pudding, amde from dil leaves and eggs. And just like the last time, it was very good :)

Service:Good - at least they were able to suggest good stuff
$$$:Usual Bangalore cost of around 300-500 per head (depending on size of the group & appetite)
Food:Superb!
Verdict:Worth a visit, wherever you stay in Bangalore
Extra info: 5% service charge is added to the bill

Alibaba Cafe, # 69, 1^st Floor, M M Road, Frazer Town, Bangalore. Phone: 40917163