Delicio - Italian food festival at Bene, Sheraton

Delicio, the Italian food festival at Bene, is the result of Sheraton Bangalore bringing to town Chef Enrico Fiorentini, the Executive Chef at the Sheraton Milan Malpensa Airport Hotel. The food being showcased during this fest is the food from the Lombardy region of Italy.

Chef Enrico Fiorentini

Photo credit: Sheraton Bangalore

While the popular notion is that the Lombardy regions cuisine has a lot of Swiss influence, Chef Enrico has a slightly different take on it. He says that Switzerland itself doesn't have a very strong gastronomic tradition, and has taken a lot of influences from France, Germany, and Italy, and so the 'influences' in Lombardy food comes mainly from France. Chef also spoke about how being a slightly hilly, landlocked region meant that the food incorporated almost everything grown in the region. Even the famous Minestrone soup, which usually contains pasta when served in other parts of Italy, has rice in it!

Some of the starters we were served were very reflective of the philosophy of Lombardian cuisine. The use of a lot of vegetables and polenta, which is one of the most prominent starchy foods. Seafood isn't eaten much - obviously, the coast is quite far! - but the consumption of other meats is quite high, with veal and beef making up for a bulk of the proteins and pork coming in closely behind.

 

The fest at Bene will be an a la carte setup and there's a special menu apart from the regular menu at Bene. One of the starters we had, a timbale of stewed lentils and roasted pumpkin with almond velouté and a Parmesan cheese crisp was very reminiscent of a classic, 'earthy' dish. The flavours were earthy and yet light. I'm not a big fan of a strong Parmesan flavour, so I didn't like the taste of the crisp all that much, but in terms of technique, it was brilliant.

Timbale of stewed lentils and roasted pumpkin with almond cream velouté and Parmesan crisp

We then proceeded onto the next course - not the main course - called the Primi piatti di pasta, or the pasta course. As mentioned before, seafood isn't really big in the Lombardy region, but they do 'import' it from the south, and make a few dishes. The ravioli we had was custom made - stuffed with seafood instead of the usual pumpkin - and was superb. The shell wasn't too thick, and was boiled for just enough time to ensure it's firm and not pasty. The seafood inside wasn't over cooked, and the basil oil on the plate was a nice addition along with the standard balsamic vinegar artistry.

Seafood ravioli with basil oil

For the meat course, we had a butter pan fried lamb chops in a herbed polenta crumbing. The cut of lamb chops that we got was outstanding. I mean, look at the snap below (click the image for a larger, better view) and check out how much meat is present on the bone, and the portion of the bone exposed. Lovely. It was served with a pumpkin risotto. I'm not a big fan of strong cheese in a risotto, so this one didn't get a smile from me, but in terms of being cooked, it was nicely done. The lamb chops were divine. Done medium, these were stacked up proudly on a plate, with a glaze sauce. Personally, I'd have liked to have had one of the traditional beef or veal dishes, like perhaps an ossobuco, or even a rabbit dish that's there on the menu.

Butter pan fried lamb chops in a herbed polenta crumbing

Finally, for dessert, or dolci as they say in Italian, we had a combo of sorts. In the foreground and at the 12 o'clock position is a polenta and dark chocolate timbale, and on the horizontal plane is a Parmesan cheese ice cream (left) and red wine poached pear. The Parmesan ice cream was a pleasant surprise. I thought it was plain vanilla until my nose crossed over the spoon and I got a waft of the Parmesan aroma. It went well with the poached pears as it cut the acidity from the red wine and the general acidic nature of the pear fruit. The dark chocolate was rich and creamy.

Assortment of desserts

The Italian food festival at Bene is a little different in the sense that the menu is not all pastas and pizzas, and certainly not the usual flavours you get, which are typically from the southern half of Italy. However, it is quite an interesting perspective to the food from a country where we usually only get to eat the food from the lower half of the country.

                                               Delicio - Italian food festival

                                         Dates: Till the 18th of November 2012

                                         Venue: Bene, at Sheraton Bangalore

                                         Mode of dining: A la carte

European Art of Taste - Caperberry

A few weeks back, my friend the Wicked Witch of the Feast invited me over to Caperberry, where there was a dinner being held to showcase Italian art and food, in association with the European Art of Taste (EAT) in conjunction with the Italian government and the EU. I was thrilled to bits, and even though this was more a Page 3-ish event, I couldn't have cared less and made sure nothing else was added to my calendar. Suman's post on this event can be read here.

The event was like this: art was going to be showcased, art that was inspired by food, and in turn Chef Abhijith Saha had prepared a 4-course meal that was inspired by the art (that was inspired by the food)... see where I'm going with this? :) Every dish was to be paired with a wine from the IGM, a consortium of wine producers, and also needed to have pasta, provolone cheese, or extra virgin olive oil. Each course had two options and each diner could select which one of the dishes they'd like to be served.

Amuse bouche - Tomato & mozzarella
In the first course, there was a green apple, arugula and walnuts with provolone cheese salad. The crunchy apples, mildly acidic, combined well with the oily nuttines of the walnut, and the cheese added a new angle to the taste. The dressing seemed to be done only with olive oil (extra virgin), and it was a pleasant surprise that there was no vinaigrette added. I guess the zing from the apples' acidity was sufficient. The photo I took of this came out blurred, and so apologies - but then again, it's a salad, so I'm sure you won't have to let your imagination run wild :)

The other dish in the first course was a seafood soup, a Ligurian seasfood stew (Liguria is a coastal province in the north-western part of Italy). The seafood stew was a rich, thick, tomato-based soup with (our soup had) fish, prawns, and squid. To my mind, the squid should've been in the form of the usual squid rings, but by using just a chunk of the squid in the soup, I thought it spoiled the 'tenderness' of the soup because the squid was just rubbery. Served with a piece of toasted bread that was lightly moistened by a pesto, the soup was a delightful dish, save for the squid.

The second course began with diners having the option of choosing from a fettucine aglio, olio e peperoncino with cherry tomatoes and green peas, topped with a some cherry foam. Since Caperberry brands itself as a restaurant that dwells into molecular gastronomy, it was a classy rendition of a foam, but personally, I didn't see the need for it with the pasta, although it still was a superb foam. This was otherwise a simple dish, but then again, with just olive oil constituting the major part of the 'sauce' component of this dish, it's very easy to go wrong with it.


If the cherry foam on the pasta was classy, then the alternative dish to it, rotolo di lasagna al prosciutto with pesto, along with chilled melon cappuccino was classier - the chilled melon cappuccino at least. The prosciutto was a shade too thin for my liking, but that aside, it blended in superbly with the rotolo, while the melon cappuccino was simply mind blowing - cool, light, and airy.


The third course consisted of a potato gnocchi and provolone stuffed morels in a mushroom sauce. The thought of trying out morels was very tempting, enough to make me almost order for this. This is a very simple dish - not simple in terms of the effort it takes to make it and make it right, but simple as in it's almost a commoners dish. There was a musty/earthy aroma that wafted from the dish, perhaps enhanced by the drizzling of olive oil (extra virgin I think). Mushrooms have always occupied a special place in my gastronomic heart, simply because I think they are more of a bridge between veg and non-veg food, even more than eggs are, and what's more, they're freakin' delicious. Too bad I opted for the other dish!


After reading about the dish that I opted for, there'd be no points for guessing which one I had hoped to have actually ordered. The other option for the third course was the lemon zest and garlic marinated leg of lamb in a red wine jus with baby potatoes. The meat was absolutely tender, and it was so lovely to have actually gotten lamb, and not the leg of an old goat or sheep! However, the taste was something even I couldn't get my tongue around. To me, and the other two guests at my table (a rockstar who's the founder member of the band Thermal and a Quarter and his wife :P), the dish was lacking some basic seasoning. That aside, for me the red wine jus and the lemon zest just didn't seem to gel with the lamb, but the Italians at the other tables felt it was done absolutely flawlessly. So I guess this is very evident of the fact that food is such a subjective, personal thing, that at times, in spite of a dish having been executed flawlessly, there could still be someone who may not appreciate it. Damn! I actually felt bad when I learnt that the dish was actually executed the right way because I pride myself in having a palate that is very adaptive to subtle flavours. Well, there are always exceptions.



For dessert, it was a common dessert for all - a red wine poached fig tart (r), passion fruit panna cotta (c), and a tiramisu (l). I absolutely loved the passion fruit panna cotta - a delightful execution of the panna cotta. The amount of gelatin used was dot perfect, leaving the texture of the panna cotta in a state where a slight tap with the spoon would make it quiver, like a 16^th century French courtesan whose inner thigh would quiver at the touch of her lovers fingers. I have no idea how or where I got that line from, certainly not from Jane Austen, but you get the idea about the desired texture, don't you.

The fig tart and the tiramisu were pretty decent, but I was going back to polish of the glass that had the panna cotta. I was just so glad that I got the opportunity to be a part of this event, and from what I heard, this was by far the most formal and 'official' Page 3 event, something that I absolutely loved. It's also made me want to go and try Caperberry again, since a lot of water seems to have passed under the bridge since my last visit.

Spaghetti Kitchen

I don't seem to understand where the space comes up from for new(er) places in Indiranagar. I've now noticed that Little Italy has opened up again on 100 Feet road, a couple of hundred meters from their previous location (their earlier premises saw another Italian place called Italia come up). Spaghetti Kitchen and Copper chimney are what seem to be the new kids on the block. Having visited Copper Chimney at Bangalore Central (MG Road) and not in the mind for north Indian cuisine, we decided to visit Spaghetti Kitchen for lunch.

The decor at Spaghetti is quite tasteful. The restaurant is nicely lit with natural light from the facade and then there are enough lights that ensure you aren't shrouded in darkness. Since it was a working day and we didn't have the luxury of spending a lot of time, we had to (sadly) opt for the fixed meal (Rs 399). The starters arrived at the table and almost immediately vanished into the mouths of my colleagues before I could take a picture. I'm guessing that's why I don't have pics of the non-veg starters... or were there non-veg starters? Can't remember. Anyway, the veg starters were a little insipid, except for probably those cheese balls in the background. Also, as part of the meal, we could have a glass of wine or beer. While some opted for beer, some had wine.

Veg starters
Red wine
A complimentary bread basket with a very nice dip was actually one of the highlights of the meal. Imagine that - free stuff that tastes good! The pizzas (both veg and non veg) come only in thin crust, and were decent, although from a taste point of view, it wasn't anything to rave about. The spaghetti was just plain boring - not too much of flavour, and if someone has to add oregano/chilli flakes for flavour, then something is seriously lacking in the dish.

The fish was nicely done, with a slight crust on the outer surface and the body soft inside. The tofu dish too wasn't too bad although my colleagues who had it claimed it was a piece of rubber that was coloured white-ish and served :) I didn't think so though.

Garlic bread & dip
Pizza
Spaghetti
Fish something
Tofu something
I thought that desserts would be saving grace, and in terms of taste they were. However, from a service stand point, I think I found something seriously lacking. We were a group of 6. Now take a look at the photo below and tell what's wrong.

Dessert platter
Couldn't figure it out? Well, we were 6, but there were only 4 of each! I dunno if this is because that plate on which they're served can have only 4 per type, but I don't care. Why are things so rigid? And no, they didn't get another plate with 2 more of each little cake. I guess it pretty much summed up the entire experience.

I won't be giving my usual report card because I only had the fixed meal, and would love to try the a la carte once. But if the standards set by the fixed meal are anything to go by, then this would be another case of a big brand hoping to survive only by reputation and by catering to only those who aren't very discerning (sadly that number is still quite large).

# 2006, 1^st Floor, 100 Feet Road, Adjacent to Vodafone, Indiranagar, Bangalore. Phone: 41113500

100 Feet

Apart from P and VP, there's another buddy who spends most of his time in the US, and we were fortunate enough to have him over the weekend (he's here to renew his visa). He's pretty witty at times, so let's call him NitWit. So we met him for lunch on Saturday afternoon at 100 Feet Boutique Restaurant, before moving on to ThePilot's house. ThePilot, while being a valid license holder, doesn't fly, and in keeping with Bangalore's traditions, works for an IT company that's into storage. Yeehah!

While Ms WeightConsious, who along with Saucy were to drop by, we started off with something to drink. NitWit stuck to his Heineken, while P had some wine, and I had a drink with ginger, lime and grenadine in it. I don't remember the menu of the past, but I must say that they have some very boring and insipid starters (maybe it's for this very reason that I haven't visited this place for more than 2 years now). Since P is veg, we asked for a plate of potato cheese kibbe and some crostini della casa, while NitWit's eyes fell upon the chicken tzatziki. And if you've noticed, whenever there's soup, P usually has one, and I usually split with him, and so a potato and leek soup it was.

Now, kibbe (or kibbeh) is a croquette from the Arab world, usually stuffed with rice and meat. Since ours was potato and cheese, it was expected that we'd be served with a dip that may be a little on the spicy side. However, tomato sauce is what we got, and although the kibbe was decent, I think it would have been a lot better with a little more heat. The crostinis were very good, and the toppings of olives, capers, onions, tomatoes, on some good bread covered in mozzarella made it quite good indeed. The chicken tzatziki was just yogurt marinated chicken, grilled and served along with a salad and the tzatziki, a yogurt dip having cucumbers, garlic, salt, pepper, and olive oil and at times, lemon juice as well. Our tzatziki was more yogurt and cucumber, almost no garlic and certainly no pepper, olive oil, lemon juice. The soup was quite simply brilliant compared to the rest.

Potato and leek soup

Potato and cheese kibbe

Crostini della casa

Chicken tzatziki

Just as we were finishing the starters, Ms WeightConcious and Saucy walk in, and they weren't in a mood for starters, and so we moved on to the main course. Pastas seemed to be the meal of the day, as there were three pasta dishes ordered. P had a farfalle boscaiola that came with a sauce called Woodcutter's sauce - made up of mushrooms. Ms WeightConcious, who wanted to only have penne with white sauce, eventually settled for a penne riviera, which had a few veggies and, well, the white sauce. I asked for a spaghetti bolognese. All three pasta dishes were quite good, and there wasn't too much talking while we ate - usually a good indicator that the food is good.

Farfalle boscaiola

Penne riviera

Spaghetti bolognese

NitWit ordered a chicken princess, a grilled piece of chicken with a mushroom sauce, while Saucy ordered a chicken mascarpone, a breast of chicken stuffed with mascarpone cheese.

Chicken princess...cluck, cluck, pakaaak!

Chicken mascarpone

I'm not sure if it's a sign that I'm getting old(er) or if it's the weather in Bangalore, but I seem to be getting full a lot faster these days. The only silver lining - I wasn't the only one at the table who felt full. We ordered a couple of apple & berry pies - more apple than berry I must add, but still pretty tasty along with the little scoop of ice cream - and started planning for the evening at ThePilot's house.

Apple & berry pie

I must say that the quality of the food at 100 Feet has certainly gone down a bit - food is probably one of those fickle things in life that tends to change with time, and not necessarily for the better. The menu and the dishes on it haven't changed much in a while, and to me, that's a sign of a 'chalta-hai' attitude. Don't get me wrong - it's still quite nice, but it doesn't seem to have anything new done to it (from a food point of view) and the prices aren't getting cheaper, so what does 100 Feet have to draw me towards it - like say a Thulp or an Egg Factory?

Food: Decent, but not inspiring anymore.
$$$: Slightly on the higher side. Maybe around Rs. 500-700 per person.
Service: Good
Verdict: Can visit if you haven't, or if you're in the area, but whether you'll come back again and again and would continue to do so is something only you can answer.

100 Feet Boutique Restaurant, 777/1, opp. New Horizon School, Near Satyapaul, 100 Feet Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore. Phone: 25277752

Under The Mango Tree

On Tuesday, Manuscrypts asked me to join him on a review of Under The Mango Tree. The review can be read here. Let me state straight away that since this was his first review, I guess he was a little, well, diplomatic, I guess when it came to his opinions, because I thought I used to be the lenient type, but even I found this place quite unsatisfying. Trust me, I tried hard to like, I mean I didn't even put on my reviewing hat - alright, enough already.

So Manuscrypts had invited three other people whom he'd known through the twitter world. Gautam (lawyer, entrepreneur, 'kurta'-type worker), Prmod (fashion designer, photographer), and Radha (accounts specialist @ Dell, photographer). And of course, the mercenary. Me. Although I wasn't featured...rules, you see. So we started off with soup - Manu with cream of mushroom, Gautam with French onion soup (vegetarian - not made from beef stock), and I had settled for the chilled melon soup with a hint of cinnamon.

Let's go backwards - there was ice in the chilled soup! I don't know but maybe it hadn't occurred to them that the melon is supposed to be refrigerated, and that's how it would be chilled. And hint of cinnamon? I guess some people would struggle to find the cinnamon, and so it seemed like they added several spoons extra, just to be sure it wouldn't be lost. What was lost, however, was the taste of the melon, which was already marred by the addition of ice to it. The cream of mushroom wasn't a good mushroom soup - it needed to be a puree of mushrooms, and not some stock mixed with sliced of mushroom and cream (which is what it was - unless the puree was so diluted it seemed like stock). The French onion soup lacked body, plain and simple.

Chilled melon soup with a hint of cinnamon

Cream of mushroom

For starters, we ordered the Goan sausages. Thankfully, there was an option between pork and chicken, and we asked for pork with glee. The masala used was an imitation of the Goan reshad masala, but thankfully again, it didn't kill the dish. Tasted quite good actually. I guess my overall dissatisfaction over the meal resulted in forgetting whether we had any other starters (notably the veg ones).

Goan sausages

For our main course, I settled for a pepperoni pizza, Manu ordered the king sized sausages, Gautam had the sea bass with fennel, cheese, and lemon oil, Prmod ordered a veg lasagna, and Radha settled for a veg pizza. When it arrived, it raised our hopes. As it got introduced to the palate, we wished we hadn't ordered it. It said sea bass. It was mackerel! I'm a Mangalorean, and I'll know the taste of Mackerel even in my sleep. I guess it's this deception, deliberate or accidental, that put me off. Gautam's response was even more acerbic. To quote him verbatin "I think this fish swam out of the sea, swam up a river, hiked across long distances and landed on my plate" or something like that. In short, it wasn't fresh. The mash potatoes though, although a bit grainy in texture, were quite good, and though I'm not a fan of mashed potatoes, I could have eaten it all.

Luckily, Manu's sausages were saving grace and were pretty decent. My pepperoni pizza and Radha's veg pizza were OK, and luckily being thin crust, weren't too hard to down. I think Prmod's veg lasagna was the best dish of the evening.

Pepperoni pizza

Sea bass with capers

Vegetarian pizza (mushrooms replaced with olives)

King size sausages with caramelised onion sauce

Veg lasagna

I guess since we were out reviewing the place, we were 'forced' to try desserts (I'd have left after the show thus far if I was out for casual dining). They were out of blueberry cheesecake (something the owner claimed was their specialty) and so we settled for a mango cheesecake, chocolate with caramelised bananas, and a chocolate mousse.

The mango cheesecake was more cake and mango essence than 'cheese' and/or cream (save for the top), and chocolate thingy with caramelised bananas, well, we didn't know we had to dig deep to reach the bananas, and the chocolate tasted quite awful on it's own, but combined with the banana, it was much better. The chocolate mousse seemed more like a thick sauce than a mousse, and I don't even care enough to think hard enough of it tasted.

Mango cheesecake

Chocolate with caramelised bananas

Food: Pfffbbbt. Not up to the mark...veg dishes may probably be saving grace.
$$$: Around Rs. 500-600 per head.
Service: Decent.
Verdict: Don't visit and have me say "I told you so!", coz I'd love to say it. Nice ambiance, and probably if you want to eat only sausages and veg food, then visit maadi.

Under The Mango Tree, #03, The Bat and Ball Inn, Laurel Lane, Richmond Town, Bangalore. Phone: 22111112/3/4

BM Review: Tango Calypso

Several weeks back, I'd visited the restaurant Tango Calypso, which is opposite the Life Style and Sapphires toy store on Richmond Road. The review can be read here. The restaurant, although having the word Calypso in it, baring touches Caribbean cuisine. It's more 'Euro American' is what they claim. Well, I put them to the test, and they came up short. You'll have to excuse the quality of the photos for this one - I was using my point & shoot and the lighting was a little dim, hence the blurry images.

The soups, polloa la garlic fungi (mushroom soup with chicken and garlic) and the American corn chowder were both nicely done. Creamy and smooth, they set the ball rolling in the right direction. However, the toppings on the bruschetta weren't good...in fact, they tasted quite bad, as though the tomato was spoilt. And the other thing is they weren't using cherry tomatoes, which I think is the right way to go about it. The Sicily garlic prawns were cooked well, but the garlic was a little string and we weren't able to discern the taste of the other spices (if any) mixed in. The last of our starters, the caribe chicken, seemed to have cajun spices rubbed on it. The chicken was nicely done and it would have been perfect had they not added the cajun spices in excess, thereby masking the taste of the chicken and presenting our palates only with the taste of the spices.

Pollo al garlic Fungi (mushroom soup with chicken and garlic)

American Corn Chowder

Bruschetta

Sicily garlic prawns

Caribe chicken

For our main course, we ended up ordering the following: I had a classic surf n' turf, which came beautifully presented, but I'll be a monkey's uncle if they expect me to cut a steak with a stainless steel table knife! The risotto Milanese and the pasta feta Siciliana were good according to my guests, while the pepper painted salmon fillet seemed a little too small for what was charged and the chicken balsamico was nice, but not memorable.

Surf 'n' Turf

Risotto Milanese

Fusilli feta Siciliana

Chicken Balsamico

Pepper painted Salmon

You can check out Ruth's blog to see a picture, sorry portrait, of Mona Lisa smoking a joint! Although at first glance you'll think this place is one of those absolutely formal dining type joints, the Mona Lisa with a joint just shattered whatever facade was propping up that idea.

Food: Nice, but certainly not worth the money charged. Presentation and ambience are good, but still, I can get similar kind of food (at the same prices or lesser) that tastes a lot better at a lot of other places.
$$$: Expensive. For 5 of us, including VAT and a 5% service charge, the bill came up to Rs 4444.
Service: Decent
Verdict: Unless someone else is paying, I don't think I'd be revisiting in a hurry.

Tango Calypso, #44, Richmond Road, opp. Sapphire's Toy Store, Bangalore. Phone: 25545555, 25554444.