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

Chamomile

It was Christmas day, and I had just moved into my new house, and what's more, along with VP, I'd visited the house of one of his colleague's who stays very close to where I live. So after some nice homemade wine at her place and some appams and stew, VP and I headed back to my place and started wondering where to go for dinner. P was down with viral fever, so it would have had to be at a place close to Indiranagar. Looking into the newspaper, we saw this new place called Chamomile and decided to head there for dinner.

Chamomile, named after the tea, is located on 100 Feet Road, and serves European cuisine. For Christmas, they has a special menu (apart from their regular menu), and since the items on it were 'special', well, so was the cost. But I guess they were banking on the fact that the merry season would have people in high enough spirits to splurge a little...at least, that's the principle we were dining out on :)

We started with a drink that we seem to have made our very own - a virgin Mary. Our principle of testing a barman's skill by the way he/she makes a virgin Mary can tell you whether he/she knows the business still holds good. This one was very good - not the best I've had, but very good nonetheless. And not surprisingly, there was soup that we had as well. P and VP settled for the special soups from the Christmas menu: braised red pepper soup with balsamic vinaigrette foam for P and a shrimp and crab bisque for VP, while I settled for one from the regular menu - a roasted sweet garlic and rosemary soup. Although the soups sounded grandiose, they actually fell flat a little. The red pepper soup didn't have any zing or heat in it, the bisque didn't quite give out the yummy flavours of the crab and the shrimp, while my soup was just way too course and grainy.

Virgin Mary

Braised red pepper soup with a balsamic vinaigrette foam

Roasted sweet garlic and rosemary soup

Shrimp and crab bisque

We decided to have one starter, and so went for the twice cooked mushroom. Not sure how many times it was cooked, but it tasted quite good, with the little smudge of cheese on top doing it a world of good.

Twice cooked mushrooms

VP and I were in two minds when it came to the main course: we wanted to have the turkey for sure (part of the special menu), but apart from that there was also a pork dish on the special menu that we wanted to try out, but weren't sure whether we'd be able to finish all the food coz VP was already full, and usually I end up eating what he leaves, and I didn't want to stuff myself like a pig that night, so we settled on a single main course dish for the two of us - the stuffed turkey roulade. P decided to skip the special from the Christmas menu and settled for mushroom stroganoff.

The turkey's stuffing was quite good, but the meat itself seemed to lack some basic seasoning. That, combined with the fact that we weren't given separate steak/serrated knives and had to use the usual stainless steel crap that's kept by your plate meant we struggled with the meat a bit. P ordered the stroganoff thinking it would be light, but with mushrooms and cheese making most of the stroganoff, it was anything but light. Taste wise, again, the cheese and the mushrooms seemed to have a taste that can best be described as one that you need to acquire, but being a sucker for mushrooms, I didn't seem to mind it too much.

Stuffed turkey roulade

Mushroom stroganoff

For desserts, again, two from the Christmas menu (apple pie and Christmas pudding), and one from the regular menu (strawberry cheesecake). I think desserts is their Achilles heel of sorts; while the apple pie was sinfully good, the 'pudding' (more like the rum cake we get) and the strawberry cheesecake were a big let down. The pudding was way too dry, while the cheesecake was just too hard and not creamy enough.

Strawberry cheesecake

Apple pie

Christmas pudding

Overall, a satisfying meal, but by no means a memorable one. The service was pretty decent, and so was the ambiance. And given that the seasonal menu was a 'special' (along with 'special' rates - read expensive), one would've thought that there'd be some extra effort put in to make all the dishes memorable. Since this was an outing where we essentially had stuff from the Christmas menu and not the regular menu, I'll leave out the 'ratings' that I give. Another visit perhaps.

BM Review: Phileas Hogg

On the same day that I visited Khazana (lunch), I visited this new restaurant opposite the Innovative multiples in Marathahalli called Phileas Hogg, a pun on Phileas Fogg, from Around the world in 80 days. The entire review can be read over here. A pictorial & detailed description can be found below.

For starters, we had the chicken satay, which although tasting nice, didn't come on skewers and certainly wasn't grilled. A significant part of the satay's flavour comes from grilling it over the hot embers, and a pan-fried substitute sometimes just doesn't cut it.

Chicken Satay + Peanut Sauce

The galouti kabab, the legendary dish, popularised by the Nawab of Lucknow, Asad-ud-Daulah. The aging Nawab was actually toothless, but loved to eat, and so his chef made these kababs so soft that even that toothless old man could mush them down his throat. True to the legend, our kababs were tender and just melted in the mouth.

Galouti Kabab + Mint Chutney

The minestrone soup wasn't all that bad, but there was something about it that just didn't give it that 'oomph' required for us to say that this one was yummy.

Minestrone Soup

Chicken + Gin Ball

The macher jol wasn't all that great - fish wasn't all that fresh, and it's not supposed to be tomato based (from what I've read and heard) but this one was, and I was later told by the owner that I should have ordered one of the north Indian Mughlai dishes which he claimed were one of the better ones.

Macher Jol

This dish below, the Khow Suey, is a Burmese dish, and was one of the better dishes we had that night. The noodles along with the meat and all the little condiments, wish a dash of lime made it a pleasant surprise.

Khow Suey

The chicken burgundy steak was pretty good - I guess the wine sauce in it made the difference.

Burgundy Steak

The seafood risotto wasn't very good - in fact, it was bad, although the owner has told me now that they've improved it since my feedback (which is good to know).

Seafood Risotto

The pizza pie was nice addition to the menu, although in terms of texture, it could have been a little better. I didn't like parts of the sides, because they tasted like, well, hardened dough - duh, that's what it is - I know, but it was flavourless, so maybe it should be made thinner, but then the pie may not hold...I don't know, I don't need to provide a solution, I just get to complain!.

Chicken & Bacon Pizza Pie

Probably a little less gelatin could have been used for the souffle. Taste wise, it was nice. The fried ice cream was ok, nothing special.

Strawberry Souffle

Fried Ice Cream

Food: Nice

$$$: Moderately expensive. What we ate came to around Rs. 2600 or so.

Service: Good

Verdict: Can visit if in the area if you're on the lookout for multi-cuisine food.

Phileas Hogg, 90/3, 4th Floor, above Purple Haze, Opp. Innovative Multiplex, Sarjapur Outer Ring Road, Marathahalli, Bangalore. Phone: 25223828, 42001297

BM Review: Medici

Last week I visited a new restaurant in Indiranagar to review it for Bangalore Mirror. It's called Medici. The moment I heard the name, I thought of my visit to C'est La Vie, where my guest Vrata had mentioned the history about why forks are placed face down on the table. So I knew there was a French and Italian connection here, and this guess was vindicated when I visited the restaurant. The full review can be read here.

Some of the snaps I took of the food are here.

Olive Oil + Balsamic Vinegar Jar

Beef Carpaccio

Roast Duck Salad

Wild Mushroom Soup

French Onion Soup

Chicken Parmigiana

Tortellini

Tournedo

Duo de Poisson

Bouillabaisse

Prawn Risotto

Tiramisu

Crepe Suzette

The crepe with the brandy on fire

Food: Very good
$$$: Around 500 - 700 per head without drinks
Service: Good
Verdict: Must visit
Extra info: The restaurant is located a little after the Hyundai showroom on 100 feet road. If you're coming from Koramangala, as soon as you come down the flyover, go past Barbeque Nation and then keep looking out on your left for Maharaja Furniture.

Medici, #1206, 2^nd Floor, Mannan Arcade, Above Maharaja Furniture, 100 Feet Road, Indiranagar, Bangalore. Phone: 42350674/75/76

BM Review: Veekes & Thomas

This past week I'd been to Veekes & Thomas to review for Bangalore Mirror. The review can be read here. This a totally new concept in Bangalore, where the philosophy is "We aspire to do to continental cuisine what the Chinese from Calcutta did to Chinese food decades ago - highly Indianised, very affordable and easily available". Great!

They also have a little cart diagonally opposite Maiya's in Jayanagar 4th Block, while the main kitchen is in J P Nagar. However, let me say at the beginning itself - don't dine in at the JP Nagar kitchen - not coz it's not nice, but getting seating may be an issue, so order in, that would be better. The JPN premises have a seating only for about 8 people or so, so unless you've got loads of time on your hand, order and ask for home delivery if you live close by, or go around shopping and come back to pick up your food.

Chicken Nuggets

Minced Meat Crostini

Grilled chicken open sandwich

Chicken salami open sandwich

Shepherd's Pie (chicken)

Chicken breast stuffed with mushroom and spinach

Risotto, with olives and chicken

Basil-Parsley pesto pasta

Cilantro chicken in white sauce pasta

Chocolate Mousse

Chocolate Brownie

Veekes & Thomas, #22, 5th Cross, 24th Main, JP Nagar 2nd Phase, Bangalore. Phone: 65329999, 9686178000