Birthday at Pepper Cafe

This post is more than a month overdue. It was the day I updated the description of the blog from "A 27 year old Bangalorean's ..." to "A 28 year old Bangalorean's ...". It was my birthday dinner at Pepper Cafe with a few of my closest friends. Special day, special people, special moment. Nothing much to write, most of the dishes were the same as what we had when I'd gone to review the place.

One fact worth mentioning is that Ms Quiche and Ms BakeAnything came with a gift - Ms BakeAnything had baked me a wonderful chocolate cake. I usually don't choke, but I did while writing this post :) Many thanks also to Rohan D'Souza (partner & chef at Pepper Cafe) for ensuring the food was top notch.

Chef's summer salad

Italian chicken bites with garlic scallion mayo

Fish rissoles

Crab, chilli and corn soup

Fried calamari with cocktail dip

Beetroot hummus

Grilled basa topped with Cajun spiced crab

Asparagus and artichoke fusili pasta

Chicken something with a pepper sauce

Lebanese lamb chops with tabouleh

Grilled tenderloin strips with vinegar salad and horseradish cream

5 spice marinated chicken breast with spicy Asian sauce

My budday cake

Assamese Food Fest @ Ants Cafe

There's going to be an Assamese food festival this Saturday, the 21^st of May. Since this is a 'limited seats event', I suppose calling and making reservations would be a good thing to do if you plan to go.

The Menu for the Assamese Food Festival

Welcome Drink: Kordoi (Star Fruit) Juice

Main Course:
Joha saulor bhaat (local aromatic rice)
Omitaar Khar – Raw Papaya cooked in Khar
Maati Mahor Dail – Split Black Gram Dal Curry
Xoru Aloo and Xak – Small Potatoes with Greens
Bengena Pura – Brinjal smoked and mashed
Aloo Pitika – Mashed Potato with mustard oil, onions and green chillies

Maas patotdia (baked fish in banana leaf)
Mangsor Jul – Light Mutton and Potato curry
Norosingha maasor jhul (fish in curry leaves)
Ow Tengar Dail – Lentils cooked with Elephant Apple

Accompaniments:
Kharoli – Fermented Mustard Paste
Khorisa – Grated Bamboo Shoots Fermented
Bhoot Jolokia – Hottest Chili in the World!
Narikol Bota – Chutney made from Coconut and Lentils
Desert
Koni Dhaanor Payox – Millet Kheer/Payasam

Click photo below to enlarge.

The little joys in Hyderabad - 2

So part 2 of the Hyderabad diaries is here.

Beyond Coffee: Beyond Coffee is a nice, cozy cafe in the Jubilee Hills are, just before the road to Hitech City. It has an open air seating area amidst grass and a tiled shaded area, usually where those who huff and puff sit, and an indoor section as well. All I'd heard about this place was the the New York cheesecake was simply divine, and so that's all I'd set my sights (and taste buds) on. And true to the reputation, the cheesecake came up a winner. Easily the best I've had my whole life (hands down, by miles).

Shadab: Shadab is an old hotel in the old city part of Hyderabad. Although most people say that the biryani at places like Paradise and Bawarchi are the main show piece in Hyderabad, the real stuff is to be had in the old city area. And so I braved the heat, and walked a total of 3.5 km in the blazing sun (after visiting Salar Jung museum and the Char Minar), and even though my feet (see photo below) did look like a piece of barbecued meat at the end, the biryani and the falooda at Shadab was worth the walk. Totally. I kid you not. And until then I didn't even like faloodas, but since Ms Quiche told me the faloodas here were a specialty, I stood up, did a jig to shuffle my stomach contents (by then filled with a full bowl of the special mutton biryani, meant for two people) and make room for the falooda, and downed the thing. I was good to walk another 10 km if needed (as it turned out I had to walk another 2.5 km before I got an auto as none of the autos in the area were willing to come to where I had to go to).

Heard of sun-dried tomatoes? How 'bout sun-burnt feet?

Some random shots of gelato:






















Once upon a time: This is one of the restaurants at the Green Park hotel where I was staying. Essentially they serve Indian food, with a smattering of Chinese as well. We had ordered some snacks from the bar menu - garlic grilled prawns, chicken wings and egg pakodas. The prawns were straight out of the freezer where they'd been chilling for a month or so - rubbery to the point where they could've been used to patch the puncture in your car tyre. The wings we magically transformed into drums of heaven (see photo), and yet the waiter insisted that these were indeed chicken wings. "Drums of heaven will be having more yellow colour, Sir". Somehow, adding a 'Sir' at the end seemed to add authority and authenticity to what he said. I wasn't in a mood to argue anymore; anyone who's eaten out more than once would've schooled him about the faux pas. The saving grace was the rogan josh, which was nice and tender. Thank goodness for that, for I'd imagined him bringing me lamb chops or something, trying to pass it off as rogan josh by telling me "chops will be having no gravy, Sir". Can't leave out the 'Sir'.

Garlic grilled prawns

Drums of heaven, which the waiter insisted were chicken wings

Egg pakodas

Rogan josh

Kibbeh: Kibbeh is an Arab dish, somewhat like a kabab, but comprising of broken wheat mixed with minced meat and fried. One of the many forms of kibbeh are croquettes. Kibbeh, here, happens to be a Lebanese lounge bar in Hyderabad. I visited Kibbeh on the night when RCB were playing the Rajasthan Royals in their own backyard (Warne's last home game) and immediately settled in with Anthony Bourdain's Kitchen Confidential and a mug of beer. And to keep my taste buds happy, I ordered a meat sambousek, a Lebanese dish from which we get the word (and the dish) samosa. Sambousek is essentially the same (shapes vary depending on the stuffing), and it came with a feta dip. The sambousek was nice, and although 4 (or 5? don't remember now) pieces were quite filling, I wasn't going to stop at just one dish.

Sambousek

So after the second beer, I decided to go for a very common (boring?) Turkish dish - the chicken shish taouk, which is essentially chicken grilled on skewer (shish = skewer, taouk = chicken). The chicken was soft and succulent, and was nicely flavoured with garlic and yogurt. This came with two dips - feta and hummus. Feta, ok, I can understand, but why hummus? Anyway, I didn't care. RCB were knocking the stuffings outta the Rajasthan team and I was enjoying some nice food.

Chicken shish taouk

Thai Express: On my last night in Hyderabad, I visited Thai Express, a lovely joint in the Banjara Hills area (Road Number 2 I think) that, needless to say, serves Thai food. Although I went here twice, I ended up eating the same things both times because these were recommended by a Ms Quiche, and when you're alone, there's only so much you can eat. And since I love a good Tom kha ga soup, that's what I started off with. The combination of coconut milk, galangal, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves and some spices can get me to just about do anything you like. What can I say, I'm a self confessed Tom kha-holic, this was as good a Tom kha as I've had before.


Next, I decided to have the Thai meat pancakes, delicates pancakes stuffed with mince meat. This came with a sweet-ish sauce filled with chilli flakes. The combination of the sweet and chilli along with the texture and the taste of the pancake is hard to describe, but rest assured it was quite terrific. Damn! Bangalore sure needs a good Thai joint, and fast! Too bad Shiok closed down, coz that was the only good Thai place in the city. Any future restaurateurs, if you're planning to open a restaurant, there's a huuuuuggeeee market for Thai food in Bangalore, so please go Thai. And my frustration was compounded while writing this because I realised the snap I'd taken wasn't the best, as the lighting inside (at night) isn't very camera-minus-flash friendly.

And finally, the last dish I had was another hot favourite at Thai Express - the soft shelled crab. Except, I didn't have it at the restaurant as it was late and I had to get back to the hotel I was staying at (no vehicle you see, was at the mercy of the local auto drivers). So I had it parceled and had it back at the hotel room. And it was yummy. Served with a multitude of sauces, ranging from the sour of soy to the heat from chilli, the sauces only enhance the taste of a wonderfully done dish.

Soft-shelled crab

The little joys in Hyderabad - 1

I'm in Hyderabad currently. Got here on the 30^th of April, and I'm here for two weeks. Sadly, this isn't a visit on holiday - I'm here on work, and so although Hyderabad would be a fabulous place to spend eating, my posts will be very limited as the only times I get to step out will be during the weekend, and that certainly won't be enough to sample even a fraction of what Hyderabad has to offer. Nonetheless, the few places that I did visit shall be dutifully written about, but not as a review, but more as a sort of 'FYI' post.

Ruci and Idoni: Ms Quiche and Ms BakeAnything took me to this place that was a super market that also had a cafe on the top floor (somewhere in Banjara Hills). So for breakfast you have the option of selecting various items from a check-list and eventually you're served up the same, and you can see whatever I'd selected.

Close-up of the Danish

While the ladies opted for a croissant, I opted for the Danish, and I was pretty damn glad I did. I mean, just look at the photo and that should say it all. Picture's worth a thousand words, right? :)

Ten Downing Street: TDS as it's popularly known as to the locals, this watering hole has seen many a party, and from what I'm told, it's a popular handout with the crowd from Google, Microsoft, Facebook, and the students at ISB. For Bangaloreans, to get an idea of TDS, all you need to do is step into Tavern at the Inn in The Museum Inn on Museum Road, and Tavern surely scores over TDS when it comes to the food, and the service (not my opinion alone, but my two friends who've been in Hyd now for a while and were formerly in Bangalore for quite a few years were of the same opinion). I guess for ambiance we'll need to flip a coin coz Tavern is quite a place during an EPL game, while TDS I'm told is quite the place to be during karaoke night.

Random food eaten here and there

Drums of heaven

Seekh kabab

Paya

Haleem with fried onions

Drums of heaven - OK, seekh kabab - nice, paya - crap, haleem - nice

Shots so random I won't even classify them :)

































ISB: Umm, yes, Indian School of Business. Saturday saw me visit the ISB campus with a couple of friends from school. Inside, we came across as a couple of stalls, one selling momos and the other selling juice blends of several kinds. While I wasn't able to take a picture of the drinks we had (watermelon and ginger), I did get snaps of the momos, and they were quite nice. Rs 20 for a plate of 5 (or was it 40? don't remember now), but well worth the money.

After snacking on the momos, we headed to the cafe where two of us had grilled chicken sandwiches, while another had a pasta. All the dishes there were priced at sub-hundred and many were sub-fifty, which made my eyes do back flips inside the sockets - I never get to see such prices in Bangalore (damn! should've taken a pic of the menu). Food was tasty, didn't cost anything I'm used to paying, and for those interested, apparently the chole batture is one of the hottest selling items there.

Another post will follow shortly (by the weekend) - cheesecakes, biryanis, and more! Stay tuned.

BM Review: Sofraah

A few weeks back, after visiting Tangra, I visited Sofraah, also part of the same hotel (Eden Park) that Tangra belonged to. Sofraah, or dastarkhan, is a floor spread of meals in Central Asia. We were a group of 5, and there weren't anyone from the elitist minority, so we could peacefully eat our meats.


Sofraah is tastefully decorated and thankfully there aren't any souvenirs from battle-scarred Afghanistan that may bring back memories of khuda gawah. We dove straight away into the food. The Peshawari tandoori murgh and the buranche kabab were the options in chicken that we had, while the galouti kabab carried the flag for lamb.Straight away I'll tell you that what was served as a galouti kabab was NOT a galouti kabab. Or maybe the galouti was hiding under the thick coating of batter that was protecting the tenderised lamb meat inside. It tasted OK, but was certainly not a galouti kabab. The tandoori murgh was decent, like any other tandoori chicken dish, but the buranche kabab was something - chicken marinated with beetroot, I kid you not! And it tasted good too. Tender chicken, with the natural sweetness of the beetroot and a few other delicate spices made this a winner for us.

Peshawari tandoori murgh

Buranche kabab

Another angle

Galouti kabab

The Amritsari machchi was nice and although made in a tandoor, it was still quite soft. And for someone like me who isn't a big fan of cooking fish in a tandoor, I must say that this was quite nice. Or we got lucky. The jalpari jhinga (large prawns cooked on bamboo skewers) was also quite a nice dish, and the prawns served were nice and big and thankfully Sofraah did not go cheap on the prawns.

Amritsari machch tikka

Jalpari jhinga

Jalpari jhinga again

On to the main course, and while having a mutton biryani has now become a formality (turned out to be a nice biryani), we also decided to have some of the breads with a chicken and a mutton dish. A very colourful chicken dish called Sofraah murgh masala, colourful because of the multitude of bell peppers used in it. The dish tasted quite good, and there were no complaints. The anchali gosht too was a well made dish, with the mutton being soft and tender, and the flavours coming out to the fore.

Gosht biryani

Sofraah murgh masala

Anchali gosht

Finally, for dessert, we ordered a qubani ka meetha (a Hyderabadi dish in a Mughlai restaurant? Strange indeed!), and although this dish was nice and sweet, and the apricots used were good and weren't spoiled, I have to say that a true compote-like texture was missing. Don't get me wrong though - if you've never had it before, you might even like it, for taste wise it was quite good, but texture wise, it came up a bit short.

Qubani ka meetha

Food: Nice
$$$: Moderately expensive. The above meal cost us around Rs 3700 for 5 people (including 4 mocktails).
Service: Decent
Verdict: Can visit if in South Bangalore.

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