Eating out

I am currently a domestic goddess without a kitchen: at home the very capable Anjali has command of the galley and of late, I am with Robin in Bombay so much that I hardly ever get to cook.

Lots of eating out, though!

We started by a trip to Mondys, which looks unchanged (except for the prices and the missing fresh fruit at the juice bar).  A tepid Carlsberg later, we headed to Moshe s for dessert. And Moshe s disappointed. One very overly microwaved, sugary sweet brownie and an indifferent banoffee pie and we were glum as glum can be!

The next day, the Deli sandwiches saved us. The philly cheese steak and the classic BLT?As did brunch at the Deli with Aneesha. Some divine eggs with potatoes and spinach andgood strong coffee. 

We also tried The Table for their famous roast chicken that has been soaked in brine overnight. I didn't get around to their famous salted caramel and popcorn icecream yet!

Starbucks has arrived, and how. Much friendlier and prettier than those I have visited abroad.
Free wifi another coffee  aromas..... Ummmm!! The food is good ( cherry Danish, scrumptious but not cloyingly sweet) and the place is open till 130am. Their vanilla latte is heavenly. 

We shared one fun meal at the Inox food court. Styled like the ones in Singapore, this food court has some interesting food. I loved the jelly - bubble drinks! We shared some excellent Kababs  and paneer before the Iron Man 3 show.

Inside the cinema, it was fast food heaven: baked potatoes, London Dairy and more food. 

Also managd one delicious dhanshak meal at Rustoms home. With all the add-ons, that was a good Parsi dinner!

Dinner at Royal China never disappoints! The pork charseu rolls are always divine and meltingly so.  The dimsum platter was fragrant and delicious. We followed thatwith a tenderloin pan fried noodles. And we were replete.

As you can tell, my inner Domestic Goddess is hiding behind the menu!
Time to get back to my beloved Bikram  yoga and melt away all these meals!!!

Gourmet in Goa

After several years, Robin and I had the opportunity to spend several weeks in Goa on work. We re super lucky that our job allows us to travel and explore so much en route! The ad fraternity has always been shamelessly gourmandise!

Going down memory lane, I first met up with the best pork man in town, the legendary Brendan Barr,famous for his british bangers (sausage) in Goa. He has also been featured in various lifestyle and food magazines but remains an old dear friend who occasionally acts for me in tv commercials. Brendan s ham and chicken liver pâté are worth dying for. His sausages you can eat at the English breakfasts available at cafe Nicks in Arpora and the Skylark shack in Baga. He lamented the lack of good stock and how after decades in Goa, he still has visa headaches. His sons are also in Goa , one a DJ and the other in the family meat business. He promised to find me sausages to carry home.yummy!

We made one trip to Panjims famous Cafe Ritz. Mile- long queues, waiting like in a crowded local (which is exactly what it was), and we finally managed a table. Masala fried mussels, slices of surmai, the fish thali and their velvety caramel custard. But I wouldn't go back there unless I had too. It was a stressful, harried lunch with people standing at your table to grab your seat.


One disastrous lunch and Brittos has bitten the dust. Apparently with very good reason,as the old codger Cajetan Britto is no longer running the place. It now caters to Indian tourists with more and more tables,hindi music and terrible food that is neither fresh nor reasonably priced. I spent Rs 600/- on a prawn curry and rice only! Ad the prawns were rock hard and old. I d rather spend my money in Thalassa or Sublime!!

Lila cafe at the Baga Riverside is still great for coffee and breakfast. And their knackerbrot is always good to carry home!

More on Goa soon!

Jamie's Wisdom

There is something to be said for The Naked Chef. He has deconstructed recipes and made them so simple to follow that Alekhya routinely rustles up something from his books. While I'm a particular fan of 'Jamie's Dinners', the Naked Chef has lots to relish, as we did this weekend.

I finally gave in to Lola's good advice and decided to try a packet of the frozen Bhasa fish fillets that we find on Dorabjee's. After having thawed them, Maa ( who was over and seems to be happy to make us dinner regularly) and I decided we'd pan fry them in olive oil and butter. They came out perfectly, just as Jamie said they would: golden brown and smelling divine. The Lemon Butter was infused with parsley and herbs and lemon and capers. Generously poured over the fish and accompanied with spring onion mash potatoes, we feasted and dreamed of sunny days by the sea side, transported to Goa which seemed a good choice on a hopelessly wet Saturday night.

Try it. Its simple. And effective. The fish was perfect, firm and fresh. The lemon butter was fragrant and delicious. We had to swirl it around in the pan after frying the fish, and mopped up the fish juices> We swirled till it turned caramel and added the herbs last ( so they wouldnt burn).


Try it. The rains will seem very far away.

In love with Thai food!

15th May 2011:
Finally we leave on a long-planned and eagerly awaited holiday! Thai food was one of the reasons we chose Thailand over Malayasiaor a return trip to Singapore. And Thailand never disappointed even once!


Post a terrible flight with awful food ( KingFisher cattle class), Swarnabhumi Airport was heaven! Managed to grab a really good Phad Thai and Green Curry on Level 2, en route to Koh Samui. Swasdheeha to Thailand indeed!! :)

Our two weeks in Samui were pure bliss :) While the hotel breakfast was boringly predictable but nice ( we did get some amazing fresh fruit every day), we explored the island on our little honda scooter when we were't devouring muffins and pretzels on dive trips with Dive-Wishes & More (www.dive-wishes.com). Tom Ottlik was the perfect German host, ensuring a taste of authentic carrot muffins and salty pretzels, a very delightful snack post some very hunger-inducing dives! He also made sure the divers and snorkellers ate good thai food on various little islands.

Around Samui, we discovered the "Duck Shop", run by a local chef. It's offerings were small but delicious: duck noodle soup, duck roast, duck platter, pork noodle soup.  Nothing quite like roast duck, brown and caramelly, freshly prepared to your liking. The small joint was popular and very cheap, and we ate many satisfying lunches there! The Duck Shop is on Mae Nam Beach, on the main road.

The La Salsa restaurant is run by a Belgian with a dog. The place is slow and quiet but wholly in harmony with Samui: peaceful, laid back and idyllic with it's view over the paddy fields and hills. We relished Thai Green Curry, Pork and rice soup, barbeque prawns, roast pork..... we went back a few times and were more than happy with the food there. La Salsa is also at Mae Nam.

One rainy, thundery night, Robin and I managed to find shelter in a packed local joint that claimed to have the best Hot Pot in town. I'm not sure if it was Steam Boat or Hot Pot but since it was crowded with locals we decided to try it out. Despite the rain-induced muck and the flies buzzing around at 11pm, we valiantly filled our little plastic baskets with veggies, herbs, noodles and assorted meats. The locals smiled and looked at us amused! The lovely lady who owned the joint and knew some english came and helped us get started. Soon we had our iron steam boat and kettle of hot water bubbling merrily on our table. Robin was in charge of the meat and I played with the herbs and noodles. The fragrant steam was heavenly and provided warmth in the cold rainy night. We tried beef, pork and fish. Interesting, but I think Steam boat is best enjoyed with a large party, not when you re wet, cold and starving!

A Taste Of Calcutta

I have a really super job. Really! I get to meet people and work on deifferent challenges every day. Of late, the work has been so very challenging, I haven't had any time to blog. But it's all been simmering there in the back of my head. Sometimes, I get really lucky and have super sweet Producers like Vikram Kalra who sends me to Goa with a wave of his magic wand, and I get to eat at some of the hippest, most happening food places in the country. But that deserves a whole new blog post.

I finally winged my way to Calcutta, courtesy Nirvana Films. Two whole weeks spent casting the Indian Railways TVC ( the chhukchhuk gadi winding it's way through the streets) in a city I have always wanted to visit, and even been nostalgic about after a very intense year working for some super intense Bong film directors, was Niravana indeed!

I didnt manage to eat all I wanted, or when or where. And contrary to expectation, the streets were not awash with ilish machch! But I did manage a few of the things on my wish list, helpfully composed by many friends and bong-o-philes.

I made the pilgrimage to Flury's. And went back there as often as I could. I could very easily imagine spending a day there, watching the world go by on busy Park Street, while I penned notes for my magnum opus. While Flury's is ever so charming and quaint, (though not quite as spectacular in taste as Kookie Jar : to die for), I fell in love with it's quiet pace, unhurried service, art deco interior, history and tradition. I still can't get over waiting in a queue at 10am for breakfast and seeing the place packed with Bengalis of all ages tucking into iced cafe Sprungli and other Flury's confections at that hour!

I loved my simple, unassuming Pain au chocolat and strong Cappuccino. The Swiss pastry tradition is strong and excellent here. I loved my simple Cheese Sandwich. I felt I was in an Enid Blyton tea room, so perfect and melting were the two soft slices of white bread with lashing of butter and cheese. Coffee pots, white china, scones, tiered pastry trays, tea pots and tall windows with long curtains.... I stepped back in Time every time I went there.

I eagerly picked out little packets of goodies, as gifts and as sustenance through long working hours. Doll sized sachets of Orange Marzipan, little coconut sable cookies, petit fours, chocolate nibbles, medalllions reminiscent of La Patisserie's Florentines, truffles, more cookies, and some rather good chocolates.

I missed my family, and hope to spend an afternoon sipping tea at Flury's with them someday.

I have tried and racked my brians, but the closest we have to Flury's is Theobroma. Will someone please open a good, old - fashioned tea room??

Nostalgia and Food for thought

Today is one of those days: there's a promise of Rain outside the window. The Wind blows and seems to be in a hurry to blot out the persistent Sun that streaks through the gathering clouds, shining on laundry I have bravely left out to dry. I fix one beady eye at the Heavens, and am ready to dash out and rescue the linens when the deluge beigns in it's slow, sneaky pitter-patter. For now, Moaning Myrtle moans and wails through the windows.

I like.

I love.

Rain and me go together.

Guess it comes from years and years in Lonavla where it  poured incessantly from June to Spetember. The rains were not a fine drizzle, more of a roar, really. We just learned to live with the wet: wet clothes, rubber chappals, wet dogs, coals fires, no electricity, mist, cold and waterfalls. We would walk in the rain, sloshing through puddles, cycling through ponds, marvelling at the green carpets and pretty wildflowers that would spring up and dot the countryside.

We would venture into Monsoon Lake to fish, or spend hours playing indoor Table Tennis at the Fariyas Hotel or the old Vrindavan clubhouse. Or we would play videogames. Before PSP and XBox, we had Atari. We would get finger cramps from playing the brilliant Maze Craze. And there was always Badminton at the Railway Institute.

Monsoon Lake was a reservoir of the Tata Electric Co. It would be so depleted and dry in May that there would be melas and cricket matches on the dry lake bed. Come the Rain, and it would steadily fill up and even overflow occasionally.
Every day we would walk to the Lake. In later years, this became the local Promenade. But mostly, we were alone. We would picnic everyday or just walk the Dam in the mist. I would often stand on the broad wall, peering down into the murky depths of the lake, and romanticize about  Johanna Lindsey heroines.  I would instantly be there, standing on the edge of an imagined Scottish loch, the wind whipping my tresses and howling in my ears as I serched the depths for my future: so green and lush was my little world. 
We would avoid the Bushir Dam area on weekends when we locals went into lockdown. Every Friday-Saturday-Sunday, Lonavla and Khandala would be invaded by thousands of crazy Bombayites and other tourists in their ganjis and chaddis. They would sit with their bottles of booze or hot bhuttas on the steps of the overflowing dam. Eve teasers were regularly beaten up, cops crawled the area, people slid down rocky waterfalls. We would stock up with bread and eggs and milk and not venture out till Monday. Almost all the time, we had to endure weekend visitors, the farthest of acquaintances, the most distant, vague connections. People would drop in to say hello. Hello? We didn't even know many of them!

As I grew up, the Rains were not so much about trudging to the Convent school through puddles, in our raincoats, but about holidays. When we shifted school to DC in Khandala, the rains would disrupt life  badly. School was perched on the edge of the ghat, by the highway. Massive traffic jams that stretched for miles due to some mishap on the ghats would leave us stranded on the very edge. No vehicles could get through. We usually walked the 5km home to Lonavla. Those were fun mornings. If the local bus that ferried most of the teachers from Lonavla was stuck in  a jam, we had the mornings off!

The Rains aren't so romantic anymore. Now it's about floods in Bombay and the Expressway has meant that a whole generation of DC School kids wont have absent teachers on a rainy day.

Here's a recipe for Mummy's Southern Fried Chicken, the very same that saw us through many wet picnics by the Lake and drives up to Ambavane ( now more fashionably known as Aamby Valley) Best had with lashings of ketchup and pau smothered in butter. Best accompanied by garam coffee or chilled ThumsUp. Bhutta to accompany, freshly roasted in the rai. Beer always works with this one!

Mom's Southern Fried Chicken

Wash big pieces of chicken well, pat absolutely dry. Make sure you buy the most tender, soft chicken you can.

Make big incisions with a knife and rub salt into the meat. Poach in boiling water until nearly done. Do not over boil or it will become rubbery! When fully cooled, apply ginger-garlic paste, pepper and some salt, all over the meat. Marinate thus for several hours. 

In a deep kadhai, heat the oil.

Gently beat an egg with 1 tbsp water. Roll chicken pieces in it, shake off excess. Roll in breadcrumbs till well-coated.

Deep fry in really hot oil, one big piece at a time. Test doneness with  a fork ( juices should run clear).

Tiffin

Time lag! I thought this went up yesterday but it didnt, so here goes!

School reopens tomorrow. The next five years will be all about 0530 AM wake up calls. It means having a good, healthy breakfast ready for the Munchkin at that unearthly hour. And packing her Brunch and her Lunch to go.

I'm already exhausted and school hasn't even begun yet!

I have dutifully sat and made a list of the most do-able and healthy items I can think of. In the end, I know it will boil down to regular doses of palak Parathas and dahi. And when panic hits, there's the convenient school lunch.

I am very sceptical about the school caterer. I am terrified Alekhya's evolved palate will be forced to endure indifferent and greasy portions of rajma and chhole ( school staples), gobi Manchurian floating in cornflour and insipid dal-roti. I shall venture in the Lunch Hall determinedly this year and taste everything.

Her previous school has very simple, freshly made, wholesome, vegetarian lunch. Made by the resident Malyali Protestants, the menu was posted on the wall for the month. It never varied but was different each day and had plenty of specials for the kids, including Chinese and pizzas, apart from a wholesome veg thaali. There was dahi and bananas and hand-cranked Ice cream if you finished everything on your plate. A wonderful gentleman would hover over the children and make sure no one cheated or starved. The girls learned to line up and be served, to eat and clear up behind them, and they would leave their plates at the sink. Ah! the benefits of convent schools!

Which brings me to Jamie Oliver and his quest to change how kids in Britain eat. What are we doing about how our kids eat in school here? I cringe when I hear of parents packing, I kid you not,            " chicken 65 " and "palak paneer" for school lunch. This is the other extreme of the sandwich lunch. And then we send the kids to the gym! More and more international schools just hire the services of an industrial caterer. How good are these large industrial caterers anyway?Adults can make a choice about what they eat and how much. Kids end up having no choice with what they re served. The option is to pick at it or starve.

I remember when my brother was studying in Campion School, Mumbai. The mothers had a committee and each did rotation kitchen duty to make and serve fresh hot food. A lot of schools still do so, ever since security risks have spelled the demise of the dabbawalla. These are schools that have an active PTA. Which I find absent here in Pune.

I am determined to serve Alekhya a healthy lunch. As long as its home-made.

Tomorrow's menu is fruit and dahi for brunch ( Thank God for Danone), salad and chicken wraps for lunch.

If all else fails, there 's always palak parathas ( grate some cheese and add some pepper for extra zing).