Reviewing Restaurants - Rim Naam & Oye! Shaava

Hiya there! Am back after hibernation. Dunno why I haven't been writing... just haven't, that's all. I have been pretty preoccupied this month with moving into a new office, setting it up, planning our vacation(Yesss!!), learning french(Oui,Finalement!), gymming and organizing my day around these activities.

Since we moved to the centre of the city- doesnt get more central than 1/2 minute away from Brigade Rd and MG Rd, we seem to be eating out practically every other day. Which obviously translates into more reviews!

Rim Naam- the thai restaurant at the Oberoi. Like on every other review, it scores a clear 5 on location, ambience, food and service. You just can't make a mistake going there. I cant wait to go back. I loved the pad thai and the raw papaya salad (which is a personal favourite). A meal for two without drinks costs about Rs. 1500. Its perfect for that special date!

Oye! Shaava- On Church Street.
This place is practically in our backyard and we have already been there a few times. The Oye part of the name keeps reminding me of the really old MTV countdown show called Oye MTV! (Does anyone even remember that?)Shaava is the more upscale version of Oye! Amritsar which is kitcshy, with humorous loud posters all about the place. I came across another blog that had a review of the same restaurant and echoed my thoughts- Review of Oye! so I am going to be lazy and let you read it there!

Fettuccine with Pesto Sauce

I really like Pasta! As does my daughter, who asks for either a mac and cheese or Alfredo every other day. Pasta with pesto sauce or Puttanesca are my favourites. Ever since I started growing herbs, I make my pesto with homegrown basil. I made some yesterday and decided to post my version on Pasta with Pesto. Ananya loaded her plate with grated cheese and insisted I only post that picture, so try to look for the pasta beneath the cheese!

Fettuccine with Pesto

Dried pasta- any shape

Pesto sauce as required(recipe below)

1/2 cup chopped veggies- onion, peppers, broccoli, etc

sliced olives, grated cheese -to garnish

Cook pasta as directed. Heat 1 tbsp olive oil in a pan, add onions, peppers and saute for a couple of minutes. Add pesto sauce and cooked pasta. Mix well and garnish.

For Pesto Sauce

2 tbsp pine nuts (chilgoza), if not available, use walnuts

5-7 cloves of garlic

1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper

1 small bunch Italian basil

2 tbsp of olive oil

1 tbsp grated cheese - I usually use either cheddar or Parmesan, which are easily available

salt to taste

Grind all above ingredients coarsely in a food processor or mixie, if its difficult to grind, add a tbsp of milk to thin it down. This freezes well for 4-5 days,if doing so omit milk and cheese.

Restaurant Review - Yo China! - Brigade Road

I had both seen quite a few carts with a Yo China! logo in Delhi doing brisk business and read a couple of articles about the Chinese fast food chain in India which claimed- Chinese food at Chinese Prices.

So we were quite open to having lunch at their Brigade Road outlet last week. Really bad decision! The restaurant smelled stale as we entered and we had to wait a long time to order our stuff at the self service counter. We ordered combo meals - Red Thai Curry with Rice and Chowmein with Vegs in hot garlic sauce. The combo meals came with an order of khimchee, spring rolls and a fizzy drink or mineral water. Unfortunately they didnt have bottled water.


The people who run the chain probably forgot to add Chinese food at Chinese Prices with Indian Timing! We waited almost 20 mins for our order which was announced through an intercom just like they had in the nationalised banks long ago - Token No Two Two twenty two- in English, Kannada and Hindi!!

We were quite famished by the time we picked up our food and unfortunately for us the food really sucked! The spring rolls were a few days old refried a few times, the khimchee - god knows what it really was, the noodles totally tasteless and both curries were laden with gluten and soggy vegetables and not one dish had any taste. We couldn't eat more that a couple of spoons and dumped the lunch.

So Yo China! gets two thumbs down from us and we will definitely not be visiting any of their outlets again. Food was bad, service was poor, the decor was very average with the terribly annoying OOH media screen running loud. I visited their website to send comments- that particular page gave an error message. How convenient!

Restaurant Review- Fiorano

On an impulse, we decided to travel all the way from our neck of the woods to Koramangala for Sunday dinner at Fiorano. Fiorano is situated on 100 Ft Rd Koramangala right next to Sukh Sagar and has valet parking which is a boon in most areas of Bangalore!


Their decor is very tasteful with textured walls in whites and black furniture. Its really nice to find interiors done where there is no deliberate attempt to display art/decorative pieces which announce an expensive interior decoration!

Warm, attentive service, muted music, classy decor and great food-makes Fiorano one of our favourite Italian restaurants. Your experience starts with a "make your own bruschetta"- a platter of warm bread with peeled garlic, basil leaves and cherry tomatoes. For the uninitiated, the staff are all too willing to show you how to rub the garlic, basil and the tomatoes on the slice of bread with a dash of olive oil. Ananya loved it and was happy experimenting by herself.

They have a good selection of wines and non alcoholic mocktails, juices, etc. Since we weren't keen on alcohol, we tried a Virgin Mary - which was good and a Mint & Lime drink- which was way too sweet and felt just like chilled soda with tons of sugar!. For starters, we ordered the fried mozzarella balls, which was quite good, though I felt a dip would have made perfect.

Whats interesting about Fiorano is that they have their own Cheese factory on the first floor over their restaurant and we had an opportunity to meet the Formaggiao- Mukund during one of our visits. They make and sell their cheese like mozzarella, mascarpone(no wonder their tiramisu is yummmmy!), cream cheese, bocconcini to other restaurants in Bangalore. They have a counter inside the restaurant that sells both their cheese and desserts.

Ananya was all excited about ordering her favourite Spaghetti in Alfredo sauce, N wanted Penne with a robust Primavera Sauce and I had the Spaghetti in a spicy cherry tomato sauce with ricotta. Not surprisingly, there was utter silence at our table as we focussed on our respective pastas and practically licked the plates clean. Given that in our small family of three, two of us are pretty communicative the silence says a lot!!

N just had to order the Tiramisu which was just perfect and I had a pannacotta with a berry sauce- was fine but I probably would pass on it another time. All in all, a lovely time was had by all and we drove home sated and happy. Amen!

Aval Upma- Beaten rice flakes

Aval Upma is typically made either for breakfast or a tea time snack. Beaten rice flakes of two kinds are sold in most grocery stores, for the two dishes below, I recommend the smaller one.

Aval Upma

1/2 cup aval
1/2 onion finely chopped
3-4 tbsp boiled green peas or 1/4 cup finely chopped potatoes
1-2 green chillies, finely chopped
1/2" ginger finely chopped, optional
a pinch of asafoetida
1/4 tsp mustard seeds
1/4 tsp chana dal
1 tbsp roasted peanuts with skin removed
Curry leaves, finely chopped coriander & grated coconut for garnish
1 pinch turmeric, salt to taste, oil as required


Wash the rice flakes well in water and strain them. Keep aside for 5-10 mins. Heat 1 tbsp oil and add a pinch of asafoetida, mustard, chana dal, chillies, ginger, curry leaves and onion. (If using potatoes, add now) Fry for a couple of minutes on medium flame, add turmeric and the soaked rice flakes. Mix well add salt add boiled peas (if using) and peanuts. Garnish with chopped coriander and either squeezed lemon juice or grated coconut.



Sweet Aval


This used to be a favourite after school snack. Its very healthy too!!


1/2 cup beaten flakes
1-2 cups milk flavoured with ground cardamom powder
grated jaggery as per taste
3 tbsp grated coconut


As before, wash and drain the rice flakes. Soak it in milk according to consistency required. Add jaggery and grated coconut. Based on taste, this can be a thin or thick pudding. Its absolutely yummy, take my word for it.

Eulogy for a dearly loved grandfather

Exactly a month ago, on the 7th of December, my maternal grandfather passed away. Quietly, without much of a fuss or bother... just the way he would have wanted. Thatha was 80 and just a few months before, we had celebrated his 80th birthday quite grandly. He then spent a bit of time with family in the US and probably visited everyone he ever knew there. His last couple of months at Chennai too were spent much the same way, visiting people and showering them with his trademark"God Bless You's!" It was almost as if he knew that his time was limited.

So, from a quite logical viewpoint, there is nothing very shocking or upsetting about the death of an 80 year old who has lived a long and mostly contented life with parents, siblings, wife, children, grandchildren and even great grandchildren. Logically, I understand the circle of life and death. Emotionally, I find it difficult to believe that each time I visit the flat my grandparents lived in for the last 10 years and where I lived for 3 years, thatha won't be around to open the door. I find it hard to see my usually tough-as-a-cookie grandmother, suddenly looking fragile and older than her 75 years, living alone in their flat. I think what I find most difficult to accept is the finality that death brings.

When my paternal grandpa passed on 20 years ago, I was a child and only vaguely understood what was happening. Since then, I have not been so closely associated to someone who died...till now. Memories of life with my thatha flash through my mind daily- of him swinging me on his feet when I was four, the number of Parker pens he gifted me through school, Sunday morning brunch at Drive-in Woodlands during summer vacation in Madras, our shared humor at being academic black sheep in our families, a sudden surge in life for both grandparents when I moved into their place for a few years, his concern about my fare arguments with the Chennai auto drivers outside his apt gate (never mind that I found out later that he was actually tipping the same guys I bargained with!!), his happiness at my cousin's marriage and mine that followed soon, seeing his two great grandchildren and most recently his excitement (that he sometimes tried to hide, unsuccessfully) at his Shadabhishekam conducted by his daughters and grandchildren.

I would like to think that my living with thatha and paati for 3 years gave them both a sense of renewed purpose and happiness. I definitely enjoyed living with them, doing up their house in small measures with my grandmom and treating them both to an occasional dinner especially at the Saravana Bhavan weigh and eat buffet where they both constantly compared who ate more!!

While I miss my thatha and wish he was still alive, like my daughter I would like to believe God called him away as He was bored and wanted company. He is probably up somewhere, feasting on "vigtables" and sending a load of "God Bless You's" down our way.

A Relaxed Morning

So Diwali is over. Except for the sweets and food that have found comfortable places in me and are going to take a lot of dedicated hours in the gym to get rid off. We still have a few more crackers to burst this evening. I think I was around 4 when a sparkler fell on my foot. And ever since, I have not been excited about fireworks. Till about a few years back when N insisted I light a flowerpot. Now, every year thats exactly what I do- light the flower pots and the ground wheel (chakra).

We had a yummy breakfast, courtesy Mom-in-law and Seema, of Pongal and Tomato Chutney. Pongal used to be a Sunday staple back in my parents' home.

Pongal

1 cup uncooked rice
3/4 cup moong dal
1 small piece of asafoetida or a pinch of its powder
7-8 curry leaves
2 green chillies
1 tsp cumin
8 peppercorns
1.5" finely chopped ginger
Salt, Ghee, oil

Pressure cook the rice and dal with 5 cups of water with salt, asafoetida and peppercorns till soft. Heat a mixture of 2 tbsp gingelly oil and ghee or just ghee. Fry the other ingredients in it for a minute, add the cooked rice and mix well. Add a little more ghee so the rice begins to leave the sides of the pan. Garnish with cashews fried in ghee.

Tomato Chutney

4 ripe red tomatoes chopped

1 big onion chopped

1" ginger chopped fine

1 green chilly chopped

2 tsp tamarind paste

1 tsp sambhar powder

1/2 tsp mustard

1 pinch asafoetida/hing

Turmeric powder, salt to taste, oil

1 sprig curry leaves, 1 tsp coriander chopped fine

Heat 2 tbsp gingelly oil in a pan. Add hing, mustard seeds, curry leaves, ginger, chilly and stir for a minute. Add the chopped onion and fry for a couple of minutes. Mix in the tomatoes, sambhar powder and a pinch of turmeric powder. Meanwhile, dilute the tamarind paste in 1/2 cup water. Add to the tomatoes after 4-5 minutes. Mix well, add salt and let cook till the veggies are all cooked and the chutney reaches desired consistency. Garnish with chopped coriander.

Happy Deepavali

Happy Deepavali to one and all

Kerala temple murals

We finally bought a few paintings that are in the Kerala temple art style. N has been very keen to find at least one of them for a while. Our search started in May when we visited a restaurant called Spice Route Courtyard housed in the really Imperial Hotel in New Delhi. We loved it- both for the amazing South East Asian cuisine and the interiors that had artwork we fell in love with but couldn't identify.

We saw another beautiful piece at Ambara in Bangalore and found out more about it. The third time was when I visited Dakshina Chitra a couple of months ago and found 7-8 pieces of this artwork. We picked a couple of pieces and are still in love with them. So we thought our wait was finally over and we started planning where in our apartment we should give them pride of place, not realising it would take a whole 4 weeks to get the canvas framed.

So now, we have the framed canvasses... but are now waiting for the VIP called "The Carpenter" to show up someday.

The illusion called Bangalore- 1

I am usually a cheerful person, but the 1 hr 45 min ride from home to work to travel a distance of about 25 kms in bumper to bumper traffic was enough to make the cheeriest soul grumpy!

Bangalore is an extremely difficult place to live and work. It is only the the weather, which is pleasant through most of the year that makes it compelling to overlook the awful roads, the construction rubble everywhere, drivers on the road who have no road sense whatsoever, poor work ethic and the rampant corruption.

It appears as if growth in the city has slowed down visibly in the last 18 months. Except of course, the government PR machinery and the wonderful Times of India that probably have their head deep inside sand and are yet to acknowledge the stagnation of a city with a lot of potential.

Its probably a standing joke to check what futuristic building/ flyover/underpass/road/etc.... the Times prints on page 2 and 3 daily which is along the lines of the regular tease on page 3 of most tabloids. Yesterday it was the picture of an underpass on a road that first needs to be relaid, and one I have to pass through to get to Bangalore. That the underpass work is expected to be completed in 2-3 days is most ironic.

This much touted "Silicon Valley" of India has a good percentage of non Kannadigas who have made the city their home. But it is a little odd that all government documents and bus signs are only published in Kannada. I am sure the bureaucracy has its own reasons for doing so but what I would like to know is why then go on and on about Bangalore being the Silicon Valley? I doubt a visitor from the real Silicon Valley would be able to use the public transport here. And what about when a non Kannadiga on the roads needs to use the bus to go somewhere?How is he/she supposed to get to his/her destination? I also have no idea if any of the official documents we have signed state what they are supposed to state or are actually something totally random. And while we are on this subject, why should the recently concluded Bangalore IT.in have been conducted in English? Why not compel all CEO's to speak in Kannada while in Karnataka?

So why do we continue to live in this city if its such an unpleasant place to stay in? One reason is the undying hope and optimism that people have about things improving. Another reason is that Bangalore is a really cosmopolitan city because people from all over the country and from many parts of the world have settled here, mostly seduced by the wonderful weather.

More on this another time...