Vietnamese Food Festival at Pondicherry Café at Sofitel

Friend said that I must try some good cuisine at various restaurants at Sofitel. 
“There are some good restaurants tucked away at different level of the hotel and all are worth trying.” She added. She spoke about the kitty party she had with her friends at Jyran on the fourth floor. She had loved the North Indian cuisine at Jyran. She had also dined with her family at Tuskers that serves Gujju and Marwari cuisine, although she does not like the rich taste of Marwari food, she said that her family loved it. At Pondicherry café she said that she had the best meal because there is multi-cuisine buffet at all hours of the day, with Indian cuisine clubbed with International fare and she was specially happy because she had some beautiful moments on Valentine day at Pondicherry cafe with her spouse. I asked her if she would re-visit those restaurants and she replied in affirmative. Being a true foodie, she is a frequent diner and often eats out with her family and friends.

A true foodie will normally go to a restaurant either on invitation, or through recommendation or simply walk into a restaurant and take chances expecting some good food. I had made a mental note of visiting this hotel some time soon whenever I would be in that area of Bandra-Kurla Complex

The opportunity to visit this hotel came in the form of invitation. I was invited by Pooja Vaswani for the Vietnamese food festival at Pondicherry café, which is on till the first week of June. I found myself walking into Sofitel with a friend to a warm welcome of “Namastey’ and smiling faces of everybody at the entrance. Large chandeliers resembling the frilly skirts of French dancers stood prominently from the high ceiling of the lobby. (These Chandeliers are inspired by the beaded dresses of Parisian dancers of Charlestown.) The décor of the Sofitel is in the blending tones of French and Indian culture as it is visible everywhere, In the culture, in the cuisine, in the architecture, in the design of the hotel and restaurants, for example: Tuskar: elephant motifs everywhere, on the furniture, walls, on door knobs and a big carved wrought iron elephant(with a beautiful story behind it) in the open space at 4^th floor, Artisan at the ground level had an interesting concept. Early morning its a coffee shop with tea and coffee, afternoon one can walk in for cakes, salads and sandwiches and late evening, there is live music and jazz. A small store tucked away in the corner sells some beautiful handicraft items.

Chef Dao Van Son, Head Chef at Hotel Sofitel Saigon Plaza, Ho Chi Minh has specially come to conduct this festival. I was happy for the invite to Vietnamese food festival mainly because I was hoping to revive the taste of Vietnamese food that I had during my last visit to Loas. 

“It has been able to maintain the five elements of life in its cooking; wood, fire, earth, metal and water through the usage of its various spices and ingredients. Hence the taste of the food has to stand out with minimal spices. Vietnamese cuisine is influenced by Thai, Burma, India, French, Chinese, Malaysian and all the other migrant travellers who brought in their spices.”

 Confirmed the Chef who gave the brief account of the Vietnamese cuisine and what to expect.

I had really enjoyed the local cuisine of Loas and during my three days stay in the city some years ago; street food had been my prime focus amongst other things.

The first thing I looked for when I went towards Vietnamese cooking station at Pondicherry cafe was Cha gio, a minced pork/shrimps/veggies rolled up in rice paper and deep fried, served in the bed of greens with chili-vinegar, and peanut sauce

But deeply disappointed, Cha gio was not on the menu. The second best thing that attracted me was the plate of seafood of clams, shrimps, octopus, squids, steamed veggies and mushroom. I dressed it up with basil sauce and it tasted great.

The soup was a disappointment. The stock tasted like bland warm water with shredded chicken, pasta and greens floating apart. Neither was there any taste of the herbs nor any spices. Even on adding salt, lime and chili, I couldn’t alter the taste.

However, the main course that was served in clay pots was very fresh. I saw the chef at the cooking station churn out the dishes in small portions, refilling the clay pots as soon as they were empty. The broccoli and vegetables were crispy and tasty but roasted chicken coated in sauce was hard and chewy. However, I loved the shrimps in sweet and sour, fragrant, succulent and fresh, cooked to the perfection, it was the winner.

The sweet dish of fresh fruits soaked in coconut milk tasted well. I am not much fond of desserts but I tasted in small portions, nibbling on it while deep in conversation with my friend across the table.

The ambience of Pondicherry café is very vibrant with live music, an attractive tinted glass wine enclosure at the entrance, with winding staircase leading to the wine cellar upstairs that was very impressive. Being in the vicinity of diamond market of BKC, the architecture of the hotel resembles the cut-glass diamonds and this design can be observed in the pillars and in different angles of the building.

It was the enriching experience. To escape the heat of Mumbai, spending a lazy afternoon at Pondicherry café and enjoying a Vietnamese cuisine seems a better option.

Here is the recipe that Chef at Vietnamese shared with me.

Raw Mango Salad

Inspired through the magnificent mango onset, the recipe will blow you away with its taste bud-awakening flavours and mix of textures. Extremely healthy and low calorie the dish is designed to keep you upbeat.

Ingredients;

150gms Raw Mangoes

50gms Shallots

20gms Green chillies

30gms roasted cashew nuts

50gms Tomatoes

20gms    Coriander

15gms Palm Sugar or Castor Sugar

10ml Fish Sauce

40gms Lemon

50gms Desiccated coconut      

Method: 1.    Peel the Mango and make julienne. 2.    Slice the shallot. Julienne deseeded tomato. 3.    Toast the cashew nuts and keep ready. 4.    Make nice sprigs of coriander and keep it ready. 5.    Make a dressing of Palm sugar, fish sauce and lemon Juice. 6.    Mix all the ingredients. 7.    Garnish with desiccated coconut.

Kitchen Ninja Challenge Part 1- Sweet and Sour Kheema Cakes

Friends make a day trip to Pune and come back with stories of rain. They talk about pregnant clouds that burst apart releasing the cool droplets of water on their face. They have a happy dance, drenched to the core. Such joy shows through their crinkled eyes as they relate the romance of the rain-drenched tales.

Me, in Mumbai, look sadly up at sky, showing my clenched fist. There is not a speck of cloud. The strong sunrays reflect on the bright white wall opposite me, reflecting its glare on me, almost blinding me.

“Please pour, please pour, send some clouds into my town” I plead, I curse, “just for a day if you please, because today is the theme of my recipe on rain, I need some inspirations to churn out a dish.”

But there is no respite.

But still, I walk into my kitchen, to cook up a special meal, with dry rain on my mind, I will pretend it rained tonight. Sweet and sour kheema cake is on my mind. I am going to be creative, global, marry the Thai with Indian cuisine.

Thanks to my ‘Kitchen Ninjas’ a group of food bloggers on online Watsapp, we decide to cook and share unique recipes –to do something extraordinary, we will be in our kitchen each month, playing around with ingredients to mix and match, to create a dish, to challenge ourselves. The challenge for this month is ‘A date with Mumbai Rains’, so even if there is no rain, (no proper influence with mother nature perhaps) we will still go as planned.

My fellow food bloggers in this crime:

 Rum Glazed Sticky Chicken by Elson Sequeira from The Tummy Tale 

Poppadom Crusted Asian Style Baked Tofu by Samina Patel from The Cupcake Confession 

The crispy Masala Carp by Antara Ray from Zouqh

 Spicy Mango Salad by Mohit Chotrani from The Hungry Bawarchi

Chicken Roulade with a Pomegranate Sauce by Shanti Padukone from Riot of flavors

Amrutha Langs from Amrutha's Cookbook

Jahan Bloch from The Toxic Baker

Do visit their blog to steal their recipes and stir a similar pot in your own kitchen to enjoy with your own group of family and friends.

So, here is mine.

Sweet and Sour Kheema Cakes

Ingredients

1 bunch of basil leaves

1 medium size potatoes

1tsp black pepper

3-florets of broccoli

1 egg

1tbsp mustard oil

1 finely chopped onions

1tsp garlic crushed

1tsp ginger crushed

2 green chilies

1 chicken cube

1tbsp Thai curry paste

250gms chicken kheema

1 finely sliced tomatoes

Salt to taste.

Method

Stir fry basil leaves and keep it aside

Boil and mash potatoes, add salt and black pepper and keep it aside

Steam the broccoli

Separate the egg yolks from white. Whisk the egg whites till fluffy and stiff and keep it aside.

In a pan, add 1tbsp of mustard oil. Add finely chopped onions. Add garlic, chilies and ginger. Add chicken cube, add Thai curry paste. Add chicken kheema. Stir fry till cooked. Add tomato sauce and fried basil leaves.

In an oven proof plate, place the greased aluminum 2-inch ring. Inside the ring, put a layer of mashed potatoes, next layer it with cooked kheema, cover it with fluffy egg whites. Keep it for baking for 10 minutes till set.

Serve with tomatoes-and-broccoli salad and a drink of your choice.

An Evening At Hokey Pokey

I went back to Hokey Pokey to try out the winning ice cream combination that one of the team of food bloggers had won. “Secret Affair’ was the creation I was looking for.  It was not yet listed on the hall of fame, so I opted for mango delight with crushed nuts.

15days ago, I was there with my food blogger friends. It was a fun event, when all my food bloggers had gathered outside Hokey Pokey one evening to taste different ice cream flavors. It was not just that, we were divided into four teams, and each team had to make 3 different kinds of ice creams using our imagination.

In a competition, each team had used their imagination creating amazing combinations that included ice creams, nuts, Indian sweets, chocolates, etc. Team B had won with their creation of ‘Secret Affair. They had used coffee ice cream. They had added few pieces of crushed honeycomb and few chocolate chip brownies to come up with new creation to be included into hall of fame.

At Hokey Pokey, the main idea is to be creative in three steps. Pick the flavor, pick the mix in and watch them churn out an ice cream on cold stone. But I am afraid, not many people are noticing that. The friends that I took along with me; did not bother to see ‘hall of Fame’, nor did they notice the cold stone that is used for churning ice creams, they headed straight to the area of ice creams, tasted a spoonful of each flavor and then decided on the flavor they wanted.

That is really sad. Nobody pointed out that Hokey Pokey is more than just spoonful of a scoop. Nowhere was the fact stressed that Hokey Pokey outlet also have a live kitchen, where customers can order an ice cream creation and get it made in front of their eyes.

I learnt the first hand knowledge of mixing Ice Creams when I met Founder, Rohan Mirchandani. He explained that they custom make every scoop taking into account the taste and the preference of the customer. The brand has to overcome the unfamiliarity of the customers with made-to-order assembly. The pounding of ice creams with chocolates, nuts and sweets and do it with flourish on the cold stone is what sets it apart from other parlors.

That is the brand’s sole focus.

Hokey pokey is a flavour of ice cream in New Zealand, consisting of plain vanilla ice cream with small, solid lumps of honeycomb toffee. Hokey pokey is a New Zealand term for honeycomb toffee. Wikipedia

It is this idea that Rohan has brought to India.

Rohan says he wants to position Hokey Pokey in the same league as Haagen Dazs and Ben&Jerry ice creams. He explains how the product has more fat content (16%milk fat), less air and is all vegetarian to cater to larger segment of Indians. To take its interactive ice cream counters beyond its own stores, the brand has tied up with different outlets that include coffee chain across the country.

I turned to my friend and asked her to watch while I select my favorite. She saw him remove a scoop of mango ice cream (that I had selected) and keep it on the cold stone, crush few pieces of cashew nuts and almonds (on my request) and mix it with flourish. She was impressed.

“I too, want one like this for me” she said

The good news is that Food Food Channel was there to record the event and in case you missed it, you can see it on U-tube .here