Pre-Valentine Celebration at Le Mangii at Parel

The invitation was to spend a pre-valentine evening at ‘Le Mangii’. An evening of entertainment and fine dining was promised. 

Who could refuse? I am glad I went. 

Tucked away in the ‘C’ block of Kamala Mills compound at Parel, the restaurant has an imposing front. It is the fourth of its’ kind, having already made its presence in the neighborhood of Bandra, Juhu and Andheri.

I was guided to the upper level into a large dinning room with impressive ambience. There is high ceiling with variable lighting fixtures at different sections of the restaurant. A big open island bar cuts through the center of the room dividing the room with cozy seating arrangement on the left and wooden formal setting on the right. There are high-table-chair arrangements for more casual diners. Far back of the room is the open fireplace where one can see the signature handcrafted Napolitana wood-fired oven pizzas being churned out every minute.

Exotic paper-thin crusted pizzas are amazing.

The starters arrived as soon as I was seated. In the most innovative presentation, the finger foods were presented that included the delicious plateful of assorted bruschetta’s, spoonful of baked mushrooms soaked in sauces, basket of deep fried squids, cupful of grilled chicken and many more.  

The meat was succulent and perfectly cooked; the sauces that complimented the snacks were delicious although I had to add tobacco and red chili flakes to suit my taste. I would strongly advise that in-house  prepared chili sauce be included, because Indian palate is used to spicy cuisine and many of my friends found the food bland.

I need to make a special mention to this deep fried chicken on sticks that had me asking for more.

There was a loud music in the room that made conversation impossible. In my opinion, loud music is acceptable if there is a dance floor, but if one has to enjoy a meal, soft music in the background will be more suitable.

Le Mangii draws its inspiration from the popular Italian diner, “Café Mangii.” I had a glance at menu card and it boasted of reasonably priced selection of exotic pastas and risottos, aromatic soups, delectable grills and sinful desserts.

For main course, I ordered Chicken Roulade with salad and rice. I drooled the minute it appeared and the taste did the justice to its presentation. The grilled chicken was tender and perfectly cooked.  

A business meeting during daytime, or an entertaining night out, if you like Italian cuisine, ‘Le Mangii’ is the place to be.

Phone : 02266375050

Book Launch ‘A Chef In Every Home’ by Kunal Kapur.

‘A Chef In Every Home’  - a complete family cookbook was launched this week by celebrity Chef Kunal Kapur

Published by Random House India, Kunal Kapur’s book explores an extensive variety of cultural delicacies.

“Inspiration to write this book has been from Masterchef” says Kunal Kapur, who has been an integral part of all three seasons of TV show Masterchef India till date. During his tour of selecting the contestants for the show, he discovered that there is chef in every home and that it does not matter who you are, you do not need to be a chef to cook.

“This cookbook is for all those who are compassionate about cooking.” He adds

At the glittering ceremony at ‘The Leela’ in Mumbai, the book was revealed by panel of esteemed foodies like Ms. Rushina Munshaw Ghidyal, Mr Mayank Shekhar and Mr Aman Sehrawat.

This was followed by live demonstration of two recipes from the book.

Tomato bruschetta, the recipe appears on page 69

Prawns Moilee, the recipe appears of page99

The book has interesting recipes from around the world with impressive photographs that pulls you to the kitchen to try out the recipes.

All the recipes have a brief description of the dish, followed by ingredients that are easily available and a step-by-step method that can be understood even by a novice.

It is a must-have-book for adding it to the kitchen book shelf.

Winter Cuisine at Punjab Grill

I like this new trend of sharing the chef table with other foodies. The food talks are interesting so are the variety of food offered during the meals. This Saturday, I attended the launch of winter menu at Punjab Grill.

 Why winter menu?

There is a tight link between food and our hormones and this can be noticed in our seasonal cravings. In winter, there is craving for comfort food that is generally high in fats and carb. Plants start converting their starches into sugar. The cold-sweetening occurs in many cold-tolerant vegetable plants like beets, carrots, and root vegetables. 

Mumbaites don’t experience the vast difference in climate change but the drop in temperatures to as low as 13 degrees is good enough reason to pamper one self and deviate from normal cuisine.

Punjab Grill understands that, it is all dressed up for this winter session.

There is a great selection of drinks, mocktails and cocktails, to choose from. Normally the drinks have a slice of lime and salt dust on the rim, but here I was staring at a bright green chili on my drink. 

This restaurant has a class of its own.

I ordered ‘Mast Guava’ a cocktail that contains Vodka, Guava, tobasco, coriander leaves and ..er..guess what else?.hmmmn…can't believe my luck!..finely chopped green chilies..now…that was a complete nirvana!

There is a surprise element in the presentation with every serving. When the men in black approached our table with serving dishes, we stopped midway in our conversation to see what was on the tray behind the smoking glass lid, under the metallic conical cover, in those porcelain cups. We craned our neck to get the view before it even reached our plates.

I don’t much like vegetarian food, therefore my vegetarian serving was just a spoonful of each dish for taste. The winter vegetables are sweetish, not my kind of food. However, I loved matured Kaanji carrot juice served in earthen pots that had a strong flavors of mustard seeds. The sweet potato and star fruit tossed in sweet and sour tamarind, a chaat I have never tasted before, but it was something different (not sure if I liked it) and one needs to develop a taste for it. ‘Sarson da Saag’ bright green fragrant vegetable is ‘must have’ vegetarian dish.

But the non-vegetable was commendable. I especially like the ‘Tabak Maaz’,  and ‘Methi Chicken Tikka.  The succulent lamb ribs simmered in fennel-flavored milk were cooked just right, so soft that it melts in the mouth on first bite. Grilled ‘Chicken Tikka’ infused with fenugreek leaves was a pleasant delight. I didn’t enjoy the ‘Bheja Masala’ that had an over powering taste of Garam masala.

The ‘Winter Bread Basket’ was interesting assortments of Makki di roti, Bajra di roti and Palak di roti. They tasted delicious when laced with blob of white butter and pinch of ajwain infused Gurh.

I was happy that the service was slow. It gave us time to relish every dish, enjoy the varied flavors of each dish. The ambience of the restaurant is seductive. The beautiful Sufi music in the background, the twinkling lights on the trees above, and comfortable cushions on low sofa under the open starry sky added to the romance of the evening. The mood was set. There was enough time to socialize and familiarize with other foodies. We enjoyed sharing notes on wine, snacks and food culture of other cities.

By the time, the dessert arrive, we were friends chatting away.

Together we relished the sweet flavors of ‘Gurh Wale Chawal’ rice flavored with black cardamom, garnished with curled coconut strips and ‘Bajre Ki Choori’ The grandma style rotis and jaggery crumble that brought back the memories of my yearly visits to my maternal uncles house during my growing up days.

And Finally the famous 'Paan Shot'

I had heard about this Paan shot from my friends and I was eagerly waiting for it to arrive. Mixture of betel leaves with paan masala, all crushed together to make a concentrate drink. In one gulp, I emptied the glass, its cool fragrant taste gliding down my throat.

Verdict: Highly recommended for people who enjoy good Indian cuisine.

Where: Punjab Grill

Juhu Shopping Centre, Unit No24


Opp Criticare Hospital


9th Gulmohar Road,

Juhu, Mumbai – 400049 


Tel: +(91)-(22)-42433100, 42433101, 42433102

The Winter season is ushered in from 14th January and continues till end of February 2014.

Cookies For Snack

Ever thought of giving your loved ones cookies ring? Unibic gave me one to make a bond with me

When we talk of biscuits and cookies in India, the brands that come to our mind are old timers like Britannia and Parle G. in foreign brands more common are Oreo, but recently I chanced upon cookies that were crunchy, crispy and tasty, I turned the packet around to see the brand, I found an Australian brand ‘Unibic.’

I was attending the launch of this product in Mumbai. There was a small game played with the audience. Each person was blind folded and given a cookie to taste. The person had to bite and guess the ingredients from its taste. Not many were successful. Although the taste is delicious, the taste of any particular ingredient is not over powering.

The best that I liked was ‘Scotch Finger shortbread’. It reminded me of the taste of ‘Shrew Berry’, the type that I normally pick up from the famous Kayani Bakery during my visits to Poona.

I brought the cookies home for my family to taste. My 3years old nephew and his 62years old granddad sat down, side-by-side, to relish these crunchy bites of Unibic cookies. It seems like this will soon make its entry into their home.

And why not?

There is an apt description on the packet itself that says

“Born in Scotland and loved world over, shortbread is a type of cookie that crumbles delightfully with every single bite. The butter melts magically; leaving an aftertaste you wouldn’t give up for anything. Except, for any set of these delicious shortbreads.”

What more can I say after this description?

Unibic was incorporated in India in August 2004, the company started operations in March 2005 importing two cookie brands Anzac oatmeal and chocolate chips from Unibic, Australia. By late 2005, its manufacturing unit India was producing cookies at costs that were as much as 40% lower than procuring them from Australia.

I almost drooled when they mentioned the fragrance that follows the trail leading to Haskur road in Bangalore, where these cookies are baked. They are a bit costlier as compared to cookies made by other Indian brands but cheaper than foreign brands.

Apart from its current portfolio of ginger nuts, cashew butter, choco chips, Anzac oatmeal cookies, Unibic India is now getting into healthy products like sugar free and digestive oatmeal cookies as well.

Cookies are a bonding snacks, can be enjoyed at any hour of the day and even to kill boredom.

A great snack to go with a cup of coffee or it can be mixed in layers with custard, fruits and nut to incorporate it into delicious dessert.