Launch of 015’ Cafe

Before you can even find your table, you are enamored by the ambience of the restaurant 015’ Cafe at Seven Bungalows, Versova.

The murals speak in graphics of food recipes under sauces, snacks and drinks. Different musical instruments, mainly guitars, harmonium, tablas adorn the shelves. Rustic bricks behind the photo frames on the walls glitter under spotlights.

Long wooden community tables occupy the center of the room running parallel to bar, for smaller groups there are 4-seater tables randomly placed around and for more privacy there are two more tables behind the room shaped as telephone booth.

Smoking is not allowed in the restaurant, not even in the service-room, however, there is a enclosed glass room outside the restaurant where you can smoke away till you drop dead. Two large Televisions and loud music in the background is reason enough to dine in silence because conversation is impossible.

So, the next possible thing to do is to enjoy the meals. 

Reasonably priced, the cuisine is international with Asian, European and American. The portion is good enough. Just salads with chicken or prawn skewers and a glass of cocktail can make a satisfying meal.

Menu card clearly explains in detail the dish so that you know what to expect. For example, ‘Chicken Potli Kebab’ is chicken drumsticks stuffed with mutton mince marinated in Indian spices, cooked in tandoor, served with mint chutney (for the price of Rs256)

Food is exceptionally good. I shared the table with six other food bloggers and we decided to share each dish so that we were able to taste many of the dishes. To start with, drinks were the winner. Each one of us ordered different drinks and we got to taste many drinks but the winner was Minty Rita, an attractive looking green drink with dust of salt at the rim, (sister of Margarita) and as the name suggest, taste was ‘Minty’ and sweet. All the Chicken dishes were soft, melt-in-the-mouth with well-balanced spices. However lamb was let down, chewy and a bit raw, we were glad that we were sharing just a bite, so there was no wastage. I was unhappy with Spanish Paella too; neither the taste nor the presentation was appetizing.

During my travels abroad, I have noticed that if you request for chili sauce as an accompaniment with your food, the worried chef might come to your table and inquire about the quality of the food. It is considered rude to kill the original taste of the food by extra serving of chili sauce. But here, in India, even when the food is tasty in its original form, just Tobasco or chili flakes may not suffice. Indian palate is used to spicy foods and not having an in-house chili sauce to go with meals is a let down.

Overall, it was a satisfying meal with great company of good friends. My sincere thanks to Sameer Malkani for the invite and thanks to food bloggers who shared the table with me

Thank you Purvi, Joel and Yeshi for being there and a special thanks to my friend Monika Pant, who shared her evening with me

image source

Had a wonderful evening.

Stuffed Dinner Rolls

Last week I had attended an event ‘Pizza Off’ where each one of us made pizza with different toppings. I had blogged about this in my earlier post.

The dough that I brought home, I made stuffed dinner rolls, which was so tasty that I made some more the next week too to share it with my family.

I realized that once you know the basic of making pizza dough, you could play around and create different types of bread.

In the basic method, flour and salt were mixed properly. But I added mixed herbs and basil powder to the flour.

In the warm glass of water, I added sugar and active yeast (they told me Prime Yeast is the best). Mixed it well and kept it for 5 minutes.

This solution was then used for making soft dough. One tablespoon of oil was added to remove stickiness. The dough was kept covered for 3 hours to rise.

The dough was beaten once again and kept for another one hour.

 I made mushroom stuffing using finely chopped mushrooms, green chilies, crushed garlic, lime juice and vegetable-cube. You just need to stir-fry on high flame for 2 minutes.

Made a round shape, stuffed the mushroom filling, closed in and placed it in a greased baking tray and baked it for 15 minutes.

Best enjoyed with garlic sauce and plum sauce.

Pizza Making Contest At Serafina

The invitation for Pizza Contest seemed exciting, although I had no intention of participating in this contest, it would be interesting to watch other contestant prepare a pizza. I accepted the invitation at Serafina, in Palledium, Lower Parel.

I reached the restaurant to be greeted by food bloggers. The tables were set with big bowls containing flour and small plates with sugar, salt, yeast and oil.

“Do we have to participate?” I asked the host.

 “Yes, It would be more fun participating than just watching as an audience.” She said.

 And why not? Was there to have some fun, no?

While we waited for the others to arrive, I got acquainted with staff and the hostess of the restaurant. The interiors of the restaurant took me in with a warm embrace. Artistically done, the décor is beautiful with interesting murals on each wall. There is a bar closer to the entrance, where one can wait till tables are vacant An open cooking station dominates the restaurant where you can actually see a live coverage of your pizza rolled out and bake in the fire oven.

With every blogger at their table, donning the chef’s cap, the contest began. It was not a serious contest but more of a fun-contest. If you don’t know what to do, you just watch and ape others. Chef Rahul Kulkarni guided us as we dissolved yeast and sugar in warm water and used this to knead the pizza dough. Later, we were led to the cooking station and asked to work in pairs. The cook demonstrated a rolling of pizza technique. There was a strong smell of roasted pizza and it was getting difficult to concentrate on making a pizza without popping some toppings into our mouth. We worked in pairs, creatively adding the toppings of vegetables, sauces and spices and inserting the pizza into oven for three full minutes.

   The drinks and snacks were served while participants took turns to prepare pizzas. The atmosphere was affable with bloggers sharing the stories of their adventure with food. Food blogging is lot of hard work. It is not just eating and preparing dishes, there is writing and creative photography too that makes blogging successful. One blogger was telling me that she clicks on average, two-hundred-and-fifty photographs of an event. Editing and selecting few to make a blog post is a tedious task.

We waited at the tasting table closer to the cooking station. Every participant prepared one pizza and posed for a picture with their creation.  (A professional photographer clicked the picture that will arrive at snail mail after few days) Pizza was next brought to the table and explained in details about the toppings they had used; chef took a small slice to taste and graded the pizza. All the participants would then grab a piece to try. There were 20 participants and after trying so many, it was starting to taste the same. Some used extra cheese, some extra sauce; there was difference in taste as per the spices and topping used.

I wondered what was chef looking for? He tasted every pizza and had good word for everybody. He never showed any emotion of disliking any pizza. Every participant thought his/hers was the best. At the end of the contest when we stood round him to hear the results, nobody could guess the winner. Three of the bloggers were felicitated with diploma and it was a happy event for all of us. He said that he was looking for ethnic flavors, the kind that he would love to serve in his restaurant. The pizza may not have too many toppings, but there should be even distribution of flavors.

Congratulations @mumbaiguru @anujadeora and @kneadwithlove for winning the Pizza making competition

This was my creation. I had made pizza to my liking and I prefer lots of vegetables. (it’s the kind that I normally order at the restaurants) After baking I had added basil leaves and olive oil as garnishing. I wanted to add red chili flakes too, but didn’t want to offend those who don’t like it too spicy.

It was a fun evening and I really enjoyed a lot. Thank you @FoodBloggersAI and SerafinaMumbai for organizing this event. Made new food-blogger friends, learnt a lot from the chitchat with other bloggers. Brought home the pizza dough that I had kneaded during the event, and made mushroom pav the next day.

Recipe of mushroom pav coming up in next post….

Thai Street Food Festival At J W Marriott

What I like best about Thai street food is that it is cooked fresh in your presence; it is spicy, fresh and contains exotic vegetables. The dishes are less likely to be spoilt by cheap meat like in other restaurants.

 Some years ago, during my visit to Bangkok, I had an opportunity to attend Thai food workshop. I learnt few tricks there and that has benefited me a lot. It is easy to prepare, convenient, very beneficial especially when the unexpected guest arrive and the meal has be prepared in a jiffy. I had developed the taste for Thai food then and presently, it is my preferred and favorite cuisine.

So, when the street Thai food festival comes to my town, how could I miss it?

I had the pleasure of meeting Chef Suriya Phus irimongkhonchai at Spice, J W Marriott. I asked him how Thai food was different from Chinese cuisine. He said that it was less oily, contained more fresh exotic vegetables and he preferred to use roasted meat. Thai cuisine also contains fresh herbs like holy basil, lemon grass, kaffir leaves, that gives it that peculiar taste, other tropical ingredients like coconut milk and fresh fruits bring out its rich flavors.

Almost all Thai dishes are balanced in flavor; they are spicy, sour, salty and have sweet after taste. All the taste buds are aroused with every bite.

 Thai cooking is not only about the right amount of ingredients but also about correct levels of heat and the method of preparation. For instance, papaya salad has to be prepared on the spot, stir-fries tastes good only when served immediately; grinding chilies and garlic with a mortar and pestle really makes a difference in bringing out the flavor of the ingredients.

 Spice at J W Marriott was all set for the festival with different live counters in buffet style serving authentic Thai cuisine.  There were fruits and vegetable carving showcased at different cooking stations. Tuesday, being my strictly veg day, I only ogled at exotic veg food but silently drooled over non-veg dishes.

 I started with Mango salad. Perfectly prepared, (sweet and sour) it transported me back to the narrow lanes of Bangkok. Normally peanuts are used for crunchiness, but cashew nuts lent a richer taste.

Evening passed, trying out the various vegetarian dishes. There was great variety to choose from. Curries, soups, pastas, BBQ, stir fries, exotic salads There was a bigger variety of non-veg food, but I am glad there was limited selection for me or I would have over eaten.

 My favorite was Pad Thai. I stood at the cooking station and watched him prepare, directing him on the quantity of sauces and ingredients as per my taste.

This is how he prepared.

On a huge flat pan he stir-fried the soaked rice noodles, kept them aside

Fried par-boiled vegetables like broccoli, onions, cauliflower, bean sprouts, green beans, and carrots.

Added Pad thai sauce to it

Mixed vegetables with fried noodles

Added peanuts and chili flakes

Squeezed lime-juice on it.

The authentic taste is in pad thai sauce that contains tamarind paste, fish sauce, soy sauce, chili sauce, cayenne pepper, white pepper and brown sugar.

 And finally the plate of exotic fruits with traditional Raum Mith

Worth a visit!! Thai food festival is on from 15^th November to 1^st December at Spice, J W Marriott, Juhu.