Konkan Cafe - Taj President, Cuffe Parade

Having run out of restaurants that weren't already booked for lunch on the glorious Christmas morning, we settled for only one that offered us a table for ten in fifteen minutes flat - Konkan Cafe at Taj President Cuffe Parade. 

Needless to say, the Italian serving Trattoria and the Thai Pavilion at Taj President were our preferred choice to ring in my aunty-uncles wedding anniversary. However, a quick meal was on the agenda and reluctantly we walked into the dimly lit Konkan Cafe.

The decor is earthy, full of wood and bordering on boring. The antique fan is a nice touch and the boring bar can be done away with! However, the saving grace is the fascinating collection of antiques lining the wall and the shiny beaten copper-cum-silver dinner set and cutlery. Though a very well done replica of a Konkani verandah/ home, the place could do with a dash of colour.

The table was well laid and the basket of papads, fried stuffed-chilli and the choice of chutneys was welcoming. So was the staff in their beige uniforms and pretty good marathi!

I was surprised to find such a crisp menu, 4 pages and that was it. The dishes on offer were a fine blend of traditional Maharashtrian usal and some signature vegetables, sea food in Konkani, Goan and Malvani style and accompaniments ranging from Malabar paratha, rice, dosas to fluffy appams.

Sol-kadi (a combination of kokan and coconut milk) is traditionally had after meals. It helps to digest and tone down the spices in the food. But we decided to begin our meal with Sol-kadi and papads. While the sol-kadi was delicately flavoured and creamy, the papad added a nice crunch.

We then had a course of starters – Bhajleli paneer, thechyachi zinga (prawns), Tawyache bombil (Bombay duck) and Meen Pullichatu. Except for the bombil, the other three preparations were stellar. The crunchy prawns, the perfectly roasted and flavoured paneer were fanastic, though next time around I would ask for mild spice in the prawn as it takes away from the inherent juiciness of the prawn. Everyone’s favourite was undoubtedly the meen fish, flavoured with onions and tangy tomatoes and steamed in a banana leaf wrapping.

For the main course we ordered fish curry in tamarind sauce, Malabar crab curry, Haldi Pomphret and a combination of appam, Malabar paratha and ambemohar rice to accompany them. The fish curry was runny, yet packed a punch of flavour which amazed us. The crab curry was thicker and slightly sweet with some dry fruits thrown in which perfectly complimented the taste of crab meat. The pomphret can be skipped, the appams aren’t as good as I ate in Kerala was 1/7^th the price, but the Malabar parathas are a must try, so is the rice which has such a wonderful smell.

After the meal, the staff brought in a cute square cake to ring in the good wishes for the happy couple. The cake was a small, but just enough to tickle our sweet tooth as we were all stuffed and had a silly, content grin on our faces.

The meal was certainly heavy on the pocket (INR 1200 per person after a 15% discount!), and strictly an indulgence to be remembered until the next meal there which should be quite an experience as the chefs at Konkan Café variate the menu with the changing season.

As an afterthought, despite the drab décor and the not to appealing cuisine (except for the die-hard sea-food fans!), the USP of Konkan Café is the well preserved recipes, a daring-crisp mix on the menu, freshly ground spices and the warmth of the staff; a true signature of Tata hospitality!

Overall

Food: 9/10

Decor: 6/10

Staff: 9/10

Price: 1200-1400 per person (without drinks!)

Happy BUN Day

Suddenly bread is the new cake and it is chic to be baking a fresh loaf or fluffy buns.

I remember visitng the Wibbs White Bread Factory at Vishakhapatanam back in 1996 from s school trip. The whole process of baking bread fascinated me. While people only talk about the wholesome smell of freshly baked bread, I even pride in the punch of yeasty dough.

My happy snacky memories revolved around eating bresh white bread with amul butter, enjoying bread with sugar & malai, a basic grilled cheese sandwish or jam bread.


A couple of years later, mom made her first home made batch of buns, breads, stuffed buns, dinner rolls and it left me wanting more. Finally a good 10 years later I baked my own batch of buns with moms recipe. I even taught a friend along my experimental Happy Bun Day.

I used maida, dry solid yeast, little baking powder, salt and warm water for the dough. For the stuffing i used the all time favourite grated tinned cheese, onion and capsicum.  A slight challenge was ensuring the stuffing get evenly coated with dough. However, the buns turned out better than I expected.

Mad Over Donuts

My first memory of a donut was eating fried donuts dipped in melted milk chocolate/filled with a sour fluffed cream at the local bakeries.

Mad Over Donuts (M.O.D.) has been in India for quite a few years now.I vaguely remember seeing an M.O.D.outlet at Breach Candy about four years back. But I first devoured the perfect round delicacy when M.O.D. opened a branch at Colaba.

From the orgasmic chocolate, to fruity flavours to the nutty or the good old basic donut to go with a cup of tea/coffee, I was amazed at the array of flavours offered. There was something to tingle the taste buds of every age group and pallette.

I have a prominent sweet tooth and hence the partiality towards donuts filled with chocolate (milk/dark) and smothered with chocolate again. You may call it chocolate overdose but that's how I like my donut. The more chocolaty, the better.

M.O.D. outlets are vibrantly done up. The decor is basic. I love their baloons. The tall swivel chairs. The warm yellow/orange walls. It makes me a kid again. 

M.O.D. has great offers when you order 5 or 9 donuts at one go. Their coffee combos are worth it too. Overall very fresh donuts. Good array of choices. Friendly staff. And the urge to keep coming back!

To find a M.O.D. outlet near you, go here.

Breakfast

My favourite meal while I was in school was dinner. Apart from the fact that dinner was the only meal departing from the usual dal, sabzi, roti, it also gave time to the whole family to sit around the table, enjoy a fresh, hot meal while listening to how each of our day went. Sometimes we'd talk about an upcoming exam, maybe a birthday or the dreaded homework/habits talk. At other times we'd rush to find a prime seat in the TV room to enjoy the best and most comfortable view of the television, while holding the plate in one hand and eating from the other. No matter what the situation, dinner was always together, as far as possible. 

Over the years as my college began, and then hostel life, my partiality for dinner was replaced by a new-found liking for breakfast. Breakfast meant 'me' time, especially in hostel. While all my roomies would eat in a rush to reach the early morning lecture, I'd eat breakfast over almost an hour, watching new on TV and reading a newspaper if I got my hands on it.

When we were in school breakfast used to be utterly chaotic. I'd get dressed and dunk the milk, while grabbing the sandwich or rolling the aloo paratha in one hand, the school bag in another and made a dash for the bus stop. In this rush I hardly got a chance to appreciate the variety of breakfasts Mom would prepare.Somehow Mom always came up with a new twist in the old sandwich, or a normal paratha and that after preparing our tiffins and lunch.

In the hostel the breakfast was standard. I was the happiest on the days when we got bread and eggs to order because the poha was generally too dry, the upma too sticky or the aloo parathas had very little stuffing. Plus, there was always shortage of milk or the milk was watery. The solution to this problem was simple, I replaced bournvita with coffee. Someone watery coffee never tasted bad as opposed to watery bournvita. Till then we used to have coffee occasionally after dinner, but suddenly coffee became my morning companion.

Now that I live with my relatives, my breakfasts are very random. What can be more enjoyable than eating whatever you like!  Most days I alternate between sandwich, paratha with pickle, cornflakes, moong and eggs. The sandwiches range from classic cheese, veggie sandwich, salami sandwich or my unlikely favourite boiled egg sandwich and untoasted cucumber sandwich. Sometimes I use my mom's trick and have egg with paratha as it is quite wholesome. However  my glass of milk stays and takes varied forms - hot coffee, bournvita, hot chocolate, tea, fruit shakes etc. I now experiment with having tea, black/green when I wake up and then filter coffee with breakfast. Having switched to filter coffee, instant coffee is hardly satisfying! 

Some of my most cherished breakfasts have been away from Home, especially since I love to travel. Our family takes trips often and I've eaten breakfasts in so many cities that its hard to count. The steaming idlis, dosas, idiappams and a cup of filter coffee from my trips down South always lift my mood. The hot fried breakfast items such as gathiya, samosa, kachori, vada pav find their way into the best street-food breakfast items. It is a workable solution to office rush, not necessarily to the waistline. The North Indian breakfasts are in another league. You name an ingredient and you get a paratha stuffed with it. The traditional English breakfast is also slowly finding way into Indian homes. I love cornflakes, spanish omelettes, fruit bread, an occasional pancake when I'm having breakfast out and mandatory juice.

I remember my parents telling me about breakfast when they were younger. It mostly comprised of roti, with some pickle, or glucon-D biscuit and chai. But never was breakfast so elaborate as now. I guess I'm lucky to have been spoilt with breakfast options. Yet, there are many items which I'm yet to try at home - pancakes, assorted fresh fruits, protein bars etc.

The experts recommend a hearty breakfast.  I abide by it, especially since I love it. I can skip dinner, but I definitely cannot skip a full breakfast, complete with reading the paper, watching news and chit-chatting with my family (if time permits). 

I couldn't agree more with John Gunther who said and I quote, "All happiness depends on a leisurely breakfast". The change from being a loyal dinner fan to a breakfast person suits me just fine. With the sometimes crazy work hours, social life, study time, its a better to have a leisurely breakfast than to wait for dinner to unwind, because if I'm at peace in the morning, the day invariably goes well.

Cherry Pink!

I know the summers have paved way for the rains, and pink isn't really the colour of the season. But I was tempted to change the blog theme when I saw this gorgeous pink layout on the new themes tab in my blog settings. It reminded me of cherries, a sweet after taste and an intense desire. Well, the three are apt for a food blog. Hence the theme :) 

Keep chewing!

Fake sun-dried tomatoes

A few weeks back I stumbled upon Shaheen's food blog, the purple foodie. I immediately fell in love with the layout of the blog. With further exploration I also realised how much she loved to cook, especially bake. Sifting through some of the recipes, I decided to try 'oven-dried tomatoes' partly because the ingredients were lying at home apart from my liking for sun-dried tomatoes. 

The recipe is easy, and a little lengthy, but certainly not as complicated as real sun-dried tomatoes!

Ingredients-

• Tomatoes - if you find the seasonal deshi-tomatoes, then even better!
• Garlic
• Oregano
• Pepper
• Salt
• Oven

Method-

• Cut the tomatoes in half or smaller pieces depending upon your liking (I bought the non-deshi tomatoes which were small in size and hence halved them)
• Scoop out all the seeds
• Roll the cut tomatoes generously in salt and keep them skin-up for upto one hour to remove any excess water (After one hour I drained the water and re-applied the salt as the tomatoes were still watery)
• Once most water has been drained off, coat the tomatoes in oregano, pepper, finely chopped garlic and lay in a baking dish
• Sprinkle a little olive oil on it
• Put the dish in the oven for about 2 hours at the lowest possible temperature. (I kept it for 3 intervals of one hour each on 110 degree Celsius If you think the tomatoes are still juicy, you can keep it in the oven for longer.)
• Eat with sandwichs, pizzas or as a snack!

My patience ran out so I did not re-bake the tomatoes after the 3-hours. My oven-dried tomatoes were a little moist but I loved them nevertheless! :D

Store the tomatoes in an air-tight container. Also, don't be too generous with the sprinkling of the garlic and oregano, it will take away the essence of the tomato!

Preparation time: approximately 4 hours
USP: Matches up to the real thing!

Lobster (or was it Cray Fish?!)

It's been a while since I wrote about Sunday Cooking, mainly because I'm hardly home for Sunday lunch! My aunt was making lobster a few Sundays back, so the foodie in me canceled the lunch plan with friends just to savour a lobster - my first!

Apart from how complicated the lobsters looked, there was nothing very complicated recipe. There was hardly any peeling and chopping involved, but cleaning the lobster thoroughly is a must and the smell can get to you sometimes. 

 

Here's the receipe my aunt followed-

1. Clean the lobsters
2. Marinate them with haldi (turmeric power) and salt
3. In a pan heat oil and add onions, tomatoes, haldi power and red chilli powder. Stir until fried
4. Add lobsters and cover for 2-3 minutes
5. Grate coconut in the grinder and add it to the pan
6. Add water and salt in the pan to make the gravy
7. Cover the pan and let it cook for about 5-10 minutes, stir occasionally
8. Take the lid off and serve the lobster curry with rice and salad!
9. It's the perfect sunday lunch :)

My opinion about the lobster was that it is more chewy than prwans and has a stronger smell, but the meat seemed more flavoured :D