Royal Tulip Luxury Hotel

Royal Tulip Luxury Hotel
This five star hotel will give you an opportunity to welcome the New Year in the Las Vegas style. From flaring bartenders and mystic fireworks to lucky draws and acrobatic dancers, your party will surely be an exotic affair. Aquamarine, the exclusive poolside space would be limited to 20 couples who can enjoy the space. Also, a red carpet would be laid out for couples attending the party. Don’t you already feel like a celebrity?
Rates: Majestic Banquets: Rs5,000 per couple (includes unlimited food and beverages, tarot card readers, exotic dancers, DJs, fame stall), Aquamarine: Rs7,000 per couple (includes unlimited TDH menu and beverages, exotic dancers, DJs, fame stall, flaring bartenders. Rates of kids zone: Rs900 per kid (includes magic shows, music, tattoo artist, unlimited food and soft beverages).

The Park, CBD Belapur

The Park, CBD Belapur
Your kids will surely have fun here! There is a separate buffet for the tiny tots and bangle makers, tarot readers, caricature artists, will be called to keep your little ones engaged. The hotel is serving a lavish buffet for its patrons comprising international and Indian cuisines. There will be live counters as well. The kids’ buffet will have delectable items like brownies, marshmallows and other yummies. There will be an array of fireworks as the clock strikes twelve.
Rates: Buffet at Aqua (the hotel’s signature poolside bar)
Rs1,750 per person, Buffet at West1: Rs1,200 per person, Buffet at Bamboo: Rs1,500 per person, Buffet for kids: Rs800 per person, Dusk: Rs1,750 per person (includes unlimited alcohol and starters) Those interested in unlimited domestic alcohol will need to take separate beverage package of Rs950 plus taxes.

Fortune Select Exotica, Vashi

Fortune Select Exotica, Vashi
This hotel plans to create a one-day Goa for you right there. The main attractions would include live Goan band performances, variety of other dance performances and Goan bartenders among others. Every aspect of the party, its music, ambience and the food, will have an air of Goa in it.
Rates: Banquet passes: Rs. 4,000 for stags and Rs6,000 per couple. Exclusive rooftop passes (couples only): Rs8,000 per couple

The Regenza by Tunga, Vashi

The Regenza by Tunga, Vashi
This hotel plans to have a relaxed party for a change. The chefs at the hotel have decided to offer its patrons an appetising buffet, especially created by them for this day. Guests can enjoy their meal,either at the hotel’s restro bar, Crimson, or at its famous seafood joint, Something Fishy.
Rates: Buffet dinner: Rs. 1,250 plus taxes per person

Royal Orchid Central Garzia, Vashi

Royal Orchid Central Garzia, Vashi
At this hotel, you can have a relaxed dinner with your loved ones. It plans to treat its patrons to a lavish buffet spread. Twilight, the rooftop restaurant of the hotel will have a live ghazal programme and Echo, its coffee shop will have a wide spread of appetising food and unlimited beer.
Rates: Buffet dinner at Twilight: Rs3,550 per couple and Rs1,775 per person Buffet at Echo: Rs2,750 per couple and Rs1,375 per person

Yogi Executive, Vashi

Yogi Executive, Vashi
This place will give couples an opportunity to enjoy some private moments together on their rooftop and has unlimited cocktails, mocktails on offer. At Curry and Spice, families and couples can gorge on appetising delicacies along with good music.
Rates: Buffet at Curry and Spice: Rs4,000 per couple, Buffet at Rooftop: Rs5,000 per couple.

Rockville Bar and Dinner, CBD Belapur

Rockville Bar and Dinner, CBD Belapur
This place will host a Goan theme party for you this New Year’s eve. The staff will be dressed in traditional Goan attires and delicacies such as Fish Balchao and Chicken Xacuti and many more will surely leave you asking for more.
Rates:Buffet:Rs700(excluding alcohol)

Vasundhara restaurant and lounge bar, Vashi

Vasundhara restaurant and lounge bar, Vashi
Are you planning a vampire party sleepover? If yes, then do not miss Vasundhara’s vampire night-themed party this New Year’s eve. Casual black is the colour of the night. What’s more interesting is that the hotel will give you a chance to welcome the New Year, at a reasonable rate. No entry fee or any extra charges. Limited entries on offer.
Rates: Couple entry passes for Rs2,000

Cult Lounge, Belapur

Cult Lounge, Belapur
With DJ Inhertia playing at the lounge, the organisers promise to keep you moving all night long. The lounge will serve its patrons scrumptious food and great music. As the clock strikes 12, the sky will be lighted up with attractive fireworks.
Rates: Rs4,000 per couple and Rs2,500 for stags

Indulge lounge, CBD Belapur

Indulge lounge, CBD Belapur
A pirate theme party will be hosted at this lounge, this New Year’s eve. A pirate ship will be created and many props will be given out at the party including pirate bandanas and pirate eye patches. A display of fireworks will welcome the New Year.
Rates: Rs3,500 per couple and Rs2,500 for stags

Four Points by Sheraton

Four Points by Sheraton
This place assures a great beginning to your New Year. There will be rocking music and scrumptious delights to tickle your taste buds and you can also choose to stay at this luxurious five star property. Asian Kitchen, known for serving pan-Asian cuisines, will have a live band playing and a buffet dinner and Wrapped, another dinning spot, will have a live ghazal programme.
Rates: Room package: Rs, 10,000 including entry to one of the event venues. Buffet at Asian Kitchen: Rs5,000 per couple. Buffet at Wrapped: Rs4,000 per couple

Plum cake By Corniche

Plum cake

By Corniche

Ingredients:
Dry fruit mix (1kg)
n 250 gms red glazed cherry
n 125 gms tutti fruiti
n 100 gms cashew nuts
n 125 gms raisins
n 25 gms orange peel
n 25 gms lemon peel
n 3 gms nutmeg powder
n 3 gms cinnamon powder
n 125 ml brandy
n 50 ml rum
n 50 ml red wine
Plum cake
n 150 gms refined flour
n 150 gms demerara sugar
n 150 gms butter
n 3 eggs
n 3 gms baking powder
n 10 gms milk powder
n 325 gms dry fruit mix
n 3 ml vanilla essence
n 100 gms crumbled biscuits

Method:
Chop the peels and cherries into halves. Take all the tutti fruiti, raisins and add to the other ingredients. Add the cinnamon and nutmeg powder to the mix and finally pour the alcohol and wine into the mix. This mix will give a good flavour if soaked and kept in a container for at least 15 days. For the final cake, preheat the oven at 200ºC, grease the cake tins or mould with butter and line with butter paper. Cream the butter and sugar together in a bowl, add eggs and beat well. The mix has to be fluffy. Add the vanilla essence to it.Now add refined flour, baking powder and salt together on a side and then pour it onto the egg and butter mix and fold it in well. Finally add the dry fruit mix and combine. Now pour the mix into the cake tin or mould and sprinkle the biscuit crumbs on top. Bake it for 20-25 minutes in the oven. Check if the cake is cooked from inside and serve.

Coffee Frosted Brownies By Adele Fernandes, Slice of Life

Coffee Frosted Brownies
By Adele Fernandes, Slice of Life

Ingredients:
n 150 gms all-purpose flour
n 330 gms sugar
n 4 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
n 1 tsp baking powder
n 1 tsp vanilla extract
n 170 gms butter
n 90 ml boiling water
n 3 eggs
n 120 gms chocolate chips (40-50% cocoa)
n 150 gms walnuts (or pecans), chopped
Frosting
n 75 gms butter
n 220 gms sweet or semisweet dark chocolate
n 2 tbsp hot espresso or very strong coffee

Method:
Preheat oven to 180ºC. Line a 13 x 9 in cake tin with grease-proof or other non-stick paper and grease the tin. Melt the butter in a saucepan. In a bowl combine flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder and vanilla extract. Add eggs, melted butter and hot water and mix until smooth. Add chocolate chips and nuts. Bake until a wooden pick inserted in centre comes out clean, approximately 20-30 minutes. Cool the cake. For the frosting, mix butter, chopped chocolate and coffee and heat in a double boiler until melted. Stir until smooth and glaze over the cake.

Mud cake By Chef Sanjay Kachave, Pastry Chef, Courtyard by Marriott, Mumbai International Airport

Mud cake
By Chef Sanjay Kachave, Pastry Chef, Courtyard by Marriott, Mumbai International Airport

Ingredients:
n 500 gms butter
n 500 gms chocolate
n 8 eggs whole
n 8 eggs yolk
n 160 gms powdered
sugar
n 160 gms refined flour
n 5 ml vanilla essence

Method:
Melt butter and chocolate. Add egg, egg yolk, sugar, refined flour and vanilla essence and mix Grease and dust mould. Pour pudding mix till a third of the mould. Place in oven and bake at 240ºC for 8-10 minutes. Serve as shown with chocolate sauce or preferably chocolate ganache.

Cake Pops By Robin Chatterjee, Yogurtbay

Cake Pops
By Robin Chatterjee, Yogurtbay

Ingredients:
n 250 gms chocolate (dark or white or nutella brownie cake crumbs)
n 100 gms chocolate (white or dark or milk) for ganache
n 1 cup cream

Method:
Melt some chocolate with cream to make a chocolate ganache. Add this to the remaining chocolate and mix together. Then make round balls, and insert a satay stick into the ball and keep it aside to set. Once it is set, roll it into dark, milk or white chocolate (as per preference) to form a coat around it. Cake pops can be garnished with piping of sugar work, stars, silver balls etc.

Almond and Chocolate Pie By Chef Nachiket Shetye, 36 Oak & Barley

Almond and Chocolate Pie
By Chef Nachiket Shetye, 36 Oak & Barley

Ingredients:
n ½ cup bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
n 3 tbsp unsalted butter
n 1 ¼ cups dark corn syrup
n ¾ cup sugar
n 4 large eggs
n 2 tsp vanilla extract
n ¾ tsp almond extract
n Pinch of salt
n 3 cups almonds, toasted

Method:
Position rack in centre of oven and preheat to 180ºC. Stir bittersweet chocolate and unsalted butter in a large metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water until melted and smooth.
Remove bowl from water. Mix in dark corn syrup and ¾ cup sugar. Whisk in eggs, vanilla extract, almond extract and salt. Stir in toasted almonds. Pour filling into prepared crust. Bake pie until filling is set around edges but moves slightly in centre when pie is gently shaken and crust is golden brown, tenting pie with foil if crust browns too quickly, about one hour. Transfer pie to rack and cool slightly. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Gingerbread Men By Tart

Gingerbread Men
By Tart

Ingredients:
n 100 gms brown sugar
n 100 gms golden syrup
n 225 gms plain flour
n ¼ tsp salt
n 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
n 1 heaped tsp ground ginger
n ½ tsp cinnamon
n 50 gms unsalted butter;

Method:
Pre-heat oven to gas mark five and grease two baking sheets. Sift together all of the dry ingredients. Heat butter, sugar and syrup until dissolved then leave to cool after mix them into dry ingredients and make a dough. Chill the dough in the fridge for 30 minutes. Roll out the dough about ¼-inch thick and cut into gingerbread men. Place on trays allowing space to spread. Cook for 10-15 minutes.

German Stollen By Chef Vasant Khot, Sr. Pastry Chef, Holiday Inn Mumbai International Airport

German Stollen
By Chef Vasant Khot, Sr. Pastry Chef, Holiday Inn Mumbai International Airport

Ingredients:
n ¾ cups flour
n 1 cup powder sugar or icing sugar
n ½ cup lukewarm milk
n 3 tsp yeast
n 8 tbsp butter, softened
n 1 tbsp margarine
n 2 eggs optional (or 60 gms condensed milk)
n Salt a pinch
n Pinch of nutmeg
n Pinch of cardamom
n 1 tsp orange zest
n 1 tbsp rum (optional)
n 1 tsp cointreau (optional)
n Pinch of ground cinnamon
n Grated peel of ½ lemon
n 1 cup almonds, blanched and slivered
n ¼ cup candied lemon peel
n ¼ cup candied orange peel
n 1 ¼ cup raisins
n 100 gms readymade marzipan (optional)
For basting:
n 6 tbsp milk (room temperature)
n 8 tbsp pure ghee (or butter)
n ½ cup sugar icing for sprinkling

Method:
Sift the flour into a bowl and make a crate in the centre. Into the crater, add ¼ of the powder sugar and ¼ cup of milk. Dissolve a little yeast before adding to the milk and dust the yeast mixture with a little flour. Let the mixture rest for 20 minutes Add the butter, margarine, egg, salt, remaining sugar, vanilla extract, rum, cinnamon, grated lemon peel, slivered almonds, candied lemon and orange peels, and raisins. Add only enough of the remaining milk to make dough pliable but not very stiff. Knead thoroughly and cover the dough with a damp clean muslin cloth and let it rise for at least two hours. Knead again for one minute then shape the dough into a loaf and put it on a large buttered baking sheet. Use your fingertips to push back into the dough any raisins that may have popped up to prevent scorching. Baste the loaf with milk and bake in a preheated oven at 350º for approximately 50 minutes. Stollen must turn golden brown. Test with a toothpick. Baste the stollen generously with ghee while it is still hot, and then sprinkle with powered sugar. Repeat this process in order to attain a nice white surface and to help keep the stollen fresh and moist for several weeks.

Tip : Stollen doesn’t have a typical shape, you can shape it as per your creativity.

Bake and you shall have it!

Bake and you shall have it!

As the city takes on a festive air this season, we at DNA tried to recreate an almost perfect setting not just for ourselves but for our readers as well. Can the revelry be complete without the aroma of freshly baked goodies and the jingle of bells? It’s Christmas time, after all!

While Santa Claus readies his sleigh and gifts, we got together with Courtyard by Marriott in Andheri east and Pillsbury Eggless Cooker Cake to present Cake Walk — the baking workshop an exciting activity that added some more cheer to the Christmas celebrations of our readers. Executive chef Suresh Thampy and pastry chef Sanjay Kachave shared with the registered participants the secrets of baking lip-smacking cakes and pastries. They were joined in their efforts by actress-model Sameera Reddy who walked up to the dais, picked up a bowl and spatula and started mixing the batter for some delicious treats. Now that is what we call the icing on the cake, literally! The participants were delighted to have Sameera amongst them. And between signing autographs and posing for pictures with our readers, the actress told the rapt audience that she loved baking. She even shared with them some of her own recipes. “Over the years, I have stumbled upon several healthier and more nutritious substitutes,” she revealed. As the afternoon progressed, the chefs shared recipes for sponge cakes, icing, cookies, pastries, tiramisu, Christmas specials like plum cake, marzipan and chocolate decorations — can you imagine a baking workshop getting more mouthwatering than this? A premium venue, an engaging session from the best chefs, a celebrity in their midst and some cupcakes as takeaways, we are wondering if we have made those on Santa’s nice list envious?

BALLOONS ARE ALWAYS FUN AND THEY ADD A LOT OF COLOUR TO ANY CHRISTMAS PARTY

UP IN THE AIR

BALLOONS ARE ALWAYS FUN AND THEY ADD A LOT OF COLOUR TO ANY CHRISTMAS PARTY


Available in fascinating colours,shapes,sizes and themes,balloons always add to festive spirit and brighten up the atmosphere where they're used.
Balloons have come a long way from their quintessential solid colour form to modern contemporary designs.This ordinary decoration can uplift any space through its different placements and types.For this holiday season,the market has a lot to offer.From striped to floral designs,to customised messages,and popular cartoon characters are in demand.These innovative patterns and neon colours,have certainly given a new twist to our loveable and popular balloon.


RIGHT PICK

As you decide on the type and the number of balloons to buy,make sure you consider the size and durability of the balloons.To break the monotony,pick balloons of different colours and shapes.


SHAPE SHIFTERS

The oval balloon tops the list as always.But the popular picks this Christmas are the range of new balloons in the shapes of gingerbread man,Santa Claus,Christmas trees,candies,Christmas star,Christmas angels,penguins,reindeer and snowman.


HOW TO USE THEM

Where you place your Its time to give balloons a new definition.Use them creatively and just don't restrict them to the entrance or on the Christmas tree.They can simply be thrown on the floor or just tie them in bunches,and place them creatively on furniture pieces like tables,chairs and in corners of the house.

Cupcakes for Christmas FROM RED VELVET,HAZELNUT TORTE TO TIRAMISU, CUPCAKES ARE THE FLAVOUR OF THE SEASON

Cupcakes for Christmas

FROM RED VELVET,HAZELNUT TORTE TO TIRAMISU, CUPCAKES ARE THE FLAVOUR OF THE SEASON


Measuring,whipping and baking.It's what creates the magical aromas of Christmas traditions.At this time,the readymade list just doesn't make the cut.This year,we have a whole new list of goodies that are trending for Christmas,and cupcakes are topping the list.
From 3-D sugar-work on cakes to themed cake-pops,bakers are getting creative this Christmas.But,it's customised cupcakes that are the flavour of the season."Red velvet,hazelnut gooey torte and tiramisu are some of the most popular flavours this season.Themed cupcakes are the biggest hit and everyone wants to learn how to make them,"smiles Rakhee Vasvani,owner,Palate Culinary Studio.
These small,delicious,pick-me-up cupcakes are looking more delectable than ever before.This Christmas,creamy cupcakes with customised Christmas designs such as Christmas trees,Santa,snowman and reindeer,have become the main attraction.
Several mothers are also planning to give their little ones a big surprise by baking these exotic cupcakes."We follow the tradition of making a walnut cake.However,this year,along with a walnut cake,I'm also planning to make a mixed fruit-cream cupcake,especially for my sevenyear-old daughter and nieces,"reveals Rebecca D'costa from Bandra.
And you can get as creative as you like.From alphabet cupcakes to fairy-light circled ones,the cup overflows.A bit of effort,lots of love and simple recipes,and you too can make decorative Christmas cupcakes,cakepops and a moist exotic plum cake.

SNOWMAN CUPCAKES



Ingredients

100 gm softened butter 100 gm golden caster sugar 2 eggs 100 gm flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp vanilla essence Icing sugar for dusting 150 gm ready-to-roll white icing 3 tbsp apricot jam Marshmallows Red fizzy lances for the scarves Tubes of coloured writing icing Sugar baubles (for cake decoration) Edible silver baubles

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180C/300F/Gas Mark 2.Place the softened butter,sugar,eggs,flour,baking powder and vanilla essence into the bowl of an electric mixer.Beat for a few minutes until the mixture is light in colour and fluffy.Line a bun tin with eight paper cases and divide the mixture between them,filling the cases to about two-thirds of the way up.Bake for about 20 minutes until the fairy cakes have risen and are lightly golden.Lift the cakes (still in their paper cases) out of the tins and leave to cool on a wire rack.Dust a clean work surface with icing sugar and roll out the icing to about 5mm/ in thick.Cut out eight circles using a small pastry cutter that is the same size as the top of your cakes.Put the apricot jam into a small dish and stir in one tablespoon of hot water.Brush this over the surface of the cakes and stick the circles of icing on top.To decorate the cakes,use marshmallows for the snowmen's heads,black writing icing for the eyes,red writing icing for the smiles and sugar baubles for noses (stick them on with a blob of writing icing).Stick the heads on the cakes using a little apricot jam,then stick on the edible silver baubles for buttons.Wrap fizzy lances around the snowmen's necks for scarves.

Celebrate the festive spirit with good food

Celebrate the festive spirit with good food

    It’s that time of the year when we pray for peace, happiness and lots of goodies from good ol’ Santa. So gear up and get set to paint the town red with Christmas celebrations at Hard Rock Café. Celebrate this special day with a three course sumptuous festive feast comprising delicious seasonal food, which features tantalising vegetarian and non vegetarian fare like Turkey Platter, Vegetable Platter, Three Bean Salad with refreshing citrus dressing among many other offerings. In keeping with the tradition of the festival, the café is preparing a specialty item to satisfy your sweet tooth — Dessert Plum Cake with Vanilla Ice Cream. The special set menu for Christmas is available from December 23 to 30 for at Rs 1,250 plus taxes. So, get ready to celebrate Christmas with your loved ones over wine, laughter, music and good food.
    And what better way to bring in the New Year than being at the biggest party in town at Hard Rock Café. Join DJ Roane Acey and DJ Henry as they put a new twist to your favourite tracks. It’s that one night of the year where you get to break your old resolutions before you make new ones. So eat, drink and dance to your heart’s content with unlimited F&B offers as the countdown begins.

Hangla’s has recently introduced a budget menu — specially priced and portioned biryani and tikia rolls at low prices.

Hot offers on chilly evenings

    Hangla’s has recently introduced a budget menu — specially priced and portioned biryani and tikia rolls at low prices. Their fish meal comes in officedesk-friendly
packaging and comprises Fish Kalia (an onion-based fish curry) along with flavoursome and aromatic basmati rice. Plus, there is Shukto, Moong Dal, Lau Chingri (lauki with prawns) and Aloo Posto. During Happy Hours, there’s a flat 20% discount on all items (except the ones that come under the Budget Menu) from 12 noon to 6 pm.
    And if you’re a Hangla fan, you will be pleased to know that you can now hire the services of their chefs at your parties — you can have hot chicken/mutton rolls prepared in your kitchen by the folks at Hangla. Their catering division also takes charge of the food at both corporate and private parties. This winter, they also have Darjeeling tea and famous Bengali snacks like ujjala chanachur, and prawn papad besides condiments such as pudina chutney and mustard sauce (kasundi).
    Set up in 2008, Hangla’s is a chain of fast-food joints that aims to, and has succeeded, in creating a Calcutta street food experience in Mumbai. Its rolls, biryanis and tikias, while being extremely popular with Bengalis, have also attracted a wide variety of food lovers. They have nine outlets located across Mumbai.

Mumbai’s popular hotspot Goa Portuguesa Restobar recently celebrated its 24th anniversary

Goan Fiesta

    Mumbai’s popular hotspot Goa Portuguesa Restobar recently celebrated its 24th anniversary at their parent Matunga branch. The globally awarded, first ISO certified restobar has been serving delicious Goan, Malwani and Portuguese cuisine with dishes like Stuffed Crabs, Prawns Resoice, Chicken Xacuti, Tender Coconut Cashew Sukhe, Babycorn Mushroom Xacuti and lots more.
    The restobar has been successfully managed by multifaceted proprietors Dr Suhas Awchat, his Goan wife Deepa Awchat and their son Sudeep. Goa Portuguesa has introduced more than 108 pure vegetarian delicacies, cooked in a separate kitchen. Deepa has also authored Goa Portuguesa Cookbook having 118 mouthwatering Goan and Portuguese recipes of which 62 are vegetarian. After the grand success at Matunga, another branch was launched in Lokhandwala. A new branch will be launched at Thane (W), Next to ‘R’ Mall in January.
    To celebrate its 24th anniversary, patrons get a 24%* discount on food and a buy two and get four* (on alcohol). (Limited offer). The Christmas Eve dinner boasts of Roast Turkey, Chistmas Pudding, wines and Goan sweets while New Year Dance and Dine with unlimited food and drinks starts from 1,199*/person. (Couple packages are also available). Also, being introduced is the sit-down lunch buffet with unlimited variety of vegetarian and non vegetarian starters, main course and desserts starting from 349*. (Monday to Sunday). *T&C Apply.

Deepa Awchat

Called Miko Kuro’s Midnight Tea, this experimental art event will be held over 12 hours, with 48 artists from the US, Canada and India showcasing paintings, sound installations and performance art and conducting poetry readings and creative discussions, punctuated by tea ceremonies

Join a midnight tea party

Starting at midnight today, painters, poets, actors and sculptors dressed in Victorian costumes will perform, swirl in circles, have conversations in hushed tones and hold tea ceremonies in dimly lit rooms, with slow trance music playing in the background.
Called Miko Kuro’s Midnight Tea, this experimental art event will be held over 12 hours, with 48 artists from the US, Canada and India showcasing paintings, sound installations and performance art and conducting poetry readings and creative discussions, punctuated by tea ceremonies.
Conceptualised and curated by USbased poet and community art organiser Natasha Marin, the event has travelled through the US and to France, Greece, Canada and China, and is being held in Mumbai in collaboration with city-based artist collective Visual Disobedience.
Viewers — or participants, as Marin prefers to call them — can join in at specific points through the 12 hours, or trail the artists as they move from venue to venue.

With the event made up entirely of impromptu acts, there is no schedule. All that is definite is that the event will begin at Worli’s Tao art gallery and end at the Lakeeren gallery in Colaba.
‘Participants’ may sign up for a single three-hour session or for all 12 hours. In each session, artists will respond to the instructions of the curator or to music playing in the background.
“Each event is contingent upon the guests, who co-create the ritual with the artists rather than just watching from the sidelines,” Marin said to HT, via email. “Midnight Tea is an arena for creative engagement.”
And if trailing artists through the wee hours seems too daunting, you can head to the Last Ship art residency in Santacruz at 9 am and watch a three-hour video of the Mumbai event instead.

A meal at Cheval, French for horse, proves to be well worth the gamble. Be sure to bet on dessert

A WINNING STEED

A meal at Cheval, French for horse, proves to be well worth the gamble. Be sure to bet on dessert

Cheval is French for horse. The Kala Ghoda eatery’s signage is painted on the newly whitewashed wall that was covered, not too long ago, with artist Sunil Padwal’s mural of a black horse blazing across a block of fuchsia.
Chicken liver parfait Inside, on one of the restaurant’s rough-hewn pale walls, is a fluid, freehand sketch of a horse in black paint. The equine theme ends there, and despite its name, Cheval is not a French restaurant. It features cuisines from different parts of Europe across its three rooms, each of which has starkly different lighting and colour schemes.
On the menu, Italy is represented well, with pasta, risotto and a whole array of pizzas.
From France come dishes like fish en papillote, French onion tart and Gruyère soufflé.

From the UK, there are pies, rarebit, posset and sticky toffee pudding. (Chef Will Bowlby trained under celebrated British chef Rowley Leigh at London’s Le Café Anglais, which serves Anglo French cuisine.)
We skipped pizza for the unfamiliar and less ubiquitous, and discovered that the avocado-millet stack is a thing of joy. The creamy fruit was layered with little white pearls of millet, which made us wonder why anyone would ever eat couscous. The stack was tart, nutty, buttery, and fresh — a lovely start to the meal. The chicken liver parfait matched it, with a quenelle of creamy, smoky, not-funky liver mousse opposite another of mustard-stippled fig relish and fragments of thymeflecked champagne jelly in between. In comparison, the fennel-apple salad was needlessly awash in dressing, and the apple slices were mealy. Cheval’s service was intuitive on the night we stopped by. When we stopped after a bite of the rarebit — it was less exciting than a simple grilled-cheese sandwich — the staff took it off our table and, generously, also our bill.
Among the mains, our gratinated aubergine melanzana was even tastier (and fattier) than the parmigiana at Sundance, if that’s possible. And a chargrilled chicken thigh with chorizo and French beans, served on a spring onion mash cake, had superbly juicy meat matched well with the tang of chorizo, the snap of beans and the carbladen comfort of spuds.
Our last course outshone the rest of the meal. Every once in a while, there’s a dessert that tastes better than it sounds or looks. Cheval’s passion fruit crème brûlée tasted new and wonderful even after a dozen spoonsful. Even if your meal has a few misses, this dish alone should ensure that you head out at a happy trot.

InterContinental Hotel, Marine Drive

Eat

Thursday Tuck into a lavish brunch that features a wide-spread of Italian, European, Mediterranean and Japanese dishes created by Chef Paul Kinny. Relax and unwind after a hectic week, while sipping on some cocktails made by the in-house bartenders. At Corleone, InterContinental Hotel, Marine Drive. Tel: 3987 9999 Get into the Christmas spirit with some delightful offerings. Sample a special range of festive food items like rich plum cake and special hot beverages too. At Barista Lavazza Outlets. Friday Treat your loved ones to a sweet delight of dark, milk and white chocolate layered mousse with a crunchy biscuitty cup filled with fresh fruits and cream that just melts in your mouth for the perfect Christmas dessert at Corniche, Bandra. Make evenings extra special with happy hours running from 4:30 pm to 7:30 pm. Buy one drink and get the second free on sangrias, long island ice tea, mojito, fruit daiquiri and caprioska. At Sanchos, Khar Tel: 67094455 Saturday Learn how to whip up some eggless delights by Chef Ayushi Shah of Icing on Top. Her USP is miniature-sized desserts. At this Baking Masterclass, she will be teaching you how to make Orange Chocolate Loaf with Chocolate Ganache, Mint Truffles, Black Forest or Strawberry Shotglasses and Chocolate Shotglasses. At Foodhall, Level 3, Palladium. To register call 3024567 Sniff the aroma, share the flavour and savour every morsel of a barbeque sandwich while sipping on some beer on a Saturday afternoon. As the pool area of Renaissance Mumbai Convention Center Hotel transforms itself, indulge in its special barbeques and quick bites menu. Binge on the Hot Dog Roll, Mezze Platter, LVC Gourmet Burger, Marriot Burger, Fried Chicken Wings, Paprika Potato Wedges, Chicken Caprese or Steal Loaf. For the healthy eaters, we have the Greek Salad and Fruit Bowl to offer, as well as a wide choice of Ice Creams and Sliders especially for the Kids. Guests enjoy complimentary access to the pool. Outside Lake View Café by the poolside, 12.30 pm — 3.30 pm Sunday Celebrating the festive season in a regal way, Copper Chimney introduces the Kebab Festival for its patrons till the end of December. Infused with freshly ground spices and remarkable flavour pairings these scrumptious delicacies from the annals of Mughal cuisine take a leaf from history’s pages. Pick from an assortment of dishes such as Mutton Seekh Masala, Angoor ke Chaap, Murgh Dahi Lasooni, Jhinga Jaitooni, Pind da Tawa Murgh and Turki Boti. For the vegetarian diners, pick from an elaborate menu which includes Tandoori Aloo Methi, Karari Lasooni Palak Seekh, and Paneer Tulsi tikka, Brocolli Makhmali, Arbi Ke Tuk, paired with Gilafi Kulcha or Kabuli Roomali Roti. Make the festive season more delectable with an exclusive Christmas menu. Indulge in White Fondue, Cupcakes in Begian chocolate flavour, Latte and much more. At Häagen-Dazs, Phoenix Mills, Lower Parel.

Recipe for chole and Shahi Tukda

Taste of punjab

Vashi resident Neebha Shah loves experimenting with various cuisines. She enjoys cooking for her husband and two kids. This 32-year-old homemaker likes to travel to new places.

Recipe for chole Ingredients l chole (250gms) l 3-4 onions l 1 big tomato l 1 green chilies l 8-9 pods of garlic l 1 ½ spoon ginger l 2 to3 spoons red chilies l 1 ½ spoon jeera powder l 2 spoon coriander powder garam masala l pepper ½ spoon l oil 3 to 4 spoons l salt to taste Method l Boil chole which has been soaked overnight. Grind garlic, ginger, onion, tomato, green chilies, pepper l Take a pan and heat oil l Sauté the grinded ingredients and then add remaining masala till oil leaves the pan l Add boiled chole and add salt to taste l Simmer it for about 10-15 mins l Garnish it with sliced onions, green chilies and coriander leaves l Serve it with sweet and sour tamarind or khajur chutney Recipe for bhature Ingredients l Maida and curd Method l Knead the dough and add a little oil l Leave it for 20-30 minutes l Make thin small puris and fry it in oil Shahi Tukda Ingredients l 1/2 litre milk l Sugar 5-6 spoons l Dry fruits (cashew, almond and pistachios) l 3 bread pieces l Ghee to fry Method l Boil the milk and bring it to thick consistency l Cut the bread pieces into half (triangle shaped) l Fry the bread pieces in ghee l In a shallow dish, arrange the pieces of bread pour the cooled milk and decorate it with dry fruits l Keep it in the fridge for about 1-2 hrs till it sets

Lentil-ginger soup with coconut milk

Lentil-ginger soup with coconut milk


Serves: 4

Ingredients:
l 1 onion
l ½-1 chilli pepper of your choice
l 2 tsp coriander seeds (or ground coriander)
l 1 tsp cumin seeds (or ground cumin)
l 2 tbsp olive oil
l 1 can coconut milk (400 ml)
l 200 gms red lentils
l 1 piece fresh ginger root (2-cm long)
l 2 garlic cloves
l 1 tbsp ground curcuma
l 1 jar chickpeas
l Sea salt
l Juice from 1 lemon

Methods:
Cut onion and chilli pepper into small pieces. Coarsely ground coriander and cumin seeds. Heat oil in a pot and saute onion and chili pepper for a short time. Add coriander and cumin and fry shortly. Pour in coconut milk and ¾ litre water and stir in lentils. Chop ginger and garlic and add into the soup together with the curcuma. Let simmer at medium heat for about 15 minutes. Rinse chickpeas in a strainer, drain and mix into the lentil soup. Cook for another 10 minutes. Season with salt and lemon juice and serve immediately. For a special treat, decorate soup with fresh mint.

Purple Potato and Onion leek Vichyssoise

This thick soup is the perfect simple meal for a chilly evening. Actually, you can use any potatoes for this soup. I chose to use purple potatoes because they are different and they made the soup a pretty purple colour. You can have this soup chilled or warm.

Ingredients:
l 200 gms onions, finely sliced
l 500 gms prepared leeks
l 300 gms purple potatoes
l 2 pts hot chicken stock
l 1 tbsp lemon juice
l 1-2 tbsp light oil
l 15 gms butter
l 284 ml cream

Method:
Heat the oil in a saucepan and add the onions. Stir to coat the onions in the oil and sweat over low heat with the lid on for 15 minutes. Add leeks and butter cut into small pieces. Stir the leeks and onions together over a gentle heat for 10 minutes. Stir every now and then to distribute the melting butter. Add the chicken stock and purple potatoes. Bring slowly to a boil and simmer the vegetables till tender for about 20 minutes. Add the lemon juice and liquidise the soup. Serve with a swirl of cream and a sprinkle of parsley. If you just want to eat this soup cold, add the cream when the soup has cooled and store in the fridge. If you are planning to freeze the soup, leave out the cream and add some when you are going to serve the soup. Taste for seasoning. Serve chilled or warm.

Korean dumplings Soup

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
l 16 - 20 pieces mandu (Korean dumplings)
l 1 package mandu pee (dumpling skins/wrappers) (usually about 40 pieces)

Filling
l 2 cups kimchi, chopped
l 115 gms ground chicken (or use shiitake/button mushrooms)
l 115 gms ground pork
l 170 gms tofu
l 225 gms bean sprouts
l 1/2 onion
l 3 scallions
l 1 tbsp garlic, minced
l 1 tsp ginger, minced
l 1 tbsp sesame oil
l 1 egg
l 1 tbsp flour
l 1/2 tsp pepper
l Salt to taste

Anchovy Broth

l 1 cup dried anchovies
l 3 4-inch square pieces dried kelp (Korean seaweed)
l 1/2 onion
l 4-5 garlic cloves
l 2 scallions (white parts)
l 1 tbsp soy sauce
l Salt and pepper to taste
Garnish (optional)
l 1 egg
l 1 scallion (green part)

Method:
Finely chop the kimchi and squeeze out as much liquid as possible. Blanch the bean sprouts, chop and squeeze out water. Squeeze out water from tofu. Finely chop the onion and scallions. Mix all ingredients well in a large bowl. Place one heaped teaspoon of the filling on a wrapper placed on your palm. Wet the edges of the wrapper with water and seal tightly into a half-moon shape. Repeat till all the filling/wrappers are used.

For the soup broth
Line the steamer with a cheesecloth or wet paper towel and steam for for about 10 minutes. In a large pot, add 10 cups of water and all the ingredients and boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to medium low and boil for 10 minutes. For the egg garnish, separate the egg and gently whisk each part. Heat a lightly oiled nonstick skillet and pour each egg part into a thin layer, tilting the skillet. Cook each side until no visible egg liquid remains, without browning. Slice into 1 1/2-inch long thin strips or 1-inch diamond shapes. Set aside. Slice the scallion into thin strips. Return the broth to a boil over medium high heat and stir in soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste. Add the mandu, stirring gently so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pot. Boil till they float, and reduce the heat and simmer for a few minutes. Ladle the steaming soup into bowls and garnish with the sliced egg and scallion.

Food for all! The 10th edition of the annual food festival promises a plethora of there

Food for all!

The 10th edition of the annual food festival promises a plethora of there

Foodies ahoy! The UpperCrust Food Show — an annual three-day long food extravaganza that kickstarted yesterday offers a bunch of gastronomic delights. “The idea is to always raise the bar. And with each passing year we have been succesfully doing that. Though raising the bar does not necessarily mean expensive food, the show clearly debunks that myth. From high-end food stores to a basic pickle guy, there is everything you could ask for. There are three sections — the gourmet and food part; the wine zone and the tech and gadgets section,” says Farzana Contractor, organiser. This annual food fiesta in the city brings under one umbrella hundreds of national and international food products, as well as top chefs who give cookery demos, talks by celebrity hoteliers, restaurateurs and people from the F&B business. Says Farzana, “For anyone who loves food, this is the awesome place to be — to shop for food in the company of so many food lovers!” Some of the participating chefs include Chef Vineet Bhatia, Chef Haji Mohammed Farooqui, Chef Wilson Chung, Chef Kelvin, and Chef Ranveer Brar. Celebrated foodie Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal will be conducting a chefs workshop for kids (above seven) on Sunday. From noted foodlover Prahlad Kakkar conducting a fun food quiz to chocolatier Zeba Kohli’s chocolate-making workshop, the event has something to offer to everyone. Highlights of this years show are Japanese sauces and ingredients by Maido India, a unique range of home products like — by HouseProud.in, interesting pickles made from olive oil from ADF, organic products from the Organic Haus sourced from Germany and Belgium, Kawan multi-grain parathas. Frish samosa patti from West Coast Group, Indus Pride, spiced beer from Sab Miller amongst several others.

ROSE AND PISTACHIO SHRIKHAND LABNEH BALLS

{ B^O D Y B E^A U T^I F U L }

The healthy sweet tooth

EVEN THE MOST HEALTH-CONSCIOUS PEOPLE WANT TO BE ABLE TO INDULGE A LITTLE DURING THE HOLIDAY SEASON. TIME ’N STYLE BEAUTY HELPS YOU WITH A CHEAT SHEET FULL OF TIPS AND TRICKS

    Stick to your guns “It’s most important to stick to a regimen by forming healthy habits. If you decide to eat a salad with each meal, do it everyday. You will automatically want to have it during days of festivities as well,” says nutritionist Naini Setalvad. If you feel pressed for time, then the first thing you tend to do is give up on your exercise routine. “Remember that you’re going to eat out, and you will inadvertently eat oily or sugary food. Therefore, it’s important to stick to your regular lifestyle than skip anything,” she adds. 

    Low-cal, anyone? The most crucial part of any celebration are the mithais, it seems. Of course, sugar is required by the body, but you can find healthier options without depriving yourself of either merriment or health. “White sugar can be substituted by mineral and vitamin-rich organic jaggery, or even dry fruits like figs, dates, prunes and raisins,” says Setalvad. Most sweets we eat are sugar-laden and combined with fat and cream. “Ice-creams can be easily substituted with mishti doi, made from jaggery and curd and sandesh made from cottage cheese and fruits (no sugar added). You could also opt for fruit yoghurts and mithais made from dates, walnuts and other nuts,” explains Setalvad. Jaggery rasgullas are better than fried gulab jamuns and karanjias. The options are endless if you take the time and effort to make the right choices. 

    Making allowances There is no need to stop yourself from enjoying a samosa, vada or two. “Always remember that you can bake anything you can fry. Frankie rolls are a very good substitute for samosas. Chakris, puris and kachoris can be baked. Savoury favourites like patras, muthias, dhoklas and idlis can be steamed,” says Setalvad. Vegetables can be added to any of these dishes to increase their nutritional value.
    Festivities are incomplete without the quintessential platter of assorted nuts and dry fruits, but the good news is that they’re healthy too. For an interesting twist, opt for masala nuts. These foods are filling and will prevent you from binging on fried foods. Fruit in various forms is always a great option to serve your guests. — E x p e r t i n p u t s b y Naini Setalvad, N u t r i t i o n i s t  

 

ROSE AND PISTACHIO SHRIKHAND LABNEH BALLS ( T i m e : 1 0 m i n u t e s + 2 4 h o u r s h a n g i n g t i m e f o r t h e y o g h u r t ) 

 

This dish is a take on the Middle Eastern labneh balls, which are traditionally savoury. The process of making them is very much like our Indian yoghurt cheese or shrikhand. 

Ingredients 1/2 cup pistachios, flaked 1/3 cup rosebud tea or dried rose petals 1/2 tsp toasted fennel seeds, crushed coarsely 1/2 tsp cardamom, crushed coarsely 2 kg yoghurt 1/3 cup honey Extra honey (for topping) 

Method Place a thin, clean muslin cloth over an empty bowl and spoon yoghurt mixture into it. Tie the corners of the cloth into a bundle and suspend it from a stationary object over a bowl (to hold the excess liquid). Allow this bundle to hang for about two-four hours. Then, place the yoghurt in the bundle, put it in a strainer and leave it in the fridge overnight. What you’ll have the next day is labneh. Transfer this to a bowl and stir in half the pistachios and rose petals and all the cardamom and fennel. Combine the remaining pistachios and rose petals in a saucer and flatten into a thin layer. Remove yoghurt from refrigerator (take about one tablespoon at a time) and shape into smooth balls. Roll in the pistachio and rose mix, and arrange on a tray as you finish. Drizzle with honey and keep it back in the fridge. Chill until firm and ready for consumption. They can also be stored in the fridge in a sterile, airtight jar, covered with honey for up to a week.
— R e c i p e b y Rushina Ghildiyal, f o o d e x p e r t  

 

Take the time out to exercise. Whether it’s a simple walk, swim, yoga, cycling or even dancing, do something.
Keep in mind that even the little bit of food you consume throughout the day adds up to calories. So, even when you’re cooking, avoid eating small bites of food. A piece of mithai each time you meet someone might not seem like much, but it adds up to a lot.

Special seafood menu at Marriott

Lotus Café brings out the best and the freshest variety of crustaceans and exotic seafood. Feast on King Tiger prawn, Bay of Bengal bekti, pomfret, delicate and fresh scampi (small lobsters), bassa, squid and clams. All orders will be accompanied by a home-style seafood broth and delectable breads. Lotus Café also offers a multitude of cooking styles in Indian and Chinese cuisine. This special menu is valid on December 14 and 15 over dinner at the JW Marriott in Juhu. Call 6693 3344 for reservations.

Sai Sannidhi Hotel, Dahisar Check Naka.

Calling all food lovers

    Sai Sannidhi, among the best seafood restaurants in the suburbs, is out with a new lipsmacking kebab menu. Established in 1969, Sai Sannidhi first became popular for its Manglorean cuisine especially prepared from a collection of homemade recipes. Today, it is owned by Santosh Puthran and spread over 2,000 sq. ft. Puthran gets the credit for turning the small joint into the popular seafood destination it is today, among the residents of Borivali, Dahisar and Mira Road.
    The place strikes a perfect balance between the aromas and flavours. Famous for its seafood, kebabs and biryani, the restaurant aims at making each dining experience a memorable one. On the platter, one can find an eclectic mix of unique gastronomic variances, sure to appease the tastebuds of any food lover. Patrons get a chance to relish dishes made with chicken, surmai, prawns, kalwa and rawas — Tangdi Kabab, Chicken Achari Kabab, Chicken Rashmi Kabab, Shami Kabab, Mutton Bolti Kabab, Keheem Pav, Bheja Masala and much more. Puthran says that the small size of the restaurant encouraged him to offer a better take-away menu, which is quite a hit. The restaurant is divided into AC and non-AC sections; patrons can also avail the parcel and home delivery facilities as well as catering services.
    Address: Sai Sannidhi,
    Dahisar Check Naka.
    Timings: 9 am to
    1:30 am
    Home Delivery: 022-2896 1065, 022-2828 5333.

Sai Sannidhi offers a variety of dishes

A royal culinary experience

A royal culinary experience

    Rajdhani’s Rasovara — The Royal Kitchen — is the first ever luxury thali restaurant that personifies true luxury dining experience. Revamping the whole traditional atmosphere by adding a tinge of royalty with the same regal palate, Rajdhani’s Rasovara at Palladium promises to be an experience to look forward to. Served on the authentic Kansa thali, the food redefines authentic Gujarati and Rajasthani cuisine in terms of taste, preparation and serving. Apart from the famous food, Rajdhani’s Rasovara has upgraded its ambience, service and experience making it a must-visit restaurant.
    A number of differences help the restaurant to stand out from the rest. Customers are greeted with the traditional tikka welcoming ceremony and assisted to their tables with a wet towel hand wipe. Each table has a designated ‘captain’ that provides personalised service to guests. Signature delicacies are prepared by the top six head-chefs or the ‘Corporate Maharaj’, as they are called.
Rajdhani documents a customer’s valuable feedback on a tablet PC while the finest staff from across India have been handpicked and trained rigorously over several months to provide customers service true to kings.
Every detail, right from the superior furnishings to the beautiful cutlery, has been carefully looked at. Artistic upholstery and layout stand out with the carefully placed lighting. The special golden Kansa thali has been specially ordered for food to be served in. Even the farewell ‘paan shot’ has been researched and created to give that perfect taste.
Rajdhani has been catering to the masses at large and this new concept has been introduced to target the swish set. All in all, the grand thali at Rajdhani’s Rasovara is fit for those with a king’s appetite.
Rajdhani’s Rasovara, Level 3, Palladium, Phoenix Mills, Lower Parel. The unlimited thali is priced at Rs 599. Website: http://rajdhani.co.in/ 

Rajdhani’s Rasovara offers a feast fit for royalty

Hotelier of the Year: Kapil Chopra, Vice President, Oberoi Hotels

I don’t usually make predictions about the hotel business – it is too risky – but I’m going to make one now: I would be very, very surprised if, within the next five years, Kapil Chopra does not become one of the leaders of India’s hotel business.
As the success of the Trident, Gurgaon, demonstrated some years ago, Kapil is an exceptional general manager, focused on details, capable of extracting the best from his staff and with a strategic vision of the hotel business: who would have expected the Trident to get the highest room rates in the NCR?
But as the rise of the Gurgaon Oberoi and his record as vice president in charge of other properties has shown, he is much more than a general manager. He is a corporate visionary, a savvy marketer, a smart deal-maker and a man with a deep understanding of how the hotel business works.

PERFECT HOTELIER

Kapil Chopra, VP, Oberoi Hotels, is a man with a deep understanding of how the hotel business works

Best F&B Hotel: Leela Palace

When the Leela Palace opened, none of us expected very much in F&B terms. We had experienced the Leela’s brand of F&B before: at the Leela in Gurgaon. And it was fine, very good even, but hardly exceptional. Then the hotel’s opening was completely overshadowed by the triumphant debut of the spectacular Oberoi in Gurgaon.
But the Leela has surprised us all. Despite a rocky start (the general manager went in the first week, which may have been a good thing because Tamir Kobrin then took over), the hotel has set new standards for hospitality. Megu is glamorous and glitzy. Le Cirque is elegant and classy. Jamavar has the best Malayali food among Delhi’s hotels and Qube has a great menu and a tranquil ambience.

Contribution to Indian Food: Jayaram Banan, Swagath and Sagar

There are loads of lifetime achievement awards for hoteliers. But restaurateurs get short shrift. So here’s my attempt to redress the balance: a lifetime achievement award for the restaurant business.
Jayaram does not need my endorsement. Everyone accepts that Sagar has changed the way Delhi looks at South Indian snacks and that Swagath has transformed north India’s view of coastal cuisine. What is probably less known is the extent to which Jayaram is self-made. He ran away from home in Mangalore when he was a boy, came to Bombay and got a job washing dishes in a canteen. From these humble origins has sprung up an empire worth hundreds of crores and restaurants that have become iconic.

F&B Professional of the Year: Rajesh Namby, Leela Palace

Captain Nair will probably kill me for saying this but until the Leela Palace opened in Delhi, I never rated the group very highly in cuisine terms (except for the south Indian food), and certainly never for F&B service. That the new hotel should be such a breakthrough with some of Delhi’s finest restaurants and the best F&B service in town is due to many factors (including the interest that the good Captain and his son Dinesh take in the food) but much of the credit goes to one man.
As F&B supremo at the Leela Palace, Rajesh Namby has transformed and overhauled the Leela group’s image in the F&B world and introduced standards of service not previously associated with the Leela. Like all good professionals, Namby is a backroom boy and even other hoteliers in Delhi would not recognise him if they passed him in the street. But his record now speaks for itself.

Chef of the Year: Manish Mehrotra, Indian Accent

This award is a no-brainer. Those of us who follow chefs always knew that Manish is a genius. But ever since he won Foodistan, became a public figure and featured in Indian and foreign media, Manish has finally broken through, winning the fame that is due to him. (For the record, I first gave him this award some years ago before he became famous).
Here’s why I rate Manish’s modern Indian food so highly: he does not rely on toning down the spices, reducing the gravies and Frenchifying the food. Instead, he approaches each dish with a fresh eye and some of his creations demonstrate real culinary genius. It helps also that he is a genuinely nice guy, one of the least egotistical, most humble chefs I know. And fame has not changed him one bit!

Best Restaurant Manager: Niju Varghese, Diva

It is hard for a manager to shine in a chef-driven restaurant. But if you ask me, the spirit of Diva, Ritu Dalmia’s flagship Italian restaurant in GK II, is not Ritu herself but the quietly competent Niju Varghese, Delhi’s best restaurant manager.
When I go to Diva now, I don’t care if Ritu is around (her kitchen runs on auto-pilot) but the evening is never the same if Niju is off. He runs the dining room with a silent flair, never drawing attention to himself but never relaxing either, always keeping a watch on tables to ensure that no guest goes home disappointed.

Best for a Celebration: The Orient Express, The Taj Palace

I sometimes think that the one thing that makes the Taj group so special is the calibre of its middle-level managers and their dedication to the spirit of the Taj. Take The Orient Express. It has been going in basically the same form since 1982 and yet it still remains the only place I would ever think of going to for a celebration or a special evening.
This is almost entirely because of the people who run the restaurant: Ashutosh Kapoor (now assistant F&B manager) who knows the preferences of every one of his regular guests and chef DN Sharma whose love for his job and his restaurant are the finest expressions of what the Taj should be about. Sadly, the Taj has lost G Subbaraman, who knew the restaurant’s exceptional wine list inside out. (The Taj’s loss is the Leela’s gain.)
In an age of expat managers, over-paid chefs and culinary hype, the Orient Express reminds us of what it is that makes the Indian hotel industry great: the skill, dedication and talent of exceptional but underpaid Indian professionals.

Best Bakery/Deli: The Delicatessen, The Oberoi

If you need proof that India is changing, consider this: when the Oberoi closed down Kandahar, its Indian restaurant, and opened a deli in that vast space, who could have imagined that the Deli (which has very few tables) could beat Kandahar in revenues?
I’m guessing that Biki Oberoi, ahead of the curve as always, had sensed that this might happen. The deli is an astonishing success story, the quality of its pastries further elevated by Deep Bajaj’s skills and a wider range of imported charcuterie than ever before.

Best Multi-Cuisine: Setz, Emporio Mall, Vasant Kunj

I’ll be honest with you: I never thought Prasanjit Singh could pull it off for so long. Though Prasanjit now does many other things, Setz, the restaurant he runs for Moscow’s Keshav Bhagat and its ultimate owners, the DLF group, remains his flagship. And it is still full, still re-inventing itself, and still serving many different cuisines with great distinction. Its two offshoots, the excellent ChaShi and the Café, both on the ground floor of Emporio, continue to flourish.
I used to go to Setz for the European food but these days I prefer the Oriental. The Chinese food is reliable (they have finally got the Peking Duck right) and the Thai food is easily the best in Delhi. Desserts continue to be exceptional: great home-made icecream and the best Napoleon pastry in India.

MY FAVOURITES

1. China Kitchen has rewritten all the rules for Chinese restaurants in India
2. Royal China’s strengths remain the dim sum brunch and the quality of the cooking
3. Amaranta’s food can be exceptional

4. Wasabi has managed the difficult job of living up to expectations and seeing off the competition
5. At Qube, in the Leela Palace, it is the food that keeps me going back, again and again
6. At Chez Nini, the love and attention lavished on each dish reflects in the flavours
7. A restaurant like 360, The Oberoi, Delhi, comes along once in a decade 8. At Setz, the Chinese food is reliable and the Thai is easily the best in Delhi

Best All-Day Dining: 360, The Oberoi, Delhi

In my wilder moments I sometimes think of 360 as Augusto’s Sushi Bar. Ever since the restaurant first opened, Augusto Cabrera has been the restaurant’s sushi and sashimi chef and is, I guess, the man who introduced Japanese food to South Delhi’s high society. Though Augusto is from the Philippines, I’ll take his sushi over the stuff served up by many over-hyped Japanese masters.
Threesixty is a phenomenon. It is the most successful hotel coffee shop in India, still smart and sophisticated after all these years and still packed out every lunch-time. As is true of Jay Rathore’s Oberoi as a whole, the service is perfect and the ambience coolly luxurious. Food standards had slipped some years ago but under the hotel’s massively talented chef Soumya Goswami, 360 is back on top form.
A restaurant like this comes along once in a decade.

Best Café: Chez Nini, Mehar Chand Market

I don’t think there has ever been a European restaurant like Chez Nini in India before. The owner cooks every single meal, goes up to tables to check how guests are doing and sources her ingredients from organic local producers.
Obviously this approach has inherent problems: chiefly what happens when the chef-owner takes a well deserved break? (The answer: standards sometimes drop so consistency is a worry at Chez Nini.) But for the most part, the formula works brilliantly. The food is French-Canadian so it might seem a little unfamiliar. But standards are high and the love and attention lavished on each dish reflects in the flavours.

Best European (Hotel Restaurant): Le Cirque, Leela Palace

When Le Cirque opened, I was sceptical. I’m no fan of the New York original which saw its best days when Ronald Reagan was President, and where snobbery is the service policy. But against the odds, the Leela has pulled it off. This is an exceptional restaurant with high quality, no compromise food, outstanding service, and is easily the most elegant dining experience in India. It is a shame that you have to mortgage your house to eat here but look at this way: it is cheaper than the New York Le Cirque and the food is better.
Integral to Le Cirque’s success are two men: Mickey Bhoite, an Indian chef who was raised in Italy and brings a lighter, more cerebral, approach to Le Cirque’s traditional, stodgy global menu with a take-no-prisoners personal style and Prateek Swarup, who must be Delhi’s best five-star restaurant manager.
The two – backed by a formidable kitchen and service team – ensure that diners have a superlative experience (right till the moment the bill arrives when it’s high-blood-pressure time) and have raised standard for European restaurants in India by several notches.

Best European: Tres, Lodhi Colony Market

I knew Tres would be good even before it opened: the chef Julia Carmen Desa, a Taj veteran, is talented and versatile and coowner Fatima Lobo, also an old Taj hand, has a real feel for quality in the areas of food, wine and hospitality.
Even so, a part of me feared that this team would disappoint because my expectations were so high. Fortunately I was wrong, Julia’s Spanish-accented European menu has been a great hit from the day the restaurant opened and Tres is packed out night after night.
The success is well-deserved. Tres is the kind of neighbourhood restaurant we so desperately need in India: small, friendly, run by the owners (one of whom slaves behind the stove) and with real character. It is not five-star so service can occasionally go wrong and Julia can, when she is distracted, overdo the saucing. But that’s all part of the charm of Tres.

Best Brunch: Qube, The Leela Palace

The best brunch award is a difficult one to select. I’m still partial to the Machan brunch, brilliantly run by Tapash Bhattacharya, but the restaurant itself looks so dated and so much in need of a make-over that it is hard to give it an award.
These days, I end up going to Qube most often. I love the look and feel of the restaurant with its air of peace and tranquility, sunlight lazily streaming in through the windows and trees all around.
But mostly it is the food that keeps me going back, again and again. The buffet is superb but it is the specialty counters that are the most impressive: world class sushi and sashimi (from the Megu team), surprisingly authentic Thai, wonderful live desserts and the best steaks in India (not part of the brunch but worth paying extra for) from the Leela’s super-chef Glenn Eastman.

Best Japanese: Wasabi, Taj Mahal Hotel

Though Digvijay Singh leaves the Taj Mansingh early next year, his place in the hotel’s history is ensured: he is the guy who transformed the image of this 1970s-style business hotel (which the Taj, bizarrely enough, is fighting to hold on to) with his emphasis on faultless service and the re-invigoration of its F&B. Until the Taj opened Varq and Wasabi, the hotel was dead. Now, it seems contemporary again.
Wasabi came to Delhi after a sparkling debut in Bombay and expectations were high. There was already formidable competition from Sakura and then, the much-hyped Megu opened at the Leela. But Wasabi has managed the difficult job of living up to expectations and seeing off the competition. Some of this is due to the excellence of the menu, a collaboration between New York’s Matsuhira Morimoto and the Taj’s Hemant Oberoi.
But mainly it is because the restaurant’s real star is the lowprofile Vikramjit Roy, the single most innovative Japanese-cuisine chef cooking in India today.

Best Modern Indian: Amaranta, Oberoi Gurgaon

The Oberoi group has no reputation for Indian cuisine. The old Mughal Rooms were Kwalityclones and the Kandahar menu consisted of dishes stolen from ITC. So it made sense for the chain to rethink its approach to Indian food and to refuse to open new Indian restaurants at some properties (the Delhi Oberoi, for instance). Instead, the Oberois are now experimenting with modern Indian, partnering with the likes of Vineet Bhatia in Bombay.
But the best Indian restaurant in the Oberoi group is easily Amaranta at the Gurgaon property. It has not had the success it deserves because a) 361, the hotel’s main restaurant is such a hit and b) because Gurgaon is not exactly the capital of nouvelle Indian cuisine.
But the food can be exceptional. The restaurant is proudest of its fish, freshly flown in from the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal and the quality of its presentation. For me, however, its real success lies in the updating of South Indian flavours (especially the Syrian Christian food).

Best Indian (Traditional): Bukhara, ITC Maurya

Blair, Bruce Springsteen and all of the restaurant’s other celebrity guests have not already said? It is the most famous Indian restaurant in the world with a menu that has remained largely unchanged since 1978. Whenever a restaurant is this famous, there is bound to be a backlash and indeed it is fashionable to say that you know a little place (in GK /Chanakyapuri/ Gurgaon/ Noida etc.) which does much better kebabs at half the price. And perhaps you do. But it is hard to beat the Bukhara experience or the consistency in the quality of those famous kebabs.

Best Chinese (Standalone): Royal China, Nehru Place

The Royal China group in London is a loose federation of separately owned properties, some of which are very good and some of which are just so-so. It is the same in India. The two Bombay Royal Chinas opened well but have slid into dull mediocrity. The Delhi outpost, on the other hand, has different owners from the Bombay branches and standards remain high.
The restaurant’s strengths remain the dim sum brunch and the quality of the cooking. Its weakness remains the location: an ugly office block in Nehru Place. But prices are reasonable for food of this quality and, so far at least, Royal China has successfully negotiated the fine line between serving authentic Chinese food and giving Delhi’s Punjabis what they want.

Best Chinese (Hotel Restaurant): The China Kitchen, Hyatt Regency

Ever since it opened half a decade ago, China Kitchen has rewritten all the rules for Chinese restaurants in India. Created by global Hyatt chefs along the lines of the chain’s successful restaurants in mainland China, the outlet broke with tradition by staffing its kitchen with a brigade of chefs from the People’s Republic.
The menu (especially under the current chef) leans towards the spicy food of Hunan and Sichuan but the restaurant’s stand-out dish remains the same: a killer Peking Duck, with skin and meat so good that you should really eat them on their own without bothering with the pancakes.

The recently opened Teaze is the first place to introduce bubble tea to Mumbai

A new hangout for tea-totallers

Invented on the streets of Taiwan in the ’80s, Bubble Tea originally consisted of sweetened, cold green or milk tea to which tapioca balls, or pearls, were added. The liquid confection is quite popular in east Asia and the drink gets its name from the neutral-flavoured, translucent pearls which look like bubbles from the side of the glass.
The recently opened Teaze is the first place to introduce bubble tea to Mumbai and already seems to have favour with students from neighbouring Hinduja College. The tiny outlet, which can barely squeeze four people in, is surrounded by myriad street-food stalls.

Teaze offers green teas, milk teas, blended iced teas, energizers, T-shakes and milkshakes in a variety of flavours. These can be had plain, with a filling of plain tapioca or fruit-flavoured bubbles. All drinks are served in plastic glasses with sealed tops and fat straws thick enough for the bubbles to pass through.
We found the passion-fruit-flavoured, green tea concoction with mango bubbles to be very refreshing, but cloyingly sweet. Apparently, we also had to specify the degree of sweetness we desired. The English toffee milk tea with tapioca bubbles was much nicer; the pearls were perfectly chewy and the tea had a delicate caramel-toffee flavour. The small size would make a great on-the-go breakfast. Also very nice was the green apple green tea, though the strips of grape coconut jelly didn’t do so well with the straws.
Bubble tea is a novel, fun alternative to iced teas and if you’re in the area, it’s worth popping into Teaze.

MAMMA MIA! One of London’s oldest pizzerias, Pizza Metro Pizza, comes to the city with authentic Italian cooking, and its speciality — the metre-long pizza

A SLICE
OF HEAVEN

MAMMA MIA! One of London’s oldest pizzerias, Pizza Metro Pizza, comes to the city with authentic Italian cooking, and its speciality — the metre-long pizza

Pizzerias are usually happy places; everyone is cheese-seduced and, after a point, immobile and usually thrilled with their meal. It is with this excitement that four of us made our way on a sunny Wednesday afternoon to a shiny new pizzeria in Khar, Pizza Metro Pizza, the first Indian outpost of a British chain. Thankfully, the restaurant’s friendly staff, its chatty owner, lively and casual décor; goodlooking Italian chefs serving up freshly made pizza from the wood-fired oven in front of our table and charming Italian music matched our enthusiasm.
(Top) A metre-long pizza in a wood-fired oven; (above) PMP’s fuss-free interiors The word ‘metro’ is Italian for ‘metre’ and that’s where the name comes from, as Pizza Metro Pizza is known for its metre-long pizza, which is about 39 inches in length. The menu is the same as the ones at its two London outlets with only one or two additions, such as the pasta dish, Tagliolini Bombay “For Two” and the Club 9 pizza, as a tribute to a pub that used to occupy the same spot for years. The pizzeria serves authentic recipes of appetisers, salads, pizza and pasta from the city of Naples, the birthplace of pizza and a region known for its spectacular home-style, simple Italian cooking that uses fresh ingredients.

We warmed up to the fuss-free living room-style interiors — wooden tables and chairs, little bits of green wood, Italian movie posters, and copper pots and pans hanging from the walls — instantly. Much like the décor, the staff is not overbearing, the menu is simple with unambiguous descriptors and plenty of choice even for vegetarians. The only bone we had to pick with the menu was the lack of chicken toppings in the non-vegetarian pizza list.
We started off with the Insalata Pomodorini Rucola E Parmigiano, a summery salad of rocket, cherry tomatoes and parmesan cheese shavings – a beautiful, well-balanced melangé of flavours. Next, we tried the Parmigiana Di Melanzane “The Most Popular” – oven-baked aubergines with tomato sauce, parmesan, mozzarella and basil. It was a delicious appetiser with lots of flavour and perfectly cooked aubergines. The metre-long pizza (that can be ordered with four different toppings) would have been a bad decision for four diners, so we opted for the halfmetre pizza with two toppings, served on a mini-wooden stand on the table.
The Quattro Formaggi, with toppings of mozzarella, gorgonzola, scamorza, grana padano and a dollop of ricotta, was heavenly. The other half, Ciro’s topped with mozzarella, aubergines, goat cheese, crispy pancetta and cherry tomatoes, confirmed that these were probably that best-cooked pizzas we had eaten in a long time thanks to their fresh crusts and immaculate flavouring. On a whim, a curious friend ordered the rather expensive Tagliolini Bombay “For Two” — where the server came to our table with a parmesan wheel and whipped up a cognac flambé, added to the tagliolini pasta with cream and sage. Both desserts, the Vanilla Panacotta with Strawberry Sauce and the traditional Italian Ricotta Cheesecake wowed us with their simple taste as well as their light and decadent flavours.

Restaurant Review - BIJOLI GRILL Bengali

Restaurant Review

BIJOLI GRILL Bengali

    First the bad news and then the good news follows. I admit that I’m a see-theglass-as-half-full person (love happy endings), so when a restaurant turns out to be lousy, I feel sad. But my first duty is to you dear reader, to give an honest assessment which is useful and usable. To help me get a broader perspective, I invite foodie readers. Here’s what they say about today’s restaurant under review, “If you care a wee bit about your money, please avoid this place,” says Nishant Gandhi, a successful corporate executive, an entrepreneur, author in the making, also a Trend-spotting and Ideation specialist, Blogger and Content Architect. “The food was quite tasteless.The desserts were equally disappointing,” says Godlevea Perreira who has a degree in hotel management from IHM Dadar. Our review follows…

AMBIANCE Tucked into a children’s amusement park in Powai, this no-frills Bengali eatery lured us with its very unusual location and price points. Much to our disappointment, we found that it was neither authentic nor tasty. The service was slow in both the small air conditioned room as well as the outdoor area with its red and green awning. The outdoor area overlooks the kiddy park and one sits (almost) nose to nose with the stone dinosaur.

 
FOOD Most of the dishes we tried, be it the Dimer Devil (mutton kheema stuffed with a boiled egg) or the Minced Chicken Kabiraja (with a lacy egg coating) were spicy, oily and deep fried. Kasha Mangsho (slow cooked mutton in gravy) was overcooked with a handful of tiny meat pieces.
Also on offer are Rolls (mutton egg, veg, etc.,) Ilish bhapa, Bhetki Paturi. And believe it or not, China Town Chilly Chicken and Paneer Butter Masala too. “The Mishti Doi was sour, the Rosogulla was not sweet enough,” says Nishant and goes on to add, “An extra word on the staff and service — pathetic.” My other two guests agreed. Dhiraj Kumar, software engineer is a foodie, poet and part-time professional make up artist. Arkesh Ayyagiri (student of SIES college of commerce and economics, Sion) kept us riveted about his volunteer work at his college fest “Fantasies” (Dec 7 and 8 with it’s Bollywood theme where Sonal Chauhan, Bruna Abdullah, Cyrus Broacha and Mir Ali are expected to attend.) No alcohol but very affordable price points here... if only they’d improve their service and food.
FOODLINE
Thrilled. Thanks for your Twitter, FB and email feedback. Mail (rashmiudaysingh2012@gmail.co m, FB,Twitter @rashmiudaysingh) or sms (77380 22873) to be listed here. Due to space constraint am unable to carry all your messages.
 

READERS RECOMMEND Renz: The ultimate range of fabulous home made syrups (using natural fruits and natural preservatives) great on their own and for mocktails and ice golas. Sugar free options too. Call Renuka 97020 10196.
SM Kitchen introduces surprise meals twice Shabnam Merchant Ph: 98190 78365. Corporate foods in offers daily lunch solutions to office goers Indian combo 60, walk away lunch 75 and ship shape options for diet conscious 60. Ph: 91677 75663, 98209 32963. For homemade paranthas and pulaos around Goregaon, call Veena Ph: 99690 06977. Meghna’s Kitchen for low fat cooking. Ph: 98339 90110. Himalayan rainbow trout, Minimum order of three kg with prior notice of 7/8 days. Rainbow Fisheries: 98924 92231.
 

QUERIES Koel wants to know where she can get cupcakes.
 

CONCRETE BLESSINGS South Mumbai foodies head here today and tomorrow...not only will you get the most unique and yummy food at their gourmet bazaar but will come away with a warm happy glow in your heart. At this annual exhibition cum sale, students with disabilities showcase their extraordinary talent. I’ve been privileged to watch and taste the SPJ Sadhana school’s fabulous offerings over two decades, Sister Gaitonde, Ranju Mahadevia, Tinu Sanghvi of the Hospitality and Catering Section are doing an amazing job of proving that “when life hands lemons, you can make the most yummy nimbu pani.” Cheers. When: Dec 7, 2012, 10 am to 8 pm and Dec 8, 2012, 11 am to 6 pm. Where: SPJ Sadhana School, Sophia College campus. Off Warden Road. 

INDIA CHOCOLATE MASTER A dream come true for chocoholics like me. Patisseurs and chefs from all over the country converged in Mumbai for the fifth edition of World Chocolate Masters. A professional jury announced the results and it was the Oberoi and Trident’s very gifted Executive Pastry Chef Vikas Bagul, who justifiably won the National title. He will be going to the World Chocolate Masters Final, Paris and before that, represent our country at the Asia Pacific Chocolate Masters. Success is truly sweet! Congratulations! 

 
QUERIES ANSWERED Kaveri, for non-veg tiffin at Andheri you call Health Kitchen. Ph: 93237 61400. 

 
TIMES FOOD GUIDE BIJOLI GRILL Hakone Children’s Park, Hiranandani, Powai. Call: 022-6528 6604/ 6528 6605 Meal for two 1,000 approx. No alcohol. Open lunch and dinner

(From left to right) Dinesh Kumar, Godlevea Perreira, Nishant Gandhi and Arkesh Ayyagiri at Bijoli Grill, Powai

Rashmi Uday Singh