Mutton Dhansak and me....

Parsi khana had always intrigued me.. For one, the fact that they eat meat in all parts of meal, and yet, never get bored of it, is a mystery to me. But once I tasted their food, the reason was crystal clear. They cook meat in so many different ways that it always tastes different.

After hearing a lot of excellent reviews from friends and strangers alike, we thought of venturing into the very Parsi Britannia Cafe (BC) in south Mumbai, on a nice sunny afternoon. I would be lying if I said that I thoroughly enjoyed my time there. The shabby little place is a little too hyped for its own good. Though the owners could afford Puma shoes and Reebok shirts for themselves, yet they could not afford to make the cafe habitable. It seemed as if the place wont survive this monsoon at all!! As far as the price goes, BC is not behind any A-grade restaurants in Mumbai. But when we talk of ambiance, service and food presentation, it is far far behind even the normal nukkar ka restaurant. Two people could easily rake up to 1500 to 2000 rupees which according to the appearance, was insanely expensive. Yet, I can’t comment anything on the food. If you forgo the flies around the plate and the rash waiters pushing your plate with every movement of theirs, the food on the plate was actually good. The berry pulav tasted divine and so did patrani machchi which was cooked and served in foil instead of traditional banana leaf (another thing which upset me quite a bit).

However bad the experience was, nothing stopped me to come back and try Mutton Dhansak in my own kitchen, and dare I say, it did turn out good. Mutton dhasak is a Parsi dish made with meat, vegetables and pulses. It is a wholesome meal in itself and served with plain white rice or brown rice. So all you people who want to try out this simple recipe would need all these ingredients:
* 2 large onions, chopped finely
* 150g tomatoes, chopped
* 1 small aubergine or brinjal diced
* 2 potatoes cubed
* 4 tbsp chopped fenugreek leaves or kasoori methi (depending on you taste buds, add either the fresh methi leaves or dried kasoori methi. Needless to say kasoori methi will add spice to the dish. I mixed both together and it tasted good.)
* 6 tbsp chopped coriander leaves
* 6 tbsp chopped mint leaves (optional)
* 150g split yellow lentils (toor dal or arhar dal)
* 150g masoor dal (orange in colour)
* 300g mutton, trimmed and cubed (with or without bones)
* 1 tsp turmeric
* 1 tsp chilli powder
* 1 tsp sugar
* 450 ml water
* 4 tbsp distilled vinegar
* 1 tbsp sunflower oil
* 1 tsp cumin seeds
* Whole garam masala (1"cinnamon, 4 green cardamoms, whole black pepper and bay leaves)
* Salt

For masala paste
• 3 tsp ginger- garlic paste
• 2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• 1 tsp coriander powder

And the last but not the least, a handful of coriander leaves and lemon wedges for decoration if you want.

Method:

In a pan or a pressure cooker, whatever is available to you, put the meat piece with salt, red pepper and turmeric along with the vegetables, lentils and water. Now cook till the meat is tender. Take out the meat and mince the vegetables and lentils together to form a nice thick paste.

Heat some oil in deep pan. Temper the whole spices (garam masalas) in it till it is fragrant. Now add the chopped onions and fry until pale brown. Add the spice paste and the tomatoes and fry for ten minutes, stirring regularly so that it won't stick to the bottom. Now put in the half cooked meat pieces and fry till it gets a nice brown colour. The veggie dal mix can go in now with some vinegar and chopped coriander. Adjust the seasonings (salt, sugar and chilli powder as well as green fresh chillies) according to taste and let it simmer till the desired consistency is achieved. If it is too thick, heat some water and add it while mixing it well. Before getting it off the heat, mix in some dried kasoori methi (again if u had boiled the meat with it) and lemon juice. Let it simmer for a while before putting down the heat.

And as usual bon appétit!!

Where the going gets tough, the tough goes EATING!!!

Just two words can classify dining, the classy and the street food!!! This weekend, I had an interesting mix of both the worlds. And for the record, both turned out to be hell of an experience, in its own way...

Let me start off with the interesting street food. It’s no news to anyone that during Ramzan, every Koran abiding Muslim goes on a day long, harsh fast wherein they don’t even touch water all day. But as the sun sets, they start a night long fiesta which I think is called Iftar. Mohd Ali Road in Mumbai is one of the most favourite spots to get iftari. And why shouldn’t it be, you get everything possible to be made from meat and eggs in a short distance of 1 km stretch. And not to mention, a few special items that you get only during this period of Ramzan. But every dinner here comes with a cost. Don’t get me wrong here, I really don’t mean the monetary one. This has the cheapest food available. But the cost is made even when you have to sail past a crowd of a million in that same 1 km stretch. For the weak hearted, this place is a nightmare. The traffic jam starts at least 2 kms from the road. And once you get there, a maddening crowd will welcome you.

For an incorrigible foodie, this place is a heaven. Each stall you pass has a distinct aroma to itself. You will find everything starting from Haleem to kheeri to a spl kind of egg malpua. Kheeri is a kind of kebab, well marinated and deep fried. Ah! Sounds like any other kebab that you have eaten... Right?? But its secret lies in the ingredients, which are used to make this very spl kebab. The meat used in Kheeri happens to be the Balls of a goat, which by the way tastes yum. Trust me when I say that you just can’t stop yourself from having another one. I don’t know what is more tempting, eating it or the ‘pleasure’ of eating ‘it’.

Moving to another stall, for the first time in my life, I ate Shandil or Meethi Idli as was translated to me. Though it was not something very unique, still I kind of liked the innovation that somebody thought of. These were nothing but sweetened rice cakes, layered with some sweet rice mix and Pista. Priced at Rs 5 a piece, it was quite an amusing thing to have.

After having, a few more kebabs and soups, we decided to go for the kill of the road, The Egg Malpua. Being a bong, I have had many different varieties of malpua, but never ever in my life did I think that you can make yummy Malpuas with egg. Basically it is a sweetened Malpua batter wherein they use egg instead of milk or water. And once the batter is of the right consistency, they pour a generous dollop of the mix onto hot oil and deep fry it. It comes with a packet of sweetened cream and believe me when I say; it’s a sin to have even a bite of it. The crisp malpua can easily be the queen of all malpuas that I have ever had. I have even heard that this delicacy is made only in Mohd Ali Road and that too during the Ramzaan period. Though personally I have no clue how true this fact is, but I can safely agree that yes, it is the perfect way to bid adieu from Mohd Ali Road.

The Chinese Noodles and its Bar: Noodle Bar

What better way to spend a leisurely Saturday but to go shopping, catch a movie and then settle in for a nice ‘unlimited’ buffet with a glass of the choicest wine!!! This is my dream Saturday and this is what we did last week. And in the search of food, we ended up in Noodle Bar. Few of our closest friends are dead against this Chinese bar. They don’t like the food, the alcohol or the ambiance. But I beg to differ. May be I went with so less of an expectation that nothing could have made it worse!!! All in all, I found the food quite good and conveniently priced (700 INR for a couple).

Noodle Bar hosts a buffet lunch every day from Monday to Sunday. Though I am not very sure of the timing but I went in pretty late, say around 2:30 pm and still a lot more people came in after us. The food as always was divided in starters, main course and dessert. By policy, the starters are served on the table by the waiters and once u settle in; a waiter welcomes you with a batch of freshly steamed momos in hand. I have to confess that the veg momos here, were mind blowing. It was even better than the chicken ones. Apart from the momos, they had chilly paneer (cottage cheese), stir fried vegetables, and chicken in black bean sauce and mutton in Hunao sauce (I am sure I got the spelling wrong!). Though the service was not very impressive, yet once when the hot, fresh out of the wok food landed on the plate, I didn’t care for it so much. The portions were generous and the servers served with a smile.

After the amazing starters, the main course or the soup and salads didn’t look so very tempting. There were separate tables for vegetarian and non- vegetarian food. In the non veg spread, there was every kind of meat available in different sauces. You had a choice between chicken Hakka noodles or veg fried rice. It tasted nice but the starters were nicer!!

In the dessert counter, there was the great Chinese Crispy Fried Noodles with vanilla ice-cream along with mango soufflé, pineapple pastries and cut fruits. Crispy fried noodles were very cold. I wish they could just keep it in a way that it keeps them warm and not hot or cold. The mango soufflé was amazing and pastries weren’t bad either. As a fruit lover, I hate to say this but the cut fruits were completely unnecessary. They looked stale and definitely not appetizing.
As my over all verdict, I say that one should only go to the buffet for the starters. You should just settle in your seat and enjoy unlimited portions of starters with your favourite drink. We ordered for a bottle of Chenin Blanc and trust me when I say; white wine goes great with Chinese food. Try it!!

Photograph Courtesy: mumbai.burrp.com/.../11345396_noodle-bar

Restaurant Review- Fusion food China gate, Bandra, Mumbai

Recently on a Friday, my hubby and I decided to celebrate our coming weekend with élan. That’s how we chose to have dinner at a swanky restaurant in Bandra. We are Bengalis and have grown on fish. But the Bengalis prefer to double cook their fish. Though Bengali cuisine is all about fresh water fish (less smelly), yet we fry the fish first and then put it to simmer in mustard glazed curry (mostly, though we have plenty of other variations as well). But the thought of eating raw fish wrapped in a sea weed is not something many bongs can relish, let alone actually eating them. I thought even I belonged to that kind of genre, but for my ever experimentative husband, I did try and liked the sushi very much. We went to China gate in Bandra (opp. KFC).

This restaurant is a sea food buffet heaven. The decor is beautiful. It has a small inbuilt lake- imitation with fishes inside. Children truly loved to gaze around the pool to spot different varieties of fishes inside. The other thing I liked about this restaurant apart from food was that they provided bottled mineral water only. The food was divided in many categories. The spread started with a sushi bar, with veg on one side and non veg on two sides. I was very apprehensive to try them, especially after looking at their raw faces. One can actually see the red meat of the fish. At first I tried the veg sushi and upon insistence from my better half, took only one of the non veg. But lo and behold, it was superb, just the right softness and nothing seemed raw to me. The next time, I was braver in picking up each kind of fish sushi and try them. Trust me when I say, it was awesome. It was even better than steamed momos, which was my favourite south Asian food, till then.

The next counter had a variety of momos and dumplings, tempuras and other south Asian starters. The starters were so good that we straightaway graduated to desserts after that, completely ignoring the main course. The main course had a variety of (Indianised) Chinese food. And after the superb starters the Chinese fried rice was not that welcoming. But the dessert was again a great spread. There were mouthful bites of 6-7 different kinds of pastries, 2-3 differently flavoured cheese cakes, 4 kinds of cookies and cakes each. The spread is unlimited so you may fill in as many plates as you want.

The service and hospitality of the staff was very appreciable. They were courteous and served with a smile. The spread was replenished very efficiently. It was only the prawn tempuras which were evasive.

For people who would like to enjoy a drink with their sushi, there is a fully functional bar there which is not included in the buffet though. The rates are ok and not very expensive. Weekdays are cheaper than the weekend starting from Friday evening. The place is well maintained and the chefs seemed to be imported from Japan itself. All in all a total paisa vasool and should be tried once at least.