Tibetan Kitchen

With this post, I'm officially expanding this blog to the rest of India :-)

I was in Ladakh last month and I can't begin to tell you how it has changed my life. It's gotta to be one of the most beautiful places on earth and as much as I want to keep the place (and food) to myself and hope it'll always stay remote from the rest of the world, it's unrealistic. It's changing as I'm blogging this post.

Ladakhi food is very, very similar to Tibetan food. It's cuisine is most of the time wholesome, simple and can be quite repetitive. Here's a restaurant that I found on the Lonely Planet. Tibetan Kitchen has a nice outdoor seating area. Overall food was yummy except the service is super slow. We waited thirty minutes for our momos.


Lamb momos - minced lamb in dumplings. Nicely seasoned and moist.


Chicken momos


Sha bakleh - bread stuffed with meat. Same filling used for the momos except these are baked and tastes a lot like meat pies.


Lamb chilly-fry. Stir-fry chicken or lamb with capsicum and onions and seasoned with a spicy soy-like sauce.


Ginger, lemon, honey drink. Served warm and is so good for the dry throat and sniffles. I think we had this at least twice a day.

There was a "steamboat" or "hotpot" that they served but you have to order it the morning of the day you are coming for dinner. It would've been perfect for the chilly Ladakhi nights.

Overall Ratings:
Po's: 7.5/10
"A": 8/10

Would we return?
Probably.

Address:
Hotel Tso-Kar
Fort Road

Medici

My friend, P had been raving about the food at Medici. I got so excited with the prospect of eating yummy food, I pretty much dragged half the yoga class with us to dinner last night. Can I just say I love eating with my fellow yogis. Our yoga guru requires us to be absolutely silent and focused in class, so you'd think everybody there are just a bunch of people who'd do nothing but breathe heavily and stretch. Boy, was I off.

The interior of Medici looked elegant, even though I was sure it was 50 Cent rapping at the background (a little out of place, fifty?). Perhaps it was to mask our loud racket (who knew yogis can be so hyper!), but we didn't hold back since there were only 2 other seated tables.

Here's what we ate:


Rocket salad with walnuts, olives and parmesan - fresh and tasty.


Calamari - pan fried with some fresh herbs and chili flakes. Wasn't what I had expected, but not bad. P didn't like it much and scrapped her portion onto my plate.


Can't be dining in an Italian restaurant without ordering pizza, right? I thought this wasn't the worst pizza I've had in town but my fellow yogis thought it wasn't good at all.

Mushroom Ditalini (or at least that's what I thought it was) - creamy, mild and needed some oomph. Nonetheless, the pasta was cooked al-dente, just the way I like it. This is the half-portion, hence the minuscule amount.

Pepper crusted salmon - the waiter asked how I wanted it cooked and I guess it was my fault to want it well done and as a result I thought the fish was a bit dry. To be fair, I think salmon is only delicious when it's raw or half-cooked but the waiter said the fillet was flown in from Vietnam and god knows how long it's been sitting in the freezer...


Scampi spaghetti - this is the only dish I think is worth a cheer. The pasta was cooked perfectly and the marinara with bits of olives were so flavorful. Not to mention, the prawns were nicely marinated and juicy. You can ask the waiter to make it spicier, if it suits your taste. RECOMMENDED!

Overall Ratings:
Po's: 7/10

Would we return?
Yes.

Address:
#1206, 2nd Floor,
Mannan Arcade,
100ft Road,
Indiranagar, Bangalore

i-t.ALIA at The Park Hotel

I love the Park Hotel. Its stylish decor is a good mix of modernism and Indian pop-art, if there's such a thing. The size of the hotel is perfect; small but not crowded and big but kinda cosy. It's also been close to heart because it's where "A" and I had our first date (although back then I thought we were just hanging out). I recall having a spicy vodka cocktail that came with a half-cut green chili. It was delicious - both the cocktail and the "hangout" session ;-)

There are a few restaurants in this hotel including i-t.ALIA, which apparently is the best Italian restaurant in India and has won a few awards. Here's what we had for lunch:


Freshly baked breads - still soft and warm. We asked the waiter if we could buy some breads but these delicious breads are only sold to restaurant guests. Bummer.


Prociutto pizza - Now why can't every pizza be made this way? Thin and crusty, slathered with yummy tomato sauce and topped with caramelized onions and slices of prociutto.


Seafood lasagna - the combination of mild tomato sauce and fresh prawns, scallops, pieces of fish and an occasional slice of red chili, makes this dish very appetizing. I'm not crazy about the melted cheese (ricotta, I think) on the top, but wait, didn't I read somewhere that you shouldn't put cheese on seafood? Nonetheless, I wolfed it down in minutes.

Overall Ratings:
"A"'s: 8.5/10
Po's: 8/10

Would we return?
For sure.

Address:
The Park Bangalore
14/7 Mahatma Gandhi Road,
Bangalore 560042, India

Phone: +91 (0)80 2559 4666

Toscano's UB City

The quality difference between Toscano's Forum Mall and Toscano's UB City is like night and day. The meals I've had at Toscano's UB City had always been wonderful. Decent service, good ambiance (can't go wrong with an open air restaurant in Bangalore) and pretty good food. I wish the owner would spend more time in the Forum Mall location to bring up the standards he had set at the UB City location.

I came here with a bunch of people after the Diesel launch party and with friends, it's always nicer to share food, so again, we ordered a bunch of pizzas.


Parma Ham Pizza - it's hard to find cured meat anywhere in Bangalore, so we had to order this one even though it's not the best; the meat was slightly tough and dry. "A" liked it.


Chicken Pizza - with cherry tomatoes. Simple yet tasty.


Toscano Pizza - chicken chunks, sliced green peppers, olives and pepperoni. If you don't know which pizza to order, order this one.


4 Cheese Pizza - the most popular pizza on our table. I honestly can't tell which cheeses they used but somehow the combination of cheeses and a few lightly-dressed green leaves made this pizza delicious.


An actual entree! Yes, I ordered this because I figured it's easier (and faster) for me to chew fish than bread with my braces on. Pan-fried red snapper with mash potatoes, grilled asparagus and pickled cucumber. Maybe it's late and the chef needed to stop working so he could join the rest of the kitchen passe to watch a WorldCup football match, but no excuse to overcook the fish and forget to season properly. Lovely presentation though.

And for dessert...

Creme brulee - coffee flavored, most of us loved the creativity but a couple of us didn't fancy it.

Overall Ratings:
"A"'s: 8.5/10
Po's: 8.5/10

Would we return?
Unquestionably yes.

Address:
UB City, Level 2,
Concorde Block,
24, Vittal Mallya Road,
Bangalore

Simple Sponge Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Icing

It’s “A”’s dad’s 60th birthday and we wanted to surprise him with a homemade birthday cake, since it’s a special occasion and a store-bought dessert just won’t do it. As expected, not all the ingredients came easily accessible so we had to substitute.

So here’s a very simple cake recipe made from ingredients you can get from anywhere in India and can be done in lesser than 30 minutes. The cake is light and fluffy while the chocolaty icing adds moisture to the cake making every bite decadent!

Ingredients

Cake
Courtesy from a good friend Anjali - thanks girl! (yes, you probably know her too)
1 cup of white flour (locally known as maida)
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of cream
3 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 teaspoon of baking powder
10 walnuts, crushed (optional)
Some butter for oiling the pan

Chocolate Fudge Icing
Handful of chocolates chunks (I like using dark chocolates but you can pretty much use any kind of chocolates – cooking chocolates, Ooty chocolates, milk or dark chocolate bars that you normally snack on, etc…)
2 tablespoons of cream
1 tablespoon butter

Cake Decoration (optional)
3 tablespoons instant oats and 1 tablespoon sugar (put in blender, set on high for 1 minute or until mixture becomes powder)
OR
3 tablespoons powder sugar (which we couldn’t find after looking in 5 different stores)

Directions

Preheat oven to 200 degrees Centigrade (or on a “high” setting, if you are using an oven that doesn’t tell you the temperature). Prepare cake pan (we used a 10-inch round pan) by rubbing butter, sprinkling with flour and tapping out extra.

In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder and baking powder. In separate bowl, whisk eggs and then add cream and stir well until combined. Add wet ingredients into flour mixture, fold and stir until combined and smooth, scraping the sides, about 2 minutes.

Pour batter into pan. Bake for 20 minutes (or 15 minutes at “high” setting). Remove cake from pan and cool on rack or big plate.

While cake is baking, create a double boiler (don’t stress, to create a boiler, simply place a medium glass or porcelain bowl on a small pot of boiling water, on low fire. The bottom of the bowl shouldn’t touch the bottom of the pot.) Mix all icing ingredients in the bowl, stir until ingredients melt into chocolaty sauce. Your icing is ready!

Here’s the fun part; the decoration – slowly pour chocolate icing on the top of the cake and spread evenly, allowing access chocolate icing to flow down the sides of the cake. To finish, dust some cocoa powder on the top of the cake.

Now for a wow factor. On a piece of paper, cut out words like “Happy Birthday” or “This cake rocks!” to make a stencil. Place stencil on the cake, making sure the all surface of the stencil is in contact with the cake. Dust powder sugar or powder oats evenly on the stencil. Carefully remove stencil.


"A" carefully designed and carved this perfectly aligned stencil to decorate the cake.


Powder oats on stencils.


Yum!

Benjarong

I think there are a bunch of restaurants in Bangalore who claim to serve Thai food but I personally think they are no where close. Benjarong, however is different. Despite having difficulties trying to figure out if the servers and cooks here are from Thailand or the North East, I felt close at home. This place came highly recommended by our Thai masseuse (who is currently working in Bangalore).


Mian Khum - this appetizer is on the house and it is literally a mouthful of flavors - sweet, savory, spicy and a hint of bitterness, very appetizing indeed. Ask the wait staff to show you how to prepare one, if you haven't already figured it out.


Pandan Chicken - a crowd pleaser. The chicken is succulent and is mildly fragrant from the pandan leaves.


Som Tum - I love papaya salad but unfortunately, this one is not one of my favorite dishes here. The shredded papaya, which normally is tangy and crunchy, tasted a bit like cardboard even though the dressing was just right.


Tom Yum Soup - I usually can't get enough of this even though drinking this soup periodically triggers my gastric problems but unfortunately (or fortunately), I thought this was a bit too sweet and was lacking the oomph from the real deal.

Red Snapper in Chili Basil Sauce - I can eat this everyday! Super spicy and bursting with flavors. Not the most reasonably priced dish you can get here, but it's worth every rupee. It totally brought me back to the beaches of Koh Phi Phi.


Green Curry Chicken - one must try green curry in a Thai restaurant to see how authentic the restaurant is and this one here hit the spot.


Last but not least, pad thai. It was slightly too sweet for my taste and a tad dry but beggars can't be choosers, so I'll probably end up ordering this again in my next visit.

Overall Ratings:
"A"'s: 8.5/10
Po's: 8/10

Would we return?
Yes.

Address:
1/3 Ulsoor Road, Ulsoor, Bangalore

Phone: 080 42066166

Roadtrip

So I heard from the grapevine that the owner of this restaurant used to partner with Herbs and Spice. That totally explains the similarities on both the menus and the tastes of the food served. I used to live around the corner from here, so I'd order an entree or two at least twice a week and I was never disappointed.

It's been over a year since I last came but I still like this place. The atmosphere is very laid back and the owner is super friendly. This has become our default post-yoga restaurant.


Shrimp bisque - a bit thick for my liking but the natural sweetness from the shrimp is unbeatable.


Stuffed mushrooms with more mushrooms, onions and cheese - nothing to write home about but it's not bad. I would rather have it stuffed with something else though, perhaps with some chopped up leeks or fennel?


Salad with sprouts - I liked the different textures in this salad but it wasn't really what I had expected. I can't even recall the name of this salad except I know it's not called sprout salad.


Garlic shrimp - I love this! The combination of garlic, basil, and a hint of tomato makes this dish yummy.

Overall Ratings:
Po's: 7.5/10

Would we return?
Yes, probably after yoga with some yogis.

Address:
1st Main HAL 2nd Stage,
3524/1, Service Road
(next to park, opp Subway)
Bangalore,
Karnataka 560038
Phone:080 41155848