Party Tips - Be a good guest

The last post had my tips for throwing a good party, this one has tips for being a good guest at someone else’s party.

Of course how you behave at a party depends on how well you know the person but there are some general do’s and don’ts

Please Note: I have not always been anyone’s idea of the ideal guest and at some point or the other done most of things I've said not to do.

I realize that and I’m trying to improve.

Ok I lied about the second part. I just don’t want to be accused of hypocrisy.

1. When someone invites you to a party it’s REALLY rude to ask who else is coming, you are going because you like the host/hostess/food/free booze/whatever. Asking is always a little insulting. You’re bound to meet people you know there and if you don’t it isn't really hard to make friends
2. If you are lucky(?) enough to have a significant other who isn't invited then please don’t force the issue. Couples who refuse to go anywhere without their better halves are a bore in my opinion. (This might cause a few problems)
3. Always carry something, if only a bottle of wine. If you don’t drink (or your host doesn't  get juice or chocolate.
4. One hour after the invite time is the acceptable time for coming for a party. Two hours later is NOT and if you are going to be late then at least have the decency to claim that work delayed you.
5. Having reached the party don’t stick to the host. They will have a million things to do so let them do it. They will introduce you to a group of (hopefully) like minded people/mutual friends.
6. Don’t hog the conversation. Let it flow (guilty)
7. DON’T BLATANTLY LECH AT PEOPLE! IT IS LAME!
8. If you must hit on people at parties, please have the decency to do it well and with SUBTLETY (I name no names) And for god's sake stop if its clear your attentions are unwelcome.
9. While you may or may not “hook up” at a party it is a really sad reason for going to a party. *Instantly loses half my guest list*
10. PDA at parties with hook up/ significant other are generally frowned upon at houses which do not belong to me. Get a room for god’s sake
11. Here is where I might get accused of hypocrisy. Don’t get drunk and don’t make a scene. Parties are meant to be fun and if you’re lying on the floor passed out (without someone next to you) you can’t really have fun. You probably won’t remember it the next day anyway.

Parties are for meeting people you miss and having fun. There's no need to get drunk and act stupid.

Party Tips

I like parties, they’re a fun way to meet people, I don’t really like parties in nightclubs (can’t talk to anyone and I hate the music most of the time)
House parties on the other hand are always fun You can talk, dance, eat, drink, joke, make out, fight, make up, make out again (Ok the last 4 only happen at my parties)

So here are some tips for a fun house party.


Have a BlackBerry to help you with sending invites NO FB EVENTS! THAT IS LAME though I have done that before (sorry)

BAN people from messing with the music. (Avik this means you)

Invest in a decent pair of speakers

Google easy cocktail recipes (I’ve given some below) and make pitchers of cocktails

Theme parties are fun, but keep the theme simple so everyone can dress the part, e.g. Shorts and T-shirts

Keep small buckets around for people to puke in.

Plastic cups and plates ONLY

Have the local wine store’s number handy when you run out of booze

Make sure you talk to everyone, it can be a little weird going to someone’s house for the first time

Get simple finger food. Wafers and dip are a cheap way to go. Chicken tikkas by the kilo works too.

Don’t be too rigid about the guest list, if your friends want to bring someone, let them. It makes them more comfortable and you get to meet someone new. I know this can go horribly wrong (been there) but give it a chance.

Most importantly, remember the Idea of a party is to have fun. You don’t need to spend too much money (BYOB).Just some nice food and good friends.

And I have the best friends 

Easy drinks

Vodka Tang

The name says it all. You put (orange) tang inside a jug, add liberal amounts of Vodka and a tiny amount of water and ice and you’re good to go.

TIP: Adding some limbu to the pitcher really improves the taste

Love potion

Ingredients

Baccardi
Vodka
Gin
Sula Rose wine
Cranberry juice
Orange Juice
Old monk (just a little)

WARNING This is a potent drink that tastes surprisingly good.

Method:

You take baccardi, vodka and gin and mix them together in a pitcher till it is half full

Add the wine and cranberry juice till the pitcher is nearly full.

Add old monk and orange juice.

Get Drunk

Dining Companions - Bhavs

A very wise lady once told me that

“The best way to cook is to use the best, freshest ingredients and understand the way they behave, the way they taste, use all five senses at all times and make sure you add plenty of love” And then she told me this how every mother cooks.

Meet Bhavini Merchant, the youngest old lady in the world, also the reason I started eating vegetarian food (however rarely) and am now in love with cherry tomatoes, green peppers, asparagus and buffalo mozzarella. I love them for the colour, the texture and the taste that they bring to my boring (joke) non vegetarian meals

She’s not a dining companion in the sense that we don’t go out much. But I still have the fondest memory of the awesome snacks her mother used to make for all of us when we had our “meetings” These often lasted till 3 AM and one of the reasons we kept coming back (apart from the gossip) was the food! Just remembering that fantastic cheese toast (more like pizza on bread) makes me drool.

Whenever I make fun of her for being vegetarian and missing out on the finer things in life (like steak) she always reminds me that I have NEVER eaten anything bad in her house.

She’s also a fantastic hostess, always circulating, always taking care of her guests and best of all always smiling ,she also happens to give the best advice in the world, even if the advice is sometimes less palatable than the food, which is how we know it’s good advice

She’s your one stop solution for good food, good advice and (best of all) good advice about food.

Thank you for the memories, the advice and the food

Cheese Toast

Ingredients

Cheese
Onion
Capsicum
Herbs
Boiled Potatoes
Bread

Method

Make a dough with the above ingredients
Apply it to lightly toasted bread
Bake
Serve hot

Dining Companions - Bro

Dining Companions – Siddharth Bafna

Sid Bafna has been one of my best friends throughout my college years, and he is one of the few vegetarians I have fun eating with.

I still have the fondest memories of the super chana at his house, he has taken me to places I never thought I would ever get good food at, but I’ve always eaten well.

Through our college years we went through all the seedy places Churchgate had to offer. We gorged at places like Satkar, Mocha (when I had enough money) the canteen at the international students hostel, the university canteen and we were once nearly thrown out of New Yorkers (long story)

We were also nearly thrown out of Mama Mia once but that was my fault (longer story and involves French fries)

Siddharth also introduced me to Five Spice, a super Chinese restaurant in Fort where we ate almost every week.

Sid and Mohena gave my granddad a super birthday present when we all went out for lunch to Out of the blue for his birthday, he had so much fun he still talks about it.

We’ve also had many happy times at restaurants all over Mumbai and we’ve had great fun!

Some of Siddhath’s suggestions for places which serve good vegetarian food are

Voleare Colaba – super Greek Food and Pizza’s

Swati Snacks – almost everything on their menu is awesome

China Garden (Kemps Corner) great Chinese food

Joss – the best khausway in Bombay

Babulnath Dosa wala- Dosa’s (duh) and pani puri

Society (Ambassador Hotel) – The best fondue in the city

We’ve had brilliant parties at my house which were organized in 5 minutes with Sid ordering the food and picking up the booze on his way from town.

Here’s looking forward to many more!

Dining Companions - Dad

Dining Companions - Dad


One of the best people to eat a meal with is my Dad. Not only is he very knowledgeable about food in general, but his company always makes even the most boring dish taste better (this was put to the test for YEARS)
His stories of the weird food he’s eaten and the weird places he’s eaten them in always make me laugh.

Even accounting for the fact that I read at the table when we’re eating together, he still finds a way to make sure I take part in the conversations happening.
We have a cook in my house, whose an absolute treasure (also the reason we’re all so fat) we download recipe’s and dad explains them to her in simple hindi and viola! We get fatter! Our bacon roast beef and Honey Chicken are prime examples of this.

One of my favorite things about my dad is the gusto with which he lives his life. Obviously, this extends to eating as well!

It is completely because of his perseverance that I now eat fish! Also his patience at removing bone after bone for me!

One of my happiest childhood memories are of when we didn’t have a regular cook and Dad used to make breakfast for us on a Sunday morning, if your idea of breakfast is a feast of such proportion that you can’t eat lunch (or sometimes even dinner) then you would love the breakfast he makes.

When Sante’s opened in Pali Hill a few years ago there was no stopping my dad, he goes there every Saturday evening and practically buy’s up the place.

Our Sunday breakfast looks something like this

2 fried eggs per person/Scrambled eggs

Streaky or Back bacon

Spanish cured ham with olives

Belgian smoked ham

Bacon Sausages/Frankfurters

Cheese and garlic spread

Boursin cheese

And sometimes when Dad is feeling particularly happy, he makes akuri (see recipe below)

Akuri (feeds up to 5 people)

Ingredients

8 eggs
Half a cup of milk

Salt to taste

Milk and or cream

Half an onion finely chopped

2 gloves garlic finely chopped

Half teaspoon haldi powder

Half teaspoon garam masala

1 green chilly finely chopped

1 & half tablespoon oil, preferably from the just fried bacon.

METHOD

Break the eggs in a large bowl and beat them well till they are frothy

Add the milk and salt and beat the mixture well. Keep aside.

Heat the oil in an aluminium kadai

Fry the onions till slightly brown on a slow flame

Add the garlic and fry till onions are golden brown

Add the haldi powder, half the green chillies and garam masala and fry well

Make sure the flame is low and then slowly pour the egg mixture into the kadai.

Use a spatula and constantly stir the mixture, scrapping the bottom and sides of the kadai.

As the mixture starts thickening, lift the kadai off the flame for a few seconds, constantly stir the mixture and set back on the flame.

Again, just before the eggs are cooked, lift the kadai off the flame and allow the mixture to thicken by constant stirring, don't over cook the eggs. The eggs should be moist and only slightly firm. When served in a plate, there should not be any watery liquid seeping out to the sides.

Add the remaining chillies and some chopped coriander on top and serve hot with well-buttered toast.

Dining Companions - Delzad

Dining Companions – Delzad Avari

When you’re eating, 3 things are important for you to really enjoy yourself

1. Good Food
2. Good Alcohol
3. Good Company

Company is as important as the food, because you always enjoy food when you’re with someone fun

With that in mind, I’ve decided to come up with a profile of some of my favorite dining companions, and I’m starting with the best of them all.

Delzad Avari is currently training to be a cordon bleu chef in London, he used to work at the Taj and before that at Tetsuma which makes him the best dining companion a foodie could ask for.

Not only does he talk almost exclusively about food (the other things we talk about are booze and girls) but he knows the best places to eat AND if you tell him what you like to eat, he will suggest the perfect dish to suit your tastes.

Apart from being a good cook, he also happens to be excellent company, his stories of what really goes on in a 5 star kitchen may not always be true but they are always funny. He’s also really bitchy about people I don’t like, so our meals together are never boring.

Apart from disliking the same people we share a passion for steak, wine, old monk and making fun of stupid people.

We have a ritual, every month or so we go to China Gate Global Fusion and have the buffet there (which is totally awesome but that’s a story for another blog)

We start at 12:30 PM as soon as their doors open, we head to the starters and go crazy (again, will be described in detail when I do the review)

At about 1:30 PM after drinking copious amounts of green tea to help digest the starters we go in for the second round.

This time we attack all the starters we haven’t previously tried and Delzad makes me eat Sushi (I HATE fish) and introduces me to some obscure seafood I’m (hopefully) not allergic too. It’s at his prompting that I’ve eaten and fallen in love with Sushi and Whitebait Roe.

This course takes a little longer; by about 3 we’re ready for the next course, the main course.

Now the main course at global fusion’s nothing great so we just grab noodles and crab (Delzad not me, I’m allergic) and binge on the starters or dim sum again.

Like I said this doesn’t take too much time so we’re done by 3:30 PM and that’s when we attack their dessert, paying no attention to the scandalized servers who keep telling us that they close at 4.

We then leave at 4:30 PM with full stomachs and happy memories.

There are very few people I can spend 4 hours with without getting bored.

So thank you Delu! Come back soon, Global Fusion misses us!

Scrambled Eggs and useless information

Hello again,

Bet you didn’t think you’d hear from me so soon! I just thought I’d update you guys on what I’m working on for the next few months

Apart from “Restaurant Review’s” I’m working on a few more series, The last post is from “Terrific Takeout’s” and soon I’ll be starting my “Dining Companions” which is dedicated to the best people I’ve eaten with.

Just so reading this wasn’t a total waste of your time, I’ve included a recipe for scrambled eggs, with a slight twist.


Ingredients

4 strips of Bacon
4 Eggs
Butter (as much as your cholesterol level can handle say 250 gm)
1 Cup Milk
1 Cup Cream
1 Clove Garlic
1 Onion finely chopped
1 Baguette
Coriander


Method

Fry off the bacon in a wok, till it’s nice and crisp (so that the fat has solidified)

Chop the onions and Garlic and toss it in the same wok using the bacon fat for oil till they turn golden.

Take them off and put them aside

Slice the baguette and fry that in the pan as well.

Drain the excess oil (if you must) and start on your scrambled eggs

Break the eggs and whisk them with the cream and butter

Put them into the bacon/onion/garlic flavored wok and add milk, if you like silky scrambled eggs like I do, put a little extra milk (or cream)

Add the onions and garlic and let it simmer

Add salt to taste

Garnish with coriander

Serve with Bacon and baguette

Terrific Takeouts

So I haven’t been exactly active here (sorry) It’s been a crazy few months for me.

I really do want to keep writing, the only problem is finding the time, I’m working on that, and a new series called Terrific Takeouts.

A fun fact about me – I eat lunch out every day, this is partly because I don’t want to stress out my cook’s unnecessarily and mostly because I like outside food.

This brings us to my regular Chinese joint – Lucky Dragon. This is the place I order lunch from almost every day (Except Monday, when for some godforsaken reason their closed)

Its managed by a fun group of people led by Clinton and has the peerless Chef Clifford in command of the kitchen, if you tell them what you want, they are happy to cater for your needs (Eg: send me some hakka noodles with extra soya sauce)

Now that we’ve dealt with the personnel lets move on to the food.

They have great combos for the (hungry) working man like tossed noodles (150 for chicken) and pot rice (160 for chicken) alternatively 2 people can share a portion of their egg fried rice and any chicken gravy for a relatively modest Rs 220.

If you feel like going light for the day, they have excellent soups, my favorites are the Lemon Coriander and the Chicken Mushrooms

It’s an unpretentious place which serves good plain Indian Chinese food (if there is such a thing)

I recommend the Chicken Oyster Chili Garlic to go with the egg fried rice, don’t forget to ask for fried noodles to add that extra crunch.

They also serve very good lamb, but their chicken dishes are better.

The only things I have a very big problem with is that their closed on Monday which means that I’m totally lost when it comes to lunch for the most accursed of all days. And the fact that for some reason they don’t serve beef or pork!

Still it’s probably just as well for my health that they don’t.

Lucky Dragon

02224318077, 02265236877

+(91)-9820590188, 9821089495

OM SAI Co Operative Housing Society, Opposite New Era Mills Compound, Mogal Lane, Matunga, Mumbai - 400019