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!
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Thursday, March 31, 2011
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
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
Monday, March 28, 2011
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
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
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Butterflies in the Stomach
So one of the first things you notice about butterfly is that it’s tiny, but if it can produce cupcakes like that, then who cares!!
Butterfly Café is tucked away in a little corner of Union Park. You can go down Ambedkar Road and take a left. The road bifurcates after a bit and you have to go to your right. Take a left after that and Butterfly Café will be at your right, be careful though, it’s easy to miss.
There’s no décor to speak of, but like I said the venue is completely subordinate to the food. Or in this case weirdly-shaped mountains of delight!
Hands down the best thing on the menu is the Butterfly Special. The cupcake is lovely and moist, the icing wonderfully silky and each bite into the cake is rewarded with a dollop of chocolate ganache. Priced at Rs 75, it may be a little expensive but it’s a small price to pay for what is truly an orgasmic experience!
A really awesome cupcake for the wannabe foodie is the Red Velvet Cupcake. Its salient features are that it’s red (duh!) BUT it’s also really yummy, because it’s got this lovely cream cheese icing. I know that it might not be everyone’s cup of cake err tea but it’s really pretty good. The slightly salty icing and the sweet cake compliment each other really well. As with all the other cupcakes the texture of the icing is wonderfully silky.
They do a decent peanut butter cupcake and a really good hazelnut swirl. But the Butterfly Special is the one that makes the taste buds sit up and take notice.
Today’s Tip:
After 2 alcohol suggestions I thought we should get back to the foods I’d like to share he recipe for this simple snack I often make for myself on a Sunday afternoon when the maid’s are on leave.
Ingredients
1 packet of Monaco Biscuits
1 box of Boursin cheese spread
5 slices of ham
Method
Spread the biscuits out on a plate
Cover them with the cheese spread
Cover the cheese spread with your slices of ham
Ready to eat!
It’s a lovely little recipe; the spread has a smooth, creamy texture and flavor which offsets the saltiness of the ham and the biscuits. You can pick up the spread at most supermarkets.
Butterfly Café is tucked away in a little corner of Union Park. You can go down Ambedkar Road and take a left. The road bifurcates after a bit and you have to go to your right. Take a left after that and Butterfly Café will be at your right, be careful though, it’s easy to miss.
There’s no décor to speak of, but like I said the venue is completely subordinate to the food. Or in this case weirdly-shaped mountains of delight!
Hands down the best thing on the menu is the Butterfly Special. The cupcake is lovely and moist, the icing wonderfully silky and each bite into the cake is rewarded with a dollop of chocolate ganache. Priced at Rs 75, it may be a little expensive but it’s a small price to pay for what is truly an orgasmic experience!
A really awesome cupcake for the wannabe foodie is the Red Velvet Cupcake. Its salient features are that it’s red (duh!) BUT it’s also really yummy, because it’s got this lovely cream cheese icing. I know that it might not be everyone’s cup of cake err tea but it’s really pretty good. The slightly salty icing and the sweet cake compliment each other really well. As with all the other cupcakes the texture of the icing is wonderfully silky.
They do a decent peanut butter cupcake and a really good hazelnut swirl. But the Butterfly Special is the one that makes the taste buds sit up and take notice.
Today’s Tip:
After 2 alcohol suggestions I thought we should get back to the foods I’d like to share he recipe for this simple snack I often make for myself on a Sunday afternoon when the maid’s are on leave.
Ingredients
1 packet of Monaco Biscuits
1 box of Boursin cheese spread
5 slices of ham
Method
Spread the biscuits out on a plate
Cover them with the cheese spread
Cover the cheese spread with your slices of ham
Ready to eat!
It’s a lovely little recipe; the spread has a smooth, creamy texture and flavor which offsets the saltiness of the ham and the biscuits. You can pick up the spread at most supermarkets.
Mia Cucina - My House!
We all have our favorite restaurants where when we walk in, the waiter knows our first names, our family history and whether or not we have regular or mineral water.
One of my favorite restaurants is Mia Cucina (my home) in Bandra.
The reasons I go there are varied, for one thing, it’s a two minute drive from my house and for another, I LOVE the food there.
Finding it is really easy. If you’re coming from Turner road, you take a right at the Pot Pourrie signal and go straight until you see Gold’s Gym on your left. You take a left and go into the lane leading to Pali Hill and Mia Cucina will be on your right.
The valet service is prompt and more importantly they don’t loose your keys or wreck your car while they’re in the process of parking it!
The décor is really simple and understated, and no this is not a nice way of saying ‘it sucks’. The restaurant outside is dimly lit and the tables are perfect for a small intimate dinner. When you go inside, things get a little more crowded.
The waiters are quick to take your order and the first thing you get when you sit down is a small roll of the most delicious homemade bread accompanied with a small pat of herbed butter. The bread is soft, with a light crust on the outside and is like a little slice of heaven!
A big let down is that they don’t have a liquor license so they only serve wine and like almost everywhere else in Mumbai the Indian wine is mediocre (Sula and Château Indage again!!) The imported wine was so expensive that I didn’t even try it (Rs 450!!)
I should say that I’m not really a big fan of Italian cooking, I can’t stand Pasta or Lasagna or Spaghetti. When I go to an Italian restaurant I generally order a steak, or if they don’t have it, a chicken and mushroom risotto. I also have a rule about eating pizza, which simply put is don’t eat it unless it has the equivalent of two pigs or a cow as toppings.(Meat Feast from Smoking Joe’s)
Now the starters are good, but not spectacular. I highly recommend you skip the starters and go straight to the main course.
They have a pretty decent steak-that’s what I had the first three or four times I went there. However I once went there pretty late at night and they were out of beef. The owner suggested I try the quarto formaggi (four cheese) pizza. I was pretty apprehensive of trying a pizza with only cheese (what, no meat!) But I was really hungry and too tired to argue so I just went with what he said and boy was I glad to do it!
The pizza crust was insanely good, not too doughy and not too brittle. It’s kind of like the perfectly cooked naan, with loads and loads of cheese on it.
I should tell you I’m not even a fan of cheese, I like my cheese to be light not heavy, but this was seriously sensational! All four cheeses are mixed together on the pizza, its slightly bitter and very heavy (duh 4 cheeses?) It’s impossible to finish a whole pizza (even for me!) At Rs 450, for a 10 inch pizza, the price is pretty reasonable.
I recommend the mushroom risotto, to which you can add chicken for an extra cost. It’s a rich, creamy risotto, the chicken is well cooked and succulent and the mushrooms add a lovely chewy texture to the dish. The dish is priced at Rs 400 + Rs 60 for the chicken
And now we come to my favorite part of a meal. Dessert!
Don’t even think, go for the Decadence cake and you’ll never regret it! The chocolate in that cake is among the best I have ever had, the only word to describe it is ambrosia!
The cost for this decadence (pardon the pun) is Rs 150.
A meal for two as described above without any drinks costs about Rs 1200
What I liked:
Food
Service(reasonably prompt)
Waiters(actually knew what they were talking about when they were suggesting dishes)
What I did not like
Tables are too close together
No home delivery
Very crowded even on a Tuesday night (I suppose that’s a good thing)
Today’s tip is another cocktail; I invented this for a girlfriend of mine who didn’t like any of the regular cocktails you normally get in bars
The Chocolate Bomb
Ingredients
1. 1 bar of cooking chocolate (you can use Cadbury’s in a pinch but this is better)
2. 4 tablespoons of sweetened cream
3. 2 scoops of chocolate Ice Cream
4. 2 Tablespoons of Kahlua (use dark rum if you don’t have any but it’s not as good)
5. Half a bottle of Brandy (Honey bee will do)
Method
Melt the chocolate in a saucepan
Once it’s melted add the sweetened cream
Stir well
Add brandy
Add Khalua
Stir again
Pour into two big glasses
Add Ice Cream
Chocolate Bomb explodes!
One of my favorite restaurants is Mia Cucina (my home) in Bandra.
The reasons I go there are varied, for one thing, it’s a two minute drive from my house and for another, I LOVE the food there.
Finding it is really easy. If you’re coming from Turner road, you take a right at the Pot Pourrie signal and go straight until you see Gold’s Gym on your left. You take a left and go into the lane leading to Pali Hill and Mia Cucina will be on your right.
The valet service is prompt and more importantly they don’t loose your keys or wreck your car while they’re in the process of parking it!
The décor is really simple and understated, and no this is not a nice way of saying ‘it sucks’. The restaurant outside is dimly lit and the tables are perfect for a small intimate dinner. When you go inside, things get a little more crowded.
The waiters are quick to take your order and the first thing you get when you sit down is a small roll of the most delicious homemade bread accompanied with a small pat of herbed butter. The bread is soft, with a light crust on the outside and is like a little slice of heaven!
A big let down is that they don’t have a liquor license so they only serve wine and like almost everywhere else in Mumbai the Indian wine is mediocre (Sula and Château Indage again!!) The imported wine was so expensive that I didn’t even try it (Rs 450!!)
I should say that I’m not really a big fan of Italian cooking, I can’t stand Pasta or Lasagna or Spaghetti. When I go to an Italian restaurant I generally order a steak, or if they don’t have it, a chicken and mushroom risotto. I also have a rule about eating pizza, which simply put is don’t eat it unless it has the equivalent of two pigs or a cow as toppings.(Meat Feast from Smoking Joe’s)
Now the starters are good, but not spectacular. I highly recommend you skip the starters and go straight to the main course.
They have a pretty decent steak-that’s what I had the first three or four times I went there. However I once went there pretty late at night and they were out of beef. The owner suggested I try the quarto formaggi (four cheese) pizza. I was pretty apprehensive of trying a pizza with only cheese (what, no meat!) But I was really hungry and too tired to argue so I just went with what he said and boy was I glad to do it!
The pizza crust was insanely good, not too doughy and not too brittle. It’s kind of like the perfectly cooked naan, with loads and loads of cheese on it.
I should tell you I’m not even a fan of cheese, I like my cheese to be light not heavy, but this was seriously sensational! All four cheeses are mixed together on the pizza, its slightly bitter and very heavy (duh 4 cheeses?) It’s impossible to finish a whole pizza (even for me!) At Rs 450, for a 10 inch pizza, the price is pretty reasonable.
I recommend the mushroom risotto, to which you can add chicken for an extra cost. It’s a rich, creamy risotto, the chicken is well cooked and succulent and the mushrooms add a lovely chewy texture to the dish. The dish is priced at Rs 400 + Rs 60 for the chicken
And now we come to my favorite part of a meal. Dessert!
Don’t even think, go for the Decadence cake and you’ll never regret it! The chocolate in that cake is among the best I have ever had, the only word to describe it is ambrosia!
The cost for this decadence (pardon the pun) is Rs 150.
A meal for two as described above without any drinks costs about Rs 1200
What I liked:
Food
Service(reasonably prompt)
Waiters(actually knew what they were talking about when they were suggesting dishes)
What I did not like
Tables are too close together
No home delivery
Very crowded even on a Tuesday night (I suppose that’s a good thing)
Today’s tip is another cocktail; I invented this for a girlfriend of mine who didn’t like any of the regular cocktails you normally get in bars
The Chocolate Bomb
Ingredients
1. 1 bar of cooking chocolate (you can use Cadbury’s in a pinch but this is better)
2. 4 tablespoons of sweetened cream
3. 2 scoops of chocolate Ice Cream
4. 2 Tablespoons of Kahlua (use dark rum if you don’t have any but it’s not as good)
5. Half a bottle of Brandy (Honey bee will do)
Method
Melt the chocolate in a saucepan
Once it’s melted add the sweetened cream
Stir well
Add brandy
Add Khalua
Stir again
Pour into two big glasses
Add Ice Cream
Chocolate Bomb explodes!
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