Asian food has really taken India by storm. While it was limited to Indo-Chinese and Thai, now Singapore, Vietnam and Malaysian foods have become the new comfort eat out foods. While a restaurant each for the cuisines may not be feasible for all, the Pan Asian minus Japanese, I guess is going to be in for a while and seems to have taken out the sudden craze for mid eastern cuisine that was there for a bit.

Va Pho is a jugalbandi of everything. Is it a fine dine restaurant? Nope. Is it a coffee shop? Nope. It is a fun space that happens to serve food. There is an auto right at the entrance for photo-ops and selfie crazes. Walls full of graffiti. A large space with seats on three sides and two round tables in one corner that will be perfect for a large group that wants to nibble on food while playing scrabble. Oh, you don’t have to take your scrabble with you, they give it you. And chess. And some more board games. A high bar table with no bar! Comfy corner tables with some privacy. It is indeed a platter of things. A real fun atmosphere with a menu that comes with all inclusive prices, so what you see is what you pay.

I was there twice. Once with the wife and once with friends on the invite of Va Pho so I am going to try to focus on dishes. The soup, both times I had the Beef Pho soup. Light and warm, this definitely wasn’t the best pho and doesn’t stack upto Benjarong’s festival pho, but it is not pretending to be that either. Glass noodles were yum on the invite visit while the Spicy Malaysian fried rice was fantastic on my personal visit. It was really really spicy, but the tongue asked for more. Inspired by the Jungle Fried rice in Benjarong, the fried rice here is brilliant.

The bau buns are the next best things. Super soft, loaded buns with nice smoky chicken, but the thousand island type dressing spoilt it for me, so I asked for one without it and loved it without the sauce on top. The chicken satay for us with a modified peanut sauce was nice. I didn’t really like the dim sums. Rendang with coconut rice was also nice and tangy. The beef was soft and pretty much melt-in-the-mouth.

The chocolate dessert was fabulous. A nice mousse with a chocolate disc and the crumbs adding the crunch with the cherry was a beautiful dessert.

Va Pho is above Tex-Mex and Hot Breads on RK Salai, but with a dedicated entry via the side road, but valet parking is on the main road.

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Take the dim sum out of the steamer. Dunk it in your mouth. Realise it is super hot and struggle to eat it. Then enjoy the second dim sum when it cools a bit! Right? Maybe, but when you have a curried dim sum, then it is a whole new ball game.
Nasi and Mee has been making waves in Chennai and I can see why. Promising Malaysian and Singaporean street food, the place itself is set up like a pub and the ambiance is inviting and laid back. With quirky stuff all over the walls and an almost Singapore hawker stall like feel albeit in a posh, up market set up, the place seems to have ticked all the boxes.
We were invited for the evening and were welcomed with a trio of welcome drinks, but nothing screams Malaysia more than Milo. Having a cult status in Malaysia and in parts of Singapore, the humble Milo maybe a health drink (a failed one at that) in India, but it is revered there. The Milo here was as good as the ones you get in Malaysia, chocolaty, a little dilute (since it is a thirst quencher and not a health drink) and chilled. The warm winter melon soup kicked off the proceedings and was a beautiful comforting soup, with large winter melons in a familiar Asian broth that my Indian palate was extremely comfortable with.
Then came the dim sum in question. I don’t remember having it before and so when the waiter said that the dim sum had soup in it, I was more than intrigued. I was asked to place the dim sum on a spoon,  poke a hole, let the steam out and slowly drink up the soup off the spoon and then dunk the whole dim sum in my mouth. There is a certain novelty value to the experience which over shadows the flavour of the craby soup, (yes, this is a crab soup in the dim sum).
The Nasi Lemak was the first main course to arrive. It looked very similar to the original Malaysian version, with the rice, peanuts and anchovies, but with an omelette instead of a boiled egg. The rice had the coconutty flavour while the anchovies were surprisingly and (for most of us, pleasantly) non-stinky, but the strong Belacan flavour of Malaysia was clearly missing in the entire meal. Now, this is not something that may go well with the crowd as the Belacan (shrimp paste) is what gives Malaysian food its strong pungent flavour, but there was almost no whiff of it anywhere in the meal. So this is a highly Indianised version of the Lemak. The Char Keow Teow is where I realised that Nasi and Mee is street food inspired at best and is not here to give you those flavours. A Char Keow Teow in the streets of Singapore will be a dark stir fried noodles and here it was no where close. The slightly burnt flavour that gives Char Keow Teow its distinct taste (with soy/fish sauce I think that is used by hawkers) was missing in its entirety. The Laksa arrived to much dismay as that wasn’t any Laksa curry that I’ve had. Not that I’ve had too many variations, but I simply didn’t know what it was.  The main course in general tasted excellent, but I felt like I ordered chilli chicken and was served an excellent butter chicken instead!
Dessert was definitely closer. I resisted from ordering a Chendol as I didn’t want to be served some payasam! Ice Kacang it was for me, while my friend ordered a fried ice cream. The Ice Kacang was excellent. It looked like the original and tasted very close to the ones you get in Singapore and Malaysia. It had the beans, the corn, peanuts, the green noodles and multiple flavours of ice. I should have ordered Chendol, I guess. The fried ice cream though is one of the best that I’ve in Chennai, with a crisp flavoured shell oozing out a nice vanilla ice cream. I believe they have multiple flavours for the fried ice cream.
The price point is killer. While I won’t be surprised if you asked to pay an entry fee to KNK Road in Nungambakkam, Nasi and Mee is priced extremely competitively. With most dishes priced around mid three hundred mark, a good meal for two at Rs. 1000 is doable with ease. With a nice ambiance and a street food inspired cuisine at a killer price point, Nasi and Mee should do well in Chennai. I understand that the restaurant needs to survive and do well more than making sure there was Belacan in your food, but I only wish that there were at least a few dishes (OK, at least 2 or 3) that could have retained the essence of the wonderful street food culture in those countries.

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Going for new menu launches have stopped exciting me these days. I guess, so much has been done and dusted that nothing exciting seems to be happening. After all how much can you do to a menu? Within a cuisine. I'm a lot more excited when it comes to festivals than new menus. Of course, there are complete menu change overs with new chefs and stuff like that, but otherwise, it has become mundane. Golden Dragon has been one of the flag bearers of 5 star, comfort Indo-Chinese. Now that is like a cuisine by itself. 5 star, comfort and Chinese in the same line? It has gone through so many stages over the years that I'm left wondering what else can they do with the menu! And if the staunch GD fans accept a new menu. Most people there don't even need a menu, they simply order from memory! 

Dinner started off mundane! The new dishes may be new on the menu, but nothing exciting to the palate or the eyes. The dumplings and starters arrived and for the first few dishes, it was all blah. I was late and I was starting to think if I should have gone home instead! 

OK, I spoke too soon. Thought too soon too! A little plate of fried noodles arrived! Nope, it is not in the pictures and it was so oblivious to the eye that I didn't care to shoot it. One bite and it wasn't noodles. What was it then? We had a little guessing game and none of us got it right! Turns out to be mushrooms. I could have sworn those were noodles. Super slim, I mean, super super thin mushrooms with a tiny little barely visible head, called the Enoki mushrooms, fried with the usual Chinese spices! Easy to miss, easy to dismiss but hard to keep your hands off! It felt like a little Chinese snack that you can munch all day long. Super comfort food type fine dine dish! Yeah, I have no idea that kind of cuisine exists too! I had no idea you had such super thin mushrooms. Unless, they've done something to it to make that way! 

While I thought Exciting was done and dusted with those mushrooms, then arrived the Taro Dumpling. Now we're talking! The 5th photo from the top! Crispy outside, super sticky inside!!!!  Almost like caramel sticky! These are things I've not had before in the Indo Chinese restaurants and was glad to be excited and given new things to chew on! Yeah, pun intended! Oh, this has to come with a Statutory Warning: HOT INSIDE. It may feel cool outside, but is a boiling pot inside! Super super hot inside!

Main courses were mostly different variations of the usual Golden Dragon classics, except for one fish dish that felt more Bengali with the strong but yummy mustard flavour! 

Soup was then served. Yup, soup! Yup, after main course! Only after I took a sip, did I realise that dessert was served. And the whole new menu suddenly made sense. Forget starters, forget main course, you could simply go for that one dessert! A, hold your breath, PEANUT freaking BUTTER soup! AAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!!! 

I could have drunk another full bowl. I could have had that one dish for all three courses (three servings of course) and this new menu launch would have still made sense. I don't know if it is Chinese or Indo Chinese and I don't care if this is a Martian cuisine served in a Chinese restaurant, this was killer! Simply killer! 

Golden Dragon is the Chinese restaurant at Taj Coromandel Chennai! 

Oops. Leela Palace is in Chennai! After two bad episodes (though one was made up by the hotel), I forgot about Leela Palace. The fact that it is not on my way anywhere didn't make it difficult to forget and not having heard of food festivals here made it easy to wait to make a visit! When my friend reached out to give a Chef's table a shot, I wasn't too keen. When a fellow blogger, who now works close to Leela said that things are so much better now, I thought, maybe this is a good time to give it a shot.

Any restaurant which is full on a Monday evening needs to be studied. It was after dinner that I realised what I have been missing for so long! Oh man!

So this was a chef's table at China XO for their Seafood festival at the invite of the hotel. The dishes that came out were getting better, one after the other. Take the restaurant chef's Singapore experience with the mid eastern experience of the exec chef, Makwana, China XO is THE answer to Chennai's Chinese dining scene. Maybe along with Tao of Peng (though that is far far away in Mahabs), these are the only two places I can think of that dole out high quality Chinese food. While it had Asian twists and accents, it was Chinese at heart.

It started with the Lobster with Asparagus and Truffle dimsum. Supremely wonderful. The flavours of all the three were individually palpable. When the Chilean Sea Bass wrapped with the crisp stuff came along, the previous one was forgotten. This dish was even better! The fish was melt-in-your-mouth and with the crispness, was a beautiful dish. And then the best dimsum of the day, the LAKSA. This was innovative. I've never had such a dish before. Heck, I didn't even know you could have dimsum floating in a sauce! Here was a crab and prawn dimsum, shaped like a fish, floating in unmistakably Singaporean Laksa! I wanted to laugh. Having just had one piece each, I was looking for more.

And more was an understatement. The Lobster clear soup had Morel mushrooms in them! Whoa! I checked the menu to see the price of the soup and it was Rs. 750++. That mushroom costs about Rs. 20,000/kg! The broth was so yummy that at the risk of not being able to finish the meal, I dunked down the bowl into the tummy! And did not regret it!

Soft Shell crab. The only other version I've had is the semolina or rava coated and fried versions. This was something else. Stir fried with Asian spices and crisp, this was wonderful. I was starting to look for things to nitpick. Given the history with Leela, I wanted to pick out something. Ambiance. Nope, great. Empty restaurant? Nope, it was full, so clearly only I wasn't coming here and missing out! Service? Obviously difficult to judge when the chef is with you! Privacy was amazing! So many tables have their own rooms besides dedicated private dining rooms with divans and more opulence!

Time for main course! Singapore chilly crab and fried catch of the day with greens! The Singapore chilly crab was fabulous, but the Chinese fried buns that were served along with that was even better! The fried fish, presented beautifully in a deep fried fish was super yummy! We also got some Prawns in Garlic butter sauce that were silky. Apparently the butter was a French butter! Dessert was a nice platter of multiple stuff of which the almond jelly was the best. OK, nitpick time. Dessert simply didn't live upto the amazing dinner that far!

Crap. What was I missing out for the past two years! Time to do some Leela Palace eating over the next few months!

This Seafood Festival is on till the 11th of September at China XO.  A meal for two will set you back by about Rs. 4000 without alcohol! Opulence comes for free! 

What is the meaning of Tao of Peng? I did try a bit to find out. Both before and after I ate there. Intriguing that Dr. Google has no answer. Or maybe I didn't try hard enough. Maybe it doesn't have a meaning. Or maybe it is complicated.

Just like the food it serves.

Keep things simple, they say. Sometimes, I guess if you complicate it correctly, you may be able to pull it off!

And when faced with situations like this, I feel it is best to leave it to the chef to complicate your meal for you!

Thats what we did. How else do you expect us to enjoy food in a restaurant that makes it seem like it is going to serve you some super authentic stuff, when you have your mother for whom Chinese food is incomplete without Manchurian? With others who have traveled around the world and have opinions of Chinese food? A bunch of 5 people with completely different tastes!

'Start with some dimsums and then we will talk about the main course,' the chef said.

When four boxes of dim sums came, I was worried. Mostly about what the bill was going to be! For a minute I thought 'leave it to the chef' may not have been a good idea this time around. Its worked before, but...... oh well.  However with every morsel of dim sum, the worry slowly and steadily melted away.

Maybe it was the lobster money bags, a fabulous dim sum packed like money bags. Not quite simple, but the flavours were awesome. I am still trying to figure out what the bag is made of. Or maybe it was the prawn stuffed inside something which was stuffed inside something else! All white. And yummy! Especially when the sauce was poured all over it. The wok fried chicken dim sum was gulped down by everybody! And the squid with the salmon caviar! Slurp! With so many dim sums I was wondering what was left to talk about the main course. The sisters wanted something crunchy.

The chef came out and did speak about main course. 2 fried rice, 1 crispy prawns and 1 portion of exotic greens. We didn't even argue when he made the suggestion. We had seen enough to trust him.

I saw the mom's plate. It was clean after the waiter served her these dim sums. I am safe, I thought to myself.

The crisp prawns and the greens magically went well with the fried rice and we didn't need a 'gravy' to go with the rice. The rice was similar yet dissimilar to what we are used to. Authentic but not too authentic. Slightly moist. But mom's plate was clean again. The prawns had that salty crispiness that left the tongue wanting for more. The greens were yummy enough to make salad a staple food! More importantly it gave the meal a nice balance.

And dessert. We were full, but the chef insisted we have dessert to complete the meal and offered us one with his compliments. 2 plates of some random name! It had a green tea panna cotta. Panna cotta in China? It wasn't wobbly, but what is more Chinese than green tea? Didn't matter. The dish with the orange ice cream and the chocolate with the green tea panna cotta was a super hit with the family.

Bill came. Rs. 5699 and dessert wasn't charged. So I am assuming that the dessert, all of which were priced around Rs. 375-425 would have increase the bill to Rs. 6200 and that would mean we paid about Rs. 1200 per head. Allowing Chef Avinash Naha to complicate our meal was a good decision, I guess. Who is this guy anyway? Never heard of him before and here is doling out some super fancy stuff. Have to get to know the guy and his history a little more!

Hyatt tried it with STIX, Leela tried it with China XO and these are all very good restaurants, but for me, the best Chinese Restaurant in South India is tucked away in a resort in Mahabalipuram. Given the right media attention, it can give better known ones in the country a serious run-for-the-money!

I only wish we hadn't eaten so many dim sums because I am sure there is a lot more to explore in that menu. And about the chef himself. Unfortunately it is a 45 minute drive away!

Tao of Peng is the Chinese restaurant in Intercontinental Chennai Mahabalipuram Resort, located about 45 mins away from Chennai on ECR.

Eat Dessert First - Some wise dude!

I saw this at Sandy's, but never acted upon that advice, till Thursday night. After dreading a long wait, was surprised to get a table quickly and since we were only two of us, we got a table immediately. The place was almost full on a week night.

The dessert craving hit and the history of their Banofee Pie was a little too much to resist. Before the menu came, we asked for the Banofee pie, much to the surprise of the waiter.

So, my last visit here was mixed as I wrote. Mainly because I was expecting the Bangalore's experimental menu. This time, open mind!

So, Banofee pie was half polished off, enjoyed and left the half for the actual dessert!

We were not exactly in a pig out mood, so we completely skipped main courses and had three starters. The grill platter from the bar nibbles menu, a shrimp dim sum and a spicy sweet potato fries. The dimsum was super yummy. While it definitely wasn't as thin as a fantastic one should be, the flavours helped by the burnt stuff on top and the sauce more than made up for the lack of skill in making a transparent dim sum. Yum. Check.

The grill platter was lovely. With two pieces each of Yakitori, Indonesian grilled chicken and satay, each served with complementary sauces, the peanut, the soy and the coriander (I think it was), was lovely. Add the spicy sweet potato fries and the polished off remains of the banofee pie and we had a reasonably healthy dinner on a weekday and ended up not feeling too guilty!!!

At 1550 for the above, it was a little pricy for a week night, no special occasion type of meal, but the not guilty part made up for it!

Yo mama!!!

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New restaurant alert!!!!

Yep. Chinese again. Indo-Chinese? I don't think so. I don't know, actually.

While Five Senses calls itself a specialty Chinese restaurant, the menu gives you a little peek into other Asian cuisines, mainly Thai, Korean, Indonesian, Malay, Singaporean and dabbles a little bit with Japanese as well.

With three of us, one vegetarian and two carnivores, we were set to explore everything that the menu had. No breakfast and lunch certainly helped matters.

Didn't start off great, though. The sushi platter, for me, was a big disappointment, except maybe the prawn one, the others were average. But the little appetisers that was placed on the table, unlike just the usual kimchi, had some herbed fried wantons. I don't know if it was the hunger, but it was excellent and my friends had to restrain me from filling my tummy with that.

Then came the fabulous soup. Called the Soto Ayam, it was nice warm soup with potato and chicken with exuberant Asian flavour. This time, no one could stop me, I gulped down the whole bowl. WE, gulped down both the bowls and was almost licked clean. Our veggie friend had a Tom Yum, I think. I wouldn't remember!

For the sake of our veggie friend, we had the vegetarian jasmine fried rice and the noodles and nothing great to write home about. Loved the sticky fried rice, though. It was interesting to be able to eat rice with the chop sticks. The sides were all excellent. The Chilli Basil eggplant was excellent and our vegetarian friend went over the top and stuffed himself, leaving no place for dessert. We gorged on the flavourful, yet very light steamed red snapper with thai herbs that was excellent.

We finished off with three awesome desserts, a very nice pumpkin pudding, a nice chocolate cake and a fantastic warm lava cake which had a bit of chilli to 'spice' up the dessert.

The setting is eclectic and luxurious. This place previously hosted the EEST restaurant which was a dark Asian one, but has been replaced by this bright and vibrant Five Senses. A meal for two would cost about Rs. 3000 here. Clearly, we didn't explore the whole menu, but looks like we will have to go back for that!