When I saw the airline ticket price for a one way from Mumbai to Chennai, my eyes popped out! Rs. 27000. Thats almost twice the price of a return ticket to Dubai! Or I could stay in a 5 star hotel and take a flight the next day and I would still pay much lesser. But I had to be here for the following day and I had to take a flight. Then I saw a flight at 3 am. Quite unearthly.

And that is when my friend came to the rescue. You can easily while away time in Mumbai till 2 am boss. Thats normal hours for us, he said. I'll take you on the best Mumbai culinary street food fest from South to North Mumbai! And that is how I booked the 3 am flight, finished my work in Mumbai at about 7 pm and waited till 8 for him to pick me up from Colaba. And by the time he dropped me at the airport, it was 130 am. This is what happened!

Stop Zero: 730 pm. While I was waiting for my friend, I stepped into Olympia Tea house in Colaba, eagerly waiting to try their Kheema Pav, only to be told that it is served only for breakfast! Sad faced, I walked out and walked the streets of Colaba while my friend waded through Mumbai traffic.

First stop: 8 pm. Bademiya.

Located in a quiet street off Colaba, this place was nothing more than 2 stalls, but with a huge line of cars waiting to be served food. An empty warehouse serves as a make shift sit down place for those who don't want to eat within the four doors of their cars. I had a chicken tikka rolled in romali roti. Soft and juicy. And a little spicy too. Loved it. Going by the hordes of people there, looks like it is loved by loads of people.

Next Stop: 930 pm. Chowpatty

Located on the Marine Drive, this is like a full time festival, boss, he said. On a weekday, to see people sitting on the mats on the beach sand and enjoying pani puri and pav bhaji was a feast. I wanted to try the pani puri. There are two things that stood out from the pani puri in Chennai. 

1. The puri did not leak.

2. The filling had more than just potatoes. There was corn among other things and was a lot more flavourful.

But beyond pani puri, we ended up eating ragi pattice and also gulping down one ice gola. Kala Katti. Slurp Slurp!

Next Stop: 1030 Vada Pav - Doc, this is not the time for vada pav. I'll take you next time, he said, much to my disappointment, but yup, I didn't get to eat vada pav that night.

Actual Next Stop - 1030 pm, Cafe Gulshan.

While this may not be as good as Olympia for keema pav, this is quite good, he said. I don't know how good Olympia would have been, but the kheema here was fantastic. And bun maska. Well, folks in Chennai have always dipped biscuits and bun in tea, but the concept of adding butter, slightly toasting the bun and dipping in tea was, well, delicious. All this while reading newspaper articles about this place being covered in the media! And a request (more of an order) to customers, not to use the limited space for conducting meetings, but to eat and get out! 

Next Stop - 1130 pm, Part 1 King's Circle Pav Bhaji.

As he drove to King's Circle, my eyes popped out more than it did on seeing the 27k flight ticket. Close to midnight, what was this crowd doing on the road? I was searching for the 'food shop.' My friend was laughing. There is the shop, he pointed out. Till we parked the car and walked to the 'shop,' I couldn't see it. The shop was just as big as 'Rangoli' pani puri. One vendor, one tava, one table with the pav, butter and the likes and he was turning around pav bhaji like it was a factory. Easily the best pav bhaji I've tasted, ever. We had a lasooni pav bhaji and a masala pav and inspite of my stomach crying, my tongue kept asking for more. As you can see in the picture, when we ordered our pav bhaji, the tava was empty and I thought he was going to wind up for the night, but as we took our dish, another guy emptied a big bowl of bhaji onto the tava! Eyes popped out again! 

1130 pm, Part 2 - Kings Circle Juice Shop.

Right next to the street is a Juice shop that apparently serves great juices and Bombay sandwiches. I resisted the temptation for a sandwich and asked for a pineapple juice, something that my friend thought was outrageous.

'Dude, are you crazy?'

'Why?'

'Let me do the ordering, you do the eating,' he said.

When the juice came, it was refreshing, cool and fantastic. It was a paan masala juice and it felt like eating paan. After a heavy foodie outing, I am glad I allowed him to order the juice as it cooled down my stomach. 

130 am 

As we reached the airport, he offered to roll me into the check in counter. For some reason, I was upgraded to business class and they woke me every 30 mins to ask if I wanted something to eat! Sigh. 

 

Hey, nice car.

Thanks. I like it too.

So where is the treat.

Anywhere you want.

Awesome.

10 mins later.

Dude, our friend has got his car. Lets take him for a treat. Both buddies, the one with the new car and one with an old car walked in.

Yup, I've booked a table for three at Flying Elephant.

Wow, you're treating us at Flying Elephant?

What? When did I say I am treating you guys at Flying Elephant.

You didn't. But I've also booked a movie for the three of us at 10 PM. So we should be good to go after dinner.

I didn't say I am treating you there.

Who said you told us you were treating us there?

Then why do you think I am treating you there.

Remember two years back when I bought my car. How you guys wrung a treat out of me?

I don't remember.

Good, two years later, I won't remember today either.

But I am vegetarian today.

Last time I checked, they have veg dishes at Flying Elephant. I love the place. Let's go. 

And that is how we got the treat from the guy. And that is how we tasted an outstanding burger at the Flying Elephant! Enough has been said and written about the ambience at Flying Elephant. There is nothing more that I can add. 5 levels, a private dining space, multiple open kitchens, a large menu, a dance floor that magically transforms into a large Saturday night pub. OK, I know I added a few words, but this restaurant is designed by somebody who thought out of the drawing board. Not sure if there is a similar concept anywhere else or if this is original, but its excellent. 

We started off with a mezze platter as that had a couple of veg dishes for our friend who managed a smile right through. We loved it. The food. Yes, the smile too, but the food more. And then a qewthow (I am not sure I got the spelling right), which was quite nice. And then a pizza that we got half vegetarian and half grilled chicken. Both parts of the pizza were blah. But me writing this post is not about the ambiance or the service or the pizza or anything. Its the burger! Let me try to describe it.

A super soft bun. A patty placed on top. Cheese on top. Yellow sauce on top. Served open top with the top part of the bun placed on the side. None of the veggies are in the burger. They are on the side. Waiting for you to place them on the patty and close it and make it a burger. The size, well, large. Looking juicy. Inviting. Onion rings on the side. I decide to pack the burger. Placed a lettuce, a pickle, a tomato slice, an onion ring and closed the top. Bit into it. I don't know how my face looked, but my friend took away my burger without asking and bit into it. And then I had a fair idea on my face might have looked. Sloppy. I took a bite. He took a bite. The guy giving a treat looked at us, cursing. Three bites and the burger was done. No words were spoken. 

We were late for the movie and so we skipped dessert. Bill was Rs. 2450 for those four dishes. Bill was paid by the treater. As we walked out of the restaurant, we were discussing the burger, much to the irritation of the third friend. Two people discussing the burger and one person cursing the two people discussing the burger. 

I don't know if it was great that particular day, but that was an outstanding burger! 

Flying Elephant is the outstanding multi cuisine restaurant at Park Hyatt, Chennai. 

Rewind 5 years. Frankfurt, Germany.

Me: Dey, take me and introduce me to some nice German cuisine.

My Tamil friend settled in Germany: German cuisine aaa? Vega vacha panni between bun and a glass of beer. That's all. (For the uninitiated, the literal translation would be, 'Steam pig between a bun ......'

A few days later, we were eating some awesome beef with grilled onions and I question his interpretation of German cuisine. 'Oh, you get these during the fairs only. Yeah, its great!'

Another couple of days later, we were having schnitzel in a German pub with apple beer for him and non alcoholic apple beer for me. I questioned him again. 'Oh, this is actually Austrian, not really German,' he dismissed. Slowly, I figured out some very nice stuff you get in Germany. Yeah, its not Italy or France of Mid east, but it certainly has more to it than steamed pig in a bun!!!! But Oktoberfest is mostly that, with German ladies carrying a dozen glasses of beer in traditionally attire and in the more, well, 'authentic' places, waitresses, lets say, reveal much less to the imagination.

Rewind 2 years. Hyatt Regency, Chennai.

Chef Thomas (the then exec chef): Wasim, can make you some pizza?

Me: No thanks, Chef, I am fine.

Thomas: You won't be fine if you keep eating that much bread with the Madras Curry gravy and nothing else.

All this while, my friend who came with me, stuffed his face with all the pork stuff, looking at me once in a while, like I was missing heaven. And he wrote the review on this blog too! And that is why I didn't bother visiting any Oktoberfest after that in India. The true ones had only pork and beer and thats how it is supposed to be.

2014.

This year, when I was invited, I was told that there is a lot more. Two days before I was invited, I was there at another restaurant at Hyatt and I got a glimpse of the fest. It was awesome. German music, fantastic crowd and buzzing! It was a Friday and the crowd was setting in. And so I went. I ensured there was a beer drinking, pork eating bad boy with me, just in case and Sunday we went. Awesome crowd, nice peppy German music and the Oktoberfest spread. Set up in the outdoor smoking area of the 365 AS pub at Hyatt, this was a feast to the eyes, ears and tongue!

Bad boy went gaga over the beer. 'If I drink 4 glasses of the beer, then it is worth every penny of the Rs. 1700 they charge,' he said. He had a nice chilled glass. And ate the pork. And said it was average. Very average. And then he ate a smaller pork sausage. And praised it. And ate it. And praised it. And ate another one. And praised it. And the cycle continued. Waiter came. Waiter poured beer. Bad boy asked details about the beer. Waiter left. Waiter came. Waiter poured a different beer. Bad boy asked name and details. Waiter left. Cycle continued.

Poor me, sat there, watching him. Yes, there were other stuff. Good ones too. A very nice pretzel, a superb beer batter fish, a really nice chicken sausage. A live counter with nice lamb chops. A very different 'German Pasta.' And some average ones too. Like the chicken schnitzel. And sauerkraut. The Madras Curry dip was sorely missed. But this all about the beer and the pork. The rest was there for those accompanying the beer drinker and pork eaters. But there was one more thing that was sooooo awesome. I mean, I didn't think that a simple virgin mojito could be awesome. Common. What can you do to soda, lime and mint leaves? I asked the beer drinking bad boy to taste it. He was a little stunned too. He kept his beer aside and took another sip, so that must mean something. The balance, he said. The balance of the mint and the lime and the sweetness and the soda was perfect. The desserts were killer that day. A nice strudel, that I wish was slightly warmer, a fantastic chocolate mousse and a little profiterole type thing that was nice!

The best part of this Oktoberfest visit? I realised that 365 AS, is a superb watering hole for catching up with bad boys! The setting is classy, the crowd is very nice, the food is very good with Focaccia right next door so you can get stuff from there, an outdoor terrace to step out to and excellent service. The place was packed on Friday and Sunday and a large crowd was inside unwinding, so looks like I am the last to find out about this place!

I was mighty excited when I heard that Krispy Kreme was coming to Chennai. Having an outlet near my Bangalore office helps me get a dose of donuts when I am there, so wishing it came to Chennai was a monthly affair for me. I have never sat down to eat donuts, though. Always picked them up on the go and munched them through. I introduced my friend to KK when we went for a movie and he was hooked for life, or so he said. When KK was giving away free donuts before the launch, I wanted to get my hands on them. Not because they were free, but because I love them so much and didn't want to wait for a trip to Bangalore to get my hands on them.

When they finally opened up, I was ready. Ready to stuff my face with donuts. Ready to write a glowing post on this blog. My head already knew what I wanted to write. Words were flowing. Decided to take the family, but only two of us ended up going. I left my friends behind. Foody friends were ditching each other to get their hands on the donuts before the others. We ordered a dozen. We sat down. We opened it. We smiled. We rubbed our hands. We took the first bite.

We were praising it. But within me, I knew something was wrong. Her face showed the same. Neither of us admitted it. But action speaks louder than words, doesn't it? By the end of half hour, very single donut was left half bitten. One bite by each of us, so half of it was left. Except the original glaze that was eaten in full. We realised that we had to admit it. Something was wrong. Opening glitches, I told myself. After all, I've had KK abroad and in Bangalore, so it was not some fantasy, but one that I loved.

Next week. A box of Donut House donuts that normally disappear when I take home seemed like a memory. A box of KK donuts were still lying there after two days. Yesterday, I took more of the original glaze and the result was slightly better than the assorted donuts. But the boxes were not emptied.

This has been tougher for me to write than admitting that the Legendary burger at Hard Rock, Chennai was dry! More disappointing that having McDonalds serve a toned down and no beef version of their burgers in India. Much more difficult to digest than the fact that most international chocolates taste much better abroad than in India.

I know that at the price point, there are better burgers in Chennai than McD. I know that Haagen Daz is not great for single scoop ice creams, but for their sundaes. But I don't know why Krispy Kreme didn't go well with me in Chennai. Is it the weather that makes the burger dry and makes the KK donuts sweeter? The more I look for an explanation, the more I am confused. I think I've been able to deduce that its much sweeter here, but that's all I can point to. Don't know much more.

Why did I decide to write this today? Another crazy KK fan, told me yesterday that he felt something was wrong, but didn't know why. My friend who I introduced to KK, told me yesterday that he enjoyed KK more in Bangalore. Family felt this way. Maybe we are the only group who feels this way or maybe there are more who feel this way.

For now, the coffee in KK is very very nice. So a coffee and a original glaze if I need to spend some time reading a book or working out of office (though the KK in EA is not really suited for that, the one in Bangalore is). If I need to take a box, then its Donut House! A home grown brand built on the concept of an international brand, trumps it in its home city. A case where the student becomes better than the teacher, at least in the home turf!!!! I guess this augers well for the Chennai food scene.

Update:

My post gathered a lot of response and most of them have felt that KK is too sweet for them, not just in Chennai but elsewhere too. Is it the fact that I normally pick up a KK donut on the run in other places, but I sat down to eat them in Chennai, making Chennai KK donuts taste worse? Does eating them on the run reduce the effect of the sweetness? No idea!

Photo Credit: Krispykreme.in

I love the tagline, Luxury is Personal!!!! It summarises the definition of luxury in a single line! What is luxury to me maybe a passé to you and vice versa! Of course there will be many for whom luxury is similar! Yesterday, it was the love of chocolates! The story is amazing - Our hot shot friend makes to a trip to Belgium and brings back premium Marcolini chocolates, gives it to the executive chef at Park Hyatt and he whips up a meal entirely of chocolates. And invites us to join the party!!!

Chennai is growing as a food destination and experiments like this will go a long way in our evolving city. Perfuming pairing at Taj, Masters of Food and Wine by Park Hyatt were all glowing examples of how hotels in Chennai were moving away from their comfort zone to experiment with food. While the demand for such is still small, so what? There is a demand, however small and the foodie in me is ecstatic that I don't have to go abroad to experience these once in a while! Yes, while on the topic, I was away for sometime, so I hope my writing skills have not taken a beating. Let's find out! I also used this to try out a little foodie video. I hope that's okay!!! Do not attempt to view the video in less than 720p resolution!!!!

So, the evening! A 5 course meal crafted with chocolates and the chef took the safest option for the amuse-bouche! The portion was much more than amuse, so I am going to call this the first course. A safe chocolate cheese pairing. Only this time, the cheese was blue! With a nice crusty chocolate filled with blue cheese, no ingredient overpowering the other, he nailed it! Yes, I loved it! The second course arrived in style! A beautifully plated bitter chocolate brittle, with pumpernickel crust, goat cheese and beetroot parfait. This was a miss! Ingredients overpowered each other and the end result was too sweet for my liking. That, however doesn't mean, I didn't finish the dish!

The third course was a shocker of a dish! Shocker in a nice way! We are given a plate of chocolate coloured pasta! Wow! OK, it was a tagliatelle. And instead of parmesan cheese, chef went around the table shaving our premium chocolate all over. Half way through the pasta, he grated more and left us wanting for more. My only temptation to not ask for more was the fact that there were two more courses to come! The palate cleaner was a nice raspberry sorbet with shaved chocolates that was wiped off! But at this time, I must make a special mention of the dark chocolate espresso crafted by the beverage manager, Abhishek. Different people like coffee differently and this is how I love my coffee!!!!

The main course was the amazing chicken with chocolates! There was a leg terrine and a blanquette with chocolate sauce poured over. It was excellent as no ingredient over powered anything else and the balance of the flavours were spot on. Spot on from a foodie's perspective! Slurp! Any guesses what was for dessert? A mini 5 course chocolate dessert that is going to need some explanation, so, I am not going to explain! Common, I am coming back after a break, so I can use the luxury!!! OK, one word explanation - excellent.

What a wonderful welcome to India and a great meal to start writing again. As for the break, keep checking this space for some excellent food from around the world, packaged into one blog post at a time! Next post will be much sooner. I promise!

Oh yeah. I know creating food is art, but the chefs took the words literally and painted a couple of pictures with chocolates. Chocolate paintings!!!

More about Park Hyatt's Luxurious offerings at www.myluxlist.hyatt.com

So some places have been making some noises recently and pantry d'or is one of them! Dragging my backside all the way to Anna Nagar was the sole reason, I didn't try it earlier, but then, one day, Vadivel's 'ADIMAI SIKKITAN' moment happened! Friend offered to drive. When I went home, I realised that I was the 'ADIMAI.' Bulb!

Anyway, so I drove, parked and we got in! Place was empty!  The place was very nice with a neat outdoor seating and a nice, but slightly uncomfortable inside seating. The menu is simple and small, but its very typical of a nice coffee shop! Not too much, not too little, but if you're scouting for options, then this may not be the place for you. They also have options with and without fries, so that way there are options!!!

Food, well, we ordered a Turkish pizza and a lamb burger! Both dishes were nice. The pizza was loaded with meat and was quite flavourful, so it was an nice starter to have. The burger had a nice patty, fries and a little salad too, so that was quite thoughtful! We finished off with a very good marble cake with ice cream. The food in general wasn't outstanding, but for the price and for its position as a coffee shop, the food was great!

I was quite intrigued by the name and so I asked the owner, who was around and he said it means Gold! Gold it is!

Pantry d'Or is located at J Block 6th Ave, Anna Nagar,

Sometimes the restaurants just don't cut it. Neither do people. Lazy Sunday, want a brunch, but don't want to step out. All brunches don't have pancakes. Don't want to wake up early and head for breakfast. Feel like cooking, but don't want to cook too much. Want to make pasta, but don't want to make the pasta from scratch! Contradictions, contradictions. Life is so full of them! The want-to vs the to-do list rarely matches. Especially on Sundays. So when that happened and the family wanted a brunch, I decided to cook the brunch. Not the chef type cooking, but the lazy man type cooking. And therefore almost everything that went into making food was food itself!

The Menu

Hash Browns; flaky style.
Missing in all brunches, so Pancakes.
Since there was mood for Mexican, Tacos.
And the mood for Italian, so Pasta
And the mood for dessert, so lazy man ice-cream.
What's brunch without some tea, so English Breakfast tea!

So, first the preps!

Hash Browns:

Easy peasy. 3 large potatoes, grated with a cheese grater or any other instrument that makes it thin and long, pinch of salt, generous amounts of oregano, mix and set aside. The most important thing here is that the potatoes must be as dry as possible!
1 down, 5 to go!

Pancake:

This is the lazy man cooking brunch, I picked a box of Betty Cooper pancake mix! 1/2 a box with one egg and 350 ml milk. Mix and make the batter. Set aside. Two down.

Pasta:

I didn't make the pasta from scratch, so I used Barilla spaghetti, so no prep there. Sunday brunch by a lazy man, so no making the sauce too. I used the Barilla Zuchini Pasta sauce, so no prep there. For the chicken, I beat down two breast pieces to even them out and dried them with a kitchen cloth. Marinate with salt, pepper and lime juice for a while. Grate parmesan cheese and mix with equal portions of bread crumbs. Beat an egg and keep in a separate bowl. Prep over. 3 down.

Tacos:

This took the longest time to prep, but also ended being great, so it was well worth it. I bought a Salsito taco kit which came with 12 tacos, a taco seasoning mix and a taco sauce. I had soaked a bowl of rajma in water the previous night. You will need to set aside 400g of minced chicken, but do not add any seasoning to it. Slice lettuce into small pieces and keep a can of American sweet corn and Sour Cream ready. 4 down.

Banana Ice Cream:

Slice four bananas into inch thick pieces and freeze overnight. Prep over. Simple.

Now the cooking!

Start with the tacos as they take the longest to cook. Heat a deep cooking vessel with a dash of oil and drop the minced meat inside for a minute to just coat it. Add the Salsito taco mix to the vessel and mix well and soon as it is coated around the chicken, add two glasses of water and cook until the water almost evaporates. Make sure that you don't over cook, as the chicken should be juicy and not dry. For 400g, it took me about 10-12 minutes.

Get a pan lightly greased with olive oil and keep it over the stove till it is hot. Take a piece of the marinated chicken breast, dip it in the beaten egg mix, coat it with the parmesan - bread crumb mix and shallow fry it. Typically it should take about 4-5 minutes before one side is golden brown and once it gets that colour, turn it and cook the other side till it gets the colour, about 3-4 minutes. Ensure that you do not over cook the chicken, but equally important is to ensure that it is not undercooked. I cut the edge to make sure that the whole piece is white inside! While the chicken is cooking, its a good time to get the pasta rolling, so bring a rice cooking vessel with water to the boil with a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of olive oil. Once it gets boiling, the pasta should take about 8-10 minutes to become al-dente.

By this time time you should have both your tacos and the pasta ready to plate, so its best to keep them warm in the oven or in a hot box.

Now the last part of the cooking. In one pan, grease with some butter and oil and fry the pancakes till they are golden on one side before turing them to the other side. In another flat pan greased with olive  oil, pour a thin layer of the grated potatoes and fry till golden brown. Turning this around takes some practice, but it has to be done! Its okay if a few pieces don't turn properly! Both the pancakes and the hash browns should take about 10 minutes to get done. While these are getting done, you can heat the taco shells in the oven for about 2-3 minutes.

You can start plating the brunch tray now. Place four taco shells on the plate and put in a generous amount of rajma and minced chicken and top it off with american corn, grated cheese, lettuce leaves and top it off with the Salsito Taco salsa and some sour cream. I plated the pasta in a deep bowl which I filled with the pasta sauce, placed the pasta on the sauce and the breast piece on top and finished off with a little grated parmesan cheese. The pancakes can go on one side topped with your favourite topping, for me, this time it was Hershey's Strawberry syrup, but of course maple syrup would be great too and place the hash brown potatoes on another side for a fabulous brunch tray!

Dessert? Put the frozen banana slices in food processor and run it and in a few minutes you will have the lazy man's banana ice cream. Tea or coffee and you're done! Now. Start eating or sharing!

From the time I have know Rhapsody, it had a identity crisis. Serving some fantastic Italian food, it had always dabbed with event nights, the best being the Jazz nights that they used to host with Alliance Franca-is for which, at that time, I was a regular patron. With an excellent ambiance, I have always felt that Rhapsody is not doing justice to its setting and now, finally, Rhapsody is trying its hand again at partying!

So every Friday, Saturday and even Sunday (I think), they have these pub nights with a live band and karaoke and that Saturday night when I was there, the crowd, though small, was in a total party mood and they lifted the night! Having just started off, the crowds are yet to throng this place and for me that was a good thing! Yes, I made a fool of myself behind the mic, trying to sing a song, but that was the whole idea!!!

The food was good in parts! That night they had a buffet that was quite far away from Italy with Chilly chicken being a part of the starters! It wasn't great! The grilled tenderloin was dry and chewy. Not good. Then the nice n juicy burger that was the first of the starters that was wolfed down by all of us, was followed by a cheese course. You know how much I love cheese, so I had a sample of every thing that was there and loved it with the outstanding choice of bread that you get! My friend who was the only pork eater in the group was raving and raving about the pork belly and the pork sausages! He was glad that he didn't have to share and I only managed the mashed potato that came with it! And it was super smooth and creamy and we fought off our pork eating friend for the mashed potatoes! There was another Indian starter that was excellent and saved the disastrous chilly chicken! The quiche was good enough and then there were salads and rice and a good round of dessert to finish off.

With the hostess offering a free shot for every one who tried their mouth at Karaoke, it was a fun filled night. Though the buffet happens only every two weeks, the Karaoke happens every Friday. The pub night with the buffet was priced at Rs. 1950 plus tax for food and alcohol, while there was a pricier version for unlimited imported spirits of which my pork eating friend had a glass of red wine followed by a glass of white wine. Not exactly a wine connoisseur type thing to do, but I don't think after the first round, he even cared!!!

The karaoke has ONLY English songs, so if you want to sing Lungi Dance, that option is not yet there!