When somebody (read blogger) writes something not-so-great about you (read a recent food festival), there are a few ways to react. 1. You could stop talking to them ever. 2. Call them names and malign them. 3. Do more mean things. 4 All of the above!

There is a 5th option I guess. Make the blogger eat his own words by making sure the next festival will blow his mind! After a near fiasco with the Mumbai to Goa food festival, I thought I will never be allowed into Grand Chola. It was near scathing. Ideally, they should have kept a separate security guard to make sure I didn't come within a 200m radius!

But when they called me over for their new food festival, Coorgi, it was the packed restaurant that was the first sight. After the food, tt was like Anton Ego eating Remi's food! Really.

After a few minutes, three of us were seated and the trolley arrived with a simple but super yummy drink, the Coorg's Spice Market. Herbed and served with rum for the drinkers and without the rum for me, I am starting to have an affinity for these drinks. The starters then arrived, three of which stood out! The chicken. Oh-My-Kadavule! Stunner. South Indian at heart, mind and soul, this was the dish of the day for me. The super yummy lamb, followed and then a Banana Flower cutlet. Ha ha ha. What's a big deal about the 'Vazhapoo vada?'  It had the faintest of Asian flavours kissing the otherwise predominantly South Indian and made it a great great vegetarian starter. The sheer number of starters in the buffet was amazing. A fabulous mushroom followed all of which completely overpowered the Yam Cutlet which was average. We finished with brilliant deep fried prawns. What so amazing with the batter fried prawns? The batter! Richly flavoured, this was the Coorgi take on Golden Fried Prawns, I guess!

Dessert! Oh. Wait, there is main course.

A live grill with green chicken, red fish and yellow prawns. Now the fish and chicken were all nice, but I need to talk about the prawn. Small prawns, minced and stuffed back into whole prawns and tava fried. Looks simple, but it was so juicy, you could have it as your drink! Unfortunately it is at the back of the grill platter and I was in no mood to shoot it after I tasted it. It was dead anyway! Yes, pun intended!

Dessert! Oh. This was grill. There is still main course to come!

Simple as it can get. Sophisticated as it can get. Dosa. Idly. Nothing fancy with the dosa, everything fancy with the idly! Long and steamed in a shell and called the Kabudu, it went super well with gravies on offer, but one gravy that stood out was the Bamboo Gravy. Ha ha. Not just flavours, even the veggies were wide in variety. Stuffed as we were, I really wanted to try their mutton pulao. Wanted just one spoon, but went back and got another one!

Dessert. Yay! Dessert is the weak link in most buffets. And even more so in food festival buffets where they are usually disasters. Not here! A jackfruit halwa and a Khus Khus payasam. Who would have thought. The fact that I have to roll home is the only reason I didn't take a second helping! Special mention for the coffee that was served with espresso on the side. Why will you serve coffee with espresso? Turns out it isn't espresso! It was jaggery syrup!

Priced at Rs. 2200 plus tax, the net price will be Rs. 2600 odd for a super well researched food festival! 

"Kaatru vanga ponen, oru kavidhai vaangi vandhen," sang a former super hero of Tamil cinema. It translates to, "I went to get some fresh air, but I came back with a poem."

That's what happened when I went to the Teppan Food Festival at The Flying Elephant.

OK, so the teppan is behind a glass, so you have to see the tricks with a glass barrier. Ironic. That didn't stop the guests from lining up in front of the glass to take a look and allowing their phones to do the same at the teppan Chef Lalit doing knife tricks while making some awesome Seafood Fried Rice!

While Park Hyatt invited me over for their Teppan dinner, they are not going to like this piece of writing. A little tea hijacking the evening! Can't blame me. They simply had a tea that was brilliant!

Back to Teppan. Dinner started for the four of us with Beef Carpaccio. Brilliant cut of beef soaked to perfection. This was followed by an excellent scampi starter and a wonderful mushroom salad. But man, the tea was Oh-so-good.....sorry. Focus. Focus.

The mains started with Chicken Teriyaki and tea. One piece of chicken, one gulp of tea! Focus. Focus. While the Chicken Teriyaki and the sea bass were pretty good, they were no match for the Seaweed salad that had all the elements of a Japanese and Teppan feel and taste to it. No, the tea wasn't Japanese, but hey......OK. Focus on food. Focus.

This was followed by some display of chef and knife skills by their new Teppan Chef from behind the glass and lots of guests joined us in viewing him chop the omelette with Ferrari speed and Omega Precision! I actually had to look at his fingers to make sure my doctor skills weren't needed! We loved the seafood fried rice long before it was served on the table. I wish The Flying Elephant sets up a Teppan table, but I don't think that is going to happen anytime soon (or late)! The seafood fried rice went well with the Tea! (Pun intended)!

Dessert. Yay! Nothing Japanese about it, but the dessert platter left us gaping and gasping for more! I had to divert my food pipe towards the heart and wished I had a larger heart! As large as the tea pot that carried that tea! He he. But if there was one thing that competed with the tea, it was the dessert platter. The salted caramel profiterole was a stunner that night. Perfectly salted caramel with a fantastic choux pastry. The tart and the macaron and the cake popsicle and the tiny orange pastry all complemented the profiterole. And the tea!

So what was this tea? It was an English Breakfast tea with Orange. As simple as that. Served cold on a hot summer day, this was so refreshing with the perfect balance of tea and Orange juice. I had more than a few glasses and that might have played a role in filling up the tummy leaving barely enough space for the dessert (that then had to be diverted to the heart)!

The festival is on till the 29th, but the chef is here to stay! And so is the tea! 

Can a Tex-Mex survive the Chennai heat?

Hard to tell. Habanero, with quite decent food didn't survive. It really didn't do much wrong. OK, service was close to pathetic, but reviews in forums were thrashed. And anyone who dared to write something good about it was also thrashed. Honestly, service and attitude let them down, but the food wasn't bad. And the complaints were all about the food. So Tex-Mex and Chennai? 

Welcome Chili's. I hope you survive this one! 

I think it will! 

So, the ambiance is a lot more happening and the music is nice and reflects the cuisine to a large extent. Chili's is in general more Tex than Mex and the Mex flavours are more of a foreplay. It is outwardly American and proud of it, so don't expect Mexican flavours to bombard your taste buds. 

Clearly, the person who made our Guacamole on the table didn't do a great job. Clearly the chef in the kitchen knows how to make a Guac. So our on-the-table guac wasn't any good. We returned it and the one that came from the kitchen was more like it. Nachos. Bang on. Guac. On. Bring the rest on! 

Glad they have the mix and match for starters, so you can take a pick of 3 or 5 starters from the page of a combo price. We picked Boneless Chicken Wings, Chicken Strips and Onion Rings. Chicken wings were tangy. Really tangy and I loved the flavours but missed celery sticks along with it. Would have been great. The chicken strips were large compared to most quick service places like KFC, but the onion rings are something that you may like or hate. I din't like it so much, my friend who came along loved it every bit. It is thick and flat and the batter is thick and there is more flour and batter than onion. I prefer the golden crispy ones! Drinks were large. All mocktails, obviously, but large portions. My pomegranate margarita was yum while my friend refused to share his. I won't know why, but will have to go back! 

My friend who had the baby back ribs could not stop raving about it for a couple of days. I will leave it at that as I have no idea what it is. Since he wanted to have that, I had to order my own main course and between the burger and the fajita, I chose the latter. For Rs. 195 extra, the black beans and the rice add a lot more flavour to the fajita considering that these are not corn tortillas but flour tortilla. So with the add on beans, the guac, the rice and the grilled meat, the fajita was complete. 

I forgot the name of the cake we had, but it was heavenly. Creamy, crunchy and soft across the layers, this was a fitting finish to the meal. 

I want to go back and try the steaks and their burger!!! Express Avenue finally has an a real restaurant with great music!!! Meal for two will cost about Rs. 1500 but considering the portion size, a meal for 4 should cost your about Rs. 2500. 

Again. Welcome Chili's. 

Can someone make you go gaga over basa?

Like, really?

Really?

When he cooks for the king, apparently he can!

Introducing us to the Royal flavours, chef Chandar Singh Rathod, with his ever folded hands left a smashing blow!

Done perfectly, with a-la-carte, he took us through royalty.

When I saw the menu and was startled at the 'Gulab Jamun Gravy,' he assured me that he makes gravies out of even Rasagolla. Oh man!

So, coming back to the basa! Starters were nice, but nothing stood out after the main course. Clearly, the maharajas weren't into starters. The Sangri kebab was a completely different flavour than what most of us might be used to. The corn kebabs were yum, the slightly pickly Chicken was nice, but only God knows how he infused so much flavour into the basa fish. Those were yellow fillets from heaven. Yes, starters were great but after main courses.............

Then the platter of the ingredients used for cooking food for the kings! Khair (not sure of the spelling). Those little pebble like things. Was a powerhouse of flavours. At Rs. 12,000 per kg, it would be surprising only if they didn't have so much flavour. And the sangri, a type of bean root.

Then came the gulab jamun gravy. Oh-my-God. What a wonderful use of a sweet. Un-freaking-believable. He then came and effortlessly squeezed some bread on the dhal and topped it off with Churma to give us a fabulous Dhal-Baati-Churma. Flavours still stuck in the brain. The roti's didn't need any gravy. They were yum by themselves. I will have to learn the cuisine to be able to explain, but when food is that good, I don't think it needs an explanation. Just an open mind.

The dessert platter was fabulous. Nothing else to say.

The festival is on till May 1st and please don't miss it. 

Yay.

RWI is back. Let's get one thing out of the way. While it is still superbly priced for a 3/4 course meal at fabulous restaurants, the ridiculously low prices of the previous editions are not there. After all the taxes and fees, it now will cost you Rs. 2300 for two people. Still brilliantly priced, especially when you book restaurants like Prego, which would normally cost you close to 3.5k for two for a 3 course meal each.

So, with the price out of the way, the menus have gotten more interesting. Our dinner started with the simple, yet awesome Grilled Scamorza for my friend. Grilled cheese with the Italian breads were great as it is, but small little mushroom on the side was fantastic addition. I had to have Scallops and so, I opted for that. The Scallops are RWI special and will cost Rs. 100 more. With the brilliant lentil sauce for company, this was a superb match.

For the main course also, we decided to go with one from the menu and one from the RWI special menu and my friend said there was no use in coming to Prego and not having pasta. I would have preferred to try the saffron sauce risotto, but he wanted the pasta. Choosing between the risotto and the Chilean Sea bass with pumpkin puree, I went with the Chilean Sea Bass. Both turned out great. The pasta was simple, perfect al-dente with a burst of flavour while the Chilean Sea Bass was loaded with flavour and the pumpkin puree added a fabulous element. We finished off with the glazed strawberry mascarpone and wished there was more.

Prego is a fabulous Italian restaurant and never ceases to amaze either with food or service. Everything from the way the butlers are dressed to how they are always available but still seem to disappear giving you your privacy is amazing. Bumped into a friend who came in with his wife and had only compliments for Prego.

Restaurant Week is on till May 1st and already Golden Dragon is booked out for most part and is on waitlist while Prego is booked out this weekend.

You can book right here using the link below.

Click here

                             

And Park Hyatt shows the way!

A food festival, a-la-carte done to perfection. Now a festival like Thai Food festival can be boring. I mean, there are specialty Thai restaurants in Chennai and some very good ones, so what can you bring to the table that is new? Turns out you don't have to!

What better way than to fly in their Thai chef from Park Hyatt Dubai, a Thai native to whip up some for Chennaities? No buffet. Simply off the menu. Would have loved a set menu though, but knowing Park Hyatt, you simply have to tell the chef to create a four course meal for you and they will oblige!

Being a bunch of five people, we had the freedom to try a lot of dishes. Amazingly, the vegetarians had a field day!!! While the simple raw mango and peanut salad is quite common here, the second starter, the seafood salad was a stunner! Along with some mojito, the salad, with a melange of flavours, but dominated by a kind of chilli sourness was simply amazing. With prawns and scallops (I didn't taste any fish) it was a fabulous start to the meal.

And then a fantastic dish. While our vegetarians friends could taste our seafood PHAD THAI, we all dived into their vegetarian PHAD THAI. With some crunch, it beat the non veg version by a mile! And then the non vegetarians had their trump card, the glass noodles with prawns!!! Lovely!! While we thought the best had come, there came the best dish of the day, the THAI GREEN CURRY. Mix with rice and it was heavenly!

Desserts were simple. Everything had coconut milk and jackfruit and water chestnut! The sticky rice with mango was nice ending to the awesome meal we had!!

The festival is on till the 29th of April and looks like we are having a deluge of food festivals in Chennai this month! Look forward to more in the coming days. 

Sometimes food is sooooooo good that you know it while looking at it. And then the rare thing happens. I eat it without photographing it! Really! Completely missed photographing the starters here! Oh so yum. And having a Mallu friend who certified the dishes really helped!

OK, so here is what is happening. Another buffet food festival, this time from Kerala and hosted at Hyatt Regency. The simplest of foods are the most difficult to make in a restaurant setting, I guess. When was the last time you felt at home in a restaurant? OK, why will you go to a restaurant to feel at home!?! Let me try again. When was the last time you felt like being in a friend's home when you visited a restaurant? Bingo!

There were two starters - a fried chicken and this awesome awesome thing called Mutton Ularthiyathu. Couldn't care less what that actually meant! It was soooooo yum. One look and though not pretty, it was love at first site. OK. At first Bite. And I don't have photographs to show it! Sorry. It was super nice, juicy, perfectly spiced and felt like eating in a friend's home. My mallu doctor friend certified the flavours, though I couldn't have cared if the flavours were Kerala or Kashmir. The fried chicken was super yummy, but didn't stand a chance near the mutton.

Main courses were simple and very home style. And there was another mutton, MUTTON KURUMILAGU something. Oh man! It was super yummy with the kerala parotta which was slightly disappointing as it wasn't as fluffy as the ones I am used to, but the gravy sort of made up for it. That with the Avial and Kerala Style Buttermilk was simply enough!!!!

Sweets with Kerala has to be some PRATHAMAN. We had one with Rice and one with Jackfruit, both ending the meal quite well!!

The festival is on till the 25th of April, 2016, so there is some time to get your hands on that mutton! 

I find it hard to believe that you can have a food festival in a buffet, but that is how it is in Chennai. And invariably all those places have average food festivals. One place that was an exception with the consistency was the Madras Pavilion at ITC Grand Chola. I've been to three food festivals, the Arcots, the Telangana and the Navaithas and loved them all. I've always wondered, 'How do these guys do it?" and when I got the invite for their Two States food festival, I was rather excited.

The drive between Mumbai and Goa is supposed to be exotic, but I've not done it. Always did it via Mangalore, so I don't know what you get on the way. Here, the drive starts with a couple of musicians belting out live Goan music! Definitely sets the tone for the evening!

The Mumbai chats were lacklustre for me. Except the Keema Pav, the rest, including the Pav Bhaji, the pani puri and the others simply didn't cut it for me. Definitely nowhere close to the real ones. Not a great start to the drive. Coming to the drive, I think that because this was set as starters and main courses, the Mumbai to Goa drive feel did not translate in the food. Maybe if this was a set menu and it took us through the drive starting with Mumbai and slowly introducing the flavours of Goa, this might have done really well, but the buffet style for what is essentially four different styles of food, I guess did not allow that. Four because Mumbai has a street food and a Maharashtrian which are completely different flavours and so does Goa with the vindaloos and the beach shack which are completely different.

I saw Khow Suey and immediately took a small helping of that, though it is far away from the two states. Loved it! The grills, Goa style were excellent. The little platter with a fried fish, the peri-peri prawns and the chicken along with the grilled prawns were the best dishes of the evening. And my excitement stopped there. Tried the main courses and personally, I felt like the plot was lost. Combining the flavours of Goa with the vindaloo and stuff with the rather new (for my palate) Maharashtrian flavours were a miss and I ended up not enjoying both. Nothing stood out and I couldn't help but compare with the previous food festivals here where there were stand out dishes!!!

Dessert was pretty good. The Mumbai Gola was there and I had the Kala Kati, and it was close to the flavours I love in Mumbai. The Bebinca was fabulous and the rice kheer from Mumbai was fantastic. Dessert and the grills definitely saved the day.

This is probably the first time I am coming out without the 300% satisfaction from a food festival in ITC Grand Chola. This food was not bad in any sense, but simply didn't live up to the super high expectation that I have from Madras Pavilion food festivals. However,  I am already looking forward to their next food festival!!! I think it is going to be a great one!!!