“What’s the secret?” I asked the sous chef.

“He doesn’t measure anything. He takes a handful and puts them in. Everything. Cheese. Butter. Rice. Herb. Everything is a handful.”

“He does have a large hand,” I said.

“Yes. He does.”

We were talking about Chef Gustav from Ratatouille. Sorry, Chef Allesandro who has flown in from the Mumbai Grand Hyatt. The resemblance is uncanny, so……. If you remember, this chef’s food festival last year at Hyatt Regency was one of my best meals of the year. He came, he floored us, he left. Not this time. Now he came, he conquered and he left. Within the grand Flying Elephant, with his own menu and his own seating, he has truly conquered. A small piece of real estate, but he has conquered.

The brand new Italian menu at the Flying Elephant has chef Allesandro written all over it. He may have left, but I hope he has taught the rest enough to keep this menu going. We were then when the man himself was around. Smiling, pranking and of course throwing fistful of stuff into the stoves.

Green pizza. Thin crust, crisp and pesto instead of tomato! Beetroot salad was a treat to both the eyes and the palette. Then there was the gorgonzola balsamic risotto that made my friend cry last time. Nobody cried this time around, but that is because we are used to it. A duck ravioli with nice sauce made its appearance.

But there was one dish that was worthy of tears. If my crying friend was around, he would have cried for this too. The liver pate. I hate offal and am not a big fan of liver though I have had it at times. This particular one was brilliant to say the least. Sandwiched between two fried croutons, a stick sticking out from the pate placed on a bed of caramelised onions, some pomegranate and micro greens, this was a stunner of a dish. Yes, the fried croutons and the caramelised onions were dominant, but they beautifully over shadowed the liver pate, which played a good second fiddle. For me, I was perfectly happy with this arrangement.

Fried cheese cake and a cone inspired from the streets of Hyderabad made up dessert.

While I hope that one day Chef Allesandro moves to Chennai, this is a great first step in that direction!

The new menu is now available at Flying Elephant, Level 1 at Park Hyatt, Velachery. 

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“What’s the secret?” I asked the sous chef.

“He doesn’t measure anything. He takes a handful and puts them in. Everything. Cheese. Butter. Rice. Herb. Everything is a handful.”

“He does have a large hand,” I said.

“Yes. He does.”

We were talking about Chef Gustav from Ratatouille. Sorry, Chef Allesandro who has flown in from the Mumbai Grand Hyatt. The resemblance is uncanny, so……. If you remember, this chef’s food festival last year at Hyatt Regency was one of my best meals of the year. He came, he floored us, he left. Not this time. Now he came, he conquered and he left. Within the grand Flying Elephant, with his own menu and his own seating, he has truly conquered. A small piece of real estate, but he has conquered.

The brand new Italian menu at the Flying Elephant has chef Allesandro written all over it. He may have left, but I hope he has taught the rest enough to keep this menu going. We were then when the man himself was around. Smiling, pranking and of course throwing fistful of stuff into the stoves.

Green pizza. Thin crust, crisp and pesto instead of tomato! Beetroot salad was a treat to both the eyes and the palette. Then there was the gorgonzola balsamic risotto that made my friend cry last time. Nobody cried this time around, but that is because we are used to it. A duck ravioli with nice sauce made its appearance.

But there was one dish that was worthy of tears. If my crying friend was around, he would have cried for this too. The liver pate. I hate offal and am not a big fan of liver though I have had it at times. This particular one was brilliant to say the least. Sandwiched between two fried croutons, a stick sticking out from the pate placed on a bed of caramelised onions, some pomegranate and micro greens, this was a stunner of a dish. Yes, the fried croutons and the caramelised onions were dominant, but they beautifully over shadowed the liver pate, which played a good second fiddle. For me, I was perfectly happy with this arrangement.

Fried cheese cake and a cone inspired from the streets of Hyderabad made up dessert.

While I hope that one day Chef Allesandro moves to Chennai, this is a great first step in that direction!

The new menu is now available at Flying Elephant, Level 1 at Park Hyatt, Velachery. 

via Blogger http://ift.tt/2r7sSbN

“What are you wearing in your eyes, Javid? Is it some infra red device?” I asked. The way Javid navigated through the dark room, serving us water and food was amazing.

“I will show you when you finish your meal, Wasim” he said.

Right from the time we entered the dark passage holding the shoulders of the person in front, in a single line, Javid led me since I was first in line, deftly and got seven of us seated. He gave us an alphabet figure each and two of us got two. It was pitch dark and I was surprised that my eyed did not adapt at all. Till the end of dinner, I saw nothing.

“I have given you all a total of nine alphabets. Please create a word. You’ve got five minutes before you food comes.”

With no phones to play Candy crush or Temple run, this wasn’t a bad idea to kill time.

I had two letters. M and I. “I’ve got C,” yelled my friend and we were soon talking to our neighbours on the opposite side of our table. We got their names and shared ours and soon we were trying to put a world with two Ss, a T, an I, an H and R. There is no way to find out how long we tried.

Before getting in, this is almost like airport security, only worse. You leave behind your watch, your phone, your keys in a locker. So, no way to know the time, assuming your watch would have illuminating hands. They don’t want any light source inside.

Food arrived in boxes.

“So, did you finish your word?”

The look on our faces must have been one of disappointment, but obviously only Javid must’ve seen it. I don’t even know how our friends on the opposite side of the table looked like, leave alone expressions.

“Nope,” we all said.

“S,S, M,H,R,C,I,T,A…..the word is Christmas,” he said much to all our groan. “Enjoy your meal.”

As we felt the boxes and opened them, Javid came around giving us spoons. The box on my left was definitely rice. The middle box had a gravy. The third box had some boneless side dish, but dry. There was also a foil. I was glad that my brain worked enough to recognise the foil. I opened it and it felt like a roti. Slowly I tried to get the three pieces of dry side dish and they were all chicken. Our friends on the other side were vegetarians.

“This is paneer tikka,” I heard.

“Yes. Very nice too.” I didn’t hear any thing more about the paneer. So I am guessing they got only paneer tikka. But we got three different types of chicken dishes. One tasted like a tikka. One like an Afghani and one I have no idea, mainly because of my blocked nose! Take away my nose and eyes and suddenly I had no idea about food.

It felt like one of the most comforting meals. After a minute or two of struggle, I was able to get the rice in the gravy and eat without spilling and enjoying the chicken at the same time. The universal conversation was about how we take things for granted.

Javid arrived in a while and handed us wet tissues and then dry tissues. We bid goodbye to our friends who were led out first and then he came back to lead back to light. As we stepped out, Javid showed us his equipment as he pointed to his face. It was the most amazing equipment you will ever set your eyes on, thought it might take you a bit to understand. The human brain!

I am not going to sugar-coat and call Javid differently abled. He was blind. Because when we say differently abled, I think we are trying to undermine the effort those guys put to be recognised.  Even Javid, said, “Sir, I cannot see.” He didn’t say that he could sing! When folks like us need google maps to go from our house to the next door kirana store, Javid took us to his world for forty five minutes and I realised what privileged lives we are leading. Just for that, the Rs. 350 plus taxes for a three course dinner was more than worth it. You could also do their Dialogue in the dark in which they take you through shaky bridges and shopping carts. Sometimes it is nice to be brought to light the things we take for granted. Ironically, it took darkness to bring that to light!

Javid could see a lot more than I could! 

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You want to introduce a new cuisine to a city? What do you do? Open up a fancy place, blow on the interiors, huge marketing campaign and then shut shop after a few months if it fails!?! Wrong!

The approach of the owners to introducing Ethiopian cuisine to Chennai has been marvellous. Small place. Experiment. See if the crowd likes it. Already having a few restaurants helps, especially if they are all in the same place. Along with Batlivala and Khanaboy and Meena Tai, the complex now welcomes Chennai palates to try out Ethiopian! And what better way than a small 10 seater place to introduce it.

The interiors are symbolic with what I guess is a replica of Ethiopian interiors. The tables and the stools are set for a community eating which we found out later is the way of life there! Your group eats from one plate!

Actually, it may not be so difficult to try it out because the flavours are so so similar to Indian. My only twist with Ethiopian was at a buffet in Vegas, so I don't remember those flavours at all, so this post is from the POV of a novice in that cuisine! The Injera is something I remember vividly, though the name and the flavours were a refresher course for me. The dosa type thing, rather a large ragi dosa on which the curries are placed is aptly positioned for community eating! My friend was invited to the restaurant and he tagged me along, so we were served their biggest meal, the community mezze platter (think it is called the mezzoz here). Priced at Rs. 4199, it comes with a soup, this big bad @ss set of meals, unlimited injera, dessert and coffee for four people. Going by the sizes, I think it could feed three couples! It is almost like ordering a full meals! Sit back and eat!

The injera (the ragi dosa) in unlimited! While the original injera is supposed to be made with a iron rich teff flour, here is it a mix of ragi and teff, till they find ways to import teff is large quantities. Yes, starting with a 10 seater is a wise idea indeed! So the injera is on a plate, like our banana leaf and all the gravies are placed on top, but the only difference is that the injera is also edible. I don't think we eat our banana leaf! And it is like all of us eating from one banana leaf! OK, you got to experience this!

So among the ones that were served, a lamb cooked with channa was fantastic and the minced beef was excellent. Everything else was pretty good and had an uncanny resemblance to our food. I obviously don't know if it has been extensively Indianised or if the Ethiopian flavours are so close to Indian flavours, but there was no palate shock for me!

OK, I take that back. There was a palate shock. Right at the end when they served Ethiopian coffee with butter, salt and sugar! Definitely a palate shock. Forget palate, it was a brain shocker! Coffee with butter? And salt? And Popcorn!?! The butter was smelling heavenly and was dark, so clearly this wasn't Amul butter. Apparently in Ethiopia, they first drink coffee with butter, then with salt and then with sugar! The espresso was indeed enjoyable with the butter, but after a few sips when the brain registers it! Oh, there was dessert before this and it was this cake made of teff flour! Tasted like a ragi cake with chocolate inside, but went well with the theme of the meal!

Abyssinian is on the first floor of the complex that hosts Meena Tai and BK, just off Kasthuri Rangan Road, a few minutes down the road from Tangerine. 

Secret to success? I'm sure there are many! Some may suit you and some may not! One that is absolutely essential (unless you win a lottery, which technically, is not success but getting rich) is pushing your limits! It could be anything. Today morning, I pushed my limit when I simply got out of bed! For a lazy @ss like me, that is pushing the limit. Or even eating at the same restaurant twice in two days. No wonder, I am sitting and writing a food blog!

Then there are others who push limits that are already stretched for the average Joe! When a post takes off on twitter and friends start cursing me for leaving them behind or not helping them get a reservation when Chef Vikram is in town, I had to push another limit! Go on the knees and request the chef to entertain friends for dinner. "I'm out of supply and we are fully booked," was the answer. "But I could do dessert like you guys did a few years back." Ear to ear grin. Don't know when I last stretched so much to smile. Yes, pushed the limit again.

"For half the price, chef said he could do dessert," I announced to friends. Nobody said anything except, "When?"

15 of us landed at Pan Asian at 9 PM where we saw some real limit-pushing!

Like how every meal should start, the dessert meal also started softly. Almond milk with strawberry foam! By the time we all licked it clean, the second course arrived. Steamed dumpling with berry gel and peppermint ice cream on a base of green tea! Yum!

"Vanilla crusted salmon," he announced as he placed the dishes on our table. There was a minute of stunned silence. The ladies were speechless, while we were trying to understand the statement. I mean, we eat dessert after main courses and especially after fish, but a dessert made of fish? I've had a 5 course meal made of chocolates at Park Hyatt and a few savoury dishes made of cocoa (duck breast and things like that) in Spain, but fish dessert? It had strawberry on top and some berry powder (chances are it was liquid-nitrogen-ised). The flavour of salmon was unmistakeable, but in a different avatar. Fabulous would be an understatement.

The vegetarians had a nice little cake instead of the salmon.

"Squid stuffed with chocolate," he said as he placed the next dish. Disbelief all around. Just as the brain was getting used to the salmon as a dessert, he hits us with squid. The squid itself was almost like panko fried, so very savoury elements, but the minute you cut across, chocolate oozed out! Squid flavour was there like any savoury dish, but the chocolate and the little mousse on the side made it dessert! There was brain freeze all over as the brain was battling to understand what is going on in the tongue!

Some people push limits. Others push your limits!

The final course was the dish that got Twitter and Facebook excited. The ladies were giggling as the roses got handed out to them to crack on the plate.

We paid Rs. 1084 nett/- per head and walked home with the head confused, but happy! 

Chocolate Chicken?

Lamb Rack with Chocolate Sauce?

Chilli Chocolate soup!

When anything and everything on the special menu has chocolate in it, the invite from Crowne Plaza was rather intriguing. One, chocolate is a very tricky ingredient to use in a savoury dish and it takes a huge effort (and confidence) from the chef to pull it off! Two, doing it in India, where there is a real chance that people will arrive at different times and you will have to do appetisers and mains simultaneously takes a certain level of mental preparation!

And that obviously heightens my intrigue.

Special menu or not, the Focaccia with Garlic drenched in oil with a Chutney side is a signature at OTR! And gladly that was served first!!! Being four of us, we could taste a variety of dishes as we all decided to order different options from the menu. Oh yes, the menu, despite being a chocolaty one had four options for appetisers and mains. This chef really has guts! The right word would have been balls, but.......

A yummy Roasted Pumpkin and Chilli Chocolate Soup set the tone for the evening. Our friends enjoyed some Whiskey as this was a Whiskey pairing event besides the chocolates. We had less liver damaging drinks, the one with a chocolate hint was a super hit!

Back to the soup. Served in tiny cup, this was the chocolate version of the Mushroom Cappuccino. Yum!

Appetisers were killer! The crab with chocolate was a real stunner, both visually and gastronomically! While sea salt and chocolates are known to be a match made in heaven, the sea freshness with the raw hand made chocolates seems not too far behind. Chocolates can complement everything, I guess. The Grilled Asparagus with White Chocolate and the Polenta with Creamy Chocolate sauce was also great. Each of us got one which we shared!

And then things went slightly wrong. I don't know if it was because the chef had to keep sending appetisers to other tables while mains were coming to us, the mains simply did not live up to the standards set by the appetisers. The lamb and chicken weren't exciting enough. However there was one dish that stung all of us hard! The Single Origin Dark Chocolate Ravioli! Whoa my God! It was simply fantabulous. The ravioli was just perfect, slightly large in a good way and had flavours that were contrasting in a great way! That was the only main course that lived up to the hype and we requested an extra portion of it!

Dessert was pretty good. The Chocolate with Raspberry was a great end to a mediocre main course!

The evening itself was exciting. The founder of Earth Loaf chocolate is there to share his passion and details about chocolate making and you can learn a thing or two about using palm sugar for chocolates!!! The menu is available till the end of the week ending Jun 25th and is priced at Rs. 2999 plus taxes. 

In a city like Chennai (and I think this applies to most of South India or even the whole country), anything with rice and a little orange colour is called a Biriyani. No wonder, tomato rice gets the bad name!!! Which is why when something looks and feels like biriyani, but is actually not and then to not call it the biriyani takes a lot of guts.

I've enjoyed the Kitchens of India series at ITC Grand Chola. Apparently they send their chefs to the homes of those being showcased and they spend about two to three weeks to really understand the cuisine before being showcased. Their first one, which had the Nawab of Arcot's home cuisine was so good that I started following the series. This time around, its the Navaitha Muslim's flavours being showcased. This cuisine apparently started off from Tipu Sultan's times and is an integral part of Bangalore, albeit a lesser known one.

Which is why, I loved the fact that the fantastic dish, the Yakhni Pulao was called what it was called and not called a biriyani. Unlike cooking a biriyani, where partially cooked rice is finished on top of the gravy, here, the rice is cooked with the gravy from scratch. The flavours were strong and had the variety that biriyani packs. Yet, it was different and now that I learnt how it was made, I can understand biriyani a little better and how such small things can make a big difference. Moreover, I was happy it was called a Pulao.

That wasn't all. The Idiyappam (string hopper) and paya was fantastic. With nice large bones and leg pieces in the paya with the perfect warmth of flavour that it normally brings, this was a beautiful dish. While I went gaga over these two dishes, there were some others that needs a mention. A beautiful green vegetable (I forgot the name)!!! It was awesome. The two refreshing drinks - a rose water and at the kheer were excellent.

Dessert - yum. The fabulous phirni. This was oh-so-yum! Not too sweet, just the right amount of flavour and was a great finish to the meal. Not a finish, because I ate the Seviya (I thought we spell it Semiya, but the Navaitha's call it differently), because that was yum too.

I did not try the rest of the buffet. There was the usual buffet and the big dessert spread, but I was here to try the Navaithas and I loved it. This is almost like a mix of the Nawabs and the Mughals.....like the space exactly between North Indian and South Indian. No saffron in any dish, but still had flavour that seems like from the North of India.  I can't wait for the next Kitchens of India festival to see what they bring back.

The festival is on till the 28th of Feb and there is no extra charge for this. It is part of the buffet at Madras Pavilion, priced at Rs. 1950 plus tax, which comes to about Rs. 2300.