Breakfast - Pancake

Breakfast delights. Pancake with banana and chocolate sauce.

Restaurant Review: Corriander

This afternoon my colleague and me decided to beat the Mumbai heat and step out for lunch. He took me to a place I had not tried before [and it's a shame considering it's 100 meters from our office]. Corriander is a little eatery located just at the foot of the flyover opposite Kamala Mills, Lower Parel.

Healthy food is what they promise to serve. There is no a la carte service and you gotta pick from among the 3 offerings - Executive Lunch [Rs.75], Value Meal [Rs.60] & the Light Meal [Rs.45]. And there is some other nick-knacks like lassi, papad, meetha etc. But at 1.30pm they had run out of quite a few things by then.

I choose the Executive lunch which comes like a packed meal - 2 sabjis, dal, roti, rice, papad and butter-milk. And this is the most power-packed meal - the rest are all lighter versions made out of this offering. And as per their brand promise - the food is healthy. Limited use of oil and masala, healthy sabji like dudhi and palak on the menu. I saw that the menu changes everyday which is good if you wanna be a regular. They also offer tiffin service - call them to find out more.

The place is really small so don't think of going there with your office gang. It's a place for a really quick meal on the run with a max of 4 people.

Corriander
Madhav Bhavan, B-Block, Shop No. 6, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai
Landmark: Opposite Kamla Mills Compound
Phone: 65176902

Apologies for not having any supporting images for this blog post.

Under the Banyan Tree - Restaurant Review

UTBT was a chance option on Sunday evening. I think we were early so got a table right away. but by 9 we saw that the place was getting crowded.

The youngsters of the area a bit of nuisance around this place, since it's a very popular teen hangout - they are smoking, laughing away and doing their car skids etc. Kind of disturbing a bit.

Ambiance is nice - but A/C tables are limited, so in humid weather outside seating could be an issue. But a few tall fans threw in appropriate breeze.

What we ate?
Jalapeno cheese fritters - yum. Should have.
Humus with pita bread - not bad.

• Mushroom Pate - yum. Should have. (pic uploaded)
• Mushroom wrap (pic uploaded) - was very tasty but the wrap seems to have hardened after a few re-heats in the microwave, I think.
• Italian Connection - dad says it was nice.
• Pasta in pesto sauce - could have been a little better. very hard boiled, I thought.
• Wild mushroom & thyme Risotto - was kind of sad, I thought. In crude terms - it needed some tadka. Was a bit boring, could have done with some spices etc.

Dessert offerings are limited - not much variety if u are not a chocolate person. The mousse and vodka cheesecake tasted very artificially sweetened. I am not sure if the others looked any better either.

So overall a decent food offering, but service lacks a bit - had to push the waiters around a bit and hey don't jadao too much english poor guys just about manage to understand the dish names - so avoid asking too many extra questions.

For the 5 of us we paid Rs.1200, which was not bad. Of course the servings are just about ok to fill individual stomachs so I don't expect sharing to be really workable.

Recommended for casual dining. Avoid large groups - could get a bit messy.

Kulfi Falooda - home made

Nani is a fabulous magician in the kitchen. A few weeks back she spent sometime with us and whipped up a delicious kulfi falooda for us ... Couldn't binge much due to the severe cold I have been suffering these days .. but what the hell, who can resist something so yum!

Photos from the barbecue night

One more barbecue night with the family …

Putting in all the sweat to get that little fire all charged up and emit those amazing orange flame

The grill gets set.

Let’s have this with some green mint chutney, onion and a sprinkle of that lemon juice

Garma garam bhutte le lo …

Happy Birthday Dad

Restaurant Review - The Tasting Room

This place has changed and expanded recently. Their menu has got a lot more to eat than what my wife had earlier seen of it. Located in and around an artifact store, this place has some wonderful and highly inviting interiors. Background music was not bad also .. nice & soothing but I don't think the acoustics were designed well for the music to be heard evenly across the venue. And that can be said about the air-conditioning also. 10 of us were in a big corner table, the other areas of the restaurant seemed much cooler.

What did we eat?
Paprika dusted grilled chicken - creamy & mild. the chicken could have been a little more softer. But worth trying.

Sun dried tomato n grilled vegetables spaghetti [Highly Recommended]

Tomato and mascarpone cheese risotto - Baby safe dish was nice but needed a heavy dose of chilly flakes & Tabasco to make it fun and also a pinch of salt helped bring it to the right taste.

Peppered potato with Racellete cheese - YUM! but I wish the portion was a bit larger. The cheese was really good on the tongue.

Mushroom pate - time pass ... they used mushroom cream and pickle on vol-au-vent.

What's to drink?
Lots ... wide choice of wine, viocktails (coctails made from wines), cocktails

What's not good?
They apparently have a "small" kitchen so cooking speeds are slow. Also customization and mix-match of dishes are not very welcomed.

The approach is dark and dingy ... a little lighting near the car park area would make it a bit more friendly.

Conclusion - Good food, nice ambiance, I just wish they bucked up on the speed. but what would be a good idea is to go in small numbers, Romantic Meals, Dinner Dates - AVOID large groups.

The Tasting Room Good Earth, Raghuvanshi Mills Compound, Senapati Bapat Marg, Lower Parel, Mumbai. Phone 65285284, 24951954

Bites of Mahabaleshwar

A holiday is not complete if you are not eating more & something different than what you eat back home. A recent trip to Mahabaleshwar with friends was all about that - eat, eat some more and just eat.

Strawberry Den (in the market)
Ideally strawberry preparations are served good in any of the places in Mahabaleshwar, but we seemed to like this place in particular. He seemed to make his mixes with total focus and the right amount of ingredients. The milk-shake and strawberry+cream are a must haves. While at this place you must also try the french fries.

Hirkani Gardens
After strawberry if there is something you should not miss there it is the corn dishes. Have the corn pattice, corn roll and a meal will give you corn sabji and roti also. We tasted the corn dishes on previous evening at Hill View near the lakeside but seem to prefer this place for it's taste and quantity servings.
The place also offers you a chance to walk through their plantation and pick your own strawberries. But we missed it because we reached there after sunset.

When in Rome do as the Romans. So when if you are surrounded in a Maharashtrian hill station what better way to start your morning then to bite into some local breakfast dishes. We had the kande poha, upma, vada pav, misal pav and some tea to wash it down all. The lal watery chutney served with the misal is an atom bomb so eat at your own risk.

Hotel Panorama
Order whatever sabji you want to, but don't miss the parathas - huge, buttery & fluffy, they will leave you with a stomach full & satisfied having such a rich preparation.

Olive Garden at The Brightland Resort
A rip-off, a freakingly expensive place this lunch outing kept us wondering what we paid so much money for. At an approximate cost of Rs.900 per head (no alcohol included) we thought this place was not just worth the price tag. Thankfully the food was nice and that was the only comforting factor. Maybe it was just our experience, but would love to know what other's think about dining in here.

Can't wait to travel again and enjoy some more food delights.

Foodie Links for the weekend - Series 1

It's the weekend, here are some interesting foodie links to enjoy the afternoon.

• New York Times - A slew of restaurants are sanitizing street food, serving it in clean (if not always pristine) surroundings.

• If you are the unofficial bartender at most of the house parties you attend and have, then this is a good read on how to stock up the bar in these times of saving.

• For Dinner (and Fast), the Taste of Home - Immigrants in New York bring with them their daily dishes, meals that could easily make their way into the city's larger repertory of dinners for busy nights.

• Scott Adams questions - Is it always about the food?

Mr.Chow's Chinese Food Home Delivery

If there is something about Sunday that puts me off is the long waiting time outside restaurants, parking lots and even the shopping mall's billing counters. So what better way then to spend the Sunday evening at home with a VCD and home delivered hot-piping food.

Bored with the regular we decided to try some Chinese food from the close by Mr.Chow's. We ordered the Meal Combo which was a mix of rice and vegetables in black bean sauce and a portion of spring rolls. The noodles were ordered separately - Shantung Noodles (flat noodles). The servings are large and can satisfy 2 people on an average. Spring rolls were sad. But the rice and noodles were good and the tasty bit has given us a new alternative over the regular 5 Spice and Sizzling China from where we order our regular Chinese meals.

Service and delivery times was impressive. We asked them to add some extra mushroom to the noodles and they indeed put in a large share - there was a small charge of Rs.20 for that bit. 

Total damage for 2 people was Rs.300 and it's a total value for money deal. Recommended eating and they have a couple of branches across Mumbai.

Contact:
Mr Chow’s. Bandra: 26423595/86/64; Worli: 24334554/51/58; Colaba: 22160074/75/76.