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Kerala Food Festival at Courtyard Marriot Paprika Café till May 20th
Kerala food is quite popular in Chennai with few specialty restaurants serving authentic mallu cuisine. It was a welcome food festival at Courtyard Marriott – Paprika café as Chef Saji P Alex, the masterchef who has cooked for Ellen de Generes, curated the special dishes that spelt traditional Kerala food in every mouth. The festival is on till 20th, do read our experience and look out for that exquisite offering at Rs.1399 plus taxes. The festival menu has the special dishes along with the regular menu and is quite widespread and quite satisfying to our palate. We had starters, main course, dessert and a special mention to the chips and pickles that drew us repeatedly towards the counter. The ambience was so aesthetically organized to give a street food feel and being in Kerala environment. Now to the food – We had two starter options Cheeri masala vada. This was our typical south Indian vada, a crunchy spicy starter, a good start to a lovely culinary experience.
Food Review – Mylai Mami Samayal Food Festival at Regenta Deccan
Should food festivals revolve only around continental cuisine……? No not necessary proved the recent food experience at Regenta Central Deccan’s Olives restaurant where Chef Arun and Kumbakonam Mrs. Prema Nambiraj ( Kumbakonam Prema mami) presented us with vegetarian nostalgic delights as a part of the Mylai Mami Samayal festival. The festival is on till May 6th – more details at the end of the review.
The immediate thought that came into our head was that of a relief that Chennai does celebrate its own cuisine with pomp and show. Very often, we face situations where people from outside Tamilnadu visit Chennai and request us to give them the option to have local food in home style. It was always a tough call and we end up hosting them in friends’ places. Regenta Deccan must be applauded for bringing in Mrs. Prema from Kumbakonam for this festival.
Punjab Grill Introduces Heirloom Recipes in Phoenix Mall’s Culinary Quest 2017
Phoenix Market City (Phoenix mall), Chennai is celebrating its 2017 edition of Culinary Quest through the month of July. The specialty of this food festival is the introduction of new items in the menu by participating restaurants and a 15% discount on the bill, a bonus at the time we are facing the brunt of GST in our food bills. We visited the Punjab Grill, a participating restaurant to check out the offering for the culinary quest.
Punjab Grill has always been specializing on Punjabi food and justifies its contribution to the food lovers with its quality and service. It was something to look forward to when we came to know that Punjab Grill is working on bringing heirloom recipes for the Culinary Quest this time. We love such food festivals happening occasionally because it makes the restaurant expand its menu and embark on identifying food that lies hidden in our age old culinary treasure. As a foodie, it gives me immense pleasure to see new items being offered to beat that familiarity with the food in their menu but it is no ordinary task to go in search of heirloom recipes and bring it onto our table with the perfection to make sure we enjoy it. Thanks to Punjab Grill Chef team, it was a job well done and we enjoyed the food at its best.
Copper Chimney’s The Great Indian Kabab Festival – Dig into Authentic Traditional Food
Authentic! Traditional! That 90s touch! Old street taste, inviting aroma – Few phrases we use to locate that specific food that will take us back to those golden days when each dish with that one common main ingredient tasted so different and unique. Those days, the chef signature was imbibed in everything and whatever we try at home, we will go back to him for that specific flavor. These days, most of the times when we eat out, we end up feeling better making the dish at home and let me tell you, at times it is much better. Take for example, tomato soups at restaurants taste almost like Maggi soups we make at home. Where is that signature that makes us drool and walk in to the restaurant for that experience? We happily had one such experience with Copper Chimney at The Great Indian Kabab Festival happening now till April 14th 2017.
Food Review : Taste of Madras at YMCA Grounds, Perungudi (OMR)
Taste of Madras , an event by PS events with Krishna Sweets and Desi Arena is happening at YMCA grounds, Rajiv Gandhi Salai, (OMR) just opposite Maruti Suzuki Service Centre. Parking available in abundance. Here is our review of the event for those who wish to visit it tomorrow. The event is free but requires registration. We could see lot of chairs and tables to sit and eat and for those cricket lovers who do not want to miss the IPL action, there is a huge LED screen showing the match.
There are stalls for Chinese, Burmese and Thai food but we saw it was predominantly non-vegetarian but Wangs (Chinese) has both Veg and Non-veg options. We tested the Veg Momo and it was yummy at Rs. 20 each. We skipped the Burmese and Thai food stalls. Flubbers, the jelly pudding has come out with instant Oats, tea and coffee.
Vegetarian Food Review: All You Can Eat DimSum Festival at 5 SENSES in Westin, Chennai
Westin, Velachery, Chennai is running a ‘All You Can Eat DimSum Festival’ for two weeks beginning 21st March 2016. We have been on Dimsum for a while now which our foodie friends know about and boy! weren’t we super excited to be there to get a taste of it. For all those Chinese food lovers in Chennai, authentic Chinese food is lot different from what we eat in most of the restaurants here and painful truth is Gobi Manchurian is Not AT ALL Chinese food. That was a big letdown for me. But having said this, it was also evident that true Chinese food is lot tastier, lighter and quite healthy. Now let us proceed to our review…
Vegetarian Food Review – Rajasthani Food Festival Beckons at Westin Velachery, Chennai
Westin, Velachery, Chennai is running a Rajasthani Food Festival and we were invited to taste the food and share our experience here. Rajasthani Food Festival did not ring much bells in our foodie palate as we always associated it with dry desert region. Curious to know what is in store, we went for the buffet and were stunned at the lavish spread. We were left wondering if we would be in a position to taste (at the least) all of them. Buffet was categorized as starters, main course, salad counter, chat counter and dessert counter.
Authentic Indian Food and The Plantain Leaf
The unforgettable aroma of India is not just the heavy scent of jasmine and roses, it is also the fragrance of spices so important to Indian cooking especially to preparing curry. Broadly speaking, meat dishes are more common in the North. Mughlai cuisine is rich creamy, deliciously spiced and liberally sprinkled with nuts and saffron.
The essence of good Indian cooking revolves around the appropriate use of mixed aromatic spices. Base ingredients of such mixed spices are elements such as coriander, cumin, turmeric, red pepper, nutmeg, mustered, saffron, cinnamon, cardamom, ginger powder etc. the skill lies in the subtle blending of these spices to enhance rather than overwhelm the basic flavour of a particular dish. These spices act as appetizers and digestives. Read the rest of this entry
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Chennai Focus – A Lifestyle Perspective 