Skip to main content

The 2015 Agenda

Wake up, Bombay! I am making a list of top 10 places I want to eat at in the New Year, and the first 3 entries are from Delhi. So how I am making this list, you ask? There are some old favourites I haven't visited for years and would like to experience again. For the new restaurants, the list is based on how much buzz I am hearing, and how exciting I find their menu to be. So, ranked by how excited I am to visit these places, this is my 2015 agenda:

1. India Accent, Delhi: In a small botique hotel in the completely unfashionable corner of Delhi, chef Manish Mehrotra has created a restaurant that's now universally accepted as India's best. The food is part grassroot Indian, part European fancy plating and I really can't wait to try out their tasting menu.

2. Soda Bottle Openerwala, Delhi: A few years ago, Dishoom opened in London as a quintessential Bombay style Irani cafe. It's quirky, it's charming and it's far better than anything Bombay has to offer in this department. Soda Bottle Openerwala is doing to Delhi what Dishoom did to London with a modern Parsi cafe.

3. Farzi Cafe, Delhi: This is another one of the Dishoom ripoffs but Farzi Cafe takes the concept up by another notch with its modern, molecular gastronomy inspired dishes. There has been talk of playful dishes that take you back to your childhood and general deliciousness all round that I can't wait to try.

4. The Table, Colaba: I ate at Table the week they opened and loved everything from their crispy polenta squares to unique mocktails. The restaurant has seen several menu changes since then, and even Chef Alex went off to intern in a Michelin star restaurant for a while. He is now back with a lot more experience, so the meal could only be better than my last time there.

5. The White Owl, Lower Parel: I haven't been to the White Owl, which is technically a micro brewery and not of interest to me but I am hearing such great things about the food that comes with the beer, courtesy chef Kshama. Need to find out if the food is truly great or is it that there are so few women in fine dining that even ones slightly above average get noticed.

6. Joss, Santacruz: I was pretty neutral on the old Joss in Kala Ghoda. But the new one seems to have a jazzed up menu and a chocolate dessert that is built right on your table. Something of an Alinea touch there, and definitely the one to try.

7. Neel, Mahalaxmi: I know, I know, Neel has been around forever and there is no excuse for one not having eaten the brilliant awadhi food there. So I'm gonna get course correcting on this one rightaway.

8. Spiceklub, Lower Parel: Pao Bhaji Fondue, naan pizzas and pani puri shots served with syringes - this is the kind of food that gets my attention.

9. The Birdsong, Bandra: Healthy eating options seem to be on the rise in Mumbai. Of all the ones I haven't been too, this one seems to be the prettiest and the one with the nicest menu.

10. Amadeus, Nariman Point: For some reason, tapas have never taken off in India. The only restaurant holding the Spanish flag for the last several years is Amadeus inside NCPA. I've had a brief visit once, a couple of years back, but it's definitely due for a revisit.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

I've found my perfect cookie

It's a bite sized cookie, with flavors of a pie, shape of a croissant and a pretty, pretty name. It's Rugelach. I first heard of this cookie when it became the baking pick for Tuesdays with Dorrie a couple of months back. The looks, the concept - everything was fascinating. And I've dreamed of making this cookie ever since. I ditched hundreds of recipes floating around and went straight to the master. It's Dorie Greenspan's recipe that I used, and ain't I glad I got it so perfect the very first time. So what's rugelach? It's cream-cheese pastry dough, rolled then cut into wedges, spread with jam and sugar and fillings of choice, rolled into crescents and baked. First the dough. Dorie did it in her processor, but I just went and did it by hand. Put 100 gms cream cheese and 100 gms butter out of the fridge until they were soft but still cold. Added both to a cup of plain flour (I omitted the salt because I use salted butter). Rubbed the flour and but

Aloo Paranthas

In all these years of blogging, I've somehow never managed to talk about aloo paranthas, the potato stuffed flatbread that's a standard breakfast in North India. Possibly because they are such a staple in our home, I found there wouldn't be enough interest in the recipe. But I've also realised over time that my mom's recipe is unique, using a combination of flavours and spices that make these paranthas delicious. But that's not the only reason for this post. I also wanted to tell you about a super cool party and some ways we found to make aloo paranthas even better and believe it or not, healthier. The party in question was hosted by Rushina at her cooking studio a few months back. For a while now, Rushina has been talking about the merits of cling film, parchment and something called cooking foil made by Asahi Kasei. Because we won't believe that you can really cook without oil but using science, she invited a bunch of us over for a potluck lunch.

Mystery Fruit

This only happened a few times every year, just when the rainy season kicked in. A street hawker will come by, straw basket on head. He will yell "kaul chapni" and I will run out to buy a bundle of these. Stuck together like flowers, they looked like a bouquet. Every hole contains a little fruit. You break out the package, peel the tiny fruit that pops out and eat it. Done slowly, it can take you an hour to eat an head. Or did, when I was about 12 years old. That was the last time I saw this fruit. I've never seen it again, didn't even know what it was called or where it came from. Three weeks back, Vikram Doctor wrote about a store in Khar that sells Sindhi foods. He described this fruit and I knew it came from my vivid childhood memories. And finally, I knew we were talking about lotus fruit. Now talk about coincidences. Last weekend, I was passing by a lane in Bandra and for the first time in many, many years I saw the straw basket filled with my mytery fru