Recipe - Egg fried rice

Ingredients - 

1. Rice - 200 gms
2. Onions - 2 big
3. Green chillies - 2 big
4. Garlic - 15 cloves
5. Ginger finely chopped - 2 tsp
5. Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
6. Salt - as per taste
7. Eggs - 2 or 3
8. Red food color - 1 pinch, if needed
9. Oil - 1 Tbsp

Method - 

1. Chop the onions in a long thin pieces.
2. Chop the chillies also in long thin pieces.
3. Chop ginger and garlic into small pieces.

4. Wash the rice and put in a pan. pour a lot of water in it and cook on medium/low flame. Keep checking if the rice is cooked. If the water level goes down, pour more water in it.
5. When the rice is ALMOST cooked, quickly take the pan off the burner and pour it out in a sieve. Make sure that all the water is thrown out. Spread the rice on a big plate so that all the steam goes out and also the rice grains don't stick to each other.

6. Heat oil in a wok. Put the garlic and ginger pieces in. Cook for 2 min.
7. Put the green chillies in and cook for 1 min.
8. Put the onions in and mix well. Cook for 5 min.

9. Put the eggs in and mix vigorously so that the egg gets cooked but at the same time the egg becomes more like scrambled egg in texture.
10. Put the red chilli powder in and then put the rice in it. Mix well.
11. Put salt and food coloring in. Mix well and let it cook for 3-4 min.
12. Serve with a Chinese dish like General Tso's chicken.
Tip -
1. You can put some vinegar/soy sauce in the rice for enhanced taste.

Recipe - General Tso's Chicken / General Tao's Chicken

General's Tso's chicken or General Tao's chicken is available in many upscale Chinese restaurants. However, it's not a Chinese dish. It was invented in America. It still tastes and is made in a way that Chinese/Schezwan dishes are made.

Ingredients -

For Marinade
1. Dark soy sauce - 2 tsp
2. Sesame oil - 2 tsp
3. Egg yolk - 1

For sauce
1. Tomato paste - 1.5 Tbsp
2. Corn starch - 1 tsp
3. White sugar - 3 tsp
4. Dark soy sauce - 2 tsp
5. Rice vinegar - 1 tsp
6. Medium dry sherry - 3-4 tsp
7. Ginger chopped - 1 tsp
8. Garlic chopped - 2 tsp

Other
1. Chicken boneless - 500 gms
2. Onions medium - 2-3
3. Dried red chillies - 10
4. Oil - Enough for frying
5. Sesame seeds - 1 pinch

Method - 

1. Mix marinade & put chicken pieces (small) in it for 15-20 min.

2. Mix all the ingredients for the sauce well (except sherry). Keep covered.
3. Fry the chicken pieces and dry off the excess oil on kitchen paper.

4. From this oil, take about 1 tablespoon of oil in a wok. Heat it and put the dry red chilli pieces in it for 1 min.
5. Put onions in . Let them cook for about 5 min.
6. Put the fried chicken pieces in and cook for another 3 min.
7. Meanwhile, put sherry in the sauce and mix well. Put this sauce in the wok and keep mixing so that the corn starch doesn't stick to the wok.
8. Cook for 5 min.
9. Garnish with sesame seeds.
10. Serve with fried rice.

Additional tips - 

1. If you don't have say sauce, put salt to enhance the taste
2. 500 gms of normal chicken becomes about 350 gms boneless
3. To make more gravy, mix equal amount of water and sherry and put some soy sauce as well
4. Put the sherry in the sauce as late as possible. It evaporates quickly.
5. Saki can also be used instead of sherry. The taste differs a little.

Restaurant Review - Mainland China, SB Road Pune

Mainland China, Pune

Location - SB Road, Pune.

Ambiance - ****
Menu options - ****
Taste - *****
Service - ****
Price - ***

Overall - ****

There are 3 outlets of Mainland China in Pune. I have been to all of them, but this review is for the one on SB road.

The place is huge with lot of seating space, not exactly brightly lit, but then that's how most of the restaurants are nowadays I suppose. Interiors are quite good. There are many tables, but it doesn't feel too crowded. There are two sections in the restaurant, but not sure what the difference is.

The menu is of course Chinese  Many of the options there are usually available only in high end Chinese places - including the famous Peking duck. There are enough options for non-veggies and veggies both. Also, they serve complimentary Chinese tea if you want.

We ordered crispy corn and spring rolls as starters. Amazing as usual. Crispy corn especially is the best starter here. Main course was fried rice and General Tso's/Tao's favourite chicken and spicy veg dumplings. Again amazing taste. Had ordered some mocktails which were good. They have a dessert called ice cream spring rolls which were unfortunately not available. so we ordered chocolate spring rolls, which didn't disappoint at all! These are the desserts are not really Chinese  but the fusion of traditional Chinese with western food, is amazing.

The service was good despite the restaurant being full. Fresh cutlery was being provided after every course promptly and there was no delay in getting any of our food. The staff was extremely courteous.

The bill was about 3400 INR for 4 people where we ordered mocktails, two starters, four main courses and a dessert.

This is one of my favourite restaurants and I hope it will always remain so :)

Review - Bademiya's, Fort, Mumbai

Bademiya's restaurant

Location - Fort, Mumbai.

Ambiance - ***
Menu options - ***
Taste - ****
Service - ****
Price - ***

Overall - ***1/2

Bademiyan's restaurant is located near Horniman circle in Fort area of South Mumbai. It is owned by the same guys who had been running the famous Bademiyan's kebab joint near Gateway of India for years.

The ambiance of the restaurant is ok. It's a two level restaurant with tables that are quite tightly packed. There's nothing different about the ambiance than any other regular restaurant.

We had lunch there on a working day. It's quite crowded at that time of the day. But the service is still quite ok. The meny options are a mix of Parsi and Indian food. All of the non-vegetarian dishes are quite good. Esp the Mutton Baida roti and Bheja fry. They also have a lot of types of kebabs which are quite good. Vegetarian dishes are limited.

The desserts are ok. Pineapple halwa is good. The bill was around 1000 INR for 3 people.

Overall it was a decent experience. A little classier interiors would probably increase the stars for me. However, I believe the restaurant does brisk business as it is anyway :)