Mainland China - Hinjewadi - Restaurant review

Ambiance - ***1/2
Menu - ****
Taste - ***
Service/Price - ***
Overall - ***

Mainland China has many outlets in the city and I have visited most of them. This was the only one I had not visited. So, since it was a day off, decided to give it a try.

As always, the ambiance is good. All Mainland China outlets have similar feel about them. This one is no different. What I didn't really like were the earthen pots kept as decoration items near the buffet section. they looked more like.. they were holding someone's ashes. Not exactly appetizing.

Menu, service and price were decent. Very similar to other outlets. The let down is - the most important aspect of any restaurant - the taste. I had gone at lunch time on a weekday. So decided to try that. They serve the starters at the table and main course is to be taken from the counters. There were very limited non-veg starters - one fish, one chicken, one shrimp. chicken was OK, fish was strictly OK, shrimps were bad. The main course wasn't too different. Again the same three options - looking uncannily similar to the starters I had. The taste was also not much different from the starters. The fried rice was not properly cooked and assorted pastry plate had just one type of pastry. One dessert was good - chocolate wrapped in rice paper (I think) and fried - forgot its name. Oh and I had ordered a kiwi daiquiri that came in after my main course started - and it was just too sweet.

So overall, not a good experience especially with the kind of expectations we (I) tend to have from Mainland China. I still think the outlet on SB road is probably their best.

North2South Restaurant review

Ambiance - ***
Menu - ****
Taste - *****
Service/Price - ****
Overall - ****

Located in the busy Viman nagar area, this is a small place that serves - no prizes for guessing - north Indian and south Indian food. Now, serving one good cuisine itself is a tough task, so I was naturally curious to see how good they are in serving two diametrically opposite cuisines. Everything about the two is different - the spices, the dishes, the taste, the texture, the items... so the foodie in me couldn't pass this opportunity.

Went there for lunch from my office, which is.. not exactly close to this place. It's a small place as mentioned earlier. There was some set up being done for new Gelato counter that they were gonna start, so it was a little.. umm.. less organized than what I would have expected. The tables and chair etc. were clean enough but the handwash area - that needs some work. It was not unclean, but it can be better set up. They have used the rolling pins to decorate the walls, which is interesting. the best part was the post it wall, where you can write your comments. Good to see what people think about the place - the comments were all good of course.

As mentioned earlier, menu is a mix of north and south indian dishes. There are some interesting options available including different types of dosa and kulcha. some of the options sound a little whacky and you may not be sure about how they will taste. But you gotto try before making a judgement.

We had a few things there. And I should say I was impressed. The fresh lime soda - salted and sweet had the perfect mix of the two tastes. It's always difficult to get this right - I think. The cholla bhatura was good. Very. Bhatura was obviously oily but not too much. And the cholle were perfectly cooked. well balanced with just a little bit of after taste of garam masala. There were just two concerns - the amount of cholle was less (they ofcourse refilled it when we requested) and the pudina chutney that was served it, didn't really go well with the dish. I would have preferred a more onion based chutney or just onions. We had melted cheese garlic kulcha - which turned out to be a surprise. a pleasant one. Felt like we were eating a different version of pizza. tasted amazing. Garlic was not overpowering the taste. Fantastic. The cholle that came with it, were different from the ones served with bhatura. These were without onion. and tasted different too, which was a surprise. Usually, restaurants tend to reuse cholle with different dishes. and this time the condiments with it were perfect. We had creamy matka kulfi too - which was also equally good - though I am not a big fan of kulfi. We couldn't try the south indian dishes so can't comment on it. We were too full with this. Maybe next time.

Service was good, but then it wasn't crowded at lunch time on a weekday. So can't comment much. No complaints though. and price is also good. for lunch for 2 people, the bill was less than 400 INR. so definitely worth the money.

Overall, I think it's a fantastic place to eat. A little more work on the set up and I am sure I will give it a 5 star for the restaurant of its kind.

Restaurant Review - BottleRock, Pune

Ambiance - **** 
Menu options - ****
Taste - ***1/2
Service/price - ****

Overall - ****

Zomato meetup is what made me travel from one of the the city to the other end through the city traffic at peak evening time. The destination - BottleRock. Located just across the bridge over the Mumbai Bangalore highway on SusRoad, this place was new to me. From the outside, it wasn't all the appealing though I did find the numerous hanging colourful bottles quite interesting. The same concept is carried inside as well - all the lights over the tables and otherwise are inside bottles of different colours. Is the light enough? well, for the kind of evening you would want to have at this place, yes. Plus, candles are put on the tables to make things look even nicer. I am sure there's a problem with mosquitoes in that area so the fact that they sprayed the place with mosquito repellents just as I was about to enter, was good. It helped. Lot of tables/booths of different sizes are available plus chair seating, sofa seating and Indian style seating gives you the options. The more sophisticated graffiti  that they have painted on the side walls and ceiling looks really good when it shines in ultraviolet light. They could do with a little touch up to some of the worn out furniture - which, by the way, is very comfortable.

 

We were at the chef's table so we got to try chef's Rajpal Singh's specialties. The cocktails were interesting. Traffic Jam was the flavour of the evening with the Watermelon daiquiri and Tokyo iced tea being the next two in line. The daiquiri was served in half a watermelon, providing that wow factor - though I ended up spilling some and had to opt for a martini glass to finish the rest of it. The iced tea was good but some found it a little too sweet. 

Amazing - that's how I can rate the starters. We had Nacho's chicken, Mountain chilli chicken, Fish & chips, Paneer banjara kebabs & cottage hot pan. All of them were really good. But what took the... chicken... was the Murg Dum kebab. Cooked on dum in an earthen pot like dum biryani, the kebabs were succulent and juicy with the perfect amount of spices. Easily the best dish of the day. Try it the next time you go there.

We were so full with the starters that we had to spend some time just chit chatting to make some space for the main course that was yet to come. Paneer Lasooni, Murg Nawabi, Murg Dum biryani and Fish in ginger oyster sauce were the dishes that we tried. The fish was just amazing. Oyster sauce is always a safe bet with fish in most of the restaurants. But here it exceeded my expectations. filled my tummy with it - whatever space was remaining in there.

Gulab Jamun and Sizzling brownie were the desserts on offer. While the brownie didn't sizzle it for most of us, the gulab jamuns were gobbled up in no time. Was difficult to stand straight with so much food inside, but we did manage to get home - each to their own homes - safe and sound. 

Oh and the rock in bottlerock - it did rock. The selection of rock songs that the DJ played was excellent. Perfect for the kind of evening we had. Definitely worth a visit for a nice, relaxed and foodful evening. I will certainly go there again.

Recipe - Apple Pie

Ingredients

For the pastry
2.5 cups of maida
1 cup unsalted butter cubes
1 pinch salt
4-5 Tbsp cold milk

For the filling
2 apples
½ cup soft unsalted butter
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
½ cup superfine sugar
½ cup soft light brown sugar
1 pinch of salt
¼ cup water
cinnamon (to taste)

For the glaze
milk/eggwhite
superfine sugar

Method -
1. Make a dough by mixing the pastry ingredients. Don't overwork the dough. if you face problems while keading, keep it in the freezer to cool it down making it easier to manage
2. Cut the dough into two equal pieces and roll them out with a heavy rolling pin. use a lot of flour to keep the dough from sticking. make the base bigger than the size of the pastry baking tray (8-9 inch tray should do it)
3. use the rolling pin to put one of the rolled out dough on to the tray and fit it in using fingers. Do not cut off the dough from the edges.
4. Cut the other rolled out dough piece into long pieces. Put all in the freezer for a few minutes
5. Start making the filling Heat the butter and add all the ingredients. Keep stirring till everything mixes well
6. Cut the apples into small pieces (half inch) and put them in the pie base
7. Pour the syrup in the whole base evenly over all the apple pieces
8. Sprinkle cinnamon on the apples
9. Put the dough strips on the appleslike a weaved mat. use water on the dough at the edges and pinch the pieces together at the edges
10. Use milk and sugar mix or eggwhite to brush on top of the pie
11. Preheat oven to 220 celcius and bake on low rack for 15 min. then cook at 180 celcius for another 35-40 min.
12. Take it out and cool it before serving

Recipe - KFC Style Fried Chicken

Ingredients - 
1. Chicken pieces (small/medium) - 250 gms

For Marinade -
1. Chilli powder - 2 tsp
2. Salt - 1 tsp

For coating -
1. Egg - 1
2. Milk - 1 Tbsp
3. All purpose flour (Maida) - 2-3 Tbsp
4. Corn flour - 2-3 Tbsp
5. Red chilli powder - 1 tsp
6. Red chilli flakes - 2 tsp
7. Oregano - 2 tsp
8. Thyme - 1 tsp
9. Dried basil leave powder - 1 tsp
10. Salt - 1 tsp
11. Bread crumbs - 1 cup
12. Oil - for deep frying

Method -
1. Coat the pieces in the chilli powder and salt marinade. Keep in refrigerator for 30 min.

2. Mix the remaining dry ingredients together and keep ready for coating
3. Beat an egg and add milk to it. Add a pinch of salt. Mix well

4. Heat oil in a deep wok. Ensure that it is hot before starting to fry
5. Take each piece of marinated chicken and drip in the egg mix
6. Put this piece in the dry coating mix. Coat it well with the mix
7. Deep fry the pieces
8. Serve with ketchup

Note -
1. Depending on the size of chicken pieces, the frying time can vary from 5 min to 10 min
2. The colour of this may not turn out to be as red as you want. You can use food colour in the mix if you want

Recipe - Kashmiri Rajma

Ingredients -
1. Rajma - 300 gms
2. Tomato - 3 medium
3. Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
4. Asafoetida - 1/2 tsp
5. Grated ginger - 1 Tbsp
6. Coriander powder - 4 tsp
7. Red chilli powder - 2 tsp
8. Garam masala - 1 tsp
9. salt - 2 tsp (to taste)
10. Water for cooking
11. Oil - about 2 Tbsp

Method -
1. Soak the Rajma in water for about 12 hours.
2. Put the Rajma in a pressure cooker, put 2 tsp salt and pour water till the rajma is covered completely and there's about 1 cm of water on top of it. Let the whistle on it sound about 5-6 times and then let it cook in the pressure till it cools down.
3. Meanwhile, put the tomatoes in boiling water till the skin starts to peel off. Then take the skin off and make tomato puree
4. Heat oil in a wok and put cumin seeds in it. When they split, reduce the flame and put asafoetida,  ginger and coriander powder
5. After about 15 seconds, put the tomato puree in and mix. Let it cook till the oil starts separating

6. Put Red chilli powder and garam masala in. Let it cook for another 20 seconds
7. From the rajma cooked in the pressure cooker, take about 50 grams of rajma and put in the wok. Using the back of the ladle, crush these beans and make them into a paste

8. Put the remaining rajma in and put the water in which it was cooked, also inside the wok
9. Close the lid and let it come to a boil.
10. Taste and add more salt or red chilli powder as needed
11. Serve with rice

Recipe - Walnut date chocolate cake

Ingredients
1. Maida (All purpose flour) - 200 gms
2. Sugar - 200 gms
3. Unsalted butter - 200 gms
4. Eggs - 4
5. Baking powder - 1 tsp
6. Baking soda - 1/2 tsp
7. Crushed walnuts - 1/2 cup
8. Dates - small pieces 1/2 cup
9. Cocoa powder - 4 tsp

Method
1. Mix 1/4th tsp of bakind soda with the dates and let it rest. This helps maintain the colour.
2. Mix maida, baking powder and remaining baking soda using a thin wired sieve. Pass through the sieve 3-4 times to mix it well
3. Mix the cocoa powder in it. The amount of cocoa powder can be adjusted based on amount of chocolate flavour you want. 4 tsp gives just enough chocolate flavour.
4. Beat butter in a glass bowl till fluffy. It's a lot of effort, but then you do get mechanical egg beaters that make it slightly easy for you.
5. Start adding one egg at a time and continue beating it. The other option is to beat the eggs separately in a blender and mix with the butter and again beat it for sometime.
6. Grind the sugar to a powder in a grinder and add to the egg and butter mix and beat it again. Remember, you have to beat it till it's fluffy. If you overdo it, it will become slightly lumpy.
7. At this point, start pre-heating the oven to 200C
8. Apply butter to the sides and bottom of the baking pan and dust it with some maida.
9. Put the dates and walnuts into the batter and mix well.
10. Now put the maida/baking powder mix in batter and fold it in slowly. DO NOT beat it. Just move a wooden spatula in a clockwise or anti clockwise direction in the bowl to mix it slowly. Do not change direction midway. Fold the mixture in this way slowly so as not to release the air that has already built up inside the batter.
11. Pour the batter in the baking pan upto slightly more than half the height.
12. Keep it in the oven at 200C for 5 min.
13. Change the temperature to 180C and bake it for another 35-40 min.
14. Once the timer goes off, take out the pan and insert a knife into the cake. If the cake sticks to the knife blade, keep it inside for another few minutes.
15. Once done, take out and put on a reverse wire mesh in order to air it.