Category: Delhi food

Durga Puja festivities and food with Xiaomi MI3

The Durga Puja season is on. Skeeter did a recce of the Puja Pandals in Delhi to sample the best food Bengalis have on offer. The main food festival, the Anand Mela is over at most places. Anand Mela is a community concept where ladies from Bengali households stir up a storm in their kitchens and present it on the Pandal premises for people to buy, eat and appreciate.
Here are some dishes Skeets sampled at the CR Park pujas. You can still go and sample some of these till October 4 outside the pandals.
Skeeter also clicked the pictures with her new baby the Xiaomi MI3 which she managed to buy at the last sale that was held on Flipkart. At its price (Rs 13,999), the Xiaomi MI3, with a 13 megapixel camera is a such a gorgeous buy…Go drool!

Below is Patishapta, best described as a rolled crepe with a yummy coconut filling, a Bengali trademark.

Some gorgeous floral and eco-friendly decorations below with clay lamps.
Below is the begun bhaja or an eggplant fritter coated in a chickpea batter and deep fried. Makes Skeeter fall in love with the eggplant all over again. Yum!

The Golgappa of north India transforms into a gorgeous Puchka in West Bengal. A hole is poked into it and it is served with a spicy potato and chana filling along with a spicy tamarind water. You need to have it within seconds of it being served to you.

Below is another Bengali staple. An anytime snack in Kolkata. Puffed rice/murmure are mixed up with fried nuts, lentils, green chillies, potatoes and a dash of mustard oil for a very filling snack.

The Bengali invention, the rosogulla is made from mild solids and dunked in a sweet scented water for an awesome texture and mouthfeel. You need to have a rosogulla at a go. Just like Bengalis do!

Vegetables chops or cutlet cousins make for a good snack too!
Last but not the least, no Indian meal is complete without Paan or a betel nut leaf filled with betel nuts, some katha, glukand and other assortments. There can be a mini riot right here if I write about a subject am not well-versed with. The Bengalis are touchy about the right betel nut leaf, just the write amount of filling and much more. For now, enjoy this picture below taken by Skeety with the Xiaomi MI3.Go have a round of the pandals and thank Skeeter later.

The twain meet

As a child Skeeter heard about wine and cheese pairings, also, about wine and continental food pairings. A crisp rosé or lighter varieties of Pinot Noir with white fish (yes this is still a vegetarian blog) or crabmeat, oyesters et al have always been on the wine connoisseurs description of heaven on earth and so forth. A few moons ago, there was much debate on Indian food being paired with wine. Great stories were penned around the Indian food and wine combo.
All this while Skeety thought, dadi (grandmom) always said khaane naal paani ni peen da(with your food don’t take water). Wonder where that came from or where it went. Times are certainly changing, and how!
Skeeter attended a food and tea pairing event at The Park hosted by Ty-phoo tea. TV show host and chef/owner at Aurus, Vicky Ratnani, led the show. Vicky has given an edge to vegetarian food in India through his food show Vicky goes Veg where he shows how much vegetarian variety can one enjoy with the relatively new vegetables (think Zucchini, Red/Yellow/Orange peppers, Broccoli) that are being sold by the neighbourhood vendor these days. Also, how the traditional ingredients can be adapted to new world recipes.

At the Ty-phoo event, Vicky went one step further by demonstrating, how to cook with tea and how to pair food with tea.
Traditionally, in North Indian cuisine, we steep a black teabag with chole (chickpeas) to give them the blackish/brownish tinge. Also, we often pair chai and samosa. This is perhaps the oldest tea and food pairing Skeety can think of. An often heard 4 o clock anectode is…’chai aur samose ho jaayein'(let us have tea with samosas). Whether you are spending an afternoon at work, at home or with 4pm guests, this is one hit pair.
With the new variety of teas hitting the supermarket shelves teatime is only becoming more and more enjoyable. So, sit back and infuse your foods with tea or sip it along with your food (yes there are health benefits and jazz).
For some ‘out-of-the-pot’ pairings, Vicky served well-assembled Harissa spiced grilled veggies, mint and rocket leaf cous cous, chickpea puree with Moroccan Mint tea. Peppered cottage cheese (infused with a Ty-phoo Masala tea bag) was served with a side of masala mashed pot and pickled cucumber ribbons.

Skeety particularly loves and recommends an orange infusion with a cinnamon stick for a tangy, robust flavour. Drink it as is or pair with your favourite food. Better still, steep it, chill it and add a dash of gin or vodka. Other infusions available are Black Currant and Lemon & Lime Zest.

If any of the readers would like to try making the above mentioned dishes by Vicky Ratnani, drop me a mail at reeta.skeeter@yahoo.com

Tres -> Delhi’s sparkling star

The mood

A much needed dinner outing had Skeety thinking and after closing in on a Chinese favourite Skeety dumped it for the Modern European food serving restaurant in town: Tres. And no cheesecakes for guessing Skeety came home happy after the dinner. It was an absolute impulsive, ‘I must get out today’ evening. Skeeter was not hungry. Okay not much. She called up for the directions, and was told the exact directions (it pays to have well-informed staff). Reached there without event on the broomstick.

The drinks

Our table set in for the evening with an Apple Rosemary julip (Rs 225) that had fresh apple chunks, a twig of fresh rosemary, zesty lemon topped up with lemonade. A rather refreshing take on a drink. As perfect as it could be. The second drink we ordered was the Tres Mary (Rs 225), which the menu says is a Classic Virgin Mary with house made tomato jalapeno relish. A lovely drink again, though I’d have liked the rim of my glass much better salted (It could just be a Skeeter thing). We also had a generous and very fresh bread basket accompanying the drinks.

The food

The menu lists these broad categories: Small plates, Sharing plates, Salads & Appetizers, Soups, Mains, Meats and desserts.
We chose to order Roasted goat cheese and beetroot, apple walnut dressing and olive bread (Rs 419) from Salads & Appetizers. What we got was a giant slab of goat cheese on the slightly toasted olive bread with a taste bud teaser, finger licking good, beetroot, apple walnut dressing on a bed of lettuce. A medley of flavours, each distinct and each binding all ingredients together for a unique flavour. This was a dish Skeeter will definitely go back and order again. We requested our attendant to leave the plate so that we could polish off the dressing to the last drop. Skeeter does believe in helping nice restaurants clean the plates you see.

Next, we opted for the vegetarian sharing plate, which is a trio of chef’s selection served with dry salad, relish and crust bread (Rs 659). The chef can never be wrong. We trusted them blindly and got our share of a)Baked artichoke hearts b)Roasted summer peppers, aubergines and mushrooms and c)Deep fried corn tortellini with salsa verde for the sharing plate. The baked artichoke hearts stole Skeety’s heart. Naughty them. The roasted peppers, aubergines, mushrooms had bulbs of garlic thrown in and a chunk of cheese for company which altogether made for a very, very warm and hearty plate. The tortellini were perfect but the salsa verde did not shine much. As much as Skeeter would have liked to order the Mains, she thought an almost full stomach would not be able to do justice to those plates of art. And then, Skeeter wanted to secretly make some room for dessert.
The list of desserts made us slightly dizzy (so many good options to choose from), so we went ahead with the chef Julia’s recommendation of a “little different” Cajita (Cajeta) cake with seasonal fruit, a Tres speciality and trademark. An extraordinary end to a magnificent dinner.
The people and some titbits
Chef Jatin Mallick, Chef Julia and Fatima Lobo are the people behind the place. Tres means three in Spanish.
If you make a reservation and go you are likely to be better off as the place got almost full by 8:15ish.
They are open for dinner only and start early at 6pm.
The plating of each dish was outstanding and made each dish very, very visually appealing.

The not so good
Our tiny table could barely accommodate the beautiful big plates. 
The waiters were in a rush to take away our glass of unfinished beverage which we did not like. We had to stop them but our lovely bread basket was taken away. *Insert very sad smiley*
None of the above will deter us from going there again and again, and more. Will try to update this post as and when.
How to reach
Shop No. 17, Main Market, Lodhi Colony, Delhi, 110003
Opposite Vir Savarkar Park 
Ph:  011 24625520
Damages: Approx Rs 3,500 for two without alcohol.

Delhi meets Bengaluru- The birthplace of Rava Idli: MTR

After exploring Old Delhi Reeta Skeeter landed up in Bengaluru to explore the old world charm of Mavalli Tiffin Rooms (MTR). MTR is to Bangalore what Indian Coffee House is to Delhi in a way. Indian Coffee House boasts of being home to a place where political deliberations happened at one point in time, a place where the news of Emergency is said to have broken first. Mavalli Tiffin Rooms on the other hand survived the thrust of Emergency and lives on till date to tell the story. Restaurants were asked to charge food at govt approved rates. And this is what their website says, “Some restaurants paid up, others started compromising on the quality. MTR did neither. MTR kept the quality of the food as high as ever and put up a board stating the losses for the day outside the restaurant. MTR continued in this way for 16 days. On the 16th day it closed down. During this time, MTR opened a small departmental store next to the hotel and started making and selling mixes for rava idli and other items (that is a story in itself). The restaurant opened again once the Emergency was lifted.”

While there is the regular review jazz to be told, stuff like they serve Kannadigga style South Indian food, that their dosas are slightly crisp on the outside and little fluffy inside, their vadas are crisp to the T yet melt in the mouth when they enter it, that their service is just about right but you won’t be treated like a king or a queen ;), that upma is truly comforting as it should be, WHAT Skeety would like to tell you via this blogpost is a little different. The feel of the place is like an old style cafe where perhaps our grandfathers would meet over steaming cups of coffee, a snack and truckloads of conversation. It is not a so called “cool” place. You have to sit/stand in a queue and wait for your turn and this wait can be really really long. No snobbery of pre-booking a table works here. Very regular furniture, minimalistic decor, rickety fans are the high point here. The added advantage of a visit to Mavalli Tiffin Rooms is that you get to see a lot of old-style machinery (perhaps it is not-so-old for South Indians) used to churn humungous quantities of chutneys for daily serving. They gladly allow you a tour of their busy kitchen if you feel like seeing what’s cooking. The chefs in the kitchen often pass a smile as you see them work. They don’t get annoyed or intimidated by visitors. The bill does not even let you feel a pinch in your pocket while your stomach thanks you for making it Dosa happy 😛 The menu is limited but Skeety guarantees you would love to go back for the same stuff again and again. They have modernized and opened outlets. Skeety saw a swanky MTR outlet in a mall in Bengaluru. Skeety truly feels that one should still go to the old Lalbaugh outlet for the real feel of the Mavalli Tiffin Rooms. While international food chains are plundering the Indian food scene, Mavalli Tiffin Rooms in Bengaluru, United Coffee House in Delhi, Shiv Sagar in Pune maintain that very old Indian style dining charm. Please don’t let that fade away into oblivion. We need to keep the tradition alive. Go MTR!
P.S. MTR is said to be the birthplace of Rava Idli.