And then I found the perfect companion for myself in this tiny little bottle of fiery pepper sauce known to you as Tabasco. I carry it in my purse all the time for I never know when I may need it to make the blande taste sizzle.
A ‘mix’ in culinary terms signifies a blend of flavours, a blend of spices, and essentially a whole new taste. A new taste, that is derived from an amalgamation of some pre-existing ones. If we remove ‘mixing’ from our culinary diaries, then perhaps, we will have a very sorry culinary world. Blends would go, paving way for the bland.
Picture your pasta sprinkled with salt (oops that again is mixing pasta with the salt) bearing no olive oil or cheese or herbs or vegetables (whatever your regular mix be). Or perhaps pasta bearing only herbs while the other ingredients remain absent.
So, point put forth.
Period.
Now, there is another form of mixing that takes place at À la carte restaurants. Quite different from the kind of mixing mentioned earlier. This one is gross. I, in particular loathe it. The waiters, maybe due to lack of training or sheer frustration, while serving, pour the curries onto your plate in a manner that they get mixed with each other. Thus, you get this horrible mix. No, no, don’t get me wrong. It is still nice, delicious etc. BUT the curries lose their original flavour. The two dishes that you ordered are now one, or for that matter none.
.
Anguish over the table
Okay, and since I am cribbing here, I might as well crib some more. Twice in one day, I had to almost beg waiters to come and take my order. Once, at Costa (C.P.), and the other time at The Chinese (again C.P.). Now can’t they just make sure that the waiters are ‘always there’ for the customers? Maybe there can be one waiter stationed (at a good point) just to make sure that no guest at the restaurant aggravates the already bad spondylitic condition by turning round and round and round and…. Huh.
If I visit a certain restaurant the second time, the first visit ought to have been excellent. So, is the case with most people, I believe. The third visit is what judges the credibility of the eatery in question.
…as always, I am.
Food, ummm, rather ‘good’ food, lifts up Skeeter’s spirits like nothing else.
On a gloomy Sunday, completing work early at office, she went to Khan Market to book her copy of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Sadly, the market was closed, as it is on any other Sunday. Memory weakness is at its best with her. Duh!
The idea of heading back home seemed boring. She headed to her favourite place in town – Market Cafe, instead. Unaccompanied. It did not matter as it would have at other eateries around town (funny stares you know). She chose a ‘perfect’ corner table as her abode for the next two hours that she was there.
And now, comes the food. The Chef was to prepare ‘Baked Goat’s cheese on Walnut bread with Za’tar’ for Reeta Skeeter. It should have been ‘Goat’s cheese on baked Walnut bread with Za’tar’; some mistake there while preparing the menu card. Anyway, the waiter was to serve the same with Pepsi.
Goat’s cheese, known to commons (hehe) as Feta, is her new fetish, the Feta fetish. Not many people like it; you got to love your cheese to love or even like Feta. And Feta can be sheep’s milk cheese too. If purchasing you got to pick yours carefully, else you would end up tasting the other version.
Coming back to the dish that she’d ordered. The portion was enough for her. The price was a wee bit on the higher side, but was definitely worth it. They could’ve baked it a bit more. Next, she ordered ‘Coffee Explosion’. This was a sundae. From the bottom to the top it contained: Crushed brownie, fudge sauce, coffee ice cream, coffee powder sprinkled on top of the ice cream, nuts all over and two biscotti. It tasted heavenly, and made up for all the coffee Skeeter has not had to have in about three years now. But by the time she reached the bottom , she had to STOP eating, else she would’ve fell sick. It was too heavy on her tummy.
In all, it was an enjoyable afternoon with the self. She looks forward to many more!
It wasn’t planned. But it happened. And it did good. It rejuvenated two tired souls.
We indulged, feasted, shopped, tattled and were transmuted to two new beings.
Tea, we did not drink, but shopped for. We shopped at Needs, the superb supermarket situated in DLF Phase-IV, Gurgaon. Needs has the most amazing variety a supermarket can house. No wonder it has become my favourite. Below is the picture of the array of teas and biscuits,cookies,shorbreads, they have on offer. I was stupfied by the variety. I still am. I have never ever seen so much variety under one roof in Delhi!!!
Bangkok 9
This cute little eatery (read Thai and Oriental Cafe) is tucked away in a warm little corner of the food court at The Mega City Mall, Gurgaon. We ordered Po-Pia Thod or Thai Spring Rolls for starters. Wrapped in rice sheets and deep fried till golden brown, they are the yummiest crunchies once can have. If I visit Gurgaon and don’t eat the Phad Thai noodles (which we ordered for the Main Course) here I feel like the trip lacked something. This was the reason, that in the midst of the then ongoing Gujjar clashes, when I reached Gurgaon with a plan to have a Greek Pizza, I ended up having Phad Thai noodles at Bangkok 9. Phad Thai noodles, that’s my best bet at Bangkok 9. They are tangy, soft, juicy, crunchy and have My Peanut!!!
AND AND AND more than anything else, Pritika (the one who accompanies me here and everywhere) and Bangkok 9 are the ones behind my resurrected interest in the delicious Thai cuisine. Pritika is the one who told me that Thai food is not all about Coconut (which I truly, deeply hate). So this post would have been meaningless without a mention, a salutation to the duo. 
Costa Coffee
And then came the Dessert, ‘Chocolate Travoletta’, a titillating delight that can be sampled at Costa Coffee cafes around the town and beyond. I am not too sure if I spelt the name of the sinful delight right. It costs about 28 INR and is inarguably the best chocolate dessert any cafe can attract me to.
Not much has been happening on the food front. The daily diet of Miss Skeeter is becoming rather boring. She just eats what she gets to lay her hands on. Not good! Perhaps she is not feeling very well. Nevertheless she shall bounce back. She plans to make a conscious change in her dietary intake.
Meanwhile, Miss Skeeter visited this restaurant named Urban Pind in GK-1,N-block. She ordered some Pizza which had four different kinds of cheese on it. She did not like it much. Though she did relish her ‘Pink Panther’. The weather was awesome as it was raining! So overall the visit to Urban Pind was not bad. Miss Skeeter happened to have two days off in a row which is a rare happening. She enjoyed to the fullest!
A Matter of Taste: She watched the first episode of the seven-part series of ‘A Matter of Taste’ hosted by Mr.Vir Sanghvi. As expected, the show was awesome! Mr.Sanghvi explored how the Indo-Chinese food came into being. He also formally agreed to accept the Indo-Chinese food as a separate cuisine. This indeed was a big step.
Next Sunday 8.30pm on Travel and Living, he would explore the Sino-Ludhianvi cuisine. Skeets looks forward to that, and all the other episodes and hopes she gets to watch them all 😀 And for all food bloggers the show is a MUST WATCH!
Much has been written about
Dilli ki Garmi. And now its time to sit up and beat the heat!
Cool! Ain’t it?
Veg Siomai
Braised Thai Noodles
Can u spot him?
Last words: Saltz was Sweet 🙂
Haat stop… 
You can add any fresh fruit of the season that you like in the same manner as above and if you have that kind of time,you can puree the fruit and mix it with beaten yoghurt. It will taste like the flavoured yoghurt available in the market.
About 2-3 days ago, Skeeter tried the Gouda variety of cheese. It is not that she hasn’t tried it before. It is just that earlier in life she could not appreciate the slight tart taste of this fantastic cheese. This time, however, she liked it. The reason being that Skeets is learning the art of appreciating food stuff that she hasn’t really enjoyed till date.
Take for example the Pani Puri available in Maharashtra…what with the hot cholas/chickpeas stuffed in the puri to the jaggery(gud)-only chutney used. Skeeter HATED it for the first time she had it in Pune. Moving on, as an avid lover of golgappas (as they are called in saddi Dilli,), Skeets couldn’t resist trying them again and again at several places in Pune. But, there was no difference in the style (hot cholas, I repeat) whatsoever. And as she tried the new places, she slowly started developing a liking for the Maharashtra style Pani Puri.
In Delhi, however, the golgappa walas fill it with imli and gud chutney (tamarind and jaggery), boiled alu and chanas which are cold (of course along with the Pani) and not sizzling hot as in Maharashtra.
Being a ‘sort of’ spoilt brat, Skeets has always had a say in what she’d would ‘like’ to eat…but once she landed in a hostel, Skeets started developing the art of appreciating foods she did not like AT ALL!!! The Art, that Skeety speaks of, was however developed, not by choice, but by ‘need’. The need, to survive.
Keep the fire kindling!