Shiro brings to its food connoisseurs ‘Steaming Sensations’ in 2014

Shiro - the flagship restaurant of JSM Corporation has opened its door to food lovers with ‘Steaming Sensations’ yet again after last year’s sterling success! The restaurant is offering an enviable variety of dim sums specially created by their expert chefs. From February 24 – March 23, guests can choose from a varied range of 13 ‘new & freshly created’ dim sums that are exclusive to Shiro’s guests!

Patrons can choose from a wide array of vegetarian dim sums such as Vegetable Crystal Dumplings, Spicy Broccoli & Water Chestnut Dumpling, Cabbage & Iceberg Lettuce Gyoza amongst many others. These small yet explosive bundles of flavour make for a perfect healthy meal and non-vegetarians can now savour on Steamed Chicken with Glutinous Rice Wrapped in Lotus Leaf, Chicken & Sichuan Peppercorn Dumpling, Steamed Fish with Ginger Lemon Sauce; not missing on the culinary masterpieces that include Aromatic Fish in Banana Leaf and the Classic prawn dumpling that is filled with a twist of chillies and fish sauce known as Phoenix Eye Dumpling. Keeping it steaming and juicy in bamboo baskets, the dim sums are accompanied with a tongue-tickling dip that is made in-house by the chef; called the XO sauce.

Staying true to the Oriental tradition, Shiro ensures a complete experience as it offers detoxifying Green Long Ding, aromatic Jasmine Mandarin and cooling Rose in Bloom from SUBLIME’s tea that can be paired well with these ‘delicate’ dumplings. These dim sum delicacies are available in a la carte as well as in baskets of 3 and 5, and this new menu is accompanied with unlimited tea, priced between Rs. 650 – 950++ taxes.

I took some vine videos and you can enjoy them here..

First video is that of live dim sum station set up for us food bloggers:



Second video is that of chef making a dumpling in a traditional way:

Museum of Stan Smith by Adidas Originals in Delhi

Recently a pop up store appeared at DLF Promenade mall in Delhi in the shape of a shoe box! It attracted a lot of attention from people coming to the mall and they were curious to know more about the installation! The only clue was that it had something to do with Adidas Originals as you could see from the outside of the box.

Turned out, to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its bestselling trainer shoe - Stan Smith shoe - named after the American tennis player, Adidas opened a pop-up store. 50 years ago Adidas introduced two new Stan Smith collections and up to now, more than 40 million pairs have been sold.

Closer look at the Adidas Originals Stan Smith shoes showcased that they have been stylized by Indian designers like Namrata Joshipura, Himanshu Dogra and Ratnesh Rastogi. The pop-up was a scale replica of an Adidas Stan Smith shoebox. Aside from selling limited edition shoes, the store featured "an interactive floor, a digital 'Stan Yourself' station, and a 3D printing post" that allows consumers to be able to take part in an interactive experience and customize their lace locks using 3D printing. 3D Systems Cube printers lined the walls and were operating live in the store. The printers worked away making personalized lace locks for the customers to put the finishing touch on their shoes. Here is a lace lock one of my friends got made for himself in Delhi!

The Pop-up box is designed as a show box shape which is a museum.There is a Tennis Game which allows you to virtually compete against the legend Stan Smith.some prized shoes, merchandise are in display and this is a place for all the great plans for Stan smith. 

Michelin Star Chef Vikas Khanna's Twist of Taste menu at Shiro, Bangalore

I'm a big fan of "Twist of Taste" series on Fox Traveller India and have never missed any episode from the first 2 series. So when I heard that the 3rd season is going to feature Michelin Star Chef Vikas Khanna traveling from coast to coast of India, I was really excited and tuned into the show. To my delightful surprise, I was invited by Avian Media to try out the menu in real life at one of the best restaurants in town, Shiro!

As I love to cook too, I found out the recipes for each of the amazing fusion dishes which were base recipes of Chef Priyank Singh Chouhan from JSM corporation but built upon by Chef Vikas Khanna. I would be sharing the recipes with you too. 

First starter we tried was Panko crusted prawn rawa fry style. To make this, you have to first marinate prawn with red chilly powder, ginger garlic paste, black pepper powder and kaffir lime leaf. Next dust prawn with tempura flour, dip into tempura batter, crumb with panko. Fry till it is of golden brown color. Mix Sweet Chilli Sauce & Sambal Oelek. Serve with sweet chiily sambal sauce. I really loved this starter very much and would call it one of the best dishes of the evening! 

Next up was Steamed Fish in Lotus Leaf with Malabar Curry Spices. To make this dish, broil cumin seeds, black pepper corn,coriander seeds and cloves. Create a paste with green chilly and curry leaves. Heat oil, sauté ginger garlic, add spice paste, tamarind pulp,sugar and coconut milk. Finally grill fish to 80%, spread it above masala, wrap it in lotus leaf and steam it for 2 minutes. Loved the amazing flavors in this dish and the presentation was perfect too! 

For chicken lovers, there was the Xacuti masala grilled rice paper roll chicken. This has an elaborate process to create it. First, you must Saute onion and garlic slice. Next dry roast all spices and make a fine paste of the same. Marinate the chicken with salt, pepper and oil. Grill the chicken and cut it with a julienne knife. Next up, heat oil, add chopped onion, garlic and sauté till transparent. Add spice paste, mix chicken well to it and keep it aside. Rolling method includes wetting rice paper sheet, spreading on chopping board and keep above filling at center before rolling it. Cut into pieces, garnish with coconut flakes and serve with sweet chilly sauce. I didn't really enjoy this starter much. 

In main course, we had Kerala Style Prawns Curry with Thai red curry paste. To make this, heat oil, add mustard seeds, curry leaves and dry chilly. Add ginger, onion, garlic,red chilly powder, curry paste and sauté it for a while. Finally add coconut milk, stock, prawn, salt, sugar and cook till prawn is well cooked. Enjoyed eating this curry with the Lemon rice which was an interesting take on the traditional lemon rice available in South India as it as Madras Curry Powder in it! 

A truly amazing gastronomical experience was had that evening. If you don't want to miss out on this experience, head to Shiro before 16th February 2014 and feast your senses! 

Mast Kalandar - a slice of North India in South India

Mast Kalandar is the first choice of diners for North Indian cuisine restaurants in South India; specially in Bangalore and Chennai for the variety of North Indian food they offer.

I was invited to taste some of their newly launched wholesome and calorie conscious menu along with my other blogger friends. I was stupefied to see that the restaurant was all packed by sharp 12.00 pm. I perceived the fact then that Mast Kalandar is "the" place to hang out.

Welcome drinks were served which included the all time favorite lassi, chaas, mango lassi, masala cola etc. From the Jhatpat chatpat menu, we got to taste the cholle samosa chat which was authentic. We then savored the rest of the items on the menu like dahi puri, dahi papdi chat, aloo tiki. They were rather served as starters to us.

The "Curry Sutra" segment on the menu is a must try as the name says that this is the rule how a curry should taste and indubitably they were. Dal tadka, karela gharwala, aloo ka choka, dal makhni, paneer makhni, kadai paneer were served along with some breads like masala kulcha, stuffed parantha, Amritsari kulcha, Bhaturi etc. They were the every other day partake of food but were gastronomically satisfying.

I was baffled as the choice of desserts was limited. They had only Gulab Jamun, Sooji ka halwa and Gaajar ka halwa. I wish for more on the menu.

Mast Kalandar has got desi kebabs, Family Curry Packs which they call it as FCPs for everyday and weekends as well. And for the rice lovers they have biryani, pulav and also combos like Halka Phulka and parantha.

Meal at Mast Kalandar was like a short trip to North India and was remarkably gratifying.

Brunch experience at Fairfield by Marriott Bangalore

"There is no love sincerer than the love of food", being a food lover I was super excited to visit Fairfield Inn by Marriott, Rajajinagar, Bangalore to savor their lately lofted Sunday brunch menu.

The live music engendered the intensity of the aura of the Kava Restaurant.The mystique upholstery of the restaurant made it a favored one in the town. There is also a pub attached to it. I started off my lunch with pasta and panipuri from the live counter which were put up in the lobby of the restaurant.

To taste next were the healthy salads like roasted almond salad, Insalata Caprese, Zucchini and olive rolls which were pretty good. Later was my best loved pick from the tandoor- kebabs like Murgh malai kebab, lal mirch ka murgh tikka, lamb seekh kebab, fish tikka etc in non veg; and karare paneer, shikampuri kebab, baby corn Amritsari etc in veg.

I had to keep space in my tummy to try the Kava special curries like Butter chicken, lamb rogan josh, Bengali fish curry, paneer lababdar, miloni tarkari, Kava signature dal, and the biryanis.

There were live counters for Dosa, appam, noodles,Quesadillas and pasta - having them custom made was consummately  unique experience.

William Powell said "Dessert is probably the most important stage of the meal, since it will be the last thing your guests remember before they pass out all over the table" and I felt that Kava did a bang on job to have heavenly desserts like Walnut chocolate Brownie, Cream Caramel, Chocolate Almond Slice, Rasamalai, baked yogurt, Mysore Pak, Gulab Jamun, Cake and of course many  flavors of icecream.

The secret of Success in life is to eat what you like and let the food fight it out inside and this is what precisely I did and thanks to Kava in helping to discover the big foodie inside me.

The pricing of the buffet is pretty economical and cost effective. Altogether the encounter with such exceptional food and service was a worth visit. It's very reasonably priced at Rs.699+ Taxes for non-alcoholic menu & Rs. 1199+Taxes for alcoholic menu. It was also nice to have a caricature artist and live musician at the brunch!

Healthy dining at Au Bon Pain - preview of Indiranagar branch

Au Bon Pain is a fast-casual bakery and cafe chain headquartered in Boston; they started their chain of cafe shops in India with Bangalore as its base and they have 17 outlets with a huge advocacy of the patrons. 

Recently I happened to visit the Indiranagar CMH Road Au Bon Pain outlet with my husband to taste their classy and wholesome menu.The decor of the bakery was cozy and themed; the kind greeting by the staff was novel.

We started off with litchi iced tea which was very refreshing and different and then tasted the lemon fizz,iced mocha and frozen hot chocolate despite the fact of cold weather.Then we tried the salads like Tuna Garden and southwest chicken which were quite competent and a healthy option.

We also tried their signature cold sandwiches like Vegetarian Pesto Club which is made using fresh garden vegetables, Swiss emmental cheese,romaine lettuce,olives and jalapeños with signature spread on whole wheat bread and to me that was a square meal!

My husband is a seafood lover and he loved the smoked salmon wasabi made of smoked Atlantic Salmon, wasabi honey and cucumber on rosemary focaccia.I liked the sun dried tomato & cheese hot & toasty sandwich apart from chicken pesto sandwich which is made from grilled chicken with signature cheese blend, basil & tomatoes on rosemary focaccia.

Au bon Pain even has got all day breakfast like toasted bagels,museli,egg & chutney; anytime treats like baked vadapav, tamarind paneer sandwich,chicken patty sandwich and ofcourse their classic mac & cheese both vegetarian and non vegetarian,fresh soups from the kitchen; fresh beverages like buttermilk,mango lassi and fruit juices.And adding to that they have stupendous bakery products listed on their menu like butter croissant,chilly cheese croissant,spinach & corn puff etc for the vegetarians and pepper chicken puff and chicken tikka puff for the non vegetarians.

Finally my favorite part of the meal - desserts.Cinnamon roll,pineapple Danish,black currant Danish,chocolate chunk muffin,cinnamon raisin muffin,blueberry muffin,walnut brownie and banana walnut cake were few of them.

The pricing of the menu was pretty affordable and was not a hole in our pocket.The service was very prompt and the friendly staff of the cafe made my evening a memorable outing to me and my family.

I would recommend everyone to visit Au Bon Pain for an in-expensive yet enjoyable experience.

New Grill and Wok menu at Trader Vic's Mai Tai lounge Bangalore

I have always loved the food at Trader Vic's Mai Tai lounge in Bangalore; so was really excited to know that they launched a new grill and wok menu. Along with my husband I went there to check out the new varieties and also enjoy the new flavors! 

I started with a mocktail which had flavors of Mango Tai. This tropical drink was very refreshing and relieved me of all the stress and fatigue that I got during driving through the traffic. The mint leaves and just the right amount of ice complimented this cocktail perfectly! 

We also tried out the coconut based mocktail which was served in a unique coconut shaped lau bowl of Trader Vic's. It had a hint of citrus and was garnished with pineapple slices which refreshed the mind and readied our palate for the burst of flavors which awaited us! 

Next up we tried out the starters from the new Grill menu. We took the Tsukuni chicken which was miso soy minced chicken skewers served with asian tarter sauce. This was really yummy and grilled to perfection - neither under-cooked nor overcooked! It was very juicy and tasty.

We tried out Huli Huli chicken next which is a Hawaiian specialty boneless chicken grilled to perfection and marinated with sweet & sour pineapple juice. It had a tangy taste to it and was one of my favorites dishes from the new menu too! 

In vegetarian section of the Grill menu, we tried out Cilantro Yogurt Babycorn Skewers which are tender grilled babycorn marinated in spicy scallion yogurt marinade. I'm not a big fan of babycorn but this was crunchy and yummy so we devoured them in record time! 

We tried out also our regular favorite from the old menu which is Maui Waui shrimp which are prawns with coconut crust, maui dressing and cilantro thrown in for good measure! This dish has always been and will continue to be our favorite from the Trader Vic's stable! 

For main course we tried from the Wok Menu the vegetarian main course of BBQ Vegetables like eggplant, onions, squash and mushrooms with Tofu which we had with Jasmine rice.

Enjoyed this experience of exploring the new Grill and Wok menus at Trader Vic's Mai Tai lounge and looking forward to many wonderful gastronomical journeys like this in the future too!