Reminiscing fond memories straight from Naples

There are certain places u wanna go coz it's popular & attracts wider crowds and there are certain places u wait to go after the inauguration like a new restaurant opening new near your place or a well-known food chain starts up in your town. This place was one such instance, where I had been watching this place with the opening soon sign right from day 1, I remember making a comment to my friend on visiting this place once it opens up. Napoli Bistro named after a place in Italy Naples is a Italian fine-dine place located in HSR right on the main road just above the newly opened CCD.

I had plans to meet up a long lost friend of mine, who recently moved to Bangalore with her hubby. Lost in the crowded population of Bangalore I was the only friend she had here. We decided to meet up on a weekday to munch on Italian dishes and reminisce on our old stories around 1 in the noon. As we entered the premises, we choose our table right beside the glass window for a whole outdoor view.

We started off our mean with the soup of the day. Apparently the soup being served that day was Miso Soup. This was the first time I took a raincheck on my usual Manchow soup and went ahead with miso, not coz I liked it, but coz I dint have a choice. Moreover, once in a while change is good. What can I say about the soup? For starters I dint like it much, initially I thought there would be something wrong with the soup but later I got to know that miso soup is just like beer. It's an acquired taste rather than love at first sight thingi.

Next we moved on to out starter which was Cheesy Masala which was supposed to be garlic bread topped with Indian spices. Personally, I would have picked a Quesadilla or a Bruschetta, but my friend was very keen on eating garlic bread, so I gave it to her and ordered Cheesy Masala, and I am glad I did it coz it was nothing like this traditional garlic bread, I mean yea it was, but slightly different. Here a typical garlic bread is topped with lot of veggies like capsicum, red and yellow bell peppers, onions, tomatoes and a lot of cheese! Top it with pepper and chili flakes along with tomato sauce and you will Slurp Slurp Slurp!  On a lazy summer afternoon I might try this recipe at home too; you never know ;)

My friend has never tried Italian dish before, atleast not the traditional pizza’s or lasagna’s, so I wanted to treat her with the authentic Italian food. Was this bistro traditional with just its name? Would it actually provide a traditional Italian dishes? All this questions was yet to be unravelled. For the mains we ordered  BBQ pizza and Veg Lasagna. Pizza was served hot, a medium pizza with 6 pieces in it. It was decent enough for 2 folks to eat yet not stomach filling. Thin crust base with barbeque sauce seasoned with paneer, pepper bells, onions and lots of cheese topped with cilantro. Tastes crispy, hot and yummy!

Next came in the lasagna. My friend loved this dish and to be truthful I loved it too. Its been one of the best lasagna’s I had in a very long time. Layered pasta stuffed with vegetables and soaked in melted cheese…Mmmmm..It was a yum orgy ;). The only complain I could possibly think of is that, they served just one tosted bread with lasagna rather than 2. SIGH!

All this dishes were paired with my Blue Curacao Mojito, a perfect blend of Blue Curacao, lime and Mojito blended with ice cubes and mint leaves. 

Overall a nice experience and tasty food. The only lacking part they had was lack of will to compete and do something different. Would I go back here? Probably not, coz Bangalore provides better Italian options than Napoli. Should you go there? Why not, for a change. Won’t grill a huge hole into ur pockets anyways.

wine podcast from Heritage Winery...

So, what makes a wine great?

Technically, it’s about attributes such as balance, texture, complexity and ability to age. Older the wine the better the taste.

But this ignores the part that emotion so often plays. Where you were and what you were doing at the time you pressed the glass to your lips.

That last night of a fabulous holiday, a birthday lunch with your closest friends or, in my case, a little moment of magic in a vineyard on the glimmering country side road.

It wasn’t the most promising start, bumping along a dirt road to Heritage winery not long after a huge, disappointing visit to TK falls and then a straight 60km ride on Mysore road completely famished after a marathon run. With each twist and lurch, the sun standing right up in the sky refusing to slunk a little lower and the breeze showing no mercy.

I remember constantly asking my friend, who being the official google map guide to us, how many km more, every 20 min. It started from 60 went down to 36 and then 17, followed by 11, then 6 and finally a 4 km ride on a bumpy non-tared road to reach our destination. When we finally reached our destination, there was a feeling of excitement, one of it being the happiness of reaching the destination but more coz of the exploration and wine tasting i get to do here. 

I am a food freak- a nerd for new information, a hobbyist  for petty details, and a lover for food and drinks, which is why I forced a couple of my non-wine drinkers to accompany me for this tour. I came back a little wiser and a little more drunk than I expected **wink wink**.  If you are a wine connoisseur or a wine pundit this blog will not intrigue you. But if you are just a rookie in all this and love drinking wine, like me, then head on and read the write-up.

Heritage winery is an Indian branded wine known for its white and red wine. This vineyard is located on Bangalore-Mysore road, a little after Ramnagaram, approximately 70km rode from Bangalore. It’s a 4 km ride from the highway on the country side road lushed with greenery.Heritage Winery is spread across 10 acres of land with 5 acres divided as vineyard and factory each. They have a total of 26 acres of vineyard which is spread across Karnataka, with Bijapur being one of the most important one. Most of the grapes are shipped from Bijapur to this location for processing. 

We were lucky to have a quick to tour of the winery to understand the wine making process before we sat down for wine tasting. It will please you to know that I was paying apt attention on the making process but I feel missing out on a lot of parts, so I did lift out the making process from google for accuracy!

WINE MAKING:

1.     White wine:

White wine can be made with either white or red grapes. The major difference between white and red wine is that white wines are fermented without the grape skins. First the grapes are pressed off the skins and the sweet grape juice is collected in vats to be fermented into wine. White wines are typically fermented much cooler than red wines. This is to preserve the fresh fruity flavors. During this time the 2 parts sugar ferments into 1 part alcohol. The higher the sugar content of the juice the higher the resulting alcohol level. This is followed by oaking and malolactic conversion(MLF). Oaking white wine adds flavors. MLF adds a creaminess to white wine. These 2 processes take time and cost extra money for the winery, that’s why oaky wines tend to be more expensive. White wines are almost always filtered before bottling.

2.     Red wine:

Red wine is made from red grapes. Wine grapes are usually destemmed to reduce harsh vegetal-tasting tannin. Then the grapes are crushed and put into an environment that is conducive for yeast to thrive. Red wines get their deep color from being fermented with the skins. The fermentation starts when a yeast culture grows and consumes the available sugar and turns it into alcohol. There are many different kinds of yeast strains that either happen naturally or are added  to control the flavor. Red wines are typically fermented at warmer temperatures than white wines. Also, red wines are usually fermented until all the sugar is consumed, creating a dry wine. Red wines age for anywhere from 4 months to 4 years before being bottled. During aging, ‘fining’ often occurs to make the wine clear. After fining, filtration happens and the wine gets bottled. Some red wines are not fined or filtered to add more body. Unfiltered wines should be decanted before drinking.

They have some top notch world class equipment’s for processing, fermentation and storage purposes, stainless steels huge barrels meant for various purposes chilled at very cold temperature. These guys bottle the wine only when there is requirement in the market, till then the wine is preserved in oaks.

                                                                      WINE MAKING FACTORY

After uploading all this information into our brains and a variety of questions and ho-haa’s we headed back for wine tasting. The guide for our evening brought in 5 different wines for tasting.

HOW TO TASTE WINE:

There is a technique to drink wine after being poured into the glass. First we need to ‘orbital shake’ the glass; this action churns the liquid as it travels, drawing in oxygen from the air and intensifying the wine aroma or bouquet. After the shake, take a sip from the glass, roll the wine around in your mouth exposing it to all of your taste buds. You will only be able to detect sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami. Pay attention to the texture and other tactile sensations such as an apparent sense of weight or body, the burning sensation, friziness etc. Spit the wine into a spittoon if you are planning to taste lots of wine. If you consume the alcohol, this might cloud your tasting ability. If you're driving, you should definitely use the spittoon.

The process is usually sip->swoosh->spit.

WINE TASTING:

1.     White wine: We started with white wine, which personally is not my fav, given the past experience. This particular white wine was served to us chilled and tasted quite good. I finished it in 2 straight sips which speaks for itself.

2.     Cabernet Sauvignon : Next we tried Cabernet Sauvignon, this is usually served in huge base glasses like burgundy to let it swirl more. Tasting notes: Deep ruby red colour with an intense nose of red and black berries and a hint of spice. This medium bodied wine has mouth filling juicy fruit and silky tannins ending in a long lingering finish.

3.     Shiraz:  Tasting notes: Medium ruby red colour. The nose is reminiscent of strawberries, mulberries and red plums with a floral undertone. Spicy flavours well supported by soft ripe tannins resulting in a lengthy after taste.

4.     Dessert wine: Dessert wines sometimes called pudding wines, are sweet wines typically served with dessert. This is a dessert wine which means more sugar is added externally. They go best with enriched gateaux with complex ingredients, dried fruits, chocolates, fresh fruit sorbets and mild cheeses. They have an appreciable roundness and sweetness complementing the alcohol and acidity with a fruity flavor.

5.     Fortified wine: The last one we tried was Fortified wine, also known as sparkling wine or bubbly wine. This wine has CO2 added to it externally to create a frizzy effect, thus increasing the alcohol percentage to 18%. 2 pint of beer= one pint of this wine.  When poured in a glass it sparkles hence the name. It’s a sweet wine and has to be gulped instead of swirling into the mouth. As this wine touches your tongue you will feel fizziness.

                                                                      MIXING CO2 TO MAKE FORTIFIED WINE

Few EPHEMERA:

1.     300 ml of wine daily is the healthy, more than that its harmful for body.

2.     An opened bottle of wine non-cork has to be finished in 3 days and corked to be finished in 6 days tops.

3.     Any wine bottle to be stored in a cool placed preferably in wooden cabinets.

4.     Ideal atmosphere to store wine: Medium humid, cold temperature, away from direct intense light.

5.     Place the bottle tilted: This allows the cork to maintain partial contact with the wine in order to stay damp but also keeps the air bubble formed by a wine's ullage at the top rather than in the middle of the bottle if the wine is lying on its side.

6.     Maximum years a wine bottle can be left unopened -> 5yrs.

7.     100% alcohol (ethanol) can cause the immediate death of a person.

In the golden light of the late afternoon sun, the Heritage winery was a great wine.

Would I feel the same way were I to drink another glass on another day in bangalore day? I doubt it.

I suspect I’d still like it, however.

Environment and experience will never turn a bad wine into a good one. But it can turn a good wine into a great one.

With that it me Manju signing out, hoping to come back with more blogs. Sayonara for now!

Hungry vampires fueling up @ EPULO, Mysore Road

There are certain things in our life that we love to do, so do I; one such thing is food. I love eating, and maybe that's why the ratio of gaining weight to losing weight, in my case, is always more tilted towards the former. But I don't care as long as I do what I love, but that doesn't mean you keep putting on weight, coz then it will lead to a lot of health issues too. Back to the track, so where was I, haa, love to eat part, yep that's true I love eating and I like to try new things, doing something different from previous day or from the previous-previous day, I love to try new cuisine, new recipes, new places, new dishes and the list goes on and on....

If I am planning to go out, I always prepare my itinerary for that day, I check out nearby eatery joints or sometimes I just go to places to eat from a particular joint. One such day was this one, I, with couple of my friends decided to go to this place on Mysore road for wine tasting. This whole plan was set for the 2nd half of the day, which meant, by the time we reach our venue it would be lunch time and each one of us would be crazy hungry. So I googled out places on Mysore road to eat which supposedly is near to our main venue . Surprisingly, the same wine yard had a small quaint eatery joint. I zomato'ed this place and checked for ratings and reviews and menu.

Ratings for this place were average and Zomato just showed one review for this place, and apparently he rated this place as 4/5. Rating can sometimes mislead you, as it happened to me once in the past, coz sometimes when ratings are provided by reviewers, they get a little tipsy and tend to give more ratings unknowingly, coz of the emotional aspect involved. May be he had a good time there with his friend after a really long time that shaded his judgments or maybe she was on her first candle light date here with her fiancé and the list goes on and on. Well, I am not against this system, coz even I, sometimes tend to give half a rating more just because I had a very good time, but care should be taken to mention why one provided this heck of a rating if the food was terrible. Anyways, moving on, I checked there menu and it looked quite alright to me. So solely based on this review, few ratings and the menu we decided to lunch here.

We started around 1 in the afternoon to this place. If you need the exact location please use google maps, it will provide you apt information and directly lead you to this place. This joint is named as Epulo which in Latin means sumptuous food. Like I told earlier this place is situated on Mysore road around 60 km from Bangalore on a wine yard named heritage wine yard. There menu offers both North Indian and Continental food. I am a die heart fan of conti food, weather it is Veg Strongoff or Pasta Arabiatta or Veg Bolognese, I equally love each one of them, may be Bolognese a little more ;).

 Around 2.30 we reached this place. Plans were to enjoy the wine tour followed by a scrumptious lunch from Epulo. Our plans changed as each of our stomach was grumbling and lurched for food. As we entered this wine yard we straight away hit the restaurant. We were as hungry as an unfed vampire, ready to pounce on any human (metaphor for food) we can lay our hands on. As we were comfortable seated a friend of mine made us order food like a king.

The ambience of this place was cool and calm. It had a ceiling area, arranged with few tables and chairs. One end of the room had a tiny kitchen, passing along yummy attractive dishes and on the other end they had washrooms, which was quite clean against all odds. They also had an open area, right under the sky which had 3-4 tables arranged and they were made of stones. Our hunger had blurred our vision, so, Initially we dint c this place, else we would have opted to sit here. They also have a small park with swings and sea-saws for kids to play and run around when there mommies and daddies were busy ordering and wine tasting.

As we were comfortably seated, our waiter for the noon provided us with couple of menu cards. Like I told u before I was prepared to order continental, but I was a little reluctant; my past experiences with such eatery joints on highway roads has been a disaster. So I had no guarantee these continental dishes would taste the same as I had in Bangalore, moreover these highway joints struggle to get an Indian dish right, continental was just out of question. So I decided to go with North Indian food.

I wanted to order this mushroom creamy soup, mushroom being my fav, but unfortunately they dint serve any mushroom dishes on that day. So I went with my second choice of chicken soup. I am a pure vegetarian, very recently turning into a non-vegetarian, all thanks to my friends. So, I am no connoisseur when it comes to chicken or in that case any non-veg food. Chicken creamy soup that we ordered was thick and creamy, but frankly, I dint like it, and to be frank I dint know what to expect, but from the taste of it I dint like it, it could be my tasting issues or it could be that the soup wasn't great! And from what I gather from my friends they seemed happy with it.

Next we ordered a couple of starters. Potato and cheese croquettes and Andhra Chicken. Potato and cheese croquettes was something similar to fried hot sausages, where potato is boiled and crushed, after  which a piece of cheese is stuffed in and fried. This was paired with tomato sauce, and they served around 7-8 pieces. The croquettes were good, potato was crushed and seasoned well. I had only one problem with this dish; instead of tomato sauce I would pair it with green chutney, that would bring out the flavor more.

Andhra chicken was a total disappointment. I had expected something and they got me something else. My expectation was fried chicken topped with andhra spices to bring out the spices in the food, but what I got was not very appealing. They served boiled chicken in huge dough of fried green chillies. Offcourse one think they did right; the chicken was very spicy, but not a good spicy; a spiciness coz of the green chillies which is bizarre. Moreover the chicken was too sticky while chewing and all it had was salt in it. This particular dish was a total disaster.

Moving on, we ordered parathas and chicken Hydrebadi. Luckily this chicken curry tasted good unlike others and paired well with parathas. I just had one complain here, why name chapathis as parathas and make the customer expect an actual paratha. By the end of 2nd paratha we realized we were still hungry, so we went ahead and ordered for peas pulav.

This dish was the best among the rest to me. I would call it the dish of the day. Peas were boiled properly, the rice properly mixed with the veggies. As I started off with my first lump of pulav, it tasted good. It had a crispness blend into it which made me like it even more. By the time I was done with pulav, I was full, completely fed, tummy popped out and most importantly a sense of satisfaction.

All this dishes were paired with drinks respectively. I ordered for a wine rise, which was supposed to be white wine added to pineapple juice with a dash of strawberry syrup topped with soda. Well, I don’t think I got this drink per se;  actually I dint understand what it was, it has crushed ice cubes, something reddish which I assume might be strawberry that tasted like pulpy grapes and some a layer of juice, which I think must be either pineapple, soda or white wine, I yet to find out. I was completely disappointed with the taste, quantity and cost of this drink. I would not recommend this drink to anyone.

Another friend of mine ordered an aerated drink and another one asked for Virgin mojito. Virgin mojito was a super success and it became a huge hit among all of us.

Overall I would give this place a 3/5. But I must say, even they dint have high standards like many other joints in Bangalore, this eatery place is much better than a lot of other joints I have been on highways, but i personally feel they could do much better job.

I am yet to try there continental food but I won't keep my hopes high.

There goes a saying, u either live to eat or u eat to live. I clearly fall in the former category, I wouldn't miss a chance in the world to experience new things or try new stuffs. If u want to try a new place to eat and want a companion I am game. With this it's me Manju signing out with a promise to come back with more blogs. Ciao amigo’s!

Birthday blowout @ 13th floor

Birthdays are one of the most important day in everyone's life; atleast to me... Its marks the beginning of a new life, a point where one can forget the regrets he had, of his past and move on with new hopes. Planning one such day for a special friend, to make it special and flawless puts in a lot of pressure. And this was one such situation where one of my best friends birthday was nearing up and we wanted to something special, with an added pressure that this could be her last birthday being a single. I was brainstorming for ideas when a friend of mine pings me on whatsapp and puts forth a plan for her birthday. I should say it was simple yet a mind boggling idea.

 Plan was to arrange a small get together among friends at MG road on the 13th floor at Ebony. Reservation were done for an outdoor seating, cake was ordered, presents were ready and a bouquet was arranged to be delivered at her work place. And the salient point of this whole plan was to sneak in some of our close friends; which includes me and another friend, for the party and the birthday girl apparently has no idea about any of this.

Me and Ani made it to Brigade road around 6.30 in the evening. We started hunting for this place. After 5 attempts of asking multiple folks, asking directions to traffic police, calling up ebony guys and googling up ebony on map we finally found this place. Its a 2 min straight walk from MG road metro station with the station falling on towards your right. Amidst all the building you will find a tall 13 floor skyscraper with CCD onto the ground floor. We reached our destination around 7 and made our way to the 13th floor. After confirming the reservation we were comfortably seated on the outdoors waiting for the showstopper to arrive. It would take another half an hour for her to arrive, so to kill time we started clicking photos. The view from the 13th floor is amazing. A breathtaking view of Bangalore at night with the lights shimmering till infinite distance, the candle lights glowing on the rooftop. It was mesmerising.

Bangalore can really be chilly at night times. To beat the cold we ordered some drinks. I went for the Mango Daiquiri which was a mixture of white rum and mango with a hint of citrus. My friend ordered Smirnoff to go with sprite. While slurping away the drinks the staff got the cake we ordered, Kiwi icing. Around 7.30, we started getting impatient, so, each of us made call to the birthday girl and Kapil. While my friend was busy guiding Kapil to the 13th floor i was talking to the birthday girl, pulling her leg and acting disappointed for not meeting us for dinner, if u know what i mean. A couple of min later both of my friends arrive to the venue. As she makes her way outside towards the open seating place were we were seated, we ran towards her,  singing happy bday loudly and hugged her. The whole crowd in the balcony turns to her, to check out who the bday girl was. My friends seemed astonished and out of the world at the same time. She was laughing out loud as she couldnt believe her eyes. Before she could digest the fact of we being there, we presented her with another surprise; the cake. She blushingly took the knife from the table, blew the candles away while the music of Happy Birthday was playing in the background. She cut the cake, stuffed us and we smashed her face with the icing cream. All of us had a piece of the cake and the rest was saved for desserts. Meanwhile Sruthi (bday gal) went into the rest room to get her face washed and Kapil was giving us updates on how Sruthi turned into a questioner, asking all possible questions like where we r going, who will be there, whats the plan etc etc....

Once Sruthi was back, we were ready to order. Sruthi and Kapil ordered a mango mocktail. This was followed by Broccoli and Mushroom creamy soup. The soup was tepid and creamy, and was perfect for a breezy cool night. Later we ordered Kumb Tikka Rasmonak and Andra Chicken Chilly Tikka. Kumb Tikka Rasmonak was fried mushrooms filled with cottage cheese served along with tamrind chuttney. I loved the mushroom as it wasnt too oily or deep fried. But what amazed me was the Andra style chicken which was the spiciest chicken i have had for sometime now. I would recommend this dish as a must if you are planning to go here. This was followed by main course which included roti sided with paneer tikka masala and ebony's special chicken biryani. I was quite disappointed with the paneer tikka masala, it was quite blunt and sweet. Personally if i have to go here again i would either go for the Thai green/red curry or risotto. Chicken biryani was as usual, nothing very special as the name suggests.

Overall i had a splendid night here. Even though the main course was little disappointing, the time we spend here was worth the visit. Overall a nice place for a romantic candle light dinner with your better half, but, it can be enjoyed by a group of folks too like i did.