FUN NIGHT WITH FRIENDS | FOOD ORGY | HAPPY BREW

Yesterday I woke up with a feeling to conquer this world. I couldn’t have been more happier and savvier.  I was confident, positive and assertive that my life was going to change drastically, but in a nice way. Sad, this feeling dint last forever, or I would rather say, it was so short that by noon, I was back to what I was the previous day; Confused, petrified, worried and resentful. I couldn’t have expected my day to go any better, but I couldn’t give up and I wouldn’t give up. I cleared my mind, stayed focus on what’s necessary right now, kept myself distracted with anything and everything; all I had to do was survive the noon, smile till the evening arrives, and then I was off to meet my friends at Kormangala.

It was my friend’s birthday a couple of weeks back, and we didn’t get a chance to celebrate it. In this busy life of ours, we friends, atleast make sure to meet each other on everyone’s birthday. This keeps us together, no matter how much time we have spent with each other in past few months. We all come together on this one day; taking some time off from our daily schedules, to share our experiences, talk about how life is treating us, who has crush on whom, bitch about others and all the other obvious things. So, finally as the night arrived we 4 of us meet at Happy Brew in Kormangala. 

The place resembles a quadrangle, with the bar in the center surrounded by other tables and chairs. The walls are dressed with caricature that adds on a rustic look. A flight of stairs leads you high up to the place, which apparently is not that very high, all thanks to its low celling. The walls here are decorated with happy smiling faces in B&W. All in all it seemed like an excellent area to lounge on a weekend night, under open air.

 Drinks for the night:

One’s happiness is just limited to beer here, and amongst the beer just kingfisher. They have introduced a menu of cocktails that include a combination with beer, which is quite relishing, and not found in many places. If you want to get drunk with a pint of vodka or tequila this is not the place.

I was disappointed with their cocktail menu as I am not a very big fan of beer. Reluctantly I ordered a Kiwi Paradise, which was supposed to be a cocktail of beer and kiwi. Fortunately it dint taste that bad as I feared it would. I could at times get the sour taste of beer, but overall it was fine.

Other than the few cocktails and beer’s, this place also offers fresh juices, coffees and few other mocktails. We ordered for a blue lagoon, and among the fresh juices, pineapple, carrot and watermelon.

The Blue Lagoon mocktail featured Blue Curacao and scored on looks and was a huge hit among the folks. After sipping Blue Lagoon one can imagine what healthy drinks like carrot, pineapple and watermelon would taste like. Nevertheless I would give it thumbs up just because they are healthy.

Appetizer:

Veg Chowder Soup, Chicken Manchow soup, Stuffed Fried Mushroom, Paneer Shaslik,  Chicken Popcorn and Tandoori Chicken tikka.

Veg Chowder Soup: One word definition: AMAZING. Thick creamy soup made with potato, carrots and celery.

Chicken Manchow Soup: Inspite the non-appealing dark black look, the soup tasted good.

Chicken Popcorn: I have never seen such a tiny shredded chicken pieces. Don’t go by its size as they are definitely yummy and tasty. These popcorns chickens are served along with the Szechwan sauce.

Stuffed fried Mushroom: Being a die heart fan of mushroom, I wasn’t quite impressed by the looks of the dish. It looked a lot greasy and deep fried till charred. As I took my first bite, my expectations were quite low. But the moment I cut opened my first mushroom, I could see the cheese dripping out with the veggies, and the first bite of this dish, I was in love with mushroom all over again. A must try!

Paneer Shaslik: Again the looks of this dish gave a greasy vibe. But taste wise paneer was good. Properly cooked and marinated with capsicums, onions and cilantro sided with the Szechwan sauce.

Tandoori Chicken Tikka: One word:Yummy!

Entrée:

Stuffed Chicken in Verde Salsa, Veg Lasagna and Vegetarian Thai Curry.

Stuffed Chicken in Verde Salsa: They served grilled stuffed chicken breast with the salsa verde sauce and Mexican rice. I just took a spoonful of bite from this and it tasted good.

Veg Lasagna: My all-time favorite dish. And what I liked about the appearance of this dish is the way it is designed on the platter. Layered pasta with lots and lots of vegetables and cheese. A food orgy!

Vegetarian Thai Curry:  My next favorite entrée. I couldn’t have imagined eating 2 of my most fav dishes at once. One of the rarest moments, when Thai and Italian, which are miles apart from each other, meeting on one table in this fashion. Red Thai curry served along with jasmine rice was again a moment of food orgy!

I don’t know how, but I totally forgot on ordering the desserts. It just slipped my mind until I made it downstairs to pay the bill, and I could see the tart sitting on the window floor staring at me, feeling offended that I forgot to order it.

In All:

Overall i had a splendid time here. Food was amazing, mood was amazing. Cheap bar! Cheap Food! (When compared to other gastro pubs) I couldnt have asked for more (apart from my dessert DUH! SIGH!).

Although I have one complain, the quantity of food served is less! And also be prepared to wait for 20-30 min for your order to arrive.

Happy Brew

Address: No.40, 4th B Cross, 5th Block industrial layout,Koramangala

Phone No: 080 4965 2956

SHELDON STYLE "NOT MUCH PAIN IN THE B" | AU BON PAIN

Have you ever woken up in a bad mood for no apparent reason?  Today morning I woke up with an overall “meh” feeling. Maybe it was because my sister recently got married and moved to her husband’s house, maybe it was from lack of sleep, may be it was because I suddenly couldn’t cope with an empty house, but one think is definite, I don’t like this feeling, so here I am, geared up to write another blog and may be this might cheer me up and keep me distracted for a while.

Au-bon pain: Is it a pain in the ass or i would rather say Sheldon style "pain in the B" or not? Let’s unravel the truth.

I am not huge fan of food chains as they are monotonous and repetitive. And given my past experience with au-bon, I had very less hopes of finding something yummy that would make my stomach grumble for more. A fortnight back, I had some serious cravings to experience some new noms and this led me to au-bon. A chain of au-bon recently opened up in my campus, and now that I like this foodhole I couldn’t be more excited. Any cravings for sandwiches, muffins, bagels, cookies and queso, au-bon it is.

Since this place is just a walk away from my ODC, I usually stop by in the evening and parcel out a couple of things to eat on my way home. It’s kinda became a routine now to stop by and order an item.

A fair warning: The amount of drooling/eye-widening/weight gain/jealousy that is about to ensue may be detrimental to your health (both physical and mental), so proceed with caution, and don’t say I didn’t warn you…**evil smile**

Open Face Margarita: Brown bread microwaved with lots and lots of cheese and tomatoes, mmmmm, I can still feel the cheese melting inside my mouth. The cheese oozing out from the sides is definitely yummy but beware it could increase your cholesterol level.

Mango lassi: Meh. Not that great!

Chocolate Muffin: So chocolaty so yummy. And when I say amazing I mean out-of-this-world-super-awesome-AMAZING! You can find chunks of chocolates waiting inside the muffins to chew on.

Latte: Like almost any other latte.

Choco-chip cookies:  I was lucky enough to experience the awesomeness that is the au-bon cookies , and let me just say these fine, fresh, great tasting cookies are so soft and chewy-to-perfection i'm willing to bet money you’ll try passing them off as your own homemade treats. They’ve received rave reviews from many folks I know. A must try.

Vegetarian Pesto Club: It’s pretty aggressive. I know. It took me a while to man up and try it, but I can tell you it’s all sorts of amAzing.It also made me realize that healthy sandwiches = kinda awesome and healthy sandwiches = less weight gain. Layered pesto mixed with swiss cheese, lettuce, olives, garden vegetables and jalapenos on a whole wheat bread creates the perfect and (dare i say it) healthy dish.

Jalapeno Corn Panini: Very similar to Open face Margarita. Cheesy and yummy. I liked it. 

Disclaimer: Do not think of weight gain if you want to indulge in something like this one.

Blackcurrent Danish:  I thank au bon for contributing to my weight gain this season by providing this uncontrollably delicious sugar-soaked, blackberry jam coated and butter-covered, soft, fluffy monster of a bun. I could totally go for one of this right about now. 

Corn Puff: Baked, Yummy, Tasty. Not that stomach filling. Try it! 

Veg Patty Sandwich: Slightly charred on the outside, but a perfect middleware. It was juicy and had a hefty serving of veggies on top. Although I liked the inner layer with the pesto, patty and the veggies, the burger bread seemed very thick and difficult to bite and chew. Not the best sandwich I’ve had, but I would happily order it again in the same situation.  

Cinnamon Roll: These rolls peak out of those glassy windows with their tiny little innocent face, all you wanna do is grab them and start munching. Rolled in cinnamon and sugar, these rolls are yummy and, fluffy and undeniably irresistible; it’s hard to pass them up. So I didn’t. **wink wink**. 

A DISAPPOINTING EXPERIENCE | POPSIES

We bloggers are ghost writers’ trying to jot down our experiences at various places in very few sentences, juggling between what was good and bad, trying to recall every single significant detail, to make you (aka readers) aware of what kind of a place you are planning on visiting. It’s not always an easy job to do so, because every review a blogger writes, should not only contain the rightful details but also, should be designed in a fashion that will appeal the audience, which means adapting different styles for every new blog; and that’s why, my dear friends, against all of my usually lengthy blogs, I have tried a new approach to make it a little more fun and quirky. So if you like this technique, do let me know, and I will try to come up with more blogs in similar fashion.

So, a week back or something I was visiting my college after a very long time, to meet up with my teachers and have a chit-chat with them talking about all the obvious things; I won’t bore you with the details. After a delightfull talk for about a couple of hours, me and my friend dropped by popsies for a yummy meal. My cravings was for the thai curry with steamed rice, but karma was a bitch; popsies dint serve thai dishes, so heartbroken I ordered from what was available.

My servings for that day were: Sweet Corn Soup, Mushroom Chilly, Vegetable momo’s and  some noodles that was recommended by the staff which was supposed to be served with gravy.

What were my findings? Please cheggit!

Except for the momo's everything else were disappointing! I couldn't have imagined a place like popsies, serving just Chinese could give me an experience like this.

POPSIES

Address: Next To Mc Donalds, 5th Block, Koramangala

Phone: 080 65463880

CHOCOLATE WALNUT CAKE - a bliss | JUST BAKE

It’s been a totally cray day filled with my sister’s wedding and work and family and BAH. I’d be lying if I said I haven’t been missing writing, over the last few days, and I feel totally terrible that I didn’t get a chance to share it with our baby queso ( aka my culinary chronicle DUH) and you guys sooner.

Okay! So my sister gets married on the 26^th and coincidentally my parents were celebrating their wedding anniversary on the 27^th, the very next day. Since the entire family was home for the wedding, we and by we, i mean, me and brother decided to celebrate it in form of this cake with everyone. Since my mom is a die heart fan of chocolates we ordered a Chocolate Walnut cake and lucky we, it was an amazing cake, so chocolaty and creamy, NOM NOM NOM!

A picture is worth a thousand words, but right now I can only think of two: hot damn.

Hot for the obvious reasons and damn because I can still feel my mouth devouring for it.

Watch as the syrup drips down the cake, filling into every pore on it’s rigid face. Chocolate, the magic elixir. With the ability to evoke the sincerest of smiles in the faces of spectators, chocolate can instantly improve a mood and it has the power to show its beautiful face in the form of a cake. And those chocolate slabs, we siblings were fighting on who will get how much. 

JUST BAKE

Address: 197, Forum Value Mall, Varthur Main Road, Whitefield, Opposite Food World.

Phone no: 080 67169737, +91 8041480004

FLYING CAKES apparently not that flying ...

Corporate industries play a huge role in food industry business. We just wait for a reason celebration; weather it's a birthday, farewells, wedding treats, excellent CSAT ratings, customer appreciation and my dear friends, the list goes on and on … Atleast once a month I play host for cake cuttings or an invitee for team lunches; and apparently this has given me quite a lot of opportunities to try on new places, check out the new trends in Bangalore, taste new cuisines. One such day was a week back when we played host to yet another farewell party. It’s nothing fancy, a simple cake cutting followed by some motivational speech and hoo’s and haa’s appreciating the person; basically a typical farewell party types.

We ordered for a coffee flavored cake from a newbie cake outlet opened here at electronic city near to my work place. I wasn’t aware of this until the last moment when my colleague happened to mention it and to be frank I was a little skeptical.  Most of the cakes we order are from renowned outlets and this was the first time we were trying a new one, so there was an added risk of the cake being terrible. What was the outcome? It was “meh”!

This figure explains a lot of what I am taking about. Too much of a creamy layer and very less of the actual cake. The cake did impart some of its coffee flavor onto the taste buds but overall, it was similar to eating a spoonful of icing. 

Even though they seem to have a lot of options in the flavor genre, they are yet to improvise a lot in the procedure field.

Flying Cakes

Address: 103/3, Konapanna Agrahara, Phase 1, Electronics City

Phone: +91 7760461556 ,+91 7760461559

UNDER THE TABLE WITH MANJU @ IMLI

Sitting there with my order ready, waiting for the staff to show up on my table, spicy hot chai or salt lassi in hand, watching the staff swam around the whole place boisterously, I always imagine how amazing it would be if suddenly, everyone examining their menu, arguing over whether to get one order of samosas or two, agonizing between the Set Pet Puja or Rotiyan Shotiyan and sabziyan, and hearing to Hindi retro music at the counter, would suddenly burst into a vigorous Bollywood dance number, flash mob-style. Wouldn’t it be great if we could watch a Garba or Lavani or Bangda while we slurp on some pakoda’s and samosa’s. SIGH! Bangalore is yet to have one such joint.

A dabha style, pure veg foodhole has found its ground at one of the major Bangalore food hubs-Indiranagar.  What I like about Imli, is there funny little witty face carved as there logo; the feel and vibes of this logo defines the aura of imli, a sense of something fun in store for us. It also portrays that they have done their studies on the food world in Bangalore and have tried to do something different, that would attract more crowd, and I am totally down with it. Even before looking at their menu I was totally in love this place. The changing emoticons dining mats, the glamorous sunny look, with the yellow painted walls matching the yellow lanterns gives it a rustic look; the retro songs playing along takes you back into the late 20’s where Bollywood made sensible movies rather than Happy New Year types. As I walked into this hub, the atmosphere was peaceful and relaxing, the staffs were welcoming and you could just embrace the moment.

Imli has 2 floors, the top floor being a rooftop terrace set-up. Most of the folks prefer the top floor than the ground floor for the very obvious reasons and like all, I too made it to the top floor. I choose a spot right next to the balcony, to enjoy my TV show shield while I quaffed on my extravagant meal. After perusing through the menus I settled for a plate of Paneer Tawa Pyaaz and a plate of Set pet Puja; and to wash it all down, a glass of Thandai.

One of my pass time hobbies is observing, so while I waited for my meal to arrive, I looked around; I found a couple romanticizing right behind me, one table next to me had this cute little family enjoying a meal together and this little guy staring at me every now and then and sometimes responding back with his naughty smiles. Another table at the far end was hosting an office get together and the table to my left had some uncles laughing and enjoying their meal, may be sharing and reminiscing old memories, while the staffs swarmed the place with food. Amidst all this I lost track of time and before I knew my food was on my table. First came in the Paneer tawa Pyaaz followed by the Thandai and then the meal.

Paneer Tawa Pyaaz- Wrapped in a cloud of gram flour and finely chopped coriander, paneer was delivered hot and spicy along with a malleable mixture of ball peppers and onions sided with the mint chutney. The hot paneer trickling down my throat definitely was a food boner.

Thandai- Served very chilled, this drink was quite refreshing and an instant hit.

Set Pet Puja- They have a variety of options under this menu, just phulka or a combo of phulka with rice or just paratha or a combo of paratha with rice, or dal chawal. Each of these options is by default accompanied with 2 sabjiya’s, dal, papad, onion, pickle and a dessert. All in all a perfect mean that serves me pretty well. I went for the paratha and rice combo.

2 parathas, a tiny bowl of rice, Panner masala, aloo muttor, dal makhani, and Aate ka halwa. Very simple food, perfect quantity for one person and tasty. Nom Nom Nom!

I had ordered too much and even after my stomach told me to stop, I kept eating. A complete over-indulgence on my part, and completely worth it. Another thing that caught my attention is the imli that served with sonf at the end. I recommend!

Address: #204, 5th Main, 7th Cross, Indiranagar I Stage ,Indiranagar, Bangalore 

Phone: 080 4094 9464
Cuisine: North Indian

Cards Accepted: Yes

Parking: Little tough.