Southern Spice - Taj Coromandel

When you are invited by the Taj for a hosted dinner (as part of CFG Bloggers Showcase), there's this feeling of exhilaration, a feeling of royalty. True to that, we were treated to the maharaja virundhu. (or maharani in my case ;-) ) As we waited in the lobby for someone to escort us to the private dining area of Southern Spice, we observed that security had been beefed up. As we wondered which VIP was staying there, we saw a line of Sun Risers Hyderabad players walking across the lobby towards the elevators. Waqar Younis, Ishanth Sharma and Dale Steyn (<3) were those that I could see :-)

As we all seated around the table and made ourselves comfortable, fresh wet turkish towels placed in front of us to freshen up. This was followed by a little explanation of what was special about this meal. A glass of ginger punch marked the beginning of this elaborate dinner. A plate of munchies with 4 types of chutneys were available.

The first dish on the plate was a mini idli, an idli so adorably tiny. This was followed by a banana dosa of sorts, slightly sweet and tasted excellent with the chutneys smeared on top. For the salad, the kosmalli (Injipuli koshambri), a mixture of grated carrot, coriander and urad dal wrapped in lettuce leaves made a lovely crunch.

A tiny shot glass in white was placed to the right side of the plate and was filled with the most aromatic and tangy mysore rasam. The teeny bit of jaggery in this rasam tasted well on the palate and was not overpowering at all. The final dish of the starter course was the molagu adai.

It's now time for the main course. The group indulged in a friendly banter and conversation ranged from various types of fish and from where each fish is imported to retaining the freshness of the gravies. Chef Anand stopped by to find out if we were happy.

The gold plated plate was set with little bowls decorating the top portion of the plate. Edomame Kurma (Pookose urlai kurma), Asparagus Paruppu usili, Zucchini thenga curry (Zucchini kaara poriyal), vegetable stew (Pachakari ishtew) and Channa gravy (Kadala gassi) constituted the vegetarian sides of this menu. A south Indian touch to international vegetables - the Japanese Edomame, the Mediterranean Asparagus and the Italian Zucchini truly makes one wonder if this is how food can unite the world! The mains included a parotta, idiyappam (string hoppers) and the fluffy aappam.

In between all this, my concentration was on the brilliant yet unobtrusive veena instrumental music curated specially for Southern Spice. I was lost in some of the brilliant renditions, especially Chinnan Chiru Kiliye. The ambiance calls for a special mention - compelling paintings of the kings whose kingdoms' kitchens  were instrumental in what is part of the maharaja virundhu this evening. 

We were beginning to get stuffed. And then they announce that there's going to be more. Rice with the quintessential paruppu podi with gheeeee (er..), small onion sambar (Arachivitta Sambhar - a recipe from Chef Anand's home) and more of the mysore rasam - were delightful. And no meal is complete without the thachi mummu (the one and only curd rice). This was served with a little manathakkali vethakozhambu - totally droolworthy and if you were like me, you wouldn't mind licking your fingers even at the Taj. This food is meant to be eaten with the hands and was sure finger lickin' good.

How can I forget the curry leaf juice spiked with vodka - ha! *sheepish grin* This was one of the best desi cocktail concoctions I've ever had.

Now for the dessert - the elaneer payasam - a hand-me-down recipe from the Mammens of the MRF family was absolutely a perfect way to end the meal. Also were served a Godhi-bella ice cream (banana jaggery ice cream) and belgian chocolate mousse cake filled with lentil, jaggery and coconut (Chocolate purnam mousse). Yum's the word for the chocolate mousse cake.

At the end of it all, if you want me to summarize this dinner, I can only say - Wah Taj boliye! 

* This meal is priced INR 5000 + tax. If you'd like to pair this with an Indian wine, it's priced at 8000 + tax and upwards for international wines. If you want a simple thali, it's priced at 2000 + tax.

* This was a hosted dinner. This is part of the CFG Showcase

* Southern Spice is part of Taj Coromandel, Nungambakkam High Road, Chennai. 

Spoonbill - Exotic Street Food

2 months later, after having managed to inch closer to my weight loss target, I decided to go ahead with one of the CFG Showcases at Spoonbill, Alwarpet.

It was great to meet the bunch of naughty fellows from CFG and that was something I truly missed.

Without further ado, let me present to you Spoonbill.

Charlie owns and runs Spoonbill. It's a resto-cafe and is open from 11 am - 11 pm. A few more branches will be opened in Chennai, before Charlie ventures into other cities.

As Charlie explained the menu, the gang was super hungry and waited impatiently for the food to arrive. Afterwards, it was literally "digging in". The crepes were torn apart, the burritos butchered and the desserts were squeezed within an inch of their lives.

I cover the veg menu here. Overall I loved all the dishes (or items as Faz called them), except that it was a general opinion that the fillings were a tad salty. Perhaps we are used to less salt in our household?

The first to arrive on the table was the Piadina (OTC & Cheese), followed by mushroom crepes, corn and spinach crepes. We then moved on to the Indian menu - hara bhara kebab and palak paneer kebab. The mexican burritos had a lot of beans and not enough salsa to compensate, so the flavor was lacking. The mozarella + jalapeno empanada from the Portuguese menu was piping hot but again a tad salty.

We then dug into the Turkish falafel salad. The bread (Brötchen) that was served with the non vegetarian dishes was to die for. Slightly hard on the outside but super soft on the inside, it was THE accompaniment.

The nutella and ice cream crepes made the perfect end to the meal.

The dishes are priced Rs 110 upwards on the vegetarian front. The desserts are priced at Rs 180 upwards.

*This post is part of the CFG Showcase. 

** Spoonbill is located in TTK Road, Alwarpet, opp Samsung Showroom.

Aromas of China

It'd been an insanely bad week and I was really looking forward to this dinner. Sometimes, you learn the hard way, to not expect.

Located in the heart of the food junction of Chennai, Aromas Of China boasts some really cool neighbors. The usual CFG gang landed at this place and by 730 we started dinner. The menu was sent well in advance.

Well lit ambiance, white crockery and stylish cutlery are just some positive aspects of this place. The seats weren't that great, especially the sofas and some even compared it to a share auto.

I quite didn't like the jasmine flavored tea that was served.

The eight treasure soup lacked flavor. I couldn't find one treasure in the soup, leave alone 8. The soup was too corny, er, I mean, too much corn flour in the base. (Aarti - your effect is rubbing off ;-) )

The crispy chilli corn pepper was crisp. A decent starter. The vegetable konjeenaro dry was terribly dry, tasteless and crisp. If we were able to manage spoonfuls of any of the above, it was largely due to the chilli sauce. It tasted yum and we almost finished 3 - 4 cups of this sauce.

A veg momo appeared on the plate and I really don't have much to say about this.

As we waited for the main course, we almost lost patience and considered stepping off to Haagen Dazs for some desserts. The chilli butter noodles was decent on the palate while the dumplings in soya chilli sauce and mix veg sichuan chilli sauce left a lot to be desired.

Given that the meal so far was a complete let down, we were hoping the desserts would save the evening and save they did. Hot chocolate rolls, Almond flaked Darshan.. er.. darsaan (Jenny - couldn't help it :D ) and vanilla ice cream were good. The vanilla ice cream though, didn't seem to have any vanilla in it.

Unless I'd lost my olfactory senses this morning, I could neither sense any aroma nor was there any China (except of course the mandarined lanterns and the fact that they were trying to celebrate Chinese New Year of the Snake ;-) ) in this place. And surprisingly, it was full for a Thursday evening.

For the first time, I am going with a rating mechanism here

Food: 1/5
Ambiance: 3/5
Service: 2/5 (I am tempted to say 1, but there were moments when the service was okay)

* This is part of CFG Showcase. Food is subjective and your taste buds are different from mine. 

* A meal for two would cost around INR 1500+ - each dish is priced at 300 upwards

*Aromas of China is on KNK Road, opp Kryptos By Willi.

Tadka Talk - A vegetarian's delight

A 2nd visit, in over a month - a perfect time frame to decide if the quality of food has been maintained! The first time was for the food tasting & trials when Shafee had called some of us from Chennai Food Guide. I was impressed, to say the least - the food, ambience, pricing and most of all, the proximity to home.

And when a CFG showcase happened here, I had to be present! Shafee, Chef Jugesh Arora and Chef Deepa Arora welcomed us and we were shown to our seats.

The ambience is simple and clean. There are no distractions. An open kitchen to your left, and the seating to the right. There's also a spacious private 15-seater. The service apartments upstairs are clean and well maintained, mostly taken up by corporates.

The showcase menu was the Chef's Tasting Menu, a sit-down buffet priced at INR 385+tax. 1 soup, 1 starter platter, unlimited main course and 1 dessert is what you get and this is much more than the money's worth. The service is quick and efficient but they let you eat your meal in peace :)

Punjabi home style food (ghar ka khaana) is the USP of this restaurant.

We began with a welcome drink - spiced kiwi and mango. I love the sour taste of the mango and it's an amazing palate cleanser. This was followed by the medium spicy black channa soup (choliya di rassa) - a perfect beginning to the meal.Oh, Raghavander can't eat mango, so the welcome drink was replaced with a kesar badam lassi.  This had just 2 reactions - a big yes and a tentative no. I belong to the big yes group. The tang of the yoghurt with the subtle flavor of the kesar is a winner.

Then arrived the starter platter - Paneer Amritsari, Tandoori Phul and Lahori Seekh Paneer Cholia Te Khumbwali. These are best eaten with the mango chutney. Each dish is perfectly cooked, the paneer with a slight tinge of ajwain.

The plates were cleared. The papad, raita, onions and pickle were arranged. The foodies that we were, we quickly made a dish out of this and crunched into the papad, strewn with some onions on a bed of raita and a small dot of pickle ;-)

As we waited for the main course, Ila and Chinna joined us. The rest of us couldn't wait for them to catch up ;-) We dug into some super soft butter naan and the roti. The breads were complemented by Kadhai Paneer, Aloo Gobi and Rajma. I loved the dal from the tasting and hoped it would be there but the rajma was a good replacement.

The rice dish, lahori sabzi biriyani, was a perfect blend of spices and vegetables. And no, this is not the spicy tomato ricey kind of biriyani that is served in the name of biriyani!

As I licked my plate (and my fingers) clean, the finger bowls arrived. The water was warm and the lemon a decent sized wedge. The bowl was big enough to dip my fingers and clean them, (There, I've reviewed the finger bowls too.. Happy? :-P)

And now for the grand finale. I had an amazing dessert for tasting - some gulab jamun on a bed of gajar halwa and a slice of kulfi and I was hoping the chef would serve the same this time around too! I did get 2 desserts but plated separately. Rasmalai and warm gulab jamun. The rasmalai had an extra bit of rose (gulab) flavor and the chef feels that his halwai might have been thinking about his valentine! The gulab jamun was warm and delicious with the right amount of sweet.

As I wind up, I can only hope they maintain this quality for a long time to come! Three cheers to Tadka Talk!

*This is part of the CFG Showcase.

* Tadka Talk is on Ramgiri Nagar, Opp TCS, Taramani Velachery Link Road (Behind Sony Center)

**Someone please ask Fazil why he was blushing so much.

* 5 month old Arnav, the youngest CFG member, was the apple of everyone's eye here. Sreehari & Aparna's son delighted us by being a very good boy! :)