Toss up - Ramapuram, Chennai

For those of us having our workplaces / residences on the Bangalore highway, er.. almost, Toss up is definitely a decent place to spend those afternoons when you want decent meal outside of the crappy cafeterias and overcrowded food courts.

The place is neatly done and boasts of a turquoise / teal (my favorite color) atmosphere. It can seat about 20 pax and when we entered at 1245 this hot June afternoon, the place was crowded with a team celebrating a birthday. The waiters were bustling around and we were directed to our seats.

We immediately decided on the combo meals - 2 non veg and 1 veg (yes that's me). They are priced at INR 199 for the non veg and INR 169 for the veg (taxes extra). The choice is plenty.

My veg combo today had a rich creamy tomato soup, 2 pieces of taro nest, a medium sized bowl of Singapore noodles and a triple chocolate mousse. The non veg combo had chicken soup, one spring roll, a portion of phuket fish, pasta alfredo, aachi kari stroganoff, vanilla ice cream dipped in chocolate and the triple chocolate mousse.

The soup was rich and creamy; I'd have preferred it slightly spicy but that was just a preference. The soup was hot and tasted delicious. The taro nest was nothing like a nest, instead was fried completely and topped with mayo. The Singapore noodles had plenty vegetables and was filling. The only downside was that it was terribly oily. I wish they'd go a little easy on the oil. The desserts weren't anything to rave about. They were okayish.

My non vegetarian friends' feedback - The pasta alfredo was great, says B; the aachi kari stroganoff didn't make G happy; The soup was super spicy and the phuket fish was good too says G.

We went there not expecting much and were reasonably happy with our meal.

Price: Reasonable
Service: Prompt
Will I go there again: Yes (especially to try Chennai Chillin' which is their beverages and cold stone ice cream joint right next to Toss up)

Toss up is on Mount Poonamallee Road, Opp DLF IT Park, Ramapuram. 

*All pics shot with B's new HTC One HTC One X

Tomato Soup

Chicken soup

Singapore Noodles - Veg

Taro Nest - Veg

Pasta Alfredo and Spring roll

Phuket Fish and Aachi kari Stroganoff

Triple chocolate mousse

Vanilla ice-cream

Maami's Mess - Mylapore

I've been a big fan of this place ever since my dad introduced this to me way back when. I love the kozhakattais on Fridays and Sundal on Sundays.

I was in no mood to cook today; I'd opted to eat out yet didn't want to blow a bomb.

(This was drafted last Friday)

Within 5 minutes of making the decision, I reached this small place situated in the corner of Pitchu Pillai Street, Off East Mada Street, Mylapore - Mami Tiffin Stall. The place is not so crowded, it being quite hot at 12 pm. The boys are busy making the outer shells for the kozhakattais, while some others are manning the counter for take-aways. There are a few who are hogging on the delicious food, standing at the self service counters.

My order for a full meals is priced at INR 45 (for takeaway; If you eat there, it is INR 40). The meals are already packed and ready. All you need to do is pick up a bag, pay and walk out. I was in and out of the place in under a minute.

The menu today was rice, sambar, rasam, vethakozhambu, kootu, brinjal poriyal, buttermilk, peanut coconut chutney & citron pickle. At today's vegetable prices, I assume tomato was the cheapest, because it was tomato all the way. Tomato sambar, Tomato rasam, Tomato kootu and tomato vethakozhambu (And I dislike tomatoes :-( ). With that being the only drawback, the food was tasty, simple and just enough for 1.

Value for money - Check
Delicious - Check
Quick Service - Check
Clean - Check
Repeat audience - Absolutely

And again, yesterday, I opted to eat from here. The prices have gone up - it is now INR 50 for a take away. Food delicious as usual. Less tomatoes and missing buttermilk. But hey, who's complaining! The quantity of rice was huge today and I had to save a big cup for later use.

Watch out for a contrasting post - Taj Clubhouse - coming soon!

Evergreen Bhindi - Bhindi masala

If there's one vegetable that I can eat salted and roasted with minimal oil, no other spice added, it's bhindi. My fondness for bhindi (or okra or vendakka) does NOT stem from the childhood gyan of mooLai valarum (sharper brains). I love the color, the vibrancy and it's texture (which is most often that not, grossly mis-cooked)

Here's what I made for lunch today. Quick, simple and tastes divine.

Ingredients:

Bhindi - washed and cut into 1" pieces - 200 gm
Cashewnuts - 4 -5 - ground coarse
Shallots (Madras sambar onion) - 5 - 6 - peeled
Onion - 1 small - chopped
Tomato - 1 - pureed
Green chili - 2
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tsp
Salt - to taste

1/4 tsp each of the below
Turmeric powder
Cumin powder
coriander powder
garam masala
Red chilli powder (adjust per taste)

Curd - 1 tbsp

Recipe:

In 1 tsp oil, shallow fry the bhindi (and sprinkle some salt), until they transform into a rich green color. Do not cover the pan at this point. - This would take about 10 minutes - when you alternate between high heat and low. Set this aside.

In 1 tsp oil, add the onions and shallots, and cook until soft. The shallots take a little longer (and mine was crunchy at the end, so you might want to let this cook a little longer). To this add ginger garlic paste, saute for a minute, add pureed tomato and salt and let cook until the oil separates.

At that stage, add the powdered spices and let cook for a few minutes. Add curd and ground cashew and mix well. Add the bhindi. Cook covered for a couple of minutes.

Serve hot with phulkas / roti / naan.

The week that was...

..was an incredibly mad week. 4 dinners, 2 lunches, a spa session, client presentations and amidst all this, I found time to read a bit! Oh yes, all this was during a busy work week!

Dinner one was on Tuesday at Tasneem Aunty's house, with my gang of girls, where I got to flaunt my short skirt without being worried what anyone'd think ;-) The menu was exhaustive - , corn tempura, biriyani, jeera rice, coconut rice, poori, channa, dal, quban ka meetha, kajur - sigh! The food was as delicious as the conversations!

Dinner two was on Wednesday - well that's more of high-tea, at Tuscana's new menu launch, followed by some awesome icecream at Bellaria (right next to Park Sheraton) and of course, pulling Bharani's leg with the hot latino chick. (wink wink)

Dinner three on Thursday was with my super duper bestie girl friend to catch up on a lot of things (I'm not saying what they are). This was at Eco Cafe Chamiers - 2 spicy hot chocolate, 2 veg sandwich, 1 carrot cake and 1 bottled water at INR 850. (not to mention a huge haul of books at flat 50% discount)

Lunch one was at work, with my clients, on Friday. The food was packed and delivered from Fortune Palms, OMR. Very mediocre lunch - maida roti, corn and palak sabzi, paneer butter masala (and the paneer was beyond biting), dal, jeera rice and moong dal halwa.

Dinner four was at my fav couple - Sindhu and Sathish's house, on Friday. This was super long in coming, but when it did come, it was amazing. Ragda patties, Grilled Mushrooms, Paneer Tikka, Chapati, Baingan Sabzi, Amrut Ki Sabzi, Biriyani, Raita and carrot halwa. This was followed by Sathish's special - thums up + vanilla ice cream. Interspersed with some brilliant conversation, we ended the evening at 11 pm with some mint flavored green tea.

Lunch two was at Kalyan Nagar Association, at the Iyappa Poojai of my childhood buddy Shanky's dad. I was already stuffed with all that I have mentioned above, but who can resist an authentic tambrahm elai virundhu - sambhar, rasam, beans curry, vaazhakkai curry, aviyal, chakkara pongal, paal payasam, vadai, appalam & pachidi!

Rounded this all up with breakfast at ID - dosai, vadai and kasi halwa on Sunday morning. NEP was very mediocre, but hey the food made up for it! :)

And now, it's time to pull my socks and hit the treadmill with a vengeance! :)

Peaches - Peachy ! :)

It was an impromptu lunch with a friend, and I'd wanted to try Peaches. After their famous "Who is Peaches" advert and having seen the menu already online, I was intrigued by their spread, especially the somaras ;-).  (After Aswin's performance yesterday, I was in no mindset to take my camera to lunch.)

I called in for reservations and was very politely told that they aren't expecting much crowd and there was no need for me to reserve. Boy, were they wrong! (And at that, they need to master the art of crowd management)

Directions: Peaches is on the 100-ft bye pass road, opposite Rose Ceramics, above Andhra Bank. If you come in from Velachery Main Road, this is to your left. 

I was terribly hungry (just had Priya's cup cake for breakfast :P) and ordered the French onion soup. You do not need to by 2 a soup here. Portions are not big. The soup was hot, hearty and cheesy. A good amount of bread was dunked in. I did find that some onions were crisp in parts; I'd always thought that the idea of the onion soup was to caramelize the onions and let them sweat, so I wonder how the onions turned crisp! The friend ordered a cream of peas soup - was neither creamy nor chunky. It was a smooth broth which started to get grainy towards the end! (Scope for improvement? That's the Masterchef AU in me talking)

The bruschetta platter was on the starters and it won hands down. Soft, fresh bread with liberal dosage of cheese and vegetables, just melts in the mouth. This is a must try.

I'd wanted the Vietnamese Rice Paper Rolls, sadly it wasn't available. So I ordered the spaghetti veg balls. I'd asked them to make it in white sauce as I am not too fond of the red sauce. I counted exactly 2.675 veg balls of which the .675 ball was mashed into the pasta. The pasta itself resembled a soggy semiya upma, over cooked in a very garlicky sauce.

The friend ordered the Paneer Tikka Burrito. 2 thick burritos filled with achari paneer (they usually serve hariyali paneer but you can customize) and some biriyani kind of rice made its way to the table. I sampled a bite, definitely good, but tends to get soggy after a few minutes. And then perhaps you can eat it like a chapati and sabzi :P. And what was that onion tomato on the side? Salsa? :P

We skipped the dessert as I was too sleepy. I hardly got any sleep last night (with the CFG anniversary fever running high), so the friend decided to order some coffee. And it took forever for the filter coffee to reach the table. Did they go to some plantation to pick fresh coffee beans, I wonder aloud!

Service was slow, which I really loved, but after a point it got to me. There was just one person taking orders, and the staff did seem efficient but not enough for the Sunday afternoon crowd.

This place has the potential; the staff are courteous, ambience is simple and excellent; music is pleasing! (One of the owners who was around in an orange kurta had this permanent scowl on his face - smile please, you'd perhaps look more handsome :-) ) - if only they can iron out these small things; This place is already a crowd puller!

And the bill for all the above (2 soups, 1 starter and 2 mains) totaled up to INR 700 odd.

PS: They do home delivery too :D :D 

Dieter's Delight - Dal Kichdi

Yes I am on a diet, notwithstanding the fact that I dined at Crimson Chakra tonight. I had soup and dessert (the elaneer souffle, of course; too bad I couldn't resist this one) and I didn't miss my workout. (And I stepped into Gormei Market to say hello to Sriram and he goes - 'I thought you were on a diet?')

This is one of my all time favorite one-pot dish. Absolutely easy to make and tastes pretty good. The below recipe is a variation of the Gujarati Kichdi (served usually with kadhi, achar and roasted papad). Kichdi is a comfort casserole, more like our paruppu sadham or pongal, but loaded with the goodness of dal and vegetables.

This recipe serves 1.5 people ;-)

Wash and soak half cup of moong dal, about 2 tsp rice and a few tsp of masoor dal (red lentils).

Chop vegetables of your choice - typically onion, potato, cabbage, beans, carrot & peas. Saute them in a teeny bit of oil, along with some cumin, one bay leaf (optional), some cloves (optional), salt, 1 chopped green chilli, a pinch of red chilli powder, 1 tsp coriander powder and some turmeric. I also added the left over sprouts & mushroom mixture from last night's dinner.

Now, add all this to one big pot, add about 2 1/4 cups of water, some salt and pressure cook for about 7 - 8 whistles or more. I keep in the electric cooker for 30 mins. Let it rest for a while. Mix (or should I say mash) well and garnish with finely chopped coriander.

Can be served as is, or with raita or achar / papad / vegetables.

Suggested serving: Add a tsp of ghee over the kichdi and watch it melt away into the gaps and make the dish yummier by leaps and bounds ;-) And that's my lunch box in the picture! 

Crimson Chakra + Home Bakers' Meet = Heaven

A gloomy Saturday and a full day power cut and yet am grinning ear to ear - All thanks to an amazing lunch at Crimson Chakra (yeah twice in 2 weeks now). A great initiative by KP, to get the bakers and enthusiasts meet offline and put faces to the names that we have all been interacting with only on Facebook. And of course, the Chennai Chapter partner, Nikhil Moturi for extending his support as always!

A big thanks to Ali and Nishanth for dropping by and inviting everyone for CFG's 8th anniversary on Sep 29th.

Some interesting conversations revolved around baking, fondants, gelatin and the proportion of ulundu to rice for Idli - Oh yes, I am not joking. Sangeetha says 1.5:7 for a wet grinder and 1.5:4 for mixie ;-) - Tip of the day :D :D

Too bad some of us were far apart and couldn't really catch up much. But then, good in a way that the veggies were seated in front of the table, so we got our food fresh and hot. (Ha! Effect of constant complaining to Nikhil ;-) ) And yay - the all time favorite - elaneer souffle - perfect way to end a meal, always and forever.

Absolutely loved every minute of the lunch - the food, the gossip, the chatter - a Saturday afternoon well spent. And here are the pics

Paneer-o-mania

It's been a week since I actually cooked. I had been terribly lazy and was actually eating curd rice for lunch and dosa for dinner almost all week. And ever since I started writing here, I feel guilty if I don't cook.

So yesterday, with the IPL finals and Monaco race and French Open happening, I was suddenly in a mood to put some effort towards making today's lunch. Well, yeah, I prep things ahead, usually the previous night, because the mornings are rushed and I like my precious time early morning to sit in the balcony and sip my coffee, and dream dreamy things.

I raided my fridge and found a pack of paneer wanting to be picked up. Fine, I love paneer and have made it many times in the past (especially for S) but I certainly was in no mood to make matar paneer, aloo matar paneer, paneer butter masala or any other such variation. Naturally I googled to see if I can find some interesting paneer recipe.

Now, I made this dish, because I was stunned, not by the dish, but by the name - Embassy Paneer. DUH, Seriously? I tried to get the etymology and all I could find was variations of this recipe, but no history of the incident or geography of the accident. Perhaps, they made this at all embassies? Or was it a standard menu at most parties? If any of you know, do please let me know.

Here's how we make it

Chop paneer into cubes. Melt about 2 tbsp butter in a kadai, add finely chopped onions, ginger, 2 green chillies and saute until translucent. Add 1/2 tsp maida, mix well and cook for a minute or so. Mix 1/2 cup milk and 1/2 cup water, add to the onion mixture, and stir well. It would take a few minutes for it to thicken, and once it does, add a couple of finely chopped tomatoes, 1/2 tsp ground pepper and salt, and cook for a few minutes. Add the cubed paneer and mix well. 


Finally add 1/2 tsp garam masala and chilli powder and finely chopped coriander. 


Serve hot with chapatis.


Note: You can make variations by adding mushrooms, capsicum and perhaps peas? 
Note 2: My measurements aren't exact; (er... the measurements of the ingredients, I mean) I don't go by tsp or gms, it's more of what feels right. So you might want to alter this to suit your taste buds ! :-)

I must have been really adventurous last night to even think of making something so outrageous, but surprisingly it turned out pretty well. (Obviously, else I wouldn't have blogged about it). And it was absolutely perfect for lunch today.