Month: February 2012

Continental Cuisine, Indian, snack

Special French Omelet (Shyam Palace, Sec 4 & 5 Chowk, Dhanwapur Road, Old Gurgaon)

In a nutshell:

A roadside ‘French’ Dhaba which has no French Connection but serves lipsmacking good egg dishes.

French Omelet

Meal for 2 : Rs. 80 onwards

Website: French Omelet

Google map: French

The shop facade

How to get there: Take a right from Rajeev Chowk on NH8 (if facing Jaipur), Keep going straight. At one point the road narrows & u pass thru a congested market. After u cross it, u find Shiva’s idol in the road divider. Keep going straight till u reach a small roundabout (gol chakkar). Cross this & keep going forward till u come to a crossing with Atul Kataria Marg. The store is right in the corner of this crossing. Just ask someone at this point.

Cuisine Type: Egg dishes

Description:
We were curious to visit the place when my friend told me that there is a shop called French Omelet in Old Gurgaon. It sounded as crazy as a Dhodha shop in Paris!!!!!

Since the original recipe was continental & since it has been Indianlized, it is dual classified under Indian & Continental.

Seeing that my friend was very upbeat about the food here,we along with some foodie friends visited the shop. The shop looked like any other roadside shop that sells food in India. We asked why it was called French Omelet & what was the French Connection. The answer we got was quite cloudy & I guess it meant that the term ‘French’ sounded good – So it was chosen as a name.

We first ordered for Omelet with half fried toast. Some people call this French Toast in India. It is conceptually an omelette & bread stuck to it & is salty (not sweet like the original French Toast).

On top of the omelet-bread, they sprinkled a dark powdered masala, onions, few drops of lemon & minced coriander leaves. The masala as it is tasted like churan but it gave an unbelievably good twist to the taste of the Omelet-bread. All this was then served with a green chutney which apart from the usual dhania (coriander) & pudina (mint), also had nuts in it !!!! The chutney was marvellous & before I ate this combination, I had no idea how good bread, egg & chutney can taste when they land on ur tastebuds.

omelet bread

They used a quarter of an 100g Amul Butter pack per dish for frying. That surely contributed to the taste.

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Continental Cuisine, Mediterranean

Mediterra (Sayaji Hotel, Vijaynagar, Indore)

In a nutshell:

Pretty interesting food & nice decor with some masterpieces.

line up of dips at Mediterra

Address & other details: Mediterra

Meal for 2: Rs. 2000 onwards

Cuisine Type: Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian

Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:

Situated on the top floor of Sayaji Hotel, the restaurant gives a bird’s eye view of the city. It is open air & has natural heaters – wood-fire pits for cold winer evenings.

When my friend suggested that we go for Mediterranean food, I asked ‘Is the environment noisy or we can sit & talk? We finally decided to go here – Food was not my agenda as we needed to discuss something important. I had low expectations from a Mediterranean Restaurant at Indore – with the background that even in a ‘full of restaurants’ city like Delhi, it is difficult to find outstanding Mediterranean food.

The starter platter was quite ordinary, the prawns in arabian spices was mind blowing good, so was tehlamb rack, vegetarian phyllo wrap was very good & the Marinated Cottage cheese with stuffing of parmesan & sundried tomato was quite interesting.

Detailed Description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:

Before the meal arrived, we were served a platter that was on the house – all looked good but turned out to be very ordinary. Dip made with Belle pepper paste, a hung curd & grated cucumber that tasted exactly like hung curd & grated cucumber!!!! A paste made out of aubergines & herbs (similar to baingan ka bharta) & hummus – look forward to a Hummus recipe that u can make at home & it will taste much better than this – coming up soon on yummraj.

the starter platter that is served 'on the house'

The ensemble also had golden fried garlic in olive oil, sun dried tomato in olive oil & some excellent breads of different shapes & sizes. Only the plain bun kind of bread was bad – not soft, not warm & almost tasteless. In fact it is so hard that if it falls from the table, u might hear a thud as well!!!

ensemble of breads

For starters came Rubyan Mashawi prawns – marinated in Arabian spices. This was the first instance when I started taking the place eriously. That feeling increased with every bite – soft, tasty prawns marinated in Arabian spices & herbs. The sauce had a buttery texture & with every bite the prawns were bursting with flavors & juices inside the mouth…………..Magical. The plate was wiped off till the last drop.

the outstanding tasty prawns

Post this sudden unexpected experience, I requested the Serving staff to suggest something between a lamb rack & a grilled salmon. I said ‘After such a great experience the next dish should be as good or better. He did not want to take a risk & hence the Chef was there with us. He suggested the lamb Rack.

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For the Chef in u……, Guest Blogger, Indian, sweets

Gajar ka Halwa

This is a part of the series ……. For the Chef in u Contributed by YUMMRAJ’s favourite Chef ANONYMOUS Super easy to make & Super good to eat…………… Gajar ka Halwa (carrot pudding) is an age old dish for which every person cooking it has his/her own variant. The ones available at shops are usually richer & different than the ones made at home – … Continue reading Gajar ka Halwa

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Asian Cuisine, Eating outside India

Excelsior Hotel (281, Gloucester Road, Causeway Bay, Hongkong)

In a nutshell:

Exceeded my expectations as usually Coffee Shops in Hotels r not the best places to have a memorable meal. Liked it.

Excelsior Hotel, Causeway Bay, Hongkong

Meal for 2: HK$ 300 onwards

Cuisine Type: Vegetarian & Non Vegetarian

Description:

Have been staying in this Hotel for the past two days & have had different kinds of food so far. Here is how it was.

Room service

We asked for Fried seafood noodle – It turned out to be what we know as American Chopsuey in India. Deep fried thin noodles, Hard & crispy in texture, looks like a nest, placed at the base of the plate. Gravy poured on top of that. The gravy soaked noodles tasted better than just the dry crispy ones coz those were different from normal noodles but attained a very interesting texture.
Pok choy was the only green vegetable in the noodle & among the seafood were large prawns, calamari (squid) & some excellent scallops. The scallops were very soft in texture & had a very robust taste. Prawns were soft, mildly juicy & not at all chewy. The calamari was a bit short of optimum in terms of the texture. Overall, a very enjoyable meal.

Fried noodles with seafood

Fried Oyster cake with leek & egg omlette – A deep fried food, this conceptually cud have been a baked dish as well. A bit more oily – the texture initially reminded me of Fish Batter fry that we used to eat around at Benfish Kolkata. However, quite quickly I figured out that it was closer to fish Kabiraji.

oyster omlettes

The inside was deshelled oysters (as it is) bound together by egg & sprinkling of leeks. I found the same dish being served at the traditional Roadside eatery at Temple street night market. Tasty, Enjoyable & interesting dish but a bit too oily for some people. Maybe this one wud have felt much better if it was cooked by any method other than deep frying………… but who am I to comment on traditional dish of this place??………….. just a humble foodie.

fresh fruit platter to end the meal

Breakfast & Lunch spread:

Its got a huge breakfast & lunch spread wth Oriental & Continental sections.

There was a tiny Indian section too. Live stations constantly had queues. Needless to say that the Indian food was just ok. Nothing great.

Special mention to the salmon sashimi at the Japanese counter, Peking duck at the Chinese Counter, a very large dessert & fruit section. The sashimi was outstanding & the wasabi was good at hitting the sinuses. The Peking Duck at China Garden, Hyatt, New Delhi is much better.  The choice of everything was so high that at times I was feeling like a kid in a candy shop.

peking duck, sashimi & honey pork

The coffee shop

Went for Thai Fish cake & salad with Nuoc Cham dressing. The texture reminded me of crab cakes. The fish cake had a slightly thick outer layer & very soft & juicy inside. Tasty & cool – though some people might find it a bit oily since it is deep fried. I liked it & likely to order again.

thai fish cakes

For main course, had ‘fish balls with flat rice noodle soup’ – Though the menu card mentioned fish balls, the dish had fish ‘cuboids’ as well. Loved it so much that had it again next morning at the live food station. So here is how it was made:

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