Maji sainik omelet center (opp taj gateway hotel, Vadodara)

In a nutshell A 60 yr old restaurant serving an array of YUMM  hot n spicy egg dishes. Address & other details:  Maji Meal for 2: 100 onwards Cuisine type :  vegetarian & eggs Disclaimer: All restaurants / eateries reviewed by YUMMRAJ were visited by YUMMRAJ himself & he has paid for the full Bill & tips also. http://www.yummraj.com does not have even one featured / sponsored reviews. YUMMRAJ believes in … Continue reading Maji sainik omelet center (opp taj gateway hotel, Vadodara)

Spinach stuffed egg pocket

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…………… Once in a while when ur favorite eggs might start to seem boring, u might consider making this. Take two bunches of baby spinach and clean it thoroughly. Blanch the leaves in salted boiling water for two … Continue reading Spinach stuffed egg pocket

Food aboard AC 1st Class Duronto Train – & the travel story

Read YUMMRAJ’s latest review of AC 1st class rajdhani here: rajdhani

In a nutshell:

My first time travel in AC 1 of Duronto – turned out to b a series of Pleasant surprises. Pretty Good food, very good service & an amazing experience in a coupe of a new coach.

The story:

Duronto , like the Rajdhani trains, r full AC trains with meals included in the ticket price. Unlike Rajdhani, Duronto is a ‘no stop’ train – so it straight away stops at the final destination. We decided to travel by this train for a holiday from Delhi to Kolkata & chose AC1.

inside Duronto AC1 coupe

What is strange about AC1 is that even if u book way in advance, the seats / cabins r not allocated till the day of journey. We were thrilled to see us being allotted to a coupe (only two people in a cabin instead of four).

As I entered the coupe , I was pleasantly surprised. It did not quite look like Indian Railways. New coach, spic & span, pristine white walls & ceiling, a huge 4ft X 3ft mirror, a tiny mirror etc. I cud sense the room freshner as well. At times it felt like we were sitting in a mid-range hotel (of course ignoring the size of the cabin).

We were lucky to have the pantry car just next to our coach. It had transparent glass window & I peeped into it – looked as good as an open kitchen restaurant. Within I guess 10 minutes after the train started, an IRCTC representative came & welcomed us & gave us a rose & a facial wet wipe.

welcome rose & face wipe aboard Duronto

Within minutes of this, the pantry boy appeared with two menu cards – printed & laminated like the ones in low to mid end Restaurants. One menu card was veg Indian & nonveg Indian. The other was Veg continental & non-veg continental.

We started to read the Indian non-veg & were surprised to see ‘veg au gratin’ written in it. We were told that ‘the starters r common for Indian & continental but the main course is different’.

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

Service started within 30 minutes of the start of journey. The server came in & pulled out two foldable tables from one corner of our cabin & set them up.

Foldable dinner tables aboard Duronto

He served freshly made thick vegetable soup. Good to taste by Restaurant standard & awesome to taste by ‘Indian Railways standard’. Soup sticks were also given along with this – those turned out to be sub optimally crunchy. We njoyed our soup with dollops of Amul butter. Halfway thru the soup I decided to season it with black pepper – that is what turned out to b a bad decision. The pepper provided was as fine as dust & it was quite weird. Spoilt the Soup to some extent.

vegetable thick soup aboard Duronto

After a gap of almost 20 minutes, we were served starters – 2 pieces of Fish Orly & a lump of vegetable au gratin, in addition to one apple.

Vegetable au gratin turned out to b a catastrophe. It was a lump of sweet potato with cheese popping up at different spots, funny texture & really bad by Restaurant, someone’ home or train or any standard.

The fish orly was awesome to the power 10. It was deep batter fried fish that had a thin outer batter layer & a superbly juicy, soft, flaky fish fillet inside. Outstanding flavors of the fish & also the spices ……………….. Good by all standards – Restaurant, train, aeroplane, someone’s house etc.

fish orly aboard Duronto

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Madras Coffee House (Opposite Ticket Counter , Western Group of Temples, Khajuraho)

In a nutshell:

I just hope someone opens an eatery in Gurgaon that serves such good food as Madras Coffee House, Khajuraho.

the facade of Madras Coffee House

Meal for 2: Rs. 120 onwards

Cuisine Type: Vegetarian

Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:

If u talk location in Khajuraho, nothing can get better than this – situated bang Opposite the Ticket counter of the most popular Western Group of temples. In other words, the place where this restaurant is located is like ‘the Times Square of Khajuraho’.

Outstanding masala dosa @ Madras Coffee House Khajuraho

The owner & his family stay in the same premises – in rooms besides the Dining Hall. I had a brief chat with him post I praised the taste of the food here. He said he came from Southern part of India in the 1950s, briefly ran a shop in Malviya Nagar Delhi & then moved to Khajuraho & has stayed back ever since.

The facade has not been painted quite long & the interiors are also as basic as it can get – but neat & clean.

The interiors of the restaurant – Madras Coffee House Khajuraho

The traditional food is awesome & I found it better than most Delhi & Gurgaon Restaurants. They also serve fusion food like Cheese Dosa, cheese utthapam etc , which seems to be very popular with the European tourists.

In fact, they also serve non South Indian Food like different kinds of Omelet, scrambled eggs, poached eggs, different kinds of pancakes, porridge, sandwiches, thali, South Indian curries, North Indian curries & even egg Biryani, veg chowmein & egg chowmein!!!!

utthapam @ Madras Coffee House Khajuraho

We stuck to basic South Indian food & it was awesome.

Detailed Description – In case u have the time to njoy readin:

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British Airways inflight food

Route: Delhi to London Heathrow & further to the USA & return

Description:

I have always been a fan of Breakfast at BritishAirways. In the numerous times I have travelled, I have always looked forward to it. The lunches & Dinners that I have had were mostly good & some memorable. But the breakfast has always scored over the other meals in my mind.

Here comes the latest experience:

breakfast bowl with omelet, kabab, grilled tomatoes & hash brown

The Breakfast consisted of a ‘no frills’ omelet with less salt ( that is always the case in any non Indian setting) & hint of green bell pepper & tiny specs of onion. The Omelet was well done but soft, not brittle & had a simple yet good taste & feel to it.

This was served along with a full Grilled tomato that of course did not have salt added to it.

The Rounded patty of potato was very good – crispy on the outside, soft & lumpy inside. The potato was never fully mashed & hence it was lumpy. Very good.

The meaty kabab was the star of the show. It was not juicy unlike all other good kababs, but dry. It had a Shammi Kabab kind of texture, subtle flavors & taste.

Needless to say that this was accompanied with fresh fruit juice.

A Danish Pastry was served as dessert. It was crispy on the outer, glazed with honey on the top, it seemed to be having millions of layers within & a rich chocolate filling in the center. Liked it a lot.

danish pastry

Hours later it was meal time again. I did something that I never do. I did not request for a Continental cuisine but settled for Butter Chicken – figured out that this is served in Flights ex London Heathrow Airport – It was simply Awesome. One of the best Butter Chickens I have had in maybe the last 2 yrs. Cooked at London Kitchen!!!

butter chicken

I was stunned, shocked (pleasantly) how they cud make it so good. Better than most of the orangish tomatoee Butter Chicken varieties available in Delhi. Perfectly tandoored boneless chicken pieces, perfectly tempered gravy, spicy & a bit hot as well. As good as it cud get. The long grain basmati rice pulao that was served had slices of red chillies on it that were flavorful as well as hot!!! Independent strands of rice but melt in the mouth, flavorful & very tasty.

Totally unexpected & completely out of the blue & realy good. YUMMRAJ was super impressed

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Eggspectation (Jaypee Vasant Continental, Vasant Vihar, New Delhi)

In a nutshell:

Its one place where they put all eggs in one ‘basket’ – your plate.

Eggspectation – The Dining Hall

Address: Eggspectation.

Meal for 2: Rs. 1000 onwards

Cuisine Type : Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian

Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:

We went to this place many years back when we got to know that they serve Eggs Benedict. Loved it then & somehow never managed to get back again.

The Restaurant serves as the Coffee Shop of the Vasant Continental Hotel. However Eggspectation is a Canadian Chain Restaurant that started in 1991 that crossed the border & forayed into the US & of course came all the way to India as well.

The theme as u can guess by this time is eggs & there are many innovative & unusual dishes around eggs with equally interesting names like eggkuri, eggchiladas, eggstravaganza, an omelette called eggspectation & so on. Of course, for people who are not too fond of eggs, there r dishes without eggs too.

shrimp benedict at Eggspectation

The service was good last time when I went at around 11.00 am. This time we were there at 9.00 am & it was peak hours for breakfast buffet for the guests of the hotel. It seems that is the reason why the staff were less attentive & slow in executing the orders. They did not positively contribute to the breakfast experience at all.

The ambience was nice with two prominent huge figurines of clowns – one male & the other female. The male is in the act of juggling – eggs!!!!!

The Juggler juggling eggs!!!!

The kitchen is open & see thru. U can in fact walk up there & have a little chit chat with the chef & his team.

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

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