Of Pot Pourris and Blue Frogs

Hey!

Last weekend was awesome! :) Lots of time spent with family and then some just by ourselves! Saturday lunch was at Pot Pourri Wold Cuisine Cafe at the InOrbit Mall in Vashi. Have been there once before as well.. What, I didn't write about that?! OK, then a little backtrack. Had been there sometime back and had the buffet at lunch. This is a good idea for me, as I end up being the lone vegetarian in the group. I could try all sorts of stuff. Worth mentioning are the Salsa sauce and the Hummus!! Oh, the Hummus!! They had crisp Pita bits with the Hummus... could not have enough of them!!

This time round the kids had the Margarita as usual, and the Mushroom Soup. I had the Veggie Salsa Burger... very impressive! The others had the Thai Red Chicken Curry and the Chicken Stroganoff (is that how you spell it?) which were both very good.

The ice teas (Peach, Strawberry, Blackcurrant and Lemon) are all great.. maybe a tad too sweet for many. The Minty Melon drink was tried and appreciated. So was the Homestyle Apple Lemonade.. (yes you read that right!).

To top it up we had the Sizzling Brownie with Ice Cream... pretty standard stuff there.. but we enjoyed it thoroughly coz we had it after ages!

Perfect Saturday Lunch!

Then Sunday was a different story. Radio One's RJ Malini, one my favourite RJs on my favourite radio station in Mumbai, was very kind to give me passes to the Weirdass Ham-ateur Night at Blue Frog in Lower Parel. So G and I got to spend a night out in town! The show was brilliant!! So was the food!! We were lucky to catch happy hour.. Our drinks for the day were Raz-mattaz and Tajihito. Two glasses down, the amateur comedians were real funny!! ;) The starter was a quaint quiche... french beans, cheese and coconut... hmmm, much like chapati-bhaji really... a little disappointing. But the main course was awesome.. I had the Penne with Cherry Tomatoes.. two words... mmm mmmm! G had the Sloppy Joe ad reported it to be great! We refrained from dessert although the menu looked soooo inviting!

Much fun was had and a big bill was rung up too!!

Cheers!!

Hail, the King!

Yesterday's evening snack... the ever-inviting Jumbo King Vada Pav. Donno how long its been since we have wanted to dig into one.. 

So, as chance would have it, we passed our regular pit-stop and then remembered that there was a Jumbo King right opposite Sion Station that we've been wanting to try for a while. Were quiet surprised at the variety offered in the menu, but wanted to first try the regular vada pav. But apparantly they had stopped making those for the day (some turnover issue that the guy behind the counter tried to explain). So we got the butter vada pav and a chole vada pav to go.

The bread was awesome!! The vada was not too much different than what we've been eating everywhere. Overall, I would say that it was quite impressive. I didn't quite enjoy the chole vada pav as much, but G did. He polished it off before i could say, "Vada Pav". :)

'til next time..

Ah, Ambrosia!

Hey folks!

Been too busy piggin' out to write about it!! ;) 

For a few months now we've been frequently taking a pit-stop at this small, cozy, easily-overlooked place in Chembur, that calls itself Ambrosia Bakery. 

We had spied it along the way but never thought of stopping, until one day when the stomachs were growling so loud that the people around us wondered if there was something wrong with their car!

So, being a veggie and a spinach-lover, I picked up the spinach, corn and cheese sandwich that they warmed up slightly for me... The first bite in and I was so pleasantly surprised at the yumminess, that I had a smile on my face for the next hour!! Got reminded of the creamed spinach at various places in USA.

Over the days, we have tried various things there... even taken stuff home... some of them being:

The veggie sandwich, veggie turnover, chicken cup (which I am told is absolutely amazing), garlic chicken sandwich, veggie burger (a bit dry.. could do with mayo, ketchup), veggie pasta (yummm), tiramisu (wow!), paneer tikka sandwich (could pass), chocolate croissant, apple pie (very very very good).

What I keep wanting to try is the dome pastry... looks very intriguing, yet extremely sinful!

Maybe, the next time....

Bon Appetite, people!

The Ultimate Falafel

After years of looking for the right kind of Falafel on the streets of Mumbai, I have finally found it in an only-vegetarian outfit that calls itself... ummm... Falafel's Veg Hummus House! I have seen it sitting on a corner of Hill Road, right before you turn for bandstand and right opposite from Kobe's, but somehow have never managed to eat or order from there. Finally, yesterday when we made a quick pit-stop at the new InOrbit Mall in Vashi, we saw it at the food court and didn't dilly-dally as you normally do in food courts. As I was standing there deciding what to get, the guy behind the counter handed me a hot falafel ball with sauces on top to try out... just like they do with little spoons of ice-cream at an ice-cream counter! I bought the traditional Falafel with a wheat pita (yeah, trying to be healthy!) and boy, was it the best decision I took that day!! It was a really fulfilling and satisfying treat!! The hummus was really amazing! The falafel balls were perfect. The sauces and salad were just right as well.

This will now be my regular pit-stop!! :)

Make You Happy

Hi... this post comes after another long silence... but with great news.

There's this lovely site that I want to tell you about. Its called "Make You Happy" and you can find it at http://www.makeyouhappy.org

This is a site where you can make lists of things that you want .. for any occassion, be it your birthday or Christmas or a baby shower... You can share this list with your friends so they know exactly waht to get you. They can reserve things on your list that they have decided to get for you. 

I think its a wonderful idea.

Lets use it this festive season and spread some cheer...

Happy wishing everyone! :)

Reasons for the silence

Hey... After a long time....
couple of reasons for the silence... a. Our office moved to Turbhe (read.. wilderness) No more lunch outings! b. I'm on kind of a diet... trying to lose the extra 2-3 inches!
Therefore, there has not been much activity on the restaurant hopping front!
Until last Thursday, that is.....
We've been doing a bit of explorations in the Vashi-Sanpada area!
Couple of disappointments... Bombay Blue/Noodle Bar at Center One seems to have disappeared! And as we just discovered today, the Kobe Sizzlers place at Sagar Vihar in Vashi closed down almost 6 months back!!!
So lunch on Thursday was at The Creek at the Abbott Hotel in Sector 1, Vashi.... very good food... great ambiance. For once, there were new vegetarian Punjabi dishes on the menu (or at least they had new names). I had the Veg Ujala... rather yellow, but very nice. The Sesame Veg Seekh Kabab (the zero-oil variety) was amazing as well. All in all a very satisfying afternoon..

Today was another story! After the Kobe episode..we were quite dashed! Couldn't really look for new places so we decided to go to Chenab for Punjabi food again. Its right above where Kobe used to be and we've been there a couple of times before a few years back, but we did remember that it was pretty good.
But this time round..... um i guess we would bring our rating down by 2 stars from the original 3.5! Service was slow, the electricity went off (not really their fault), few flies were bothering us, food was only OK. I had the Veg Biryani and Raita. Can't really go very wrong with those! But the Gulab Jamun was horrible, yes... horrible! And it all took very long!

On that note... I hope for some yummy sandwiches for dinner at home :) Can't wait!

Cheers, people.....

Lunches and Dinners Galore

So yeah, I've been so busy eating out that I didn't have time to write all these days....
Some highlights:
We had dinner at Caravan Serai, Bandra. I give it 11 stars out of 10! Absolutely brilliant Indian food. If someone offers to take you there... follow blindly! Slightly heavy on the wallet but all worth it.
Then there was dinner at Golden Orchid, Bandra... with kids and all... Great food (this, coming from someone whose not much of a Chinese food fan). But the best part was that they gave us a room of our own that could hold about 12 people, so we didn't have to keep shushing the kids or anything. Great experience overall!!
Hmmm lemme see now... too many places to remember.
Street food... Not to miss frankies at Quality Store on Linking Road, Bandra.
Had some Sev Puri at Ram and Shyam in a little by-lane in Santacruz.... He's really famous there.
Then there were the tempting Dosas at Manju Dhosa on 16th Road, Khar (This is the new look of Mani's Dosa)..... Awesome as usual.
I think I've eaten out this month more than I've eaten out in the past year!!! Unbelievable.
Oh yeah... there was a lunch at Subway sometime in the middle... I was thrilled to see a Veggie Patty listed in their menu... but alas, they only had the Aloo Patty for me.... Have yet to come across a Veggie Patty in Mumbai's Subways.
Then one day we get home Sandwiches from Sandwizza in Santacruz Market. Was totally impressed by the professionalism of this little shack on the side of the road. Their packaging was amazing..... Truly international quality. The sandwiches are obviously absolutely amazing as well.
If I've missed something I'll come back and write it.....
Till then....
स्वादिष्ट खाना (Svādiṣṭ khānā) (As www.omniglot.com translates Bon Apetite in Hindi.... he he)