Welcome to the kitchen

Most restaurant kitchens especially in stand alone restaurants have signs to keep guests out of the kitchen. This is for a good reason, because you really don't want to see the business side of most eating places. Yes some restaurants do have show kitchens which is a little reassuring  and  there is the element of entertainment and even interaction.

The Rajdhani restaurant in Connaught Place actually has a sign which translated into English says 'Welcome to the Kitchen'.

This was so refreshing, I mean none of  the guests actually got up to see the kitchen, but hey, the message the restaurant is sending is 'We have nothing to hide' and we're actually quite proud of our kitchen and cleanliness and we could show you around.

For a bit I toyed with the idea of taking them up on the offer, that was till the thali service started. The thali is a large metal plate made of silver of more popularly and economically stainless steel. This plate comes with a large number of cute little bowls or 'katoris' which are used to serve curries.

Indian food is best eaten with the hands, tastes so much better, so sensuous,  just as I was wondering what to do about washing my hands, lo and behold! Yes, before the meal they actually briought around a brass jug and a large bowl so you can wash your hands while seated at the table. Talk about spoiling your guests :-)

Masala Chaas or buttermilk and Aam Panna which is a spicy sweet beverage made from tangy green mangoes soon appreared at our table and we knew the feast had started.

One by one the waiters brought serving containers with Rajasthani and Gujrati delicacies, there were so many kinds of chutneys and pickles, my mouth waters just thinking about them. Of course there were the usual suspects like the dal (lentil curry) and rice, however three dishes really stood out.

The first was the potli kachodi, like a small moneybag, pastry stuffed with a spicy lentil paste and then deep fried, this came with a lovely spicy, flaming red garlic chutney. The second dish that really intrigued me was the dal dhokli, small squares of chickpea dough boiled in a flavourful lentil curry with dices of apple and pineapple, believe me, it tasted awesome with the fresh wheat rotis. The third dish that I found pretty neat was the Chiku (Sapota) Halwa, very sweet with cashewnuts and cooked in lots of clarified butter.

Really loved the service in typical largehearted Rajasthani style, the service staff insisting you try this dish and that. With lots of ghee being poured on the rotis just like Maa did when we were children.

After our meal as we stepped out sated, into the remainder of yet another hot Delhi summmer afternoon, for a while it did seem like all was well in the world.

Vipin's Amla Chutney

Amla (Phyllanthus emblica)  or India gooseberry is an excellent source of vitamin C and is believed to boost one's immunity, some research says that it can reduce blood cholesterol levels, blood glucose and may fight some cancers too.

Today I'm sharing with you a simple, easy to prepare recipe for Amla Chutney, this does not have any added oil and can be used as a delicious homemade dip.

Vipin is a very dear friend and is a young ex-captain from the Indian Army. I tasted this amazing chutney at his house and after a lot of pestering he finally parted with the recipe.

Ingredients:

Amla (Indian gooseberry)                                                                          250 gm

Fresh green corrainder (cilantro) leaves                                                    100gm

Garlic cloves                                                                                               4 nos.

Fresh green chillies                                                                                     2 nos.

Salt                                                                                                             to taste

Method

Wash the amla, remove the seed or stone with a knife and cut into halves, clean and wash the corrainder, cut off the stems and keep the leaves, peel the garlic cloves. Slice the chillies open and remove the seeds with the knife to reduce the pungency.

Boil the amla with a little water till soft, strain the water and leave the amla to cool. Once the amla has cooled to room temperature, add all the ingredients in a blender and blend till you get a smooth salsa like consistency. Add salt as per taste and pour the chutney into a bowl and refrigerate.

After an hour or so, take the chutney out of the fridge, grab a bag of nachos or chips, switch on the idiot box, open a nice cool beer, put your feet up and enjoy!

Thank you Traffic Volunteers!

Gurgawan my beloved city, named either after one of my most illustrious forefathers guru Dronacharya or the Jaggery that was produced here, is growing up my friends, I was driving past Galleria Market in DLF Phase 4 and was very pleasantly surprised to see volunteers at the intersection with placards urging motorists to stop behind the stopline. There were others who were helping pedestrians to cross the street.

Now those of you who live in the US or Europe or other developed countries and have never visited India, probably must be thinking that I've lost my marbles to be writing about something so commonplace.

Well guys let me try to paint a picture of how it is on Indian roads, some of my foreign friends who have been driven around our cities leave with a renewed faith in a higher power. They step out of the car after their first car ride in India with sheer terror on their faces and a prayer on their lips. The ones who are not the praying kind, refer to their experience as being inside a very scary videogame with one obstacle after another coming right at you.

The same road space is occupied by cars and yes we have loads of them; they may be signs of how well the economy is doing for some people, but to me they also mean that the city planners paid no attention to public transport. There will be open trucks overloaded till they almost overflow, tractors with trolleys carrying anything  but agricultural produce. Mini buses, shared tuktuks or autorickshaws as we call them here, motorcycles, scooters, cyclists, rickshaws which are large tricyles that ferry people. There will be pedestrians, walking on the roads because many roads in our beloved city don't have footpaths or maybe because the space is occupied by hawker stalls or dug up for some reason or the other.

On top of this tossed traffic salad, please don't expect this very western concept called traffic rules, we drive in whichever direction we feel, even on one way roads. We revel in speed and accelerate like crazy regardless of the short distance till the next traffic light. Oh yes, speaking of traffic lights, a lot of people in India are color blind, there's no other way to explain how they treat the red and green lights the same. The only lights we care about are the headlights and they will always be set on high at night, blinding anyone coming from the other direction. We could teach car manufacturers a thing or two about saving money, e.g think of how much money could be saved on turn indicator lights, we don't use them anyway!

 

Now that you have a mental picture of the traffic situation, you can appreciate what a fantastic job the volunteers were doing!

This group has been working with the traffic police to streamline the traffic flow around Galleria market in DLF phase 4 and today there are designated pick up and drop points so that cars do not wait on the narrow road around the market and clog up traffic.

Delhi Daredevils, Rajasthan Royals, stale popcorn and overpriced Coke

We went to see the Delhi Daredevils game yesterday at Firoz Shah Kotla stadium. I half dreaded going to the game, fearing unruly crowds and poor management.

The crowds were definitely there, however for the first time I was glad that the cops were there too. Delhi Police and CRPF were doing a good job of managing the crowd and were surprisingly pleasant, not something you associate with our chaps in khaki.

People queued up while going through the security frisking and one could hear announcements reassuring them that the game would start in a while and they should go inside the stadium in an orderly fashion.

There was even a first aid counter being manned  by young interns from Fortis and it was reassuring to see the arrangements.

We were in the North east section on the third floor , unfortunately by the time we reached, most of the good seats were taken and we got ones that were behind a pillar which obscured the view. The stadium guys should take out seats just behind the pillar and create an aisle so that vendors could move between the sections.

There were arrangements for refreshments and there was a soft drink counter, the guy behind the counter was selling soft drinks for Rs. 50 a glass instead of the Rs. 40 price which was displayed on his T-shirt. I got my drinks for Rs. 40 each after asking him to go ahead and call his supervisor so that I too could share how he was ripping off customers. On top of that, the guy was short pouring the drinks, maybe pocketing the money for the extra glasses.

The seats had bird droppings  on them and the blue daredevils pennants came in handy for covering the seats before sitting.

It was an average game till the last over in which the game could have gone either way. It was truly a nail biting finish.

Really Old Delhi Railway Station

Last week we had to catch a train to Haridwar from Old Delhi Railway station. It was amazing, I couldn't believe my eyes, the place was as filthy or perhaps worse than say 20-30 years ago when I last travelled out of there. It was like the place was frozen in time, the only reminder that I was awake was the stench of urine and  rubbish in the air.

Would you belive, platform no. 13 has more potholes than our average Gurgaon road, I don't know but was this place rennovated during the Commonwealth games. The approach road to the station was equally bad. But let me not be unfair, there was a symbol of modernity, there was a golf cart on the platform to ferry those who needed help.

Here's a photograph of one of the soft drinks stall at the station, couldn't get you more photos as it was dark and this is the clearest one that I got.

Give us this day our daily Tigmo


Tigmo sound pretty exotic huh? It's actually one of the most basic foods known to man, steamed bread, that's what it is. It's like a Chinese bao, without the filling, interesting hey, they have bao and we have pao, must be some connection. Must check with google bhagwan if bao is the Chinese word for feet, because that's how our famous pao came to be named. Yes, after the feet that knead the dough.

 I had  Tigmo for the first time on my recent  trip to Mussorie.

There is a small Tibetan eatery on one end of the mall called Kalsang, well it's actually a good example of detente. The proprietors show their defiance of the Chinese occupation of their country by pasting 'Free Tibet; stickers on the doors. Everybody shows their defiance of the Chinese by  aggressively attacking the food which is standard Indi Chinese. The place does pretty well  and is usually packed at meal times.

The hygiene is on full display as the Iron Maiden hairstyle waiters wipe each melamine plate three to four times before setting it down in front of you.

Each table has a glass top and underneath are napkins with customer feedback written on them, very interesting concept. I liked the Shaptak, which is basically sliced chicken cooked with diced tomatoes and onions and I think there was some bell pepper too. What really rocked for me was the Tigmo, we just ordered it on a whim and were delightfully surprised by the large hot steamed buns of tibetan bread. These were very good with the Shaptak and I wiped up the last of the sauce with my Tigmo.

The meal would have been fabulous with a nice glass of cold  beer, however they don't have a licence. I'm thinking of getting some stickers made to show my displeasure.

The Uttaranchal government needs to learn something from my homecity, Gurgaon or Gurgawan (pronounced with a slight nasal touch, this is the way to differentiate the newbies from the orignial residents of jaggery town). We have bleedin booze shops all over the place. There are fewer chemists in Gurgaon than there are Angrezi sharab ka thekas.

But seriously, the food at Kalsang was pretty neat and not too demanding on the wallet. If you do go there, try the chilly fry momos. And if you are having steamed momos, go slow on the sauce, the thing can burn you another foodpipe.

Cheers, more later.

Goodness gracious great balls of Rum!


I had a very nice lunch today all thanks to my friend Jatin who is a fellow entrepreneur. We met at the Bristol Hotel in Gurgaon and talked about this and that.


The Bristol is a fairly nice hotel, it used to be the only five star hotel in Gurgaon at one point, before other hotels started mushrooming all over the place. More's definitely better for me, so much more to choose from in terms of cuisine.

Have'nt seen their rooms though, but the way up from the lobby is fairly boring, nothing remarkable. I was visiting the hotel after a couple of years and noticed that the staff uniforms were different. They've probably done some minor touchups too. The Karol Bagh type renaissance paintings were still on the walls. I peeped into the Chinese or was it the Bar, must have been Chinese, because I did see a Buddha head there.  Don't know what it is about people these days, you get Buddha heads all over the place, I've seen a couple on like a stand looking like the poor guy was decapitated and the head kept as a souvenir.

We finally decided to go to the coffee shop, hope they don't take offence at the term, most hotels these days call their coffee shops the 'All day dining restaurant'. Same thing, tomato tomaahto, whatever.

(Guys, I did'nt take the photo, it's from the hotel website, just wanted to show you what the restaurant looks like.)

Candy is Dandy

Candy is Dandy....

When I had just joined the Oberoi Hotels management trainee program, I was very naive and had'nt gotten past too many bases so to speak.

Our faculty for Food & Beverage, started the topic on beverages with this limerick by Ogden Nash.... 'Candy  is dandy but liqor is quicker', we all laughed politely, some of us had gotten it, others like me just laughed along to avoid being laughed at.

It was one fine day a couple of years later while riding my motorcycle to work, the monsoon wind tugging playfully at my hair and having had the company of a certain young lady and the dutch courage provided by glasses of Old Monk and his faithful companion 'Thums Up'  the evening before.... that the meaning of the limerick finally hit me. And I burst out laughing, I'm sure there would have been some pretty amused motorists that day on the Ring Road going towards Dhaula Kuan, wondering if I had been inhaling stuff that I shouldn't have.

You're right Ogden, liquor is much quicker.

Sweet Sexy and definitely Sinful

A cup of sensuous dark coffee. I confess, I have a love affair with coffee, it started many years ago like a harmless flirtation, you know ,the occasional cup once in a while. My thoughts go back to childhood as I remember the first time we met,  it was at a wedding and a couple of us friends picked up the steaming hot cups, a can of Cadburys with holes in the lid, snowing cocoa powder on the rich froth . In my eagerness and naivete I burnt my lips on the scalding hot liquid, the pain is long forgotten but the sweet taste of my first time still lingers.

I came face to face with the real Italian thing in my first job. Straight out of the Oberoi management trainee program, my first assignment was managing 'Esmeralda' the meditarranean restaurant at the Oberoi New Delhi.

We used to make some of the finest coffee in town,  the aroma of freshly ground Arabica and the sound of milk being frothed at just the right temperature filled the air. A great Espresso needs steamed water at just the right temperature, rushing through coffee grounds roasted and ground just so and packed tightly enough into the apparatus resulting in a gorgeous ebony colored liquid with a ring of light brown foam or crema. Those cute little cups of Espresso knocked the air out of little boys but were savored amorously by those who had been there and done that.

 Believe me, once your lips have tasted the real thing, it is enough to get hooked. It's like a maddening addiction, your friends and wellwishers tell you to stay away. "Sunil at your age you really need to switch to a heart friendly option" says my doctor; concerned. My friend Mallika wants me to try Kadha made with ginger and honey and black pepper.

I'm like the hero in a seventies Hindi movie being warned against going to the 'other woman' for she is too wanton and lusty. Yet you don't heed their advice and choose to go with the dangerous rather than stay with the homely comfort of green tea or the more family oriented version stewed with ginger and milk and lots of sugar.

As I pop antacids every morning, I tell myself I'm not going to drink coffee anymore, that I'll have healthier options like tea or even water, yes that's it, lots of water, it'll detox my sytem and keep me hydrated. it works for a couple of days, well truthfully, for a day or even less.

And then I go all cold turkey, the craving begins gnawing at my insides. My brain has gotten used to the caffeine highs and refuses to pick up the tools and get to work in the morning. All negotiations to get my striking body to get back to work fail. Pretty soon, my hands move with a will of their own and the brain has already done a mutiny on the bounty on me and I find myself pouring hot water into a cup of instant.

Not the same thing, but then, it'll have to do. As I sip, the life comes  back into me. I can register what the wife and kids are saying. The maid wants me to get up from the sofa as she needs to mop under it. I no longer feel like a zombie, caffeine is cruising my veins once again.