Food for the Gods – Chappan Bhog and more

Eateratti this time is going to give you a peek-view into the food that was meant for Gods.For the first time in my life, I witnessed the scale of spiritual dimension of food up-close. As a part of the Deewali Festivities (one of the most important Hindu Festivals), Annakoot Utsav was celebrated with opulence by my in-laws. Annakoot literally means a mountain of food, where at least 56 different varieties or ‘chappan bhog’ is prepared and offer it to Lord Krishna. I had seen this, once at the Iskcon Temple, but this one was celebrated at home!!

Finishing touches to the offering being added by Mom-in law

The idea is to invite Lord Krishna or Thakurji in to our homes & offer him gratitude in the form of food, for everything that he has been blessing us with. Therefore, every single item that’s offered to Lord Krishna or Thakurji is hand-made at home for which, weeks of preparation was devotedly put in by my mom-in law, her sister-in law my Aunt Sonal Kaki and their mother –in law whose is my Dadi. Since I am a newbie in the clan, I offered what I termed as ‘intern’s support’.The idols are dressed fineries with bright clothes & lots of ornaments.

Thakurji is his fineries

The significance of 56 offerings? Like the lotus has eight petals, surrounded by 16 and then 32, which makes it 56, it is this symbol that makes the count. But as the many ‘gopikas’ who brought different offerings for Krishna, the ‘bhog’ can therefore be more than 56 and in our case my mental count when arranging the food had touched almost 70 -75 main items.

The Bhog also needs to be arranged in a definite sequence; with milk and milk products arranged the closest to him. So all sweets containing milk, dry fruits are arranged first. This confirms the fact that, indeed sweets are divine & the 1st preference of Thakurji himself. Second, when Gods can begin their meals with Sweets, it hence forth is acceptable for us to also have sweets first, and there is no need to wait till deserts arrive!!

This is followed by Besan items and then the salty food of rice, vegetables, curries etc.

Kudos to the effort put in by the ladies of the Gandhi family where along with tradition, a touch of creativity was also added to the food offering with sweets shaped as fruits.

The other exciting aspect of such festivals is the coming together of people, and that day,close to 35-37 members of our family and friends came over to have the bhog Prasad.

Now putting together 56 and more items wasn’t the only challenge, but accommodating them into a single plate is even more daunting, but here is my brother-in law Sahil, doing an excellent job.

For some, food is all about survival, for few it associates with their heart & soul and not just stomach. However, religious merits of food just cannot be ignored as food finds a very sacred space in the world of worship.Pick up any religion across the world and somewhere you'll find that food will play a role where it weaves rituals, people and faith together.

Eateratti: Oven Fresh

Eateratti: Oven Fresh

Revisting with new things on the platter with my devoted foodie friends Gaurav, Niel, Karishma and Mihir.Check my updated new post at.

http://eateratti.blogspot.com/2011/06/oven-fresh.html

To TIP or not to TIP

As a kid every time I accompanied my dad to good old humble restaurants, I would linger behind a few seconds till he left the table, to quickly grab the coins that he would place in the sauf bowl (I thought he forgot the money & once when I reminded him, all he said was ‘that’s ok’, so I ensured his money was safe with me, you see). So this assured source of income for my piggy bank continued, till the day he caught me picking the coins (damn my timing!!).That’s when he introduced me to the concept of tipping, that we should leave behind some money for the waiters who served us. However, the last couple of years, our bills have seen a 5 to 12 per cent ‘service charge’ added to it, leaving us confused with the question ‘to tip or not to tip’. Some say its goes to the Government and some say it doesn’t. So here in my next blog, I decided to decode the mystery of the Service Charge for you.

Your bill will predominantly contain VAT and service tax (which is applicable to restaurants having both air conditioning and alcohol license) both of which go to the government. The third item, the ‘service charge’ is imposed by a restaurant for the services rendered - in short, it’s a complusory tip that one needs to pay. What exactly happens to this amount isn’t very clear, as few, rather most restaurants divide this entire amount amongst their staff as a variable pay. Some hold back a percentage of the amount and divide the rest amongst the staff.

Now coming to the golden question of the blog; a survey conducted by TOI-Crest, indicated that majority, will check the bill for the presence of any service charge. If service charge is already included, then usually no tip is left behind, unless they are mighty pleased with the service. My research landed me on a quote by Federation of Hotel & Restaurant Association of India, stating that, if service charge is levied at the discretion of the management then tipping is strictly forbidden at restaurants that take this charge. However I don’t think that there is any law or legal stand point backing this statement.

Can you refuse to pay Service Charge? Well, yes you can. If there is no such mention of a service charge in the menu or in the restaurant, then you can legally refuse to pay that amount. Else you may need to be prepared to wrestle some muscle for it and fight your way out.

'TIPS' read as ‘To Insure Prompt Service’ & usually tipping is something that’s voluntary, and its a reciprocal act appreciating the quality of service. But most Indian restaurateurs’ believe that when it comes to tipping, Indians are little less generous and so to keep up the zeal of the staff and correspondingly the quality of service, a guaranteed tip is taken from the guests.

New Yorker, Chowpatty, Mumbai

You are heading out to eat, extremely hungry, with stomach making all possible grinding sounds and the last thing you want is that the food lets you down? For me, in such situations I head straight to New Yorkers  and it has never let me down since my bachpan ke din.

So before I start, I will try not being biased about what I write, but honestly that going to be a little hard

What do they serve.?, Italian, Mexican & Indian, however I don’t visit the Indian food department here, simply cause if you wanted to have Indian food,then please head to the next door Creame Center or Shiv Sagar. You basically come to New Yorkers to have Nachos (one of the best in the city, almost close after Oven Fresh in my list), American Corn Cheese Balls, Tachos and the sizzlers.

Now I am taking off my rose-tinted glasses and to look at the down-side, the food has the flavors and touch of the Indian Cuisines. May be that’s why it appeals to the Indian taste buds so much, so it continues to be popular from time immemorial. The Pizza and pastas departments also are strictly alright. What’s another downside is the menu is all vegetarian.

However, what I love New Yorker most is for its Sizzling brownie. Leaving New Yorkers without having one is a perpetual sin to commit, atleast in my world.

It’s a very special place as tons of related memories. Most of our post exam lunches had to compulsorily happen here. One thing I love to do here,is to race my hubby over the silly riddles that the food mat has and I don't really need to state how wins hands down!!!!

Will I go back? This question is not too applicable, as haven’t stopped going there since my school days so that’s more than a decade.

Will I recommend? Yes for sure.

The Chocolate Room,Velachery, Chennai

I spent a good part of my childhood being allergic to one food ingredient that is considered as ‘the food of Gods’ and sinful love of millions of lives. Thankfully, I outgrew the allergy as I entered my teens and since then attacked the world of chocolates with vengeance!!

So, Chocolate room was like living a dream, where everything around me was chocolate and only chocolate. I visited this place just once, as I discovered this when I was at the fag end of my Chennai stint & landed up having a 3 course chocolate meal!!!!. That’s true; everything from starters to main course to desert was a chocolate by-product. Imagine having Pizzas, wraps, sandwiches all with chocolate in it. It’s like attaining a chocolate nirvana!!

However too much of something is really bad enough. As a foodie,I strongly believe that a good meal should leave you satisfied,wanting for more and not so over-whelmed that you don’t want to see nor have more of that meal for a while. So my recommendation with Chocolate room is that, don’t order all courses with chocolate, take a mix of chocolate and some salty food, like the normal sandwiches etc. and you’ll thank me for it.

What I loved in the menu were the choco shakes, namely the Dutch truffle shakes, the brownie shake and the in-house shake were lip-smacking and sinful. Also, the pan cakes oozed out tons of chocolate. However, didn’t really enjoy the Chocolate pizza too much.

The Verdit: All chocolate lovers, visit to this place is worth it. Also a note, this place isn’t too expensive unlike the other chocolate places in Chennai and totally worth the price

Spring Blossoms : Ghatkopar, Mumbai

As a foodie, it’s your birthright to binge on roadside food. Yes, I stand by this even post Delli Belly!! Now imagine a road-side joint, plonked along a junction, serving you not just the usual pav-bhaji, sandwiches & juices but also pastas, sizzlers and much more. So that’s Blossoms for you in a nut-shell. But hold-on; variety is not this joint’s USP, it’s the creative & appetizing food offerings which are!! Someone has actually experimented with the food, innovated and improvised on various ingredients and put them together. Trust me most of them are scrumptious & with hardly any disappointments.

Blossoms started off as a humble juice center while gradually building on its menu. Even today, it retains its juice center flavor, by having an interesting spread of juices, falooda and milkshake menu with some funny and filmy names. They have mixed and matched fruits, like once I remember having tried some strange combination of kiwi with some fruits and it was lip-smacking. I personally loved the Strawberry cream and mango cream. For the juices, it’s always best to ask the waiter for recommendations, as they will suggest something that’s in season or new.

Our order usually comprises of the Corn Cheese Bhel, Indiana Jones sandwich, Red Rounds, Nachos, Pav Bhaji i.e. either Hariyali pav-bhai or mari pav-bhaji or both, and sizzlers.

Amongst these my favorite is Corn Cheese Bhel, which is American corn mixed with crispy sticks (of what I don’t know but very tasty) with mayonnaise, tomatoes, capsicum and tons of grated cheese, simply divine. Next,Indiana Jones sandwich, which contains thinly sliced lettuce, carrots mashed with corn and mayo with a dash of ginger-garlic. Well, the only negative of this sandwich is sometime the garlic quantity is little more than a dash, hence the sandwich taste stays with you long after you have possibly digested it.

For a slightly more spicy taste bud, there are ‘Red Rounds’ which are crispy corn cheese balls served with Manchurian garlic gravy with loads of cheese garnishing it. They have improvised on the pav bhaji segment as well, with their famous mari pav-bhaji, which is pav-bhaji with black pepper twist to it and their oh so famous ‘Hariyali pav-bhai’ which is green vegetables based pav bhaji,I haven’t tried as yet but is my hubby’s favorite

.

Their sizzler line is the also delicious, but that menu is like most sizzler joints, with total justice on the taste department. Also heard about something called as Pune Sandwhich which is a speciality,but haven’t tried it as yet.

The service is good, as I find the waiters friendly, most importantly very well informed on the menu and proactive in terms of recommendations. The place also takes care of the presentation area with juices, shakes & other dishes served in fancy cutlery and by the look of it, seems like some level of quality control is in place. These aspects drive this place beyond a normal road-side joint.
Just a warning, please don’t expect to spend here like a road-side joint, as the items are expensive when compared to a typical juice center and you will land up spending as much as you would if you were to visit a restaurant. But overall, for some experimental but tasty food, it’s a must visit and yes, its all veg.

Benjarong, TTK Road, Chennai

During my stay in Chennai, my friend Sandhya took me to this Thai joint one evening post work. I was skeptical about trying Thai food at Chennai, and therefore kept my expectations under check. However, I was proved completely wrong as here is where I landed up having the best 'Indian' Thai food. Well, I have yet to visit Thailand, to taste the authentic Thai food, as I believe that the taste is customized to the countries local taste, but amongst the Indian joints, this one is one of the best I have had. A simple and extremely classy place, with wood that decor renders a very warm and cozy feeling. For the crowd mostly you’ll see a lot of corporates and few families as I doubt if Chennai folks have still awakened to this amazing place.

The main attraction I found in this place is the complementary starter called Mein Khum, hopefully have got the name right. They serve you a leaf, which I am not so sure what it is, but its shaped like a beetle leaf, on that need to put little honey, a small garlic cube, Thai chillies,dry coconut,peanuts and squeeze lemon on top, roll the leaf and bite the entire thing. With every chew you’ll get a different taste, the chilly adds a sudden blast of spice, which is instantly calmed by the honey rendering a tint of sweetness, the crunch coming from the peanuts and the lemon,coconut and garlic giving you the right flavors. The idea is to warm up and activate all your taste buds to relish the food that will follow.

For the main course, I have thoroughly relished the Thai curries and I actually ventured in trying out all 3 of them at different occasions and loved them. So my usual menu at Benjarong is Thai curry with steam rice with a dish of steamed vegetable. Now for the non-vegetarians, I will like to mention that once when I was visiting this place with a group of friends who picked up some chicken and prawn dishes, well, they weren’t too impressed with it. So will surely like to hear from some non-vegetarians what they felt about this place. The desert menu is slightly week, but the presence of French Loaf right outside provisions for a good work around.

Red Olives - Powai, Mumbai

Where is it: Powai, Hiranandani, Mumbai

After a hectic & long week at work and a particular harrowing day, my hubby and I headed for a cozy dinner,simply catch up with each other. So on a friend’s recommendation, we arrived at Red Olives.My objective to have a good evening with him was successfully met,but I was a little disoriented with the food.Firstly, I couldn't identify what was the exactly was this restaurant’s specialty. Is it Indian or Thai or Chinese or Konkani or Kerala cuisine, as it all seemed to be there.Irrespective of the cuisine type, the menu at a glance, seemed to have more interesting offerings for the non-veggie taste buds.Also this particular day, most of our ordering went all wrong.

For starters, we went ahead with a Chinesse recommendation from the staff,whose name I unfortunately don’t recall.Well,it was actually alright in taste but I found it extremely spicy,so stopped after chomping down 1 or 2 pieces of it.However, I observed that Mihir merrily gobbled down almost all of the starters that were ordered, which was handsome in quantity,while I patiently waited for the main course.For the main course, we decided not to experiment too much and decided to go ahead with the tranditional Thai curry and steam rice.I just cant point my finger on what went wrong, but I ate it purely as I was hungry and not because I was relishing it.The steam rice by the time arrived on our table was little cold, making it dry and also something in the curry was amiss. But again my observation was my hubby ate everything on his plate but he too felt the food was strictly alright.

However, before concluding, a few good things worth mentioning like the decor, cozy and warm with tables fairly spaced out, very likeable.Next, I enjoyed my my white rum cocktail, with a really tasty version of cheeslings that was served to accompany the drink.

Will I go back? Mostly No. With so many options in Powai, something very drastic will need to happen or some strong, reliable recommendation on another cuisine, to drag me there again.

Will I recommend? Yes, but only to the non-vegetarians as that menu looked very interesting & if someone is keen to try some other cuisine that they are serving and then tell me about it.

Munchkins Thai Ban Bandra

We spent the last Sunday evening at this cozy little restaurant right behind Cafe Basilico at Bandra.We were a group of 5 veggies,who were hungry and also wanted to spend a leisurely evening.Since my friends were already in, so we didn’t need to wait, but I noticed that this place seemed to have the least waiting. The place is actually nice,decor cozy & the food even if not super, but surely very good. So my guess is takers for Thai food gets narrowed down when you sit between one of the best Italian joints in town and another very good Chinese restaurant down the same street.

However for a Sunday evening I welcomed the fact that the place was not over crowded,when usually each table’s conversations,culminates into too much noise with a dash of rhythm added by the cutlery clicks. Anyways, so here is what we ordered; for soups with began with a spicy Tom Yum Soup, a strong recommendation only for people who love spicy food. It has a beautifully blended flavor of Thai chillies with vegetables garnishing it.The other soup ordered was the good old sweet corn soup, which was just like the good old soup,nothing exquisite nor disappointing.

Our plates saw Vegetables with Salt and Pepper and Nam Prik Praw Je for starters,where the latter being a recommendation from the staff. The Vegetables with salt and pepper was a complete let down, where it only contained vegetables that deep fried and served. Personally, I am slightly averse to deep fried food (except french fries) but friends who usually relish fried stuff also didn't enjoy it too much. However Nam Prik Praw Je was delightfully yum, it was vegetables stir fired in a mild spicy sauce.Simple and yet very tasty worth giving it a try.

So a little about the tastes of the group that I was with, a couple of us including me weren't too fond of very spicy food, mild spicy worked for us, some thrived on really spicy food and some didn’t enjoy excess of coconut .Why I mentioned this is because our ordering for the main course was super, as it catered to all the above likes and dislikes. We ordered, Phad Thai Noodles,Gaeng Kiew Warn (spicy green curry), Gaeng Phed (mildly spicy red curry) and 2 portions of steam rice.All our ordering bang on right, delicious and enjoyable. Phad Thai Noodles, was mildly spicy with a dash of sweetness spread across, it didn’t have coconut flavor, but a lovely peanut garnishing, that added refreshing crunchy feel to it.The green and the red curries where the typical Thai curries and nicely done. The Green one was strong and spicy while the red mild and nicely flavored. So as a complete picture each of us got to have what we liked and a little bit of everything.

All this came with a bill of Rs.1700 that included 15% Citi Bank food discount.So we didn't have any deserts as that we had plans reserved for that.But a quick mention that their desert menu was strictly alright with only few choices.

Will I go back? Well yes, on a lazy weekday when I am tired and hungry and don't want to experiment on the food and yet have something nice to eat, I will pick Thai Ban.

Will I recommend? Its not a must try, yet a nice place that will do the opposite person no harm in trying, so yes.

Oven Fresh

Where is it: Shivaji Park, Dadar, Mumbai

Eateratti began with Oven Fresh and here is a revisit to it.  I was introduced to this place back in late 90s when I was in school. And since then have been a regular here. Back then, they would sell these yum cheese rolls full of coleslaw fillings which I so loved. So I undoubtedly choose this to be the first Eateratti I wanted to right about.

Recently, on a good Sunday, after we opted out of a food joint with a 2 hr waiting time, we landed at our good ole Oven Fresh. Once there, we ate like we were starving for weeks and here is a snippet of what we loved and disliked.

So here were hits of the evening, & worth trying 

Fresh Herb Fondue

Topping the list that evening was the Cheese Fondue. Very creamy, with tangy marinated veggies. The only thing I wished was for little more of the cheese, as the quantity was little less.

Hummus with Pita Bread

The next item that was very interesting was, Pita Bread.

It was so yum so yum that we called for a repeat twice. (See I told you we ate like never before)

Garlic Bread with Cheese and herbs along with spaghetti in Creme Sauce 

Few things at oven fresh that have to be good, simply have to be good, there aint a scope for mistake. Garlic bread and spaghetti fall in that cadre that wont disappoint you.

Along with that their dessert department is very strong and that evening their Hazelnut smoothie and pastry-brownie was sinful and divine.Will also tried the Coco smoothie which was heavenly

Not so good but not at all bad was the simple cheese with paneer pizza that we had ordered. I liked it as it was all cheese however its popularity on the table to sincere foodies wasn’t too high.

Time for the flop shows of the day.

Baked Tacos

Tacos topped the list. By the glimpse of it, the dish was tackily put together and taste department also flawed.

Lasagne

The next dish to make a shocking entry into this disappointment section  was lasagne. I wonder what went wrong with this once upon a time, well baked, superbly garnished dish ? 

This all veg food joint that sits at Shivaji Park has now revamped it look. Gone are those bright graffiti walls, that are now replaced with tasteful restaurant interiors & the old plastic menu  cards are dumped for a good well bound one with a slight increase in the price!

The food in terms of taste though tasty is not authentic but is laced with an Indian taste. Which is why I guess my mom too enjoyed that food once when I dragged her there. So in short the taste is customized to appeal to the Indian taste buds and hence the popularity.

So my verdict is that anything that has cheese or chocolate in its making in Oven fresh wont disappoint you at all. So leave the calorie check behind and give your taste buds a soulful evening