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

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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.