The Kukkad Diaries

Our food cravings take us to new places all the time. No matter what the distance, the time or weather. Usually we limit our gastronomic excursions to the weekends but when the food craving hits, there's no turning back.

On one pleasant, odd Tuesday evening , we started pining for piping hot, spicy pieces of tandoori chicken and aromatic, soft and warm tandoori naan. A quick search pointed to Taareef in Aundh as the best bet for this. Taareef was easy to locate as its right beside crossword for starters and bang on the main street with a huge neon board announcing its name and trees decked with fairy lights.

Now, we don't get our expectations too high with North Indian food. Because every place, more or less, starts tasting the same, eventually. So we were basically just out and about hunting for some decent tandoori chicken before we headed home.

You wouldn't think the place was that spacious or as fancy from the inside if you'd just be looking at it from outside. But once you step in through the ornately carved front door, it is a different place.


The whole place is partitioned into two seating areas, both with roughly 4 tables. The ambiance is very ethnic with Persian and mughal accents. There is faint wisp of incense in the air and mystical trance music. The music suited the whole environment and to top it all, one end of our room had a glass partition to the tandoor room where you can look while the tandoor experts craft your rotis out of dough and pull out skewers of precisely charred, spicy and hot chicken out of the ovens.



The cutlery and plates were all in line with the theme, all of them brass and steel. We ordered for MURG GILORI, MURG TANGDI KULFI, AFGHANI PANEER TIKKA for starters. We opted for the sweet Lassi as our on-the-wait drink and masala papad to go with. We had to order more glasses of lassis eventually, it was that good. All creamy and smooth with just the right amount of sugar.
We don't know if it was the place or the fact that we were ravenous but we absolutely loved the masala papad too.




Before they started plating the starters, the waiting staff served us with bowls of green chutney (we dig it so much with tandoori!), small, round globes of vinegared onions and lemon slices. It went famously with the starters which were almost a revelation in itself. The MURG TANGDI KULFI was super moist, perfectly marinated and spiced. We could hardly wait to get some decent clicks before we could attack our food.



The MURG GILORI were tiny rounds of spiced minced chicken evenly coated with smooth, creamy gravy. It tasted heaven with the green chutney and onions.


The chicken starters were so sensational that we ended up ordering another plate of MURG RESHMI KEBAB. It was better than we expected.... So soft and so well seasoned. We were short of licking our plates.

The AFGHANI PANEER TIKKA, though ordered for a vegetarian friend, couldn't be saved from the hungry TKDs and we shamelessly ate it up too. The paneer were tender and if I'd have been a vegetarian and never known what chicken tasted like, I'd think it was the best. But it came quite close.


We spent the next few minutes guilt-tripping for having polished off a poor vegetarians food so we asked him to order anything he wished. Sadly he wished BANARASI SEEKH KEBAB which broke the spell of enchantment that tareef had woven so far. It came in sad, green turd shapes (apologies for the crassness, but that was the general consensus of the table that night) and tasted not very impressive. It tasted like fried mashed peas. Maybe it was the aftertaste of all the delicious spiciness of the chicken, but this was a damper.



For mains we agreed to make right the unjust treatment of the vegetarians at the table, hence we got in the TAREEF SPECIAL PANEER JAIPURI good enough for three people. We also ordered tandoori roti to go with it. The paneer curry was pretty basic. After the extraordinary starters it felt a bit, ordinary? It did have good amount and spices were as you'd expect in a good paneer dish. The tandoori roti was a bit of a downer too. Maybe it was just our lot but our roti was a bit undercooked.



The few kinks were smoothened out by the great service that the staff provided, always on their toes and quick to respond. We were served meetha paan with the bill, which cheered me up considerably.


However the chicken starters did make us sit up and notice Taareef. It's been awhile since we've had such good North Indian /Mughlai preparation. Do visit and try if you are a kukkad lover just as we are. And we'd love to know if you loved this place as much as we did. Comment or write to us. We love getting your messages and mails to read! Also let us know if you have places just as these because we still have so much to discover and we'd sure appreciate some help :)

Though the end at Tareef wasn't as we would have foretold from the glorious beginning, but we are still willing to come back again, just for the kukkad delights in store.

The more you know your fellow food bloggers, the more you realize how close knit this community is. As soon as we took a leap into blogging, it was like meeting old friends every time. People look out for you and help you and are are always up for a laugh. 

Us both, we are a nerdy lot. We are one of those Star Wars/ LOTR enthusiasts, lounging at home tinkering away at our laptops and preferring indoor in our pyjamas,  to only head out because we heard someplace serves great chicken. We also have a set of mad friends each and more often than not, they devise great plans to stop us from our ever ongoing job of warming the couch. So it was surprisingly fun making new friends and meeting new people.

Last week would have been a dreary week at work when our fellow-blogger friend, Neha (you guys should check out her great blog, by the way) recommended us for a review of MoMO Cafe in Courtyard by  Marriott, Hinjewadi. After a couple of calls to and fro we settled for a Saturday lunch.

It was a rather sultry day when we landed up at Courtyard by Marriott for our appointment. We were received warmly by the Executive manager, Mr. Pankaj, who gave us an insightful tour of the place and the menu. It was a rather busy day but he made sure he was around to answer our incessant queries.

The spread, aptly befitting to the reputation that MoMo cafe holds. Not to mention that the Hinjewadi one has been a recent recipient to numerous awards. Our attentions, were meanwhile captured by the 'Asian Counter' at one corner of the buffet hall. It had a display of various vegetables, noodles, rice, egss, chicken, sauces and whatnot all around with a pan in the center.


Shankar,  incharge of the counter made sure that your craving for oriental cuisine is looked after. And the best part is, it's customized to how you like it! I spent a good half hour (though Shankar is super quick,  I was feeling a bit more creative than usual) pointing at ingredients, weighing my preference for the different sauces and being a kid in a candy shop. My customized sweet and sour flat noodles with shredded chicken were so sensational, I refused to eat it for a while until Mr. TKD started to eye them. I'd gladly come back just for these provided Shankar remembers the recipe, because I forgot it as soon as I went back to my table. 




The waiting staff made sure we were attended to, welcoming us with refreshing passion fruit drinks to start with and they also brought us DEVILLED MUSHROOMS and BARBECUED PINEAPPLE to try. We were also served our choice of breads whenever we wanted. 




There was great variety of starters and salads with a counter full of veggies and dressings so that you could make your own salad. We also tried the ROASTED CHICKEN salad,  BACON AND CREAMY POTATO salad, crispy chicken and Fish starters which were impeccable. Also,  inspite of all the choices around, we couldn't stop loading on PAPDI CHAAT because it reminding us of home. 





For the mains we hardly had anything much other than CHICKEN STROGANOFF with rice, because as much as we love it, we hardly find places that really get it right. Hand it over to the expert chefs working in the kitchen because the Stroganoff here was deliciousness. The tender chicken coated with creamy mushroom sauces and every flavor on point. 


There were a lot of Indian preparations too to choose from. We also sampled the CHICKEN BIRYANI and MEXICAN SPICY BABYCORN . 


It might sound like a mash of everything, but you can't help it if you are spoilt for choice with the multicuisined fare. Try as you might, it would not be possible to conquer the intimidating spread by the MoMo team and still be up for dessert. So I gave up the daunting task and headed for the inticing dessert table instead. 

There were everything from hot SEVAI KHEER to FRUIT CUSTARD to the rich CHERRY POUND CAKE. I settled in with the KIWI CHEESECAKE, ORANGE PROFITEROLLS and FRUIT FLORIDA pastry. It was a perfect way to end a great meal. 






The amazing meal called for compliments to the chef in command. Chef Bhushan not only posed for our cameras but he also invited us to try out their dessert from the mango festival currently in progress. We were skeptical whether we'd be able to stuff ourselves more after the hogging session we'd just finished but we surprised even ourselves when we cleared out our bowls of freshly made mango ice cream garnished with cubed mangoes. The mangoes were succulent and sweet and the icecream was heavenly. 



We have been since planning to visit and try out their mango platter. If you love mangoes as much as us we suggest you do that too. Thank us later. 


To wrap the perfect visit, we chanced upon Rambo, the security in charge of the main gate. Given his job portfolio, Rambo looked uncharacteristically cute in his doggy shoes and happy demeanor. He set the mood to the typical Momo Cafe experience: satisfied, well taken care of and happy in our shoes. 

Hola mi amigos! The kukkad diaries is going all Mexicano this month. We have always been fans of Mexican food right after Italian and our perfect meal would definitely have nachos in it. So no wonder that given a chance we'd jump at the opportunity to celebrate the mexican cuisine. But the best part is, you get to join in on our celebration too! This is because Hard Rock Cafe is bringing THE TASTE OF MEXICO to all foodies this entire month.


Come 2nd of May (it's today! Yay!) all of Hard Rock Cafe patrons will be treated to a whole new, exclusive menu featuring the ethnic and authentic taste of Mexico crafted in the true blue rock and roll, Hard Rock style. The menu boasts of specially crafted dishes and cocktails that pay homage to the traditional Mexican spices and flavours.

So why should you head down to the nearest Hard Rock Cafe near you just to sample the Mexican fare, you ask? Because apart from the authentic Mexican dining delight they are offering, it's a festival in it's truest sense. There will be fun, games and experiences like the karaoke to give it a Mexican twist.

We were lucky enough to get invited for a preview and a tasting of the festival in question. So we joined some of our blogger friends in sampling the highlights of the menu.

Though we were the late ones to get to the gathering, we were welcomed warmly and managed to participate in a nacho eating competition. It involved a team of two with one teammate feeding the other. Mr. TKD won the match with finesse (he was starving) inspite of a minor hitch where he bit my finger along with a piece of nacho (ouch! ).

We were first introduced to the colorful cocktails in the menu. They were mostly tequila based and had unique flavors. We could tell that utmost care had been taken to bring as much Mexican flavors as possible. There were tequila shots (featuring the Jose Cuervo Especially Respasado tequila) along with shots such as Shot in the head.


We also got to try some of the more exotic cocktails like the classic blue margarita for two, Mexican Bulldog margarita, Diablo, Amigo and Cranberry and lychee margarita.


We really liked the CLASSIC BLUE MARGARITA for its pretty blue color and cool, tangy taste.


Our other favorites were the CRANBERRY AND LYCHEE which was sweet and went perfectly with the spicy food we had.



TROUBLEMAKER true to its name had jalapeño bits and chilli floating in it, but tasted not as troublesome.


The MEXICAN BULLDOG was the bad boy of the table with a bottle of Corona tipped over a huge glass of icy margarita. It was hard to miss and hit with the beer fans.



AMIGO was probably the prettiest with nice cherry pink color with the soury sweetness of cherries but the kick of the tequila.


Diablo tasted like summer in a glass with fruit of the season, mango and sliced cucumber along with tequila. It was great for refreshing your pallet after a spicy taco. However, the taste of the cucumber was a bit overpowering.



The drinks were soon followed by amazing food. The first being the TEX-MEX SPICED CHAR GRILLED CHICKEN SKEWERS which were probably a top favorite. It came with a sunny mustard dip which really rounded off the flavours. The chicken was spot on with the tex mex spices and charred just right. We couldn't get enough of skewers and were soon rifling through the other end of the table looking for more.



The FIESTA CHICKEN QUESADILLA came next and it was packed with flavors. It might have been one of the best quesadillas we have eaten lately. It came with Chipotle sauce, quacamole dip (oh so yum!) and sour cream. Do give this one a try.



The BURRITOS both veggie and non veg versions were huge! So huge it was intimidating to try and eat one. Also the size made it a bit awkward trying to eat it. The tortilla was flour based so it went soft quite fast making it a struggle to try and keep the stuffing from bursting out. However the saving grace was the amazingly crispy and spicy fries it came with! It was such mad tasty I'd order in burritos just to eat the fries.


We also tried the TACOS and COTTAGE CHEESE BBQ SKEWERS, but it's the curse of the kukkad-love, we really didnt register the vegetarian numbers. Either that or we were busy hogging on the leftover chicken skewers.




The Hard Rock Cafe team was warm and inviting as usual. Led by Chef Sardeep Singh the HRC team led us through a gastronomic Mexican journey. The entire place was decked up with Mexican themed festoons and baubles and there were props at hand if you'd fancy a Mexicana selfie.
So put your Sombreros on and hop to Hard Rock Cafe for all the treats in store. Thank us later.
P. S. Do post all your HRC shenanigans on insta or Twitter with #tasteofmexico so that we can follow the fun !