Pizza is our guilty pleasure. No matter how big a health nut you are there is always this moment when you have to give in to the deliciousness of this happy pie. The warm crust, the gooey cheesy top with a sprinkling of pepperoni and salami, a bite that goes on and on with stringy cheese pulling stretching out from the slices.... Just typing this is making me crave a bite.

One of the places where we actually like the pizza at is Papa John's. I could have their double cheese pizza and be happy as a clam. So when we got an invite to learn more about the ingredients that go into the pizza and the quality they aim to obtain, we were game.


We visited the Papa John's at Phoenix MarketCity, Viman Nagar and were warmly welcomed. The place is quite spacious and cosy. The good thing about the joint is that there is a glasses alcove looking into the kitchens where you can look at your dough being beaten into shape and rolled to perfection and shaped into perfect circlets by hand. Its fun to watch your pizza getting ready while you wait. Also it means that the pizza bases are baked at the premises and are not pre-baked versions.


We were informed that the ingredients are the fresh as they can be. The sauces and the cheeses are all imported from the kitchens of Papa John's from the States. The Papa John's signature pizza sauce are made from sun-ripened tomatoes and then they are sent to all it's stores in different countries. This ensures that the taste of the pizza is same everywhere and so is the quality. The mozzarella cheese is imported too and they guarantee it's 100% genuine. Well, it does taste absolutely amazing.

One of the things about a see through kitchen is that you can see the way your food is being prepared and how it is handled. The outlet's kitchens are just as spacious as the seating area. The food is handled with utmost hygiene with the kitchen staff wearing required gear at all times. The waste disposal management is handled efficiently which we think is also an important aspect to judge the hygiene of a place.


The dough balls are come to the outlets from the centralized kitchens and are untouched. They are cured at the outlet itself and are hand-tossed as you can witness yourself. The bread sticks are baked on the spot and vegetables are procured after a round of quality testing.

After garnering all this information, we were sufficiently convinced that having a couple of pizza was the right choice and that we could take a cheat day that day. So feeling substantially less guilty we ordered for the house special GARLIC PARMESAN BREADSTICKS, ALL THE MEATS PIZZA (yes yes, we are unabashed carnivores), ZAFFRAN PIZZA and FAJITA PIZZA.

While we waited we ordered rounds of Diet Pepsi hoping for even a tiny bit of redemption from the Gym Gods considering all that we had ordered.

The GARLIC PARMESAN BREADSTICKS arrived the earliest and the portion size was quite generous even for 2 people. Of course if you are not hogging on so many things it might be just enough for 2. The garlic parmesan sauce was cheesy and garlicky and sublime. The bread sticks were soft and warm and the sauce made all the difference.


ALL THE MEATS PIZZA was a meat lover's delight! It has almost 5 types of meat including spicy salami, grilled chicken and chicken sausages on top of a bed of the Papa John's signature tomato sauce. A generous layer of mozzarella cheese makes this pizza the perfect Kukkad pizza we've had in quite some time!


The FAJITA PIZZA was a bit tangy with all the fajita seasoning. It had grilled chicken and fresh veggies like onions, capsicum, sweet corn, mushrooms and jalapenos. The cheese and sauces were spot on and though it was a bit on the spicier side but we really loved this.


The ZAFFRAN PIZZA was more Indianized in taste. It had a topping of chicken keema and chicken tikka. The red onions and capsicum were toped with a sprinkling of the Zaffran sauce. It was definitely hotter in spices. Go for it if you want a Indian taste on your pizza.


We rounded up our wholesome meal with a dessert of MOLTEN CHOCO LAVA CAKE (since we have already sinned, what's a little bit more). The cake stood up to our expectations. It was warm and soft on the outside but gooey in the inside. Perfect end to a pizza dinner!


After all the serious hogging we are sure of this: Cheat days are fun and Papa John's pizzas are definitely impeccable with their ingredients. It makes lot of difference when you see it first hand. No wonder their core philosophy is: "Better Ingredients, Better Pizzas"!

Amen to that.

We are lazy folks and once we have settled into the saturday afternoon stupor, there are barely anything that could get us to venture out. Unless it's food of course. Or if Tom Hiddleston was to invite us for lunch. But then there are days when you've got to apologize to Tommy and refuse (this is harder) the food because the lethargy has hit the roof. So on those days we get our hourly sustenance from home-delivered food or quick pasta in between sessions of Game of Thrones.

This saturday we were feeling lazy as usual but not as much to have refused Tom's invite. But since that never materialized we decided to do something different and get creative with some sphagetti we had lying around and a jar of sun-dried tomatoes in oil by Green Tokri.

Now, Green Tokri, in addition to all the fresh veggies also have a good range of gourmet food products to offer which has been made with their farm-fresh, home-grown produce. It spreads out from mayonnaise to spreads, jams to salad dressings, pickles to sauces. All of these products have no added flavors or preservatives making them a healthy choice for the kitchen.


We have already tried their mayo, spreads and vegetables in the previous recipes. We decided to whip up a quick, healthy and tasty spaghetti this time using the sun-dried tomatoes. Green Tokri has 2 variants of sun-dried tomatoes. One is in oil that you could directly use for your pastas, noodles etc. The other variety comes in a packet and is dried. You can use it to make a great sauce for pastas like we did or simply use it as topping on a pizza or bruschetta or pop it in salads for fun texture.

The Green Tokri products are reasonable and you could acquire most of them at prices below 100 Rupees.

Since we were really hungry we decided to toss in every thing we could find in the fridge in the bowl. So in went some cubed cottage cheese, boiled eggs, carrots, zucchini and spring onion. Of course you can customize your own spread. All you need to do is get the tomato paste handy and boil some spaghetti al-dente. And everything from there is throwing in and mixing.


Well, we aren't actually cooks so we won't give you the measurements (because we don't remember) but we will tell you what we did.

• In a pot, bring water to boil and add the spagetti in. Throw in a teaspoon of salt and a dash of olive oil or refined oil if you are out of olive oil. This makes sure your spaghetti don't clump.
• While the spaghetti cooks, in a pan, heat up some olive oil/refined oil and add garlic and the sun-dried tomato halves. Sautee until the tomatoes go soft and mushy.
• Add some fresh, diced tomatoes and a bit of tomato sauce for a good consistency. Add some salt to taste and a bit of sugar. You can throw in some cheese for the creaminess. We sometimes use the Amul cheese spread for our pasta and it works like a charm.
• Let the sauce simmer a bit and throw in a few basil leaves.

When the spaghetti is done just mix it with the spaghetti. We decided to keep it at the base of the bowl for the benefit of the pictures.
We also added a boiled egg and cottage cheese cubed and sauteed in olive oil. Garnish it with whatever you wish, or don't. It's comfort food and we are not running for masterchef, are we :)


Have fun with the Green Tokri products and try your own recipes. We are still looking into more ways to eat our sun-dried tomatoes. Let us know if you find one!

Mean while check out the Green Tokri store for all the goodness in store.
www.GreenTokri.com | http://Webshop.GreenTokri.com | www.facebook.com/GreenTokri

P.S: Green Tokri also organizes farm tour of their extensive farms in Sasvad. You can visit with your family and enjoy the greenery and natural landscape of their sweeping farms as well as pick produce for yourself. The tour will help you understand the working of Green Tokri and give you a peek into the farm life. The tour is chalked for an entire day and sounds quite fun! Contact GT for more details.

Barbecue season, smoking meat in the back-yard, kicking back and enjoying a side of smoked rib with a rub of barbecue sauce....A typical American weekend. But this is not the States and it's definitely not a barbecue season at our backyard, so what did we do? We popped over to The Ugly Duckling at Baner for our dose of smoked meat.

The Ugly Duckling may be relatively new in the eatery business in Pune but it's bringing some really fresh ideas to the table. They have embraced the 'low and slow' style of cooking. That means low temperature for a longer time and using smoke to cook out the meat. There are commercial smokers available for this purpose but importing one from the States is not cheap. So the team over at The Ugly Duckling got theirs customized and made in Pune itself.

The meat takes hours to fully cook. Chicken may take 2-3 hours and pork may take up to 8 hours. Yes, a real taste of patience. And I'm thankful it's not us doing the low-slow cooking because it is so out of our league. But fruits of labour does taste good. The end result is meat that is falling apart with smoky flavor infused in every juicy bite.

When we were invited over for a taste we were quite intrigued by the sound of the whole smoked thing. So we decided this required a thorough investigation. The Ugly Duckling at Baner-Pashan link road is easy to spot (though we did consult google maps most of the way). It is a small place but very endearing. Clean and simple decor with a upper seating area as well. The staircase leading up has its railings decorated with tiny cards signed by previous patrons and makes for a colorful display. We opted for the ground floor seating as we had a good view of the kitchen, a nice spot to watch the television from and also our friendly hosts were available at hand for any clarifications.




Niranjan who is a part of the three member team responsible for The Ugly Duckling along with Gaurav and Swapneel. They received us with warmth and made us feel more than welcome. In fact, they usually make sure to inquire after all the guests and are attentive to say the least. We really felt comfortable and at ease.

The menu is brief but that ensures they serve the best quality they can. Niranjan informed us that they keep changing their menu so that patrons don't tire of the place (after tasting their food I can't see how that might happen). So they have chalkboards up at the wall announcing the specials that may be available at the time that are not mentioned in the menu. You might also want to inquire with them about any new additions or dishes available. You might be in for a treat.



We were served a welcome drink from their new additions to the menu, suspiciously called DEAD POOL. Well, it was jalapeno-watermelon drink and true to it's name packed quite a punch. It was sweet yet with the kick from the jalapenos making the taste interesting. We really dug it.


A good while into our tasting we also decided to try the STRAWBERRY MINT SODA which is apparently one of their bestsellers from the existing menu. Indeed it was refreshing with it's minty overtones to the strawberry bubbly and served chilled with a lot of ice.


We started off with a LAMB MEAT BALLS made out of minced lamb meat coated with bread crumbs and fried. Then it's coated with a spicy marinara sauce and served on bed of lettuce. The balls though doused in the gravy, was still crispy and the insides were tender and had great seasoning. A perfect starter. It was quite large and came in fours a bowl, so it was shareable.


Next was a STUFFED COURGETTE ROLL. It was lightly sauteed slices of zucchini rolled with filling of cream cheese, basil and peanuts.It was light and refreshing and great to cleanse your palate with. I'm personally not a big fan of peanuts (ok, I hate it) but Mr. TKD quite liked the simple yet quaint vegetarian starter.


We started off our meaty journey with SMOKED CHICKEN and we opted for the MUSHROOM SAUCE. You can also opt for the barbecue sauce.
We had to stop and admire the plating for a while. These guys have previous experience in the hospitality sector and it shows at places such as plating. You might feel like you are eating at some ritzy restaurant and not some adorable cafe.
The breast of a chicken, perfectly smoked was cut into thick slices and put on a rectangular plate with sides of boiled and roasted potatoes and sauteed vegetables. The mushroom sauce was served in a gravy boat and in a good quantity, though it simply wasn't enough as we polished off every bit of it. The dish also came with a bread basket full of garlic bread, toasted to perfection. This was our favorite entree of the night.



We also opted to taste the SMOKED DUCK in HONEY SOYA SAUCE and as before the plating was impeccable. The smoked duck looked mouth watering with the glaze and sauces on. It had sides of mashed potatoes and broccoli. This dish had a bread basket of garlic bread too.
The sauce with oriental influence tasted amazing with the duck meat. Mr.TKD was struggling with  the carving of the meat as the duck was tad more tougher than the chicken. The kitchen team swooped in and took care of the dish and brought it back much tender than before. Although, we did find the mashed potato slightly on the saltier side.


We were quite stuffed by the time we were halfway through the duck and swearing we couldn't have anything else when the FROZEN HOT CHOCOLATE was brought in. It looked decadent in the cocktail glass with visible layers of chocolate and whipped cream. It was so sinful sinking in the spoon into the layers and coming up with rich, dark, chilled chocolate that even Mr. TKD, stickler of healthy eating couldn't stop. And we didn't until we wiped off the glass of the dessert. It was an amazing dessert and if nothing, we are definitely going back for just that.



Our meal was a memorable one thanks to the great warmth and hospitality extended by Niranjan, Gaurav and Swapneel, not to mention the superb food. It was surprising that we had been oblivious to it's existence until now give that we are forever looking for the perfect kukkad.

 The Ugly Duckling is doing its best to bring a fresh perspective to food and simply this warrants a visit to check out what's in store. And oh, while you are here please please please try the frozen hot chocolate, will you? You can thank us later. :)

Personally I love a good deal. No matter how much you like shopping from your favorite online store or picking up some good pieces from Forever 21 at the mall, there is always a different satisfaction to getting down and dirty, haggling your way to acquiring the leather purse you have been eyeing at half price at a flea market. Good deals, aren't we all a fan of them?

Now only if you could have the same at your favorite pubs when you are out for drinks with friends. Of course, there is always the quintessential 'Happy Hour' but they are usually for a specific time or occasional which doesn't make it very convenient when your group of chums decide to finally scape-goat you into footing the evening's round of drinks bills as a "treat". In comes Bar Bar with its deal-of-the-century wholesale pricing and the never-seen-before concept of Drink More, Pay Less.

Basically the more the number of drinks you order, the lesser you pay per drink. Each type of liquer has been smartly categorized for this purpose into Popular, Premium and Luxury. So all you've got to do is order drinks from a single category in bulk and you could end up paying as less as 99 Rupees for a drink.

The selection of drinks is varied and traverses several cocktails and iced-teas. You can pore over their extensive drink or food menu in the inner air-conditioned area or outer al-fresco dining area over-looking the courtyard with various cafes and a bustling night scene. Apart from the drinks, this gastro-pub has an envious range of innovative and unique, easy-to-eat bar food. The list diverges from just finger-food to something much more substantial with menu moving from various type of popcorns to wraps and rolls to lunch-boxes making it a wholesome too-sloshed-to-eat-anywhere-else meal.

Veggie Roll


The Kukkad Diaries were a first hand witness to all the going-ons in the BAR BAR and were able to sample the menu for ourselves. The BAR BAR spoiled us all silly by opening up its arms, kitchens and bar wide open for us to ravage through.

The drink menu was indeed extensive and we all decided to try the in-house special cocktails and Iced teas. Our favorites were the LYNCHBURG , THE KAFFIR COSMO, THE RED WINE SPRITZER and THE WATERMELON AND LEMON GRASS CAIPIROSKA.


The drinks had full body of flavors and were really refreshing and also very refreshing. The Cocktails were interestingly served in long measuring cylinders of 250ml or 500 ml capacity as per your requirement. The iced teas are their specialities and you can always enquire your friendly servers for suggestions and they advise you with drinks that you might like as per your preference and the house specialty.


The food was definitely unique and fun. It was great going through the menu trying out each dish with all of its quirky and unique twists. We had a wide range of dishes through the night and it would not be possible to list them all so we'll mention the ones we really liked or ones that stood out for a reason.

We started off with DIY BASKET OF FRIES which had three type of fries: shoestring fries, potato wedges and the normal french fries. The fries were twice cooked and therefore were crunchy and had a coating of spices that made it oh-so-yummy. It came with a selection of three dips which made the snack even more appealing.

DIY Basket of Fries

We then tried all the different types of pop-corns in the menu. Every one of them were unique and had their own special flavors. Our favorites were the SHRIMP POPCORN, AMRITSARI FISH POPCORN, JALAPENO AND CHEESE POPCORN, VADA PAV POPCORN and PORK CUCHIFRITOS.

Butter Chicken Popcorn

Amritsari Fist Popcorn

Shrimp Popcorn

Pork Cuchifritos Popcorn

Cheese and Jalapeno Popcorn

The VADA PAV POPCORN really stood out as it was a dish with a twist. The popcorns were tiny vadas and the dip which it came with made the dish stand out.

Vada Pao Popcorn

All other pop-corns were as the name suggested and tasted really great with its accompanying dip and made for great between the drink eats.

We also toasties which were more or less grilled sandwiches. There is a wide variety to choose from and we tried almost everything. However, we felt the TANDOORI MURG was a tad too on the spicier side and we don't really prefer that amount of heat in our sandwiches.

Tandoori Murg Sandwich

THE HAM AND CHILLI CHEESE was our pick from the toasties though. It was more on the milder side but was loaded with cheese and had the flavors of ham in it. It was a filling snack.

Ham and Chilli Cheese Sandwich

The sandwiches were in good number and the quantity seemed satisfactory. It came with a side of masala wafers, coleslaw and dip.

There were also eggs in the menu. THE MUMBAI MASALA BENEDICT was served straight up in the skillet with poached eggs with runny yolks served on masala pao with hollandaise sauce. The paos/buns were soft and the masala was mildly spicy and tangy. The poached eggs and hollandaise sauce doused the spicy buns making them breakfasty yet a nice pub-snack.

Mumbai Masala Benedict

Potato Skin

Another item from the food list that really caught on with us was the concept of dabbas. Inspired from the Mumbai dabbawallas delivering fresh, homecooked meals in a dabba, these dabbas had different varieties with quirky names. All the dabbas were served in the traditional steel tiffin boxes and they were supposed to be eaten straight from the dabba and not plates so that you got the feel of the lunch-boxes. These boxes were introduced to make sure the patrons had a good meal if they wanted to after they were done with the drinking and partying. It's available in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian variety.



We loved the Chinese-inspired-aptly-named THE LUCY LIU TIFFIN and the very much North Indian LOVELY SINGH DA DABBA.
THE LUCY LIU TIFFIN had veg manchurian, kung pao chicken, fried rice and fried wantons making it great chinese meal in a box.

The Lucy Liu Tiffin

THE LOVELY SINGH DA DABBA had a paranthas, dollops of butter, butter chicken or butter paneer and vegetables. All in all a wholesome meal.

We ended the night with a round of shots with the popular ones being KAMIKAZE and  MUMBAI KISS. The ambience was great, music was loud with the in-house DJ doing his thing and there was a steady crowd constantly moving in.
The staff seemed friendly and ready to help and the service moved quickly.

Kamikaze Shots

We had a great time with our fellow bloggers learning about the next happening destination in town. BAR BAR is the place to be if you are looking for places that are easy on your pocket but that doesn't compromise in the quality.


You'd definitely want to visit this place BAR BAR once you've been here. (bad puns... we specialize in them)