The Kukkad Diaries

I have always had a love-hate relationship with Kolkata. Introduced to this huge, buzzing metropolis as a gangly 17 year old, fresh out of home from a comfortable, sheltered, small city, I was immediately intimidated and overwhelmed with the craziness of it all.

I was repulsed by the constant cacophony of the milling populance in the streets, the jarring prospects of destitution on the side walks and the sometimes-unbearable, sweltering heat that was too much to bear for someone hailing from the cool Himalayan foothills. Needless to say, I pined for home and drove my mother half insane with the continuous cribbing. It's a good thing my bad-ass mother is not the mollifying, over-indulging kind. She instead told me to grow up and deal with it.

And I did.

"Kolkata is an acquired taste", I have always recounted to anyone who'll listen to me chatter about my new-found love for the city. Well, it is. And it's a taste that grows on you by the minute. Of course, there are still lot of things to dislike about the city as all cities have. But, I found, there are more things to love about it than you'd initially imagine.

Chef Anirban, from Kolkata himself, tries to give us a tour of this confusing city through the epicurian route (Which is, perhaps the best) and take us through the journey through the myriad tastes of this huge small-town.
He captures not only the traditional, bengali classics but also the fact that Kolkata has forever celebrated its religious and ethnological tolerance. The puchka and tele-bhaja (deep fried snacks) may be a fixture in the food geography of the city but it would still be incomplete without the stir-fried chicken chow-mein or spicy egg roll at the road-side stall. The typical Ramzan and Eid fare is enjoyed by Muslims and Hindus alike. Christmas and Easter means a surge of people of all religious backgrounds thronging to St. Paul's Cathedral and enjoying the bakes of the season.

So, The Cafe at Hyatt Regency celebrates this diversity with 'PETH PUJO- The Kolkata Food Festival'. The expat and anglo-Indian influence of Kolkata finds its representation in Chef Anirban's fest in the GRILLED CHICKEN and SHEPERD PIES. The China Town which is just as much a part of the city is given a spot in table with the BAOs and DIMSUMs which made the traces of Chinese in my heritage, pleased. Not to mention, the mouth-watering traditional bengali food is at the pride of place in the huge spread.

Prioritizing my plan of action, I made a bee-line for the PUCHKA and JHALMURI stall. In the past 3 years of living in Maharashtra, perhaps this is what I have missed the most. The JHALMURI brought back memories of my mother topping up a bowlful of puffed rice, onions. peanuts and savory chanachur with pungent mustard oil. Now mustard oil is something that makes all the difference which (I take the liberty of saying) makes sure Jhalmuri trumps over Bhel.

The PUCHKA is not your average pani-puri. You get no choices of sweet or spicy water as they do here in Maharashtra. You are thrust a bowl made up of dry Sal leaves. The huge pot of carefully spiced, tamarind water given a good stir by the puchka-seller with his hands elbow deep in it. And you leave all the flavor and hygiene choices to him as you surrender to the bursts of flavor while hurrying to keep up with his pace of disbursing the spheres.
Well, you surely get a taste of that experience at the festival but you have to be in Kolkata to know what I am talking about.

There were also thoughtfully placed noodles and rolls stands. I immediately asked for a chicken egg roll, my favorite snack from back home perhaps. I laughed a little at how disconcerted I was with the hygiene and cleanliness which is not a choice on the street of Kolkata. The all too familiar 'Dada' or 'Kaku' rolling out the dough and handling your food with his un-gloved hand is weirdly comforting. But I marveled at how close the roll came to what I remembered.

Kolkata high-tea means political and worldly discussion during the mandatory evening 'adda' with rounds of hot, steaming, sweet tea with occasional puffs on the cigarette and newspaper lined plates full of deep-fried goods. I found some as I wandered through the buffet table. KOROLA BHAJA, good ol' BEGUN BHAJA, AALU BHAJA, all greeted me as I quickly filled up my plate. There were the Mochar chop and Beetroot chop which were duly devoured and only reminded how much I had missed these Bengali snacks.

The mains were over-whelming yet delightful. I had already put a good dent in my appetite with all the snacking but I did make sure to taste a little bit of everything. LUCHI and ALU DOM was every bit the comfort food I crave. GHEE BHAAT with CHANAR DALNA was spot on with the authentic flavors of bengal.

I went on to CHICKEN CHAAP which was one of the best I've had in Pune. I wished I could have eaten more of it but I was fuller than I'd want to. MALAI CHINGRI and DOI MAACH were my choices in fish and they did not disappoint. I, myself, find the task of carefully maneuvering through the countless, tiny fish bones a bit daunting and hence I limit my intake of it as such. But the joy in the faces of my fellow diners reflected the quality of the dish itself. With that I rest my case.

The dessert section was the most awaited one. There were tiny 'bhar's (pots) of delicious MISHTI DOI and ROSHOGOLLAs. The MISHTI DOI was stellar but I found the other sweets a bit drab. I only say this for the sake of reporting and by no means, did that affect my view on the festival that night. There were the usual bakes and desserts to be had but I settled for a bowl of JAGGERY ICE-CREAM which had a really distinct 'Gur' taste that I loved.

Talk about sweet endings.

Well, It really was a rather nostalgic and very appetizing trip down the memory lane for me. I invite you as well to take this adventure yourself and experience Kolkata as I know it, not just as a slice of Bengal but as a mixing pot of all cultures and religions as single, beautiful yet intriguing entity.

A huge shout out to the ever so warm and welcoming, Ankoura of Hyatt Regency for having us over and a round of applause to Chef Anirban for pulling this off.

Peth Pujo- The Kolkata food festival at The Café at Hyatt Regency Pune is on till the 30th of April 2017. The buffet has new dishes introduced everyday and costs Rs. 1050 for lunch and Rs. 1299 for dinner.

We walked into Bombay Diaries one Sunday evening not knowing what was in store. Was it a Bombay themed restaurant? Was the cuisine like? Could I survive the journey all the way from Wakad to Bund Garden?

Okay the last one was because I live in the unofficial yet popularly thought, far-flung area of Pune with a characteristically hectic trafficked roads topped to the fact that I was low-key starving (Which is perhaps my perpetual state of existence).

When we arrived at the gates of this beautiful restaurant, it was dinner time but I couldn't help but notice how beautiful the property looked. The restaurant has an all-open air seating under the canopy of the leafy trees and beautiful twinkly lights. To save the patrons from the suddenly brutal sun's wrath, Bombay Diaries only operates after 5 pm.

Plus they also have a stage with live music almost every day. That's a good addition for a nice, dreamy candle lit dinner, if you were asking.

Another fun thing was all the servers were dressed as the Mumbai Taxi drivers. Uniforms and all! And the ones taking orders were dressed as the Traffic Policemen. That kept me amused for longer time than I'd like to admit.

Chef Deepu of Cafe Mestizo was in attendance and he was gracious enough to join us for the evening as he helped us pick the dishes and smile untiringly to our crappy jokes. So as he led us through the evening of gluttony, he specified that the food here is mostly North Indian. The place has tried to adopt a Mumbai themed vibe but in essence you get served mind-blowing North Indian food.

Lets make this idiot-proof and list out all the things that we loved and you should probably try at the Bombay Diaries:

1. The beautiful, evening-out, romantic dinner scenes:

You may choose to visit here with bae or bae-stfriends (haha, I'm so clever...not) for a fancy yet not heavy-on-the-pocket weekend dinner. The lights and decor are gorgeous. The live band adds to the mood with all the lovely music. All you have to do is let the pleasant evening-Pune weather do the magic.

2. The super cute cocktails served in 'Pauwa' bottles:

If you come here and don't try this, I'm done with you. These cocktails were so cutely packaged I had them possessively cradling them for the rest to the evening at the risk of the Chef probably dismissing me as slightly mentally deranged.

My favorite ones were the Chulbul which was a Kala Khatta flavored cocktail and the Chikni Chameli which was a strawberry and cucumber mix. The bottled drinks came in fun names such DRINK MASTER GOGO, BOMBAY THUMAKDA and BOL BACCHAN, you can hardly stop at one.

3. The amazing bartenders and their amazing mixes:

The Bombay Diaries tries to bring classic drinks with desi twist on it. Bollywood-ized cocktails and mocktails include gems like DESI WALA MOJITO, RANGEELA DRIVER and 12 KA PAANA. Everything has a splash of Indian twist in it. Be it a bit of jaggery here or a dribble of rooh afza there, everything comes down to refreshing amalgamation of delicious drinks.

4. The starters...oh god, the starters:

Being in a restaurant belonging to a chef of Chef Deepu's caliber with Chef Deepu, means he went all out with the choicest of the appetizers from his menu. Each one of them had its own unique style of preparation and taste, but stood in solidarity to the exquisite taste. My pick of the night would have to be MUTTON SEEKH LUCKHNOWI among others. The skewered kebabs were placed inside a vessel along with smoking coal embers. The end result was succulent meaty kebab with exquisite smoky flavors.

We were also partial to the TBD special murg tikka which was spiced so nice, it made us salivate just with the aroma. It helped that the kebab was filled with cheesiness.
To be honest though, we hardly think that you'd go wrong with anything on that menu.

5. Just one real reason you should be there... FOOD:

As a food blogger, at the end everything boils down to this thing in particular, the grub. Everything else are frills, nice and enjoyable but still frills at the best. But the food at TBD was one gastronomic journey through the North Indian cuisine.

KURKURI BHINDI MASALA was the dish that piqued our interest and it was delicious. It was spicy bhindi cooked in gravy and topped with crunchy bhindi crisps. Inspired!
The DAL BUKHARA was another of our favorite with pulses slow cooked till creamy. Went so deliciously with the tandoori roti.
Well, the vegetarian dishes were so amazing it really paved the way to just as brilliantly prepared non-vegetarian ones. You would want to try the NALLI NIHARI and the MURG ADRAKI to find out why we are raving about the food.

As we conclude this list, we invite you to go and make your own little food adventure and let us know what we missed. We loved our jaunts to this place and we are sure you will too!

Food blogging comes with its own set of challenges. I mean, there are a bunch of advantages (most of it being delicious food almost all the time) but a food blogger is also known to be under immense strain sometimes.
And trust me I'm not talking about the missed deadlines and acid refluxes (though I'm suffering chronically with the former at the moment); but about the ceaseless Food-Critic-Syndrome. So FCS, though made up at this point, is a legit affliction that we suffer from, rendering us helpless against the unwanted scrutiny we constantly bestow even if it's a masala-puri trip with the cousins to the pani puri stall across the road. No wonder, the folks at home always think a dozen times before we are invited to eat outs.

Surprisingly I still remain a ravenous glutton, though a bitchy one and a less than perfectly seasoned pasta earns my scoff before I devour it. But yes, our desensitized (or is it overtly sensitized?) palates are hardly ever blown over when out with folks in their choice of restaurants. It takes quite a lot before we might admit that we liked everything about a particular place and when we do we make sure you know.

Tip: In case suffering from FCS, try (and i repeat try. And this is not a drill) to keep it hold it back at home. I've learnt it the hard way, the mothers definitely don't like any feedback about the lack of seasoning in the gobi-aloo.

So the other day I visited the Arthur's Theme, Balewadi for a tasting with my blogger fam. Now, Arthur's Theme is one of the places that we have continued to frequent even after our foray into food blogging. Mr. TKD and I, both love the menu and the food here. Though we had always been to the KP outlet which is a snug place to have your meals at.

The Balewadi branch was much more open and breathable. The decor only helped highlight the European-ness of the menu. Tall ceiling with elegant chandeliers, glass facade and shrubs on the walls. There were a few tables outside too but we chose to sit in. The place is perfect for a classy date or leisurely meals on a sunday afternoon.

So lets do the title of this piece a justice and delve into the reasons that will probably compel you to give this place a visit:

1. This cracker of a summer-in-a-bowl salad: HAWAIIAN SALAD

I know you must be shaking your head in disapproval as you read this at my choice of an opening dish, but trust me, this is a truly beautiful dish. With summers already here, you should probably ditch your caesars and other dressy salads for this light and breezy plate. My bowl was a confetti of colors with the strips of chicken, pineapples and bell peppers tossed together with a light mayo dressing that did not over-stage the lightness of this beauty at all.
Every bite was a crunchy, juicy and delicious morsel of flavor galore. Try you must.

2. The tale of Chicken Roulette: ARTOIS (CHICKEN ROULETTE WITH MUSHROOM SAUCE)

Another one of my favorite.The perfectly cooked chicken, pounded and rolled with mushrooms and other fillings was served in a bed of thick and creamy mushroom sauce. The chicken was tender and the sauce really complimented the dish. Initially I thought the sauce was bland but then I realized that the chefs went easy on the salt. In fact the sauce was very flavorsome and with juicy pieces of mushrooms in it. I enjoyed finishing off the plate quite a lot (though I have to confess, I did have to add a sprinkling of salt).
It was served with potato croquettes on the side which added crunchiness to the dish. Fried food, this is what I live for.

3. The prawn star : LADY JENNIFER (CHAR GRILLED PRAWN IN LEMON BUTTER SAUCE)

So this was the dish that had everyone fighting over the last morsel. The prawns were grilled just right and it was juicy and crunchy at the same time. But boy oh boy, the lemon butter sauce was another level all together. So light yet so buttery smooth, the sauce did magic for the crustacean.
The silky, creamy mashed potatoes which tasted like heaven made sure this dish was the best of the night.

4. The good news: FOUR COURSE MEAL PLAN!
So when the food is this good, it sure doesn't come too cheap. And we will understand your plight if you are a penniless student or just a plain stingy. (Hey we don't judge) So here's the icing on the cake, Arthur's Theme has come up with a 4 course meal plan just for Rs 799! Now that's a steal.

So what's stopping you from taking bae out on a date or just going out and pampering yourself? I can't even begin to justify the value for money here because the food is out standing.

The food at Arthur's Theme has always been amazing and the new outlet isn't different from that. The 4 course meal consists of a Soups/Salads, Starters, Mains and Dessert. Each section has a good selection of some of the most popular dishes to choose out of. So rest assured that you will have a great time with the meal.

The desserts didn't really leave a mark on us that night but they were decent in their own right. Well you can't blame me, I suffer from FCS! Lets just say the dessert section does it's job of being the sweet ending to the meal, but the other courses more than make up for it anyway.

But the sweetest ending to the meal, in my opinion, would probably be the bill after you've had a sumptuous 4 course meal!

Coming from a state and a district that is know for it's quality of tea all over the world, I have been familiar to teas since I was a kid. Because of a culture that celebrates all aspects of tea to having folks in the tea-tasting line of work, I have known how many myriad varieties of tea and methods of preparations exist.

For instance, my dear mother detests the idea of preparing tea by boiling all ingredients together in a bowl. She considers it a travesty to boil her precious fragrant tea leaves with milk and sugar at one go and to this day will refuse to drink tea when she visits me here in Pune.

I in the other hand, am quite addicted to the Maharashtrian chai with extra ginger which scandalizes my mother no end. It's probably because CTC is predominantly used here and it's much more about the liquor than the flavor. Whilst, if you drink tea in any home in Darjeeling, you'll see that they make a brew out of the tea leaves and then add milk and sugar. That would be proper because the tea leaves and ctc used there makes sure that you get the perfect cup of aromatic, flavorful yet refreshing tea.

But then Pune food scene is making sure that the Puneites are never left bereft of any new taste. So Tea Trails has brought a whole new tea experience closer to you. It's not only an unique place to visit to chill but also a great way to learn of the different types of tea that are out there we have never tried.

Tea Trail in a way is bringing tea to the masses in a new and classy way. Much like how different foods are paired with different types of wine, Tea Trail aims to educate about the different flavors and combinations that the tea can go with. We were in the house to sample some of their most popular and most innovative brews and here's what we loved about the place!

1. THE HOURGLASS TIME KEEPING: Now all the different brews that we were served were in these cute, clear tea steeper kettles (that I was so tempted to pocket along with the hourglasses of course) that gives you the control on how long you'd like to steep your leaves depending on how strong you'd want the liquor to be. Every tea came in a tray along with cute heartshaped cookies, a card on the details about the tea , its benefits and how long to steep it and an hourglass!
The adorable hourglasses could be used to mind ideal time you'd want your leaves to be soaked up to.

Intriguing, huh?

2. THE MIND-BOGGLING VARIETIES OF TEAS: True to its name, you'd literally be on a trail to discover teas you might not have even heard of let alone tasted. (Like RED ZEN TISANE, now that's something I'd probably considering renaming myself. Sassy!) It was seriously a journey as we started off with the familiar BLACKs, OOLONGs, LAPSANG SOUCHONGs and went reeling into CUMIN CHAI, PUDINA CHAI, LEMONGRASS TEA!

Going by the discussions at the table everyone had their own unique preference, so we'd suggest you go in and embark on your own journey to discover your soul tea. And if your soul tea is really just kadak MASALA CHAI...they have it too!

3. THE FOOD-TEA PAIRINGS: As we mentioned earlier, Tea Trails tries and pairs different teas with different food. We loved the innovative concept and for sometime were immersed with the task of bite-and-sip to actually understand the flavors. Though in the end we just gulped down our teas and hogged on to the snacks. But you might want to experience this as it is quite fun.

Also a thing to note was the snacks had a bit of tea in them too. Like the MARBLED EGG SALAD got their beautiful marble effect from getting simmered in tea liquor. SMOKED CHICKEN and PANEER SANDWICHES were stuffed with chicken/cottage cheese smoked in with tea flavors and tasted delicious.

One thing is for sure, the ONION PAKODAs did get along famously with the milky, masala chai!

4. TEA BASED MOCKTAILS: Yes, you will also learn that their are more to tea based cold beverages than just iced tea! We tried the MACHA SHAKE which was thick, frothy shake flavored with the Japanes powdered green tea that is oh-so-in these days.
We quite liked it for the novelty it brought to the table, But our hearts would always crave the PASSION FRUIT BUBBLE TEA that tasted as suggested, cold and refreshing and with the happy burst of boba balls which I find I get really excited about lately.

Go boba!

5. Two words, BUN MASKA! I know I tell you nothing new, but if you are in Tea Trails for some tea and want some light eats to go, do choose Bun Maska along with any other thing you choose. We absolutely went gaga over it. The bun was pillowy soft and literally slathered with a generous helping of butter. Yum!

So stop dilly-dallying. Get your pinkys out, pick that cup of tea, delicately purse your lips and sip on that beautiful brew that you are sure to find here. Get oolong and have a par-tea! (hehe, I made you read that. Score!)

If you live in Wakad and want a fancy dinner out tonight, chances are you are heading to Baner or maybe Aundh? Being a resident of Wakad for quite a while now, I didn't really have big hopes from the new kid in the block, Barbeque Ville yet on a odd Wednesday night we turned up here with our blogger friends for dinner.

I was pleasantly surprised when we were ushered in to a fairly nice looking lobby then further into a swankier seating area and surprising still, to find a good number of tables taken up by people who seemed to be celebrating birthdays on the same day. We were informed that though the place had opened on Valentine's yet the footfall had been looking up.

We chose a nice table by the bay windows. The decor, arrangement and lighting was at par with any self respecting restaurant worth their salt. There was a coal pit grill in the middle of the table for starters that you might have encountered before if you have been to Barbecue Nation or any similar restaurants. We were given skewers of marinated chicken, fish, prawns, mushrooms, paneer and pineapples to grill and for sometime we were a bunch of happy campers devouring the freshly sizzled pieces of yumminess. I personally liked the fish a lot and the pineapple as well.

We were also served with the MARATHA TANGDI which were basically marinated and grilled chicken legs skewered on a mini-sword (you heard me right). It was delicious however we were served very asian-y dips that didn't really work for the beautiful Indian flavors. It was only after we called for the quintessential green chutney did we find a respite.

We were also served CHICKEN SIZZLER but it didn't rally make a mark for me. The sauces hardly did anything for the succulent chicken pieces and blanched veggies alongside, though delicious, didn't help.

CRISPY CORN was probably one of my favorite in the starters and we couldn't stop munching on this.

There was also a chaat cart which doled out DAHI PURI, SEV PURI, PANI PURI and the most intriguing PINEAPPLE PURI. The other chaats were good but the pineapple was a bit of a downer because it sounded like a promising dish, but was instead just puri filled with pineapple juice. It would have made for a good dish if there would have been actual pineapples, spiced up a bit. But overall the starters were a decent fare.

But the real winner was perhaps the mains. It was quite a spread with dishes ranging from THAI RED CURRY to BIRIYANI to MUTTON ROGAN JOSH. There was MALWANI FISH CURRY and CHICKEN KADHAI thrown into the mix.

I was already full from the starters hence I only sampled some of the dishes. The THAI RED CURRY and steamed rice for a light yet delicious eat. I was surprised by the care taken to prepare the curry because it tasted authentically of the coconut milk and the aromatic lemon grass.

The CHICKEN KADHAI and BIRIYANI hit just the right spots even though I had just finished hogging on to a load of appetizers.

My fellow-diners seemed to bowled over by the MUSTARD CRAB and though I didn't try it I find compelled as a food blogger to inform all crab lovers to try it out.

I gave a lot of things a miss but if I just go by first look they all looked pretty amazing and I intend to go back to try it out. But at that point I had my eyes on the dessert bar that seemed to be calling my name. I loaded my plate with the piping hot GULAB JAMUNS which I might add were marvelous. Not very sweet, just the way I like it and so soft and pillowy. There was GAJAR KA HALWA too that I devoured.

There was also a bar of tiny, colorful pastries that were bite-sized and pretty good. But the CARAMEL CUSTARD would be the one I'd pick again if given a chance. I also liked the CHOCOLATE SALAMI that were squares of chocolatey goodness.

And all of this for Rs. 599 including taxes! That is super value for money considering all that you are getting. We were mighty impressed by the fare which had a good quantity of meats as well as seafood at such nominal price.

If you live around Wakad, you would want to come in for a dinner and have your birthday celebrated perhaps :)