🍁 Tryst Cafe

Restaurant Review

The entrance would make you wonder if it is really a cafe or just a small bakery. They have a bakery when you enter.

Once inside, the cafe is bit modern. They have seating both inside and outdoors.

If you sit inside , they have wide range of books to keep you company. We sat outside . They had a Tryst garden theater for special occasions. They had decorated the area as a artificial grape yard. There were lots of cats and a dog. We went there in the afternoon , Since its December , that explains the pleasant climate.

We ordered Chicken Steak. The Utensils were cleanly wrapped in a piece of paper. They served the chicken steak with mushroom sauce , mashed potato and some roasted veggies.

The mushroom sauce was delicious and we asked for extra. The chicken was a bit dry and hard , the potatoes were cold. But the veggies were hot and perfectly seasoned. The quantity of the chicken and veggies was more than enough for the both of us.

The cats came near us and had a puppy face waiting for us to feed. We gave it a piece of green bean, which it finished off quietly . We gave it a little bit of chicken too . The funny thing was those cats never touched a bean after having tasted the chicken ( If you do not like pets , i would suggest you to sit inside ) . 

It's an ideal place to go out and spend time with friends. I would surely visit this place again , especially for the ambience (and mushroom sauce) 

🍁 Dialogue in the dark

Restaurant review

We have been wanting to go to this restaurant for a long time . We planned for a movie along with dinner here.

This is located in the third floor of EA mall , we had pre-booked the table. We paid for the meal and got the tokens. We had to deposit all our belongings, phones, handbag and any light emitting things outside . They provide us with a locker and keys for this purpose.

The tokens given were quirky which were in different shapes , Circle for Veg and Square for Non veg. Since its dark inside the tokens help them to serve us the type of meal we had booked for. 

 As we entered inside it was pitch dark. A voice guided us through the pathway. We had to form a line and then walk one by one . Javed was the person who welcomed us. He led us to the table and made sure each one of us sat down in the allotted chairs without any difficulty .

We were given hand sanitizer first ,which the Five of us had to fumble and pass around in the dark.  Trays with cutlery were placed right in front of us.
The essence of this restaurant is to experience the absolute darkness for which our eyes could never adapt until even the very end. With our visual input totally cut off, our other senses are heightened and we had a nice time chatting. No smart phones gave rise to some quality time being spent together with friends along with good old conversations and gossips.

The person who served us was Velmurugan who was visually challenged ably handled our entire dinner proceedings from seating us in the right place to serving us the food. He placed a lunch box in front of us , which was pretty hot. It had 3 tiers , the contents of which was not informed. It was up-to us to find the contents by using our gustatory perception . 

The first box had 2 chapatis rolled in a tin foil. It had a chicken tikka and a chicken kebab. The second one had Rainbow pulao and the third one had the butter chicken gravy. The food was good but not great. But the point is,taste is not the main reason people come here.The limited options and non availability of a menu-wise-ordering system can be a little bit of a turn off for some people.

 Once we were done we had to arrange the lunch box in the same order. Wet tissues were given in the end.

After the meal , we had a nice conversation with Velmurugan. Later we were led to the light. Once we exited the restaurant we were blinded by the light.

Overall it was a new and exhilarating experience , this was my second time there . Would surely come again and like to experience the exhibition tour 
.  

Elaneer pudding

Recipe

Ingredients :

• Coconut Pulp from 3 Tender coconuts
• Coconut Water from 1 Tender coconut
• 1 cup Water
• 1 tin Condensed Milk / Milkmaid
• 1/2 tspVanilla Essence
• 1 1/2 cup Milk
• 1/2 cup Sugar ( reduce sugar if using condensed milk or according to your taste )
• 5 tsp Gelatin / 10 gm china grass

Method :

1. In a blender add the tender coconut water and pulp of 1 and 1/2 coconut and blend it to a smooth paste and keep it aside.
2. Boil the water in a sauce pan , Let the water come to a full rolling boil .
3. Add the Gelatin and stir with a fork , until it is dissolved completely / If your using china grass then soak china grass in 1 cup of water and stir in low flame till completely dissolved. Keep the mixture aside.
4. Cut the remaining pulp into thin small pieces and keep it aside.
5. In a pan warm the milk with the milkmaid and sugar , and stir with fork until the sugar is completely dissolved . Take it off the flame .
6. Strain and add the gelatin / china grass to the milk mixture.
7. Add the smooth paste of the coconut pulp to the milk mixture.
8. Finally add the small pieces of pulp to it and allow it to cool for 5-10 min.
9. Pour into molds and refrigerator for at least 4-5 hours.
10. Serve it with the bowl or in a plate. 
11. Yummy wobbly pudding ready. 

      

PS : If you like payasam than pudding , then leave out the gelatin ( steps 1 , 2 and 6 ), follow the other steps . Cool the milk mixture for 1-2 hours and serve cold .
        

Brownie Milkshake

Recipe

Ingredients

Brownie - 1 Vannila ice cream - 1 scoop Chocolate ice cream - 1 scoop Milk oreo biscuits Ice cubes Sugar

Method

* BLend it in a blender * Ready !!

Sandwich Chutney

Recipe

Ingredients

Coriander Leaves - 1 cup
Mint Leaves - 1 cup Coconut grated - 1/2 cup Green Chillies - 5 to 6 Ginger - 1 pic Garlic cloves - 5 to 6 Lemon Juice - 2 tblspn Onion - 1 (medium size) Jeera powder - 1/2 tsp sugar - 1/2 tsp (optional) Salt to taste Water - little for grinding

Method

* Clean all ingredients * Grind them * Ready !!!

Hara Tava Paneer

Recipe

This is a protein rich snack , inspired by Tarla dalal's recipe with my own twists .Didn't click a pic , so borrowed it from Google !

Ingredients:

For the marination: ( Hara Chutney )

1 cup coriander
3 tbsp grated coconut
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 green chillies
Salt to taste
2 tbsp curd

For the stuff:

3/4 cup boiled sweet corn
2 tbsp Hara chutney
Salt to taste
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp finely chopped coriander 

For roasting:

Paneer , cut into square pieces , approx 20 to 30
Oil for roasting
1 whole Capsicum 
1 big Onion 
1 big Tomato 
Tooth pics or skewers

Method:

Hara Chutney:

* Take the curd and keep it aside.

* Blend all the other ingredients to a smooth paste.

* Transfer the paste into a bowl.

* Mix the curd to the paste.

* Keep the bowl aside.

* Keep 2 tbsp chutney separately for the stuff.

Marination:

* Remove the seeds in capsicum , cut it into small square pieces.

* Remove the seeds in tomato , cut it into equal square pieces.

* Cut the onion into equal square pieces.

* Dip the paneer pieces one by one in the chutney bowl , coat it with the chutney and place it in a wide plate .

* Finally add all the cut vegetables in the bowl , mix it together and pour over the paneer pieces.

* Marinate the paneer and veggies in the refrigerator for 2 hours.

* Meanwhile prepare the stuffing.    

Stuff:

* Blend the boiled corn , pinch of salt , 2 tbsp hara chutney into a coarse paste.

* In a bowl mix the coarse paste with milk and finely chopped corriander.

* In a pan add oil , fry the chopped onion until golden brown.

* Add the corn paste and saute for 3-5 min in a medium flame.

* Remove from flame and transfer to bowl and allow to cool.

Roasting:

* Thread the capsicum on to a skewer , then the tomato. 

* Then paneer carefully , as it may break , then add the stuffing and then the next paneer piece. Thus the stuff being in between the 2 paneer pieces.

* Finally thread the onion.

* Do this for all the paneer pieces approx 15 skewers .

* Now brush the big non stick pan or a grill with oil.

* Once the pan is hot, grill the paneer until its roasted to golden brown on all 4 sides.

* Serve it with mint chutney.

🍁 Dinner at Hamsa

Restaurant review

We made reservations in hamsa to celebrate my husband's birthday . It is a vegetarian fine dining restaurant . The logo is of the hamsa bird itself . It was a place of spectacular opulence , the hallway was impressive and filled with royalty.

We were welcomed inside and served with a welcome dish in a vintage bell shaped silverware with the hamsa bird for the handle . It was of intricate workmanship.

The welcome sweet was gulab jamun. I usually like my gulab jamun soft and hot , as it was served for us to begin with it was a bit cold and firm.

                

They gave us cold towels to freshen us up and the people who served us were pleasant .

The lighting was shadowy , romantic and candles were lit . The candles were placed in bowl which resembled that of a lotus.

For the soup we ordered Tomato Shorba , which was a tomato and dhaniya (corriander) soup. It was served generously in a cute black bowl.

There was complimentary papads which was spicy and crispy.

Appetizer we ordered 3 dishes , Paneer sanufiya being the first dish . It was a fennel spiced stuffed paneer sandwich dish , which was delicious .

Next one was Jaipuri Bhindi , which was fried , crispy okra coated with gram flour . which was a bit oily for me.

We also had one more paneer dish called the Bharwan paneer which is paneer stuffed with nuts and spices which was also good. 

It was a north indian restaurant so we had to order Butter Naans and rumali rotis. Gobi adrak paratha was to mention . We had the Kadaai paneer and Gobi dum musallam. It was luscious . We also ordered idiyappam , which is one of my favorites , it was silky and soft , But we had no special side dish for the idiyappam we had to eat it with the paneer and gobi masala.

Even the after-mint came in a special box.

The bill came in a Silver antique cutlery , which was delicately worked . 

Overall this place had a exquisite ambiance 5/5 , Food comparatively i would rate it to about 4/5 and the service 5/5 . I would surely visit the place again just for the ambiance and to try out new dishes.

Karakolumbu

Recipe

Ingredients

2 Potatoes - sliced

1 Onion finely chopped

4 garlic pods 

curry leaves

chilli powder

salt

coriander powder

asafoetida powder

oil 

mustard seeds

urud dal

water 3 cups

turmeric powder

coriander leaves

tamarind paste

P.S: - chilly powder:coriander powder = 1:2(5 table spoons)

Method

*  In a pan,add 3 spoons of oil.

*  After the oil is heated,put mustard,urud dal,curry leaves,garlic,onion,potato.

*  Saute it for sometime until the onion turns brown.

*  Add salt,chilly powder,turmeric powder,water,coriander leaves.

*  Mix it well and wait till the water comes to a boil.

*  Wait till the potato gets cooked.

*  Add tamarind paste.(according to your taste).

*  Allow it to boil.

*  Wait till the expected consistency is obtained.

P.S: - If you feel the kuzhambu is sour(tamarind is high),add salt,chilly powder and water and allow it to boil.(vice versa)

Brownie

Recipe

Ingredients

2 cup maida ( flour ) 2 cup sugar 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa 1 cup oil 1 cup water 1 tablespoon vanilla essence 1 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 180 degree C.
• In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt.
• Pour water, vegetable oil and vanilla extract, mix until well blended.
• let cool for atleast 10 min before cutting.
• Spread evenly in a baking pan.
• Bake for 30 min at 180 degree C.