What is your favorite place?

Which is your favorite dinnertime place?

A Cozy well lit restaurant by the riverside?

Or a busy eat street?

or cooking munchies at home?

Why I don’t invite people over for food

You might want to give this a read. It is a one-off post about my cooking skills. I don’t think I have ever penned a post about it and I don’t think I will do one in the near future. 

Yesterday I found this in the supermarket when I was there to buy some essentials. Since I dont have a microwave or an oven, this sounded cool and to make a chocolate cake using the cooker, how difficult can that be.

After all there are only three steps to get this done. I do have an idli cooker (a very small one) so it is all good. Right?

Wrong!
First off, I was trying to measure the amount of milk they had asked me to add, but I was actually holding water in the packet instead of milk to see how much it would need and then before replacing it with the milk I directly added it to the cake mix. The only ingredient I had to add to this mix was Milk and I ended up adding Water :shock:. Now that it was already messed up, I decided to just ago ahead and try with other modifications I thought of to salvage this. I added one egg so that it would be a little fluffier. Then I had a Hershley’s chocolate syrup, a 50 gm packet, with me. So for a good measure, added that too. And finally added the mix in my idly cooker. Placed some almonds in the center and sprinkled dessicated coconut on the top and left it to steam for 30 mins.

This is the result. It wasn’t exactly what I expected it to be. I thought it would be sweeter, but it was very mild. It was more chocolate-y. That is acceptable. But by the end of all this I was totally exhausted. It wasn’t a total damage or a waste of my efforts, I should concede to that fact. But what was supposed to be a three step process turned out to be an experimental gig. And what was supposed to be an eggless choco idly cake, turned out to be egg-ed one. 🙄 This is how most of my cooking efforts go. That is why when I invite people over, I order food instead of trying and cooking for them 😛 Its a win-win anyways, considering I am not a big fan of cooking and they would anyways enjoy the take outs more than my experiments.

What’s cooking?

Fancy some South Indian set dosa or a masala dosa?

PS: Taken at Bangalore’s Eat Street and posted for Sylvain’s theme of the week: Cook

Chef’s special menu for the day

This Saturday was a blast inspite of getting up all grumpy and annoyed a little too early for my comfort (around 4.30 am) scarred by some horrible dreams. Got to do a lot of things, all fun, the whole day, till the dawn of the next day, but the best part of it was going to this amazing restaurant as part of a very close friend’s birthday treat (I thought last year’s Christmas Brunch of his was the best, but this year’s birthday treat as of now tops it all). It is called Caperberry, part of Avant Grade Hospitality located in UB City, Bangalore. There we have a special tasting menu which hosts a 7 course meal of chef’s specials for that day. I haven’t been to such tasting menu so far, so I had no expectations as such and I don’t watch the cooking shows too much, because 1. they make me very hungry, 2. I can’t do any of that even if I want to (lack patience in the kitchen) and 3. Most of them make non-veg which I can’t even try even if I want to. So what is the point. But here they had separate specials for both veg and non veg. So, ready to take a peek at what the Chef’s special was this Saturday at Caperberry ? Here it is

a)

Baked Escalivada in Filo – Chilli Garlic and Bell Pepper Mojo – Veg

Pepitoria Chicken – Almond, Saffron and Garlic sauce, black olive powder and mixed lettuce – Non Veg

b)

Green Pineapple Apple and Basic Gezpacho with Beetroot icecream, Beetroot and Apple Tartar – Veg

Tomato Gazpacho with Tuna Tartare and Beetroot-feta Caviar – Non Veg

Had some Sparking wine in between

Sparkling Wine

c)

Vegetarian Migas- Mango spherification, caperberry and pink onion – Veg

Pan seared Scallop & Black Prawn Tempura, Dill foam, poached fennel puree, saffron alidi and wasabi mayo – Non Veg

d)

Glazed Morel and Shittake – Mushroom pisto, porcini sauce, parmesan crumble and spring onion – Veg

John Dory with Romesco- Textures of Aspharagus and Orange segments – Non Veg

e) To bring out more appetite for the main course

Cryo Virgin Margharita – lime and ginger

f)

Aspharagus and Cauliflower Risotto – Truffle oil and manchego cheese – Veg

Duck Empedrat- Celery Textures, Apple Textures and port wine jus – Non Veg

g) Oh!!!! This was so heavenly..You have no idea…I can still feel its taste in my mouth.

White Chocolate and Olive Oil Ecstasy – Chocolate crumble, caramel espume and vanilla icecream

And later we were given two additional desserts

Petit Fours – Cryo Lichi Cream

Candies

What do you think of the chef’s specials ? I wasn’t too stuffed, because the quantity was perfect and the taste was so so so wonderful. Service was good, drinks (we had Sangria and Sparking wine and both were good). Its a high end restaurant and we were pleasantly surprised when he said he will take us all (7 of us) to his birthday treat there. But then he is known for his special treats 🙂 Thank you dear friend for showing us this lovely place (even though I am sure I wont be back there frequently, but once a year is a perfect way to indulge).

More of some fun times coming up.

Somethin’s Cookin’

Got this just now from my friend. Its already close to my lunch time and after seeing this, I am super hungry.
I loved how the background score complimented the video. And its a vegetarian dish. Yay! (even though I don’t eat mushrooms) I am not a big fan of cooking but love to watch and help someone do it with passion and interest. Add a good music in the background and I am in heaven. And if they are going to share it with me, all the more better 😉

Thai Peanut Noodles from HungryandExcited on Vimeo.