The Little Door - With a Big Heart

Tucked away in a lane next to Maruti Showroom in Andheri West Linking road, this place you cannot miss as you see a prominent blue colour door on your left.

It was 14th September and it was a birthday treat, we all had planned it quite a few days in advance as it was a new and suggested place. Friday night we thought the earlier the better as it would get crowded and it did but not as much. We reached the place around 9ish pm and got ourselves a round table which the management says is for 8 but it is quite good for 7 people.

The decor: As the blue door opens you see a big place with white walls and tables well spaced out which you would not hear the conversation from the other table. You can either sit indoors (air con and if you want to dance) or outdoors both are equally good.

The Ambience: It has got a cool young feel where there are no jing bang lighting just basic white lights.
Inside can be a bit noisy if you just wanna chill but if you are there to dance go inside.

Food: This is the important part, we had ordered. As we were divided into 2 groups one veg group and another non - veg group (of course)
Started off with Rissotto balls with red sauce (best of the lot) and grilled chicken.
Then ordered: Sigaro (almost like spring roll but lots of cheese) and Steamed basa (nice and hot with spicy green sauce)
Third round was: Spanish Wings (they were cold and can be avoided) and Nachos


Drinks: They do have some pretty neat glasses for their cocktails and the best of the lot were Snappes, Faking Sober and Zeus (which came in a coconut) 

Oh! also at times they have the beer chug competition free beer glass if you take part in competition who drinks the fastest beer.

If you are a group then it is a must go...and also heard about their buffet which is good.   

Shift of Power

There was a time when going to Bandra from Goregaon was a must because every week a new place would open up and it used to be awesome. Recent times have changed the location from Bandra to Andheri Link Road, Lokhandwala and New Oshiwara Link Road where most of the big places have opened up their franchise...

Hometown Cafe, Bora Bora, Grillopolis, Red Ants, China1, Sammy Sosa etc etc are the ones which have opened up first near the Andheri area. Woodside Inn, Cafe Mangii, have opened up recently in Andheri now no more traveling upto  Bandra or town to enjoy your favorite dishes at your favorite places.

But then still there have being times when new branches do not serve the quality what we are used to the original one. So the big question here is...do restaurants and cafes open up at new places but serving bad food affect the overall quality or just have the original one and make it even better.

Pastel de Tres Leches - Recipe

In recent times this Tres Leches has being one of my favorite dessert and currently have seen it in only one restaurant in Mumbai called Sanchos.

Here is the recipe taken from http://www.whats4eats.com/desserts/pastel-de-tres-leches-recipe

(Central American cake of three milks)

Yummylicious

The famous cake of three milks, pastel de tres leches is believed to have originated in Nicaragua. It has become very popular throughout Central America and is becoming more and more common in the United States. Soaking the cake in three kinds of milk gives it a rich, dense quality, almost like a cheesecake.

8 to 10 servings

Ingredients

• Flour -- 1 1/2 cups
• Baking powder -- 1 teaspoon
• Unsalted butter, room temperature -- 1/2 cup, or 8 tablespoons
• Sugar -- 3/4 cup
• Eggs, room temperature -- 5
• Vanilla -- 1/2 teaspoons
• Whole milk -- 1 cup
• Sweetened, condensed milk -- 1 cup
• Evaporated milk -- 2/3 cup
• Whipping cream -- 1 1/2 cups
• Sugar -- 1/2 cup
• Vanilla -- 1 teaspoon

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350°F and grease and flour an 8x11-inch baking pan.
2. Sift the flour and baking powder into a large mixing bowl. Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy.
3. Reduce mixer speed to medium-low and add the eggs one at a time, allowing each one to get incorporated before adding the next. Finally add the vanilla and continue beating until foamy.
4. Remove the bowl from mixer and fold in the sifted flour until it is well incorporated.
5. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake 30 minutes, or until done. Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
6. Pierce cake all over with a fork, toothpick or skewer. Mix the whole, sweetened, condensed, and evaporated milk together and pour the mixture over the whole cake.
7. Refrigerate cake for anywhere from 2 to 8 hours, or until liquid is completely absorbed and cake is well chilled.
8. Beat the cream, sugar and vanilla together to make whipped cream. Frost the cake with the whipped cream and serve.

Variations

• Substitute coconut milk for the whole milk if you like. Scatter the frosting with coconut flakes.
• Substitute 1/2 cup rum for half the whole milk for a pastel with a punch.
• If you would like a layer cake, divide the batter between 2 prepared, round cake pans. For layer cakes, you can add a fruit filling between the layers. Try pineapple filling, peaches, bananas or any fruit that suits your fancy.

Notes

• Because of the milk ingredients, pastel de tres leches is perishable. Leftovers should be refrigerated.

In the lap of Himalayas - My Journey

It has almost being more than 16 months where I had taken a break for more than 7 days from my work and recently it was starting to show while I was sitting beside my computer at my office the want of going out. Then Metallica show was going to be Delhi on 28th October and friends had decided to go for it, I also jumped the bandwagon and purchased the tickets. While thinking a lot as I was already in Delhi why not go for a longer duration to beautiful places in Rajasthan, HP, Jammu and Kashmir, Punjab etc etc. I started doing my research and as it was a holiday time all tourist places are going to be full. After going through more I bumped into http://himalayanfarmproject.com/ who wanted volunteers to work on their newly purchased farm (an organic one)

Here my journey starts, where I put a comment on the volunteer page and yay I was invited. I was all geared up to live in the farm, backpack, sleeping bags, odomos, torch and just few pairs of shorts and shirts. Just a day before my trip I decided on missing out of Metallica to get an extra day in the farm and it turned out to be one of the most awesomest decisions I took. Reached Delhi airport at 7 PM and took the Express Air Con bus to Kashmiri Gate where I could get a bus towards Nainital. Though I got ripped off by Rickshaw driver and travel agent in Delhi (yeah it happens everywhere in India the duo of Rickshaw driver and travel agent earn a hell lotsa money that way from tourist) got into so called Kinglong bus and journey started. We reached Kathgodam (the last station on the Uttrakhand) at 5 am, I got down and found out that the village DoGaon was still 12 KMS away and luckily bus was going from there. Told the driver to drop me off at the village and luckily he dropped me off at the tea stall which was open.

My conversation with tea - stall person
Me: Do you know Brigadiar Hari Pant
Tea Stall owner: What? Who?
Me: The guy who owns the Himalayan Farm Project
Tea Stall Owner: What? Who? There is nothing like that here
Me: This is Dogaon right?
Tea Stall Owner: Yes!
Me: There are some white people in the farm
Tea Stall Owner: OHH!! yes yes the road just goes up from here. (pointing to the road)
This is the point to think, the person does not know the owner but the white people who work there he knows where they are.  

After walking up for almost 2 hours which they say you will reach in 50 mins (i guess for a fit person) I reach this place which at first does not give you that wow feeling just keep walking to the main door and the awesomeness just hits you. I was greeted by 5 people Keveen (from France), Gina (from US), Mark (from UK), Choe (from Belgium) and Sybille (from Switzerland) who have being here for past 3 days. After having some black tea, biscuit and toast with mixed fruit jam we just talk randomly. Keveen who has being a traveler for last 11 years (I admire this man) tells us the mini - project on what all we have to do in the farm and there are too many things to do as this is just a start.

For next 5 days we were each given a task to finish and everyone finished them with help from others at times, where I had to do the trenches for the toilet, paint the wood, clear the jungle, make compost, clear and make beds where we can plant the vegetables.

So the daily schedule was wake up around 6 am (or it is upto you how long you want to cuddle in the bed), have hot black tea/coffee (you have to make it) with some toast, biscuits etc (or sunday special like pancakes), do your morning chores like poop, brush, clean (if you like icy cold water), start working on your project which is talked in the morning, finish the task your way, enjoy the cool breeze. By that time someone will be preparing lunch for all of us which would include Rice, vegetable curry and salad (sometimes eggs, at times macaroni and cow cheese), talk have fun, pull each other leg, know more about their travel, relax for an hour or so, get back to work, it starts to get dark around 5 PM where you feel the need to go back. Make tea for everyone and enjoy with bhujiyas or biscuits.

Moms Kitchen Surprise - Curd Porridge Utappa

Another one from my super awesome Mom kitchen, where she has the uncanny ability to make things by tasting them once or seeing them once on TV. So today we have Curd Porridge Uttappa

Ingredients:

• Curd 
• Porridge 
• Salt 
• Onion
• Green Chillies
• Coriander

How to Make:

1. Soak Porridge in curd for almost one hour. Add water to the mix (little more than the curd)
2. Later add green chillies and Coriander to it (to give it some flavor)
3. Put oil on a pan and let it heat up, slow down the flame and then make small circles with the batter.
4. Add Onion on the top
5. Let it cook till the bottom becomes brown and then flip over
6. Serve it

We had it with Salsa sauce which was prepared during the weekend but you can try out your own combination

Ruby Tuesday - Good Very Expensive Place

My friend Srushti (http://www.artistsrushti.com/), a super foodie, an artist, a awesome cook, trekker and a good friend had an exhibition in Bajaj Bhavan opposite INOX. Reached there before lunch and met up S and M, after talking for sometime we decided to have lunch and first it was Status, after reaching there we came to know it would take an hour of waiting to get place to sit. And then we reached Ruby Tuesday tho not one of our first options but looking at their banners on the windows we got it.

It is a typical American Diner with lots of props and photos on the wall big sofa to sit on and good bar. We ordered Pork Ribs Full Rack and Chicken stuffed with mushroom in Pepper Sauce and mashed potato.

The Pork ribs were soft and sweet barbeque sauce was amazing. Srushti loved her Chicken Mushroom in pepper sauce and was in love with her mashed potatoes.

Yes it is a rip off with 3 dish costing us around Rs. 2200 but worth a try.

 

Borivili Biryani Center (BBC) - Dum Laga ke

This place is just before Toyota showroom if you come from Inorbit Mall and at you tend to miss it if you drive too fast. But this place is a must visit for all Meat Mughlai lovers. A small and VFM place has got some of the best dishes served in the Malad-Borivili area.

So a group of colleagues decided to eat on Friday night and after lot of discussion and debate we ended up going to BBC Dum Lagake which is just before Lakozy Toyota Showroom. After setting up place for 10 people all eager to get a bite into their famous chicken and mutton dishes (for many this was a first time).

This is all we ordered
Aloo Moti - Potato and Cheese mix with Red sauce.
Paneer Tikka - No description required here
Chicken Mumtaz - Cheese inside chicken (what more do we want)
Chicken Noorani - Minced mutton stuffed inside Chicken
Sheek Kebab Gilafi - Beaten egg over mutton sheekh kebab
Chicken Tikka - No description

Quantity in each plate was 6 - 8 pieces but big ones. So 10 people just ate them with roti and salad which you get served with the dish is the best you can get.

Later we ordered for Chicken Tikka Biryani, Mutton Biryani and Egg Biryani the quantity again is so huge, all 10 grown up dudes could not finish it.

Final order was the sweet dish which was caramel custard, I think they cannot go wrong anywhere......in terms of food.

Now the most important part...total cost of the bill Rs. 2500, that is a good idea for a cheap but a happy party joint.....for people who do not drink.

Service wise they are bit short of staff but whoever is there does a decent job.

Address: Shop No 2 & 3, Ganga Niwas, Next to Toyota Showroom, Link Road, Malad (W),Malad West, Mumbai

Landmark: Near Toyota Showroom
Phone: 64511223, 64511224