“One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.”
Virginia Woolf
Time for the Bloggers Table and this time it was a cozy little do at the beautiful Café G at the Crown Plaza Gurgaon. The moment I entered I was hit by a feeling of déjà vu. Such a familiar, almost Ottolenghi like atmosphere, quiet, open, airy. This was one culinary experience worth the visit! Live cooking, real food, authentic flavours … and ‘silently attentive’ excellent staff!The Café offers fine dining with a daily buffet that changes regularly. The interiors are aesthetically done, wood and beige neutrals, nice lighting and a wonderful ambiance. A salad bar greeted us as we walked in …So much variety, loads of colour and attention to detail. The cheese platter looked slightly bare, like someone had made a meal out of it. Maybe they had! The cumin cheese and pickled olives beckoned loudly! We sampled 4-5 salads. Nice!Moving on, a central island of sorts tempted us with live cooking for the buffet {which is truly excellent by the way}. Le cruesets filled with worthy dishes added to the temptation. The menu for the day was Italian … Small portions cooked fresh and laid out … Lamb Osso Bucco {reminds me of my lovely friend Meeta in Germany}, Melanzane Parmigiana, Hassle-back Potatoes {I♥ those}, Fresh Lasagna, Sea Bass Baked in Parchment …. The question … what to eat and what not to! The main course set up is divided into different cuisine zones. Alngside, nested in a little corner is a popaddum stand with little earthen jars presumably full of pickles! These little personal touches make the place feel warm! The cafe appears to be particularly popular with the ex pats as they began at saunter in by 8.30pm, the stream growing steadily as the clock ticked! Since it’s a multi-cuisine restaurant, there’s something for everyone here …Back to the layout … the central island had a bread counter and once again the passion shone through. A variety of different breads, bread sticks, ‘amul’ butter, crisp thin cracker breads… And if that wasn’t enough to gladden the heart, the next step took us straight to a dessert bar – it blew us away! It was dessert heaven. I have yet to see such an extensive variety of desserts under one roof here. Each one created with a lot of thought, detailing and love. The pastry chef Chef Ayub Quereshi and his magic weaves a spell – fruit desserts aplenty, mousses, cakes, panna cottas, pies, eclairs, compotes … individual portions each!Then came the signature dishes specially prepared by the talented Chef Arup Sarkar and Chef Prashant … compliments to them! Salad of wine pickle tomato and buffalo boccancini, toasted pine nuts and basil and Stir fried shitake wonton and baby spinach with pok choi , red pepper, tomato and Asian condiments. The latter was simply amazing. Flavours, textures, warm salad, cold dressing – such a treat! You must try it if you visit the cafe! MUST! We were also served a watermelon, feta and rocket salad … this one too pleasing, light and flavourful!By now we were kind of feeling full. Then, along came the show stopper, a main course signature dish that will be remembered for a long time – Moroccan lamb tagine with chick pea and mint couscous. We begged for small portions each … it was so good. A nibble here, then another … and soon the tangine was all gone! The lamb cooked to perfection, melting in the mouth, falling off the bone, the flavours beautiful, the tomato balancing the tangine in a delightful manner with the pine nuts, the chick peas, the couscous! Happily it was time for dessert! Baked Yogurt Mousse, Panna Cotta, A Passion Fruit Mousse, Mud cake {excellent truffle on top}. You know what I missed though – a coffee dessert! Sadly there was none. {Thanks to the sweet knowledgeable Parul, we were served some drop-dead delicious coffee ice cream on request!}
Thank you Mr Oswal and your team for having us over. Café G is an absolute treat! The food excellent, the staff are impeccable and the ambiance wonderful!
“Life is too short, and I’m Italian. I’d much rather eat pasta and drink wine than be a size 0.”
Sophia Bush
Another Friday and we were back together, a busy, hungry, chatty bunch of food bloggers from Delhi, taking our ‘Bloggers Table‘ to a fine dining Italian restaurant, Italia, DLF Promenade, New Delhi. I’d been to the tasting table for a unique Lombardian promotion a couple of years ago. This time Italia was about to usher in the Olive Festival and we were invited for a sneak peek and nibble! The decor is pretty much the same as it was when we last visited. What changed this time was the noise and the cameras. Our group is expanding {not just by the waistline, but by the number too} … Rituparna was new at the table at the Evernote event, and Tanya was the joined in this time. Tanya baked us some delicious chocolate chip cookies which she packed beautifully for each of us {picture at the bottom}!So there was loads of guffawing, loads of clicking and non stop banter! Did I forget musical chairs and table hopping? The hosts were very accommodating and didn’t bat an eyelid at all the cacophony we created despite it being fine dining and a Friday night! They spoilt us and how.We were treated to olives from every region … my favourite the pimento queen olives! Chef Somopriyo Basu,Vikas Sehrawat {the manager} along with the charming PR executive, PriyaSharma played the prefect hosts. We were joined for a while by the GM {Park} Abhijit Bose who was delightful company, a perfect gentleman! He is SO passionate about Park; I love it!The evening began with generous servings of crisp Italian cracker bread like focaccia served with an absolutely delicious roasted garlic in olive oil and some pesto. The pesto was passé but the sweetly roasted garlic and loads of olives in brine more than made up for it. With the Italia Olive Festival{24th Aug-2ndSep} on now, you will be amazed at the varieties on offer.The menu is VAST … it was almost impossible to sample everything. Smoked Salmon & Mascarpone Involtini with Kalamata Olives was the first course, and much enjoyed by the husband who loves salmon. Next, an assortment – Milan Style Chicken with Colossal Olives, quite delicious and cooked just right, Arabian Sea Calamari, Bay of Bengal Shrimp, River Sole & Taggiasche Olive, Panzanella, and Shiitake Button Mushroom & Cepes Skewers … all enjoyable with a light summery feel. The palette was happy, kept even happier with some nice Albizzia Chardonnay Toscana 2011 white!I loved the wood oven Four Cheese & Four Olive Pizza! It had an addictive saltiness that came through with the different olives used in the topping. Wish I could have had more, but then again, the main course was on it’s way. And before that Spaghetti with Trapanese Pesto. The spaghetti wasn’t outstanding, though the Parmesan crisp {turned soft} on top was full of flavour!Onward we marched to the main course, most of us now quite full. I opted for the vegetarian main course of Pan Seared Polenta with Asparagus Spears and Mix Mushroom Sauce … and loved it! Well done polenta and beautiful sauce made for a great main course. The folk that picked the Tenderloins Medallions, Garden Vegetables & Rosemary Foam said it was really very good! The third option was John Dory with Israeli Couscous & Salsa Verde, relished by those that chose it. There was something for everyone!It was finally time for dessert {something eagerly anticipated} but left both Mr PAB and me rather disappointed. It was Chocolate Truffle Cake served with Extra Virgin Olive Oil Gelato with Olive Dust. There was actually nothing that stood out in either. The truffle cake didn’t beg to be eaten, if you get what I mean, and the gelato was nothing to write home about. I would have loved a panna cotta like we had the last time, or maybe a tiramisu.
That said, it was a memorable meal that we enjoyed. Good food, good company and a great place! Thank you Italia for hosting our table!
The rest of us at the table …
Sid Khullar, http://chefatlarge.in
Rekha Kakkar http://mytastycurry.com/
Parul Shirazi http://www.theshirazine.com/
Tanya Khanna http://communicooking.blogspot.in/
Deeba Rajpal, https://passionateaboutbaking.com/
Apeksha Jain http://www.veggiewiz.in
Rituparna Mukerji http://chocolatesanddreams.in
Sangeeta Khanna http://www.banaraskakhana.com/
Nachiketa Chandra http://www.crazyoverdesserts.com/
Ruchira Hoon http://thegreatcookaroo.blogspot.in/
Charis Bhagianathan http://culinarystorm.com/
Sushmita Sarkar
“I wish my stove came with a Save As button like Word has. That way I could experiment with my cooking and not fear ruining my dinner.”
Jarod Kintz
The above quote might yet be far from reality but recording food memories is just an app away! What is the single most important thing that food evokes? Memories!! Food draws us to the table, food makes us giddy with happiness, we can’t live without it and all of us celebrate good food like there can be no tomorrow! This is where Evernote Food App steps in. {Pssst, it’s free}In this fast paced food centric life where we blog, we eat, we review, we taste, we cook, we click and then we try and bring it all together into one ‘plate’, here’s a cool app that does it for you … and beautifully! The Delhi Bloggers Table was hosted at the delectable Dum Affairs by Evernote to showcase the food app last week. Intriguing, engaging, addictive; it does so much, it was amazing! {Thank you for the first picture Sangeeta}
Of the app they say From romantic dinners to passed-down family recipes to crazy eats in tiny alleys, meals contain some of our most vibrant and formative memories. We don’t just eat for nutrition; meals are a vehicle for conversations, romance, ideas, family, exploration, and so much more. With Evernote Food, people now have a beautiful way to preserve every dish, every table, and every bite they have ever had.The app is all about preserving the experiences, thoughts and memories that accompany food. People can also share their experience on social media platforms via an integrated share feature within Evernote Food itself. The app is simple, elegant and a lot of fun to use. Availability:Evernote is available on the iPhone and all Android phones {see the video here}
I don’t have a smart phone and never did feel the ‘pain’ … until the Evernote meet of course. That app had me sit up and take notice, even get Evernote hunger pangs!It’s a great app for foodies – good for recipes, good for food reviews, good for recording memories by way of notes, tags, pictures … the works! For foodies in the kitchen it’s a worthy companion! If you are knead-lessly busy, up to your elbows in dough or piping those fiddly macarons, just shout it out and record your thoughts verbally! Hands free fun!For me, I would use it loads to record my experiments in the kitchen, throwing in ingredients, weighing them, changing the order they go in, making the recipe healthier, ‘quicker’, a little different maybe. Happens 24 X 7 in my kitchen …I would probably even record my thoughts while making something because thats how I like to draft my posts. A few days later that feeling and those emotions have pretty much been run over by day to day mundanities!The app also offers something called a web clipper. Clip interesting recipes you find online, maybe an article on food trends or maybe a place you want to review based on others experiences. How often do you make a mental note, dig deep into the brain and come up with loose ends. The elephant shall hold them safe, together and in one place; the elephant always remembers! Oooh, you can also click your friends at a meet, the chef at work or even the Chef At Large!Add tags and life gets more organised than you will ever imagine. Its like an online filing cabinet. Ingredients, events {like this great one at Dum Affairs}, venues, experiences, chefs, food, kitchen accessories, local bazaars … anything available anywhere at the click of a button! It’s all in one place, safe, online, accessible anywhere!What I like about the Evernote food is that it’s easy to use and you can do so much with it. Troy Malone {GM Asia Pacific Evenote} held our attention, kept us mesmerised throughout the meal. Click, tag, add notes, remember the experience, the look, that recipe so that you can recreate it, quickly jot down what you liked or didn’t like … you can even share your recipe cookbook with friends! At Dum Affairs {a newly launched Awadhi cuisine fine dining restaurant in South Exten, New Delhi} that afternoon, specialist Indian ch Vikas Mudgal treated us to fine, slow cooked ‘dum’ Lucknawi delicacies! The meal was memorable, galawati kebabs, the three cheese bharwan gutchi {wild mushrooms}, especially outstanding was the haleem {still tantalising my tastebuds as I write}; as also was Chef Vikas’s take on Shahi Tukda and a Jaggery & Fennel Phirini. Fantastic! Good food, good company, and Evernote Food!I love it! Remember, Recall, Keep your memories together! Thank you Troy,Karan and Radhika for making the afternoon so energetic and fun. Who would have known that tech and food make for great partners – you proved it! {Thank you also for the free Evernote premium 1 year subscription}
Do you use the Evernote food app dear readers? If you do, what do you like about it. And if you don’t, quick, download it now. It’s free and it’s GOOD!