Perfect Sunday B'fast
Option 1
Chai
Fruit
Fresh cucumber-tomato-paneer s/w
Nirula's mustard and Heinz ketchup
More chai
HT Sunday brunch
Option 2
Chai
Stuffed paronthi with homemade white butter
More chai
The Sunday Times
Option 3
Coffee
Brown bread toast
Scrambed/fried (sunny side up) egg
Salt and pepper
More coffee
A book I have to finish this weekend
Option 4
Poori-aloo
Halwa(!!!)
Chai
Sleep
Option 5
Spiced cold cuts - salami/parma ham
Crusty bread
Coffee
Waffles with caramelized banana and maple syrup
Great company
Have tons of work to get done today - this post was an indulgent postponing mechanism...why do some things never change!
Sunday, August 9, 2009
Saturday, August 8, 2009
I'm back!
Yes I am...to Delhi, @ home and with direct relevance to this 'food'(!!!) blog - to so much variety for the foodies. While I was doing the rounds on AB Road, Indore, Bhopal and (much loved) Hyderabad - I lost track of the high speed and hardcore vengeance with which the food scene is growing in Delhi.
It's great. There's tons of variety in cuisine, pricing, locations, ambience, themes etc - was reading this morning about 'top picks' for weekend options - and there were at least 3 neat jazz gigs that one could choose from, on 1 Saturday. I don't remember NCR being so rocking when I left 2 years ago.
The good thing is that every time I get chatting with someone on the Delhi food scene (and luckily seem to know enough and more people who'll happily talk about this long enough to satiate my curiousity and excitement), I hear of at least 2-3 new places that are highly recommended. 'New' being places I haven't been to, yet.
The better and more comforting thing of course is that my pick of old favorites seem to have held their fort, all in the face of more demanding guests, imaginative competition and little or no media spend. That's the fantastic thing about a great product - you needn't spend on reminding people all the time (Disclaimer - FMCG does not work like this, I know). So the places that have stayed put have actually expanded to a larger number of locations or just simply increased cover area in existing premises - and they still host jampacked evenings, weekend or not.
For sheer personal indulgence - here's my pick of ol' favorites.
Chinese
Chopstix, at Sirifort Complex ; I see express counters at some food courts too - and the quality is right up there
Fujia, at Malcha Marg ; no branches, irritatingly small and packed, great portions and flavor - yet to try their famous authentic Japanese fare
Berco's at CP Inner Circle, Kamla Nagar, Gurgaon etc ; again a sure bet for good Indian Chinese but you must know what to order - they can go wrong with some vague dishes
Italian
Flavours, under Def Col flyover; no branches, loads of memories - great atmosphere, friendly service that doesn't disappoint at rush hour - heard recently that their Sunday brunch is not-to-be-missed
Big Chill at Kailash Col Mkt, Khan Mkt; so this would have been the first listing because food here now functions as 'comfort food' for a lot of us - but I wasn't sure I want to categorize it as any 1 cuisine - it's the place and the expeorience and the memories really that does it for me ; service can be very very bad, but I still root!
Little Italy, M-Block GK-II market ; much loved from B'lore and Hyd days - hear it's in the neighborhood market now. Yay!
Indian
Chor Bizarre, at Broadway Hotel (Darya Ganj) with branches at 1-too-many malls in Noida and Gurgaon ; love the decor concept, Kashmiri food is really well done
Al-Kauzer, Outer Ring Road @ Vasant Vihar; galouti to die for :)
Holiday Club, Panchsheel Park; comfort food-like nan and makhni dal; pathetic pathetic pathetic service and ambience but can be worth the while
Moti Mahal, at Darya Ganj/GK1 etc ; for sheer legend I guess
L'azeez-affaire, at Malcha Marg and now in GKIIM as well ; had a memorable meal years ago - very refreshing from the usual Delhi style mughlai madness
Pandara Road, this includes Gulati's, HaveMore, Pindi etc - consistently good Punjabu stuff; Gulati's goes quite OTT with the whole Navratri bit but it looks like that keeps their patrons coming back
Ice Cream
Nirula's, Def Col, Chanakyapuri etc - great great great memories, all the fat is thanks to them and the awesome amount of pizza, HCF, waffle cones and other such indulgences there ; willing victim of Nirula's child obesity plan!
Kulfi Faluda at Pandara Rd, just outside Gulati's
Baskin Robbins
I hear Giani's is the (not so) new big one - it's here near Savitri now - may go tonight :)
Chaat
Sindhi (near Karol Bagh/Ajmal Khan Rd?) - sinful thick curd and yum chutneys in some 5 types of chaat
Haldiram's - everywhere- three cheers to Indian halwais going the standard-product-everywhere way
Bengali Sweets at South Ex - suji golguppas, perfect paani! Yumness.
BTW , Pitampura etc - for grand sized tikki chaat with a ton of topping
Ramlila grounds on Dussehra day - congregration of Chandni Chowk's chaatwallas - for the uninitiated - that's like the best footballers from across clubs offering to play each other 1 night, all night - for free. Over 200 items I'm sure.
I'm sure I'll have tons to add to this list - but these are pretty much the places one frquented (shall add on Sagar and Govardhan another time) till college time - and these are places that've held their own, well mostly.
Post on the new/not-so-old picks - coming soon. Haven't been cooking at all since I moved back. Need to change that...
Yes I am...to Delhi, @ home and with direct relevance to this 'food'(!!!) blog - to so much variety for the foodies. While I was doing the rounds on AB Road, Indore, Bhopal and (much loved) Hyderabad - I lost track of the high speed and hardcore vengeance with which the food scene is growing in Delhi.
It's great. There's tons of variety in cuisine, pricing, locations, ambience, themes etc - was reading this morning about 'top picks' for weekend options - and there were at least 3 neat jazz gigs that one could choose from, on 1 Saturday. I don't remember NCR being so rocking when I left 2 years ago.
The good thing is that every time I get chatting with someone on the Delhi food scene (and luckily seem to know enough and more people who'll happily talk about this long enough to satiate my curiousity and excitement), I hear of at least 2-3 new places that are highly recommended. 'New' being places I haven't been to, yet.
The better and more comforting thing of course is that my pick of old favorites seem to have held their fort, all in the face of more demanding guests, imaginative competition and little or no media spend. That's the fantastic thing about a great product - you needn't spend on reminding people all the time (Disclaimer - FMCG does not work like this, I know). So the places that have stayed put have actually expanded to a larger number of locations or just simply increased cover area in existing premises - and they still host jampacked evenings, weekend or not.
For sheer personal indulgence - here's my pick of ol' favorites.
Chinese
Chopstix, at Sirifort Complex ; I see express counters at some food courts too - and the quality is right up there
Fujia, at Malcha Marg ; no branches, irritatingly small and packed, great portions and flavor - yet to try their famous authentic Japanese fare
Berco's at CP Inner Circle, Kamla Nagar, Gurgaon etc ; again a sure bet for good Indian Chinese but you must know what to order - they can go wrong with some vague dishes
Italian
Flavours, under Def Col flyover; no branches, loads of memories - great atmosphere, friendly service that doesn't disappoint at rush hour - heard recently that their Sunday brunch is not-to-be-missed
Big Chill at Kailash Col Mkt, Khan Mkt; so this would have been the first listing because food here now functions as 'comfort food' for a lot of us - but I wasn't sure I want to categorize it as any 1 cuisine - it's the place and the expeorience and the memories really that does it for me ; service can be very very bad, but I still root!
Little Italy, M-Block GK-II market ; much loved from B'lore and Hyd days - hear it's in the neighborhood market now. Yay!
Indian
Chor Bizarre, at Broadway Hotel (Darya Ganj) with branches at 1-too-many malls in Noida and Gurgaon ; love the decor concept, Kashmiri food is really well done
Al-Kauzer, Outer Ring Road @ Vasant Vihar; galouti to die for :)
Holiday Club, Panchsheel Park; comfort food-like nan and makhni dal; pathetic pathetic pathetic service and ambience but can be worth the while
Moti Mahal, at Darya Ganj/GK1 etc ; for sheer legend I guess
L'azeez-affaire, at Malcha Marg and now in GKIIM as well ; had a memorable meal years ago - very refreshing from the usual Delhi style mughlai madness
Pandara Road, this includes Gulati's, HaveMore, Pindi etc - consistently good Punjabu stuff; Gulati's goes quite OTT with the whole Navratri bit but it looks like that keeps their patrons coming back
Ice Cream
Nirula's, Def Col, Chanakyapuri etc - great great great memories, all the fat is thanks to them and the awesome amount of pizza, HCF, waffle cones and other such indulgences there ; willing victim of Nirula's child obesity plan!
Kulfi Faluda at Pandara Rd, just outside Gulati's
Baskin Robbins
I hear Giani's is the (not so) new big one - it's here near Savitri now - may go tonight :)
Chaat
Sindhi (near Karol Bagh/Ajmal Khan Rd?) - sinful thick curd and yum chutneys in some 5 types of chaat
Haldiram's - everywhere- three cheers to Indian halwais going the standard-product-everywhere way
Bengali Sweets at South Ex - suji golguppas, perfect paani! Yumness.
BTW , Pitampura etc - for grand sized tikki chaat with a ton of topping
Ramlila grounds on Dussehra day - congregration of Chandni Chowk's chaatwallas - for the uninitiated - that's like the best footballers from across clubs offering to play each other 1 night, all night - for free. Over 200 items I'm sure.
I'm sure I'll have tons to add to this list - but these are pretty much the places one frquented (shall add on Sagar and Govardhan another time) till college time - and these are places that've held their own, well mostly.
Post on the new/not-so-old picks - coming soon. Haven't been cooking at all since I moved back. Need to change that...
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