Little Italy - Review

It was a busy Friday evening when we decided to go here. We had our table in the centre, next to which was the table where a famous contemporary Marathi actress was having her dinner with her mother (It would be best not to name her!). We started with the “Zuppa di Broccoli”, it the first time I had a broccoli soup sans cream and I loved it. The broth had a rich flavor of broccoli and slurped it down in no time because I had cold and it felt really comforting. 

We chose the good old favourite Caesar salad but it was just okay, the lettuce was not crunchy or fresh – certainly not impressive. It was accompanied by slices of toasted garlic bread and bottles of olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

We had vegetable lasagna for the mains, which was generously coated with gooey cheese – it was one of the best lasagnas I’ve ever had. It seems to me that even though it is relatively easy to prepare, very few places seem to serve something which truly gives the satisfaction of having one!

They have a massive selection of pizzas to choose from, we spent a long time on deciding what to have and finally settled on “Pizza Alla Vodka” as it seemed something offbeat. Like the lasagna, this too, was smeared with copious amounts of cheese and had contrasting toppings of jalapenos, tangy pineapple and hot red peppers.

For the appetizers, we chose “Fungi Alla Trapanese” although it was dismally served to us after our lasagna and pizza! We would have loved it had we not been already satisfied with the mains and would have had much more strength to appreciate those light flavours the mushroom was seasoned with. It was served with a platter of herbed bread, which we left untouched.

I wanted to try the “Semifroddo Al Mango”, a delicate mango cheesecake as they put it, but instead we had blueberry cheesecake. It was covered with more than necessary blueberry compote, so we brushed it off with our spoons and enjoyed the cheesecake. The compote was super sweet but the cheesecake was not, so my friend who wanted it sweeter had more of the compote with each bite.

The worst part was probably the time they took to get the check, I think we could easily have had another meal in the same time. Anyway, as we were sitting next to the aforementioned Marathi actress, my friend eavesdropped and we had a gala time :D

Zomato Meet-up - Kokkita Review

View of the lit-up place from open seating area

After receiving the invite for the Zomato meetup, I looked it up to check that it is situated in the unremarkable locales of Hadapsar, but as my fellow foodies have rightly put it, the place itself looks unassuming from outside. I entered through the parking area (which is huge) and passed by the play-zone where quite a few kids were enjoying themselves. Then I saw, the grand place - it's an entire building - brightly lit up with lots of open seating separated by different levels.

I humbly apologize to all attendees since I was late for the meet-up but I was gratified as everyone kindly accommodated me. The menu set for us consisted of soups, salads, main courses with assorted rotis and rice preparations, desserts supplemented by both cocktails and mocktails. They do have an extensive menu, and even the owner informed us that they have over 400 preparations available to choose from(!) when we had a brief meeting with her.

Cream of Broccoli

Murg Rossali Kebab

I started off with the 'Cream of Broccoli' soup, which looked wonderful but surprisingly was not a smooth puree - in fact had little broccoli bites in between. From the starters, I loved the 'Stuffed Mushroom' and 'Murg Rossali Kebab', both of which were prepared creatively and were extremely delectable.





The main courses arranged before us presented a meal fit for a king with numerous
kadhais of rich vegetables and curries. I tried 'Paneer Tikka Masala', 'Subz Kandhari', 'Dal Makhani', 'Chef Special Chicken', 'Konkani Macchli Curry Pomfret' and 'Chicken
Malvani'. As I am not a massive non-vegetarian, almost all the non-veg preparations seemed ingenious and unconventional to me. All the while I was sipping on charming beverages - 'Guava Spice Colada' (quite refreshing but close to guava juice) or 'Bartender's Special Mocktail' (more of a dessert shake!) or B-52 (Irish cream fire-shot but lamely waited for the flame to extinguish while we clicked photos :D).





So by this time I was completely satisfied and hence decided to skip the rice preparations and moved on to the dessert - 'Sizzling brownie with ice-cream' which was nice but a bit too sweet for me, with a bonus pineapple slice hidden beneath the brownie. The service was very attentive and I was thoroughly pampered. They have nice open spaces to celebrate kids' birthday parties, something which was already happening next to us that day.


Thank you Team Zomato and Kokkita for hosting us!

The Little Door - Review

THE LITTLE DOOR 

 Review

We were here for the Sunday Brunch, so my rating is based solely on this experience. They have completely transformed Trois, where I remember having had some amazing pastas, into a bright and cheerful place. The outdoors seemed more appealing to us, so we chose a table right next to the play centre, which was stacked with a collection of old school games. 

We were the first ones to enter, so we started off with mocktails, mini appetizers and a game of scrabble. The appetizers were arranged beautifully on tables inside - there were atleast 15 of them. There were 4-5 salads, cold cuts, sausages, varieties of cheese, mini bites on sticks and various other anti pasti, sadly I do not remember the names of all. Almost everything that I had I loved - even the mocktails. The watermelon basil mocktail was super refreshing and virgin mary (a perfect brunch mocktail) was absolutely tarty and complementing the food; sweet lime soda, margarita were good too. They have Karaoke at brunch and I was the one chosen by the host to inaugurate it that day - so I obliged. It was fun doing it, and I appreciate the patience of the others who were listening to me :D Complimentary shots were being served to anyone who performed. Everyone soon joined in, but the host was splendid at the job, so it was kind of a bonus live performance for the brunch. 

You have a choice of one from each - breakfast staples/appetizers/main course. If you do not wish to have

anything from breakfast staples, you can choose any two appetizers instead. We had the wholesome experience by not skipping the staples and I must say that the plating was pleasing, for all of the preparations. The nutella-crushed peanuts pancake ('Sweet Buttermilk Pancake') had the perfect amount of sweetness - as you would like for breakfast (not too sweet) - served with caramelized bananas on the side.

'Sweet Buttermilk Pancake'

Pesto cheese scramble

The pesto cheese scramble (don't remember the exact name) was an innovative preparation, something with the texture of scrambled eggs -
but made with cheese, something which I had never had before and I liked it. 

'Strixxi Mimli'

Among the starters, the chicken rolls ('Strixxi Mimli')

were brilliant, both in appearance and taste. By this time, we were completely satisfied but proceeded to the main course where I had champagne penne - the mushroom sauce was creamy and fkavourful.

Champagne Penne

I feel bad because I could not fully explore the desserts counter because of being full, something which rarely happens. Anyway, it was a surprise that I liked the red velvet cake - a first for me. I have had it numerous times at famous establishments and I had come to the point where I despised it openly; here it changed my opinion about it! It was an elegant, moist cake with a subtle chocolatey taste and gloriously creamy frosting; served its purpose as a perfect end to a first-rate brunch.

Service was relaxed but attentive. 

Pollo Verde

My favourite mocktail - Watermelon Basil & Mint Cooler

The Little Door - Pune

Sunday: 12:00 – 4:00 pm (Brunch)

 (After a long hiatus, I have decided to kick-start this old blog. Please co-operate with the contentless-ness)

Bread pudding, anyone?

Here is one recipe which is extremely simple and tastes - well, it's for you to decide! But I liked it as much as the original one I had in Amman, Jordan this September. It's a Levantine cuisine special but I don't remember it's name, though in English, it is the good old bread pudding!

(The idea behind this was a website having many artists from over the world posting recipes which they actually drew - www.theydrawandcook.com This is my first try at it!)

Inception.

I am not good at languages; ergo, not a good writer. I am surrounded by people who have a knack for it, my own sister can speak, read and write at least six languages; understand even more. A friend of mine is currently writing a book which will be published in the near future. Another friend of mine writes a blog which has followers outside of the Indian subcontinent and I'm pretty sure outside of Asia as well.  She was the one who kept trying even after numerous failed attempts to get me started with a blog, but as you can see, her efforts were not futile!
So this is me, someone who loves food (I live to eat!); travelling, trekking and adventure sports; indulging in books, movies and games and basically everything that's related to fun. Well yeah, who doesn't like that?! 

Cheers to everyone who writes!