BENGALURU: To state the obvious, we’re all feeling ‘hot-hot-hot’! Someone even suggested we should start frying eggs or boil water on the pavements. Ah! But the catch is we don’t have pavements!
Keeping this in mind I courageously crossed the (treeless) road to duck into UB City to celebrate the 10th anniversary of ‘Sanchez Cantina’. My friend Chef Vikas Seth wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer and with the promise of a ‘Mariachi’ band (who had especially flown down for the occasion) and world-famous tequila cocktails to boot, how on earth could we refuse?
Spending time with family and ‘friends like family’ is simply my way of having fun. The chef outdid himself with his gastronomical expertise, and to call the Mexican fare he meted out mere ‘food’ would be a disservice to his skill and mastery over the cuisine. But truth be told, I nearly passed out with the heat! Getting back home (which is across the street) was a ‘sweat-exercise’. Thank the Lord for my friend Shruti who shoved me into her car and turned the air-conditioning on to a full blast before I went into a blackout situation. I suppose we can do this much for people!
It has been an eating (drinking) orgy the past two weeks as we had family visiting. But when the lovely Ritu and George Kuruvilla invited us to The Ritz-Carlton to partake in the ongoing food festival by the legendary ‘Karims’ of Delhi, I went solo, as the fam-jam was ‘fully-fed-up’ by then! It was a small gathering of ‘friends only’ and both, the tinkling of the Baccarat crystal and the laughter, resounded around the room. Needless to say, the ‘old-Delhi’ food was exceptional and all the age-old techniques were in play as the traditional ’slow-cooked’ Mughlai cuisine wound its way to our table.
Everyone was raving about the newly opened Jamie Oliver’s Kitchen. Jamie has loads of fans in India as he is a ‘TV Chef’ with a great smile and a charming lisp! His recipes are easy, and ‘no-fuss’ and he serves up some delicious pizzas. Much to the angst of my food-aficionado friends, I have eaten at his restaurant in London, which has since closed down. So it was heartening to know that the eatery is well and thriving in Bangalore. The pizzas were mind-blowing and his pasta and salads were very good with fresh ingredients and a fuss-free cooking style. Jamie Oliver! You will thrive in ‘namma-ooru’!
Chef Hans Christian and hotelier Budi Cahyadi were here to showcase their Indonesian restaurant, ‘August’s’ pop-up at Leela Bhariya City. Ranked 46 in Asia’ top 50 list, their epicurean reveal was bang-on!
‘Life is short, eat the sprinkles’!
(The writer’s views are personal)