Namma ooru has succour for every palate! Despite looking like a city that has survived a tsunami, with unfinished projects, and never ending ‘metro-werrks’, something new or refurbished seems to pop up at regular intervals. My beautiful city still blooms with a myriad of flowers, inspite of massacred trees struggling to breathe under rubbles of concrete thrown on them. I live in the prestigious CBD area which still boasts of some mighty local flowering trees. The whole of last week I shut my doors and windows to block off the sound of giant electrical-saws killing two large jackfruit trees to make way for some hideous construction. It took two weeks to fell the mighty trees, and when I saw the roots of the trees, they had over a hundred rings. Each ring on a root signifies a year. Maybe for 200 years, these mighty giants probably gave shade and joy to hundreds of travellers. Decades of history wiped out in a week by callous greedy men. Sigh! If only the trees could talk.
I spent my childhood on Convent Road, a quaint, narrow lane which boasted of two convent schools and a couple of bungalows. Well, it remains a quasi-quaint road and the bungalows have given way to a couple of buildings. It is quite a troublesome area as it is a one-way and cars blatantly park under no-parking signs, making it narrower. Nestled on that quaint road is a beautiful outlet of Nasi and Mee (‘nasi’ means rice in Malay and Bahasa-Indonesian while ‘mee’ means noodles) which has a great vibe with loads of light, minimalistic decor and wholesome no-fuss food. Everything we ate for brunch, including an assortment of dumplings, baos and some great pad thai, were all flavourful and easy on the pocket. It’s a great place and it’s a shame when one has a great central location, ambience and great food but may eventually lack the clientele because of the city’s poor infrastructure.
Summers are fun times, of planning holidays, wearing bright colours, and having ‘darling’ luncheons with the girls. A ‘little-birdie’ whispered that Chef Choy, the tiny but mighty chef of all things exotic was back at The Lantern, The Ritz-Carlton. With a special menu to cater to the sophisticated ladies of Vittal Mallya Road (and beyond), Chef Choy outdid himself with an array of dim-sums, baos and the piece-de-resistance – the xiaolongbao, where the delicate broth is encased in the dumpling and is gently sucked out with a straw before letting that piece of flavoured heaven dissolve in your mouth. Both the vegetarian (the most difficult to produce in a Chinese kitchen) and the non-vegetarian options were stupendous. It would be an injustice to name only a few. Definitely, no one can hold a ‘lantern’ up to the exquisite cuisine offered.
Trudging all the way to DoubleTree by Hilton, Whitefield, to sample the rich indulgence of Norwegian salmon conjured-up by the ‘dishy-chef’ Daniel Rouge Madsen was well worth the effort. With his love for Nordic food, Chef Madsen showcased an exceptionally crafted four-course gourmet meal featuring the ‘star’, the salmon, prepared in three different and distinct styles. Paired with the finest wines, the intimate table consisting of executives from North Sea Global and Cristian Valdes Carter from the Norwegian Embassy, the conversation flowed as effortlessly as the salmon dishes offered!
My kind of week!
(The writer’s views are personal)
