Author: manuscrypts

  • Khansama

    Khansama – The Royal India Master Chef is a BJN Group endeavour at UB City Mall. The theme is royalty, and it serves a mix of cusines, though skewed towards North indian dishes.

    The mall also hosts Shiro (Lounge), Oakroom (multi cusine), Ecstasy (desserts/cafe), The Tasty Tangles (Oriental), Rajdhani (that thali has been on the pending list for a while now!!) ..quite an elaborate food court…  So, maybe you could go a bit early and figure out what gastronomic mood you’re in. We, however, reserved in advance, and were quite surprised to see a few tables occupied by 7.30. Maybe they all wanted to get back in time for Juno. 🙂

    The ambience is quite befitting the royal theme the restaurant has. Massive portraits, swords, assorted mounted animal heads :D, and a few guns thrown in too on the walls. The lighting has been done well too, not too dimly lit, and not too bright either, enhancing the effects of the entire setting.

    We started with a ‘Dhuanr Murgh Tikka’ starter. That’s “succulent and creamy pieces of chicken infused with italian smoked mozzarella”. It was quite good, and went well with the chilly sauce. D liked the mint sauce though she rated it a bit lower than the one in Copper Chimney. There are quite a few options in veg and non veg, the seafood starters are costly though. If you’re the soup kind, there are quite a few choices on that front too.

    For the main course, we ordered a Kofta Zartaari (“paneer, potato dumplings done the zartaari style), a Murgh Darbari (“an affable combo of spring chicken and eggs in a silky smooth gravy”), and to go with that a portion of Punjabi Zaituni Naan (“traditional flour bread – baked in the tandoor with black and stuffed green olives, basted with light spanish olive oil” – its not boneless). We were told that the chicken dish would be a bit sweet, but the kofta would provide the spice. It turned out almost the opposite, with the Kofta gravy being a tad sweet (but the Kofta itself a bit spicy) and the chicken dish  being mildly spicy. The bread was quite awesome, one portion has two naans, but quite small, so we ordered a Lal Mirch paratha too. Good stuff, which (thankfully?) didn’t reach the levels of our hari mirch adventure at Heera Panna. The menu offers quite a lot of choices, some even from South Indian cuisine, since the theme is more royalty than any geographic area. (though the menu has only sher shah suri and the Mughals) 🙂

    There were a few dessert options, but we were too stuffed to try any, but quite likely the next time. The service is quite good, and the wet towel was really refreshing. Except for perhaps one odd occasion, the BJN restaurants have always delivered on the food quality, though I keep making digs at their snobbery efforts 🙂

    The cutlery is also a bit unique and I loved the goblet though it was a bit heavy. By the time we left – around 8.30, the place was quite crowded. And uncharacteristically, they even gave us some good meetha paan in the end. (have seen only the paid version in other BJN group restautants). All of the above cost us just over Rs.1150 (inclusive of a 10% service charge and taxes). Great food and a good ambience, I’d recommend checking it out.

    Khansama, 2nd Floor, UB City Mall, #24, Vittal Mallya Road. Tel 41114499

    Photos at Zomato

  • Watch your mouth

    He: Aa Dekhe Zara..
    She: Kya?
    He: Watchmen
    She: and I thought you’d prefer Bips. You want to “Watchmen”
    He: very funny! So shall we go?
    She: No, I don’t want to watch a comic strip!!
    He: It’s a comic book
    She: so maybe the comic can book the tickets and watch it by himself?

    until next time, stripped of comic standing 😐

  • The Grass Crown

    Colleen Mc Cullough

    Quite a superb sequel to “The First Man in Rome” with an expanded set of characters and perhaps a canvass larger than its predecessor.
    Centered around the war against Italia, the growing rift between two towering personalities and former friends, and the depths to which a person’s ego can lead him, this book also sets up Julius Caesar perfectly, illustrating his character wonderfully.
    Gaius Marius, in search of his seventh consulship (which others have deemed impossible), with a fervour that finally derails his brilliant mind; Sulla, seeking his first consulship and the greatness that he believes is deservedly his, only to come up against Marius; the young Caesar, watching, learning, and becoming increasingly sure of his destiny; Rome, a state like no other, becoming the playground of men whose fanatical belief in themselves have caused them to make a mockery of the society they lived in. Power, by whatever means necessary.
    And now, to get myself a copy of “Fortune’s Favourites”

  • In tolerance

    In the large world there are those who can’t tolerate people playing cricket in their country, who can’t tolerate others celebrating Valentine’s Day, who can’t tolerate women going to pubs, who can’t tolerate intolerance and will therefore send pink chaddis, who can’t tolerate losses and will therefore distribute pink slips, who can’t tolerate being called idiots and will send legal notices, and so on.

    In the smaller world, there are those who can’t tolerate getting stuck in traffic, who can’t tolerate waiting in the queue in a multiplex ticket counter, who can’t tolerate lesser intelligence in others, who can’t tolerate not getting a call back within 5 seconds of the other person missing a call, who can’t tolerate the slowness of the elevator, who can’t tolerate the tardiness of restaurant staff and so on.

    The larger world tries to hide agendas behind the intolerance, individuals are dispensable. The smaller world tries to hide intolerance behind their daily agendas, the rest of the world is dispensable. Society that is failing the individual, or individuals who’re failing society?

    until next time, just a rant.. be tolerant 🙂

  • Shiok

    Shiok is a restaurant that serves Far-eastern cuisine. And it’s moved. No, not the cuisine, just the location. Though we’d heard about it a lot when it was on CMH Road, (online mostly, but we’ll get to that later) we never managed to visit. So, when we saw the signboard on the Inner Ring Road (before the flyover, on the right, when coming from Koramangala), we decided now was as good a time as any to try it out.

    We skipped the reservation part but were lucky enough to get a table. I liked the ambience – elegant, pleasant to the eye, and cosy. There’s also a cocktail lounge – ‘Moss’ on the first floor.

    We started with a “Minced chicken and celery soup” (kaeng jued) , a Thai soup, “a tasty yet light soup with bits of minced chicken, celery, chinese cabbage and black mushroom”. Though it was a thin soup, I quite liked its flavour.

    We skipped starters and for the main course ordered a Beef with ginger, chilli, basil and crushed peanuts, described further as ” tender beef with several assertive flavours that nevertheless blend nicely together. The peanuts provide a crunch and a mild contrast to the other seasonings”, an Indonesian green chilli chicken (ayam cabai hijau), which is “chicken cubes simmered with green chillies, lemongrass,  ginger and tomatoes” It also says that this is for real chilli lovers and may be fatal in large doses. (yes, they also mention they’re kidding, so don’t worry). To go with these two, a Chi hor fun, a Malaysian noodle dish, “browned braised chicken cooked with flat rice noodles and savoury sauce using ginger, sesame oil, soy sauce and chicken stock”. I felt the beef could’ve been a little more evenly cooked (some pieces were a bit rare) but I still liked it enough to slurp the gravy!! The crunchy peanuts did bring in a nice contrast. The chicken dish, though it displayed a few chillies, is less scarier in real life than is made out to be in the menu. I quite liked this too. In both cases, there’s not much of gravy, but since our noodles  had a bit of its own (hmm “squishier” than the Malaysian noodles I’ve had elsewhere), it worked out fine. And that’s why I was impressed with the service, because our original choice of chicken dish was vetoed by the person in  charge of our table, who suggested this one since it would go better with our noodles.

    Though i couldn’t find it in the menu, they did offer us some desserts, including a chocolate mousse, but unfortunately I was stuffed enough to pass 🙁 All of the above, including a service tax of 10%, cost us just over Rs.800.

    Shiok belongs to a MadMan (he’s one those really ancient bloggers, about 8 years, makes me feel young!!  :D) , though judging from the food, I’d wager that there is definitely a method. 🙂 You can get the exact location, have a look at the menu card, check out a few recipes and even reserve a table right here. Good food (quite a lot of choices for vegetarians and non vegetarians), nice ambience, excellent service, do give it a try.

    Shiok, #96, Amarjyothi Layout, Intermediate Ring Road. Ph: 65715555/6666. www.shiokfood.com

    Update: Closed