a'la Liberty

I have been singing paeans of a'la Liberty since I first tasted their food, I think, some 3 years back. Three visits since then did nothing to assuage the greedy longing for the restaurant. And when the Foodies group suggested dining at this restaurant, with the very lucrative offer of a 40-item menu, for me it was a yes, yes and a yes all the way.
We met at a' la Liberty for dinner. The slight drizzle outside did nothing to dampen the high spirits. I was rubbing my hands in anticipation of the gluttonous evening. We were allotted a long private room and were welcomed with a red-pink drink, the Love Potion, which had Rose, Litchi, Orange, Mango and Soda. The taste was more sour than sweet. The strands of litchi and the sourness of orange were felt prominently. Just a hint of rose, perhaps but both the flavors of mango or the punch of soda weren't noticeable. Just a drink from a buffet spread. There was also the Jal Jeera but most of them chose to have that at the end of the dinner.
The rather tepid Hot and Sour soup didn't stand up to its nomenclature.

The REAL feast came in the shape of the entrees', an awesome offer of five delectable ones:
We started with the veg Shikampuri Kebab which was coin sized made of vegetables and cornflour combined and deep fried...quite soft and tasty. Next was the Yasi Yaki snack. It had slices of baby corn, capsicum and carrot pierced together, dipped in thin corn flour and deep fried...very crunchy and tasty, mildly flavored. The third and the king of starters were the Cheese croquettes which were basically deep fried, bread-crumbed potato roll. The best part was the taste of the cheese filling when you bit into it. Just superlative ! Giving this a close competition was the Cocktail Paneer Tikka...so soft, succulent, well quoted with spices, almost orgasmically delightful! This tasty  appetizers' trip ended with garlic bread, equally delightful, the bread soft, with the right amount of garlic, not a shred more or less. My sojourn would have stalled here but for the delightful spread of the main course waiting just outside the room.
The Chaat Counter had four items. I started with my favorite Pani Puri and Aloo Papdi chat. Pani Puris were stuffed with some chana kind of stuffing but the Aloo Papdi chat was quite decent in taste, rightly spiced. Didn't try the Dahi Wada or Dahi Puri.

Normally my meal consists of the soup, appetizers and the salads, tasting just bites from the main course. For a salad lover, the salads were a slight let-down. Gadu Gadu salad consisted of various blanched vegetables mixed with a cornflour sauce which was just ok. The Churmur salad was a lemon juice mixed chanachoor kind of thing, kept delightfully crunchy. The usual green salad consisting of various vegetables. I love and always look forward to the cream based salads. In this criteria we had the Litchi Walnut salad. Cream based salads should have some crunch to it but the litchi far overpowered the walnut counterpart and for me it was a disappointing taste. There was a Tapas bar consisting of the nachos excellently accompanied  with various dips, sauces, salsa, hummus...

The other continental items consisted of Cannelloni Di Spinaci, Pasta in Two Sauces, Szechwan Noodles, Clay Pot Fried Rice, Dumpling in Hong Kong Sauce. Among the continental, the dumplings made a distinct impression. It tasted like the wet Manchurian version of a Chinese meal but far superior in taste.
And the main course, as rightly expressed by the foodies' admin, was definitely not limited to Paneer Butter Masala and Mixed-veg curry. What we had instead, was a veritable feast of uncountable items!
The Indian main dishes were Khusrang Paneer, Palak Lasooni, Zafrani Kofta, Haandi Masala, Kadi Pakodi, Veg Biryani and Coconut Rice. Among these, the Zafrani Kofta was the best with its very soft and succulent koftas in a delectable gravy.

The desserts consisted of Coconut Malai Marvel, Apple Crumble, Blueberry Cheese Cake, Angoori Gulab Jamun, Chocolate Mud Cake, Butter Scotch Pastry, Cut Fruits, Ice-Creams. Though the tiny gulab jamoons were great, the hands down winner was the coconut Malai Marvel, a wonderful mix of thickly grated coconut, sugar and thick cream.

If I have to nitpick, I'd say: 

When it was drizzling, I would have appreciated if the door man  had helped the diners with the big umbrella that he was holding but of course he may not know that everyone who alights there is headed for the restaurant. Second, though I don't claim to be an expert in international cuisine, I thought that a couple of names were puzzling. For e.g: Isn't Yasi Yaki name of a noodle preparation, (instead of the snack served) ? Is Tapas bar what it claims to be? Is it not supposed to be carrying appetizers from Spanish cuisine rather than Mexican?

If you ignore these trivialities, I'd say a' la Liberty is simply one of the best vegetarian buffet spreads in town. I would rate it a good 4.5/5 experience. A complete value for money.

What's the mood today?

Dear Hyderabad Weather,

This year your behavior seems more erratic than a woman's mood...what's up?
You had us all sweltering, perspiring, stewing, stifling and sticky till the end of May. So much so that even an afternoon nap was impossible without the ACs going full blast. The State Electricity Board gleefully sent a fat bill as you made us use it with a max and min temperatures hovering at  45° and 34° . Guess you went bonkers! You worked overtime, not willing to relent  below 34°    even at nights!
And then, you started blowing those gusty winds.We Hyderabadis breathed in relief as we saw the temperatures drop to a more bearable max and min of 36°  and  26°.  Good, we thought and waited for the much-awaited Indian monsoon where we could see sheets of heavy rains beating down on the earth, smell the first rain and joyously dance at this heart-warming sight. Yet, you cheated again. After 3 days of gusty winds heralding your arrival...making us wait and wait and wait, you come stealthily in the night and poured buckets...poured and poured. You stole from us the joy of watching the first rain happen.
With these showers you seem to have brandished a magic wand which changed the weather overnight. Now you make us shiver with cold with these intermittent rains which has us switching off the fans and trying to adjust with your temp of 25°  and 22° ! Mood swings? Yes, happens, but all this within 10 days' time?!
And as a woman to woman, I understand your moods. Some unpredictability is needed to make life interesting, isn't it? But do you mind if I ask you to turn up the thermostat just a little, just a bit till the real winter sets in?

Encounters@Taj Krishna

I had read good reviews about the Encounters restaurant at Taj Krishna. Why I opted for this restaurant will give you an insight into why it disappointed me so much.
We had planned to watch a movie @ INOX, Banjara Hills at 1 pm. There was this dilemma...we needed to start eating at 12 to be able to complete our lunch and be in time for the movie. And for someone who is used to eating a late lunch, 12 noon was way too early. So we decided to go for a rather heavy breakfast a little late and eat lunch after the movie at 3.30 pm. From all my previous experiences I know that all restaurants lunches in Hyderabad close by 3 or 3.30 pm max. An internet search revealed that the Taj had a round the clock service promising different cuisines at different times of the day. We planned  go for an international cuisine which is rarely offered by the local restaurants.
On going to the Encounters@ Taj, we found a near-deserted restaurant. Skeptical, we asked for the menu. We skipped the South Indian menu and the usual North Indian stuff of rotis and curries and dived straight at the international one.
What we found were a few soups, starters and some main course items. I was pretty excited and called the steward asking him for the details. He started suggesting that we go for idlis, dosas or parathas. I told him we aren't interested and insisted on his explaining the stuff on menu. He simply couldn't! None of the items mentioned in the menu had any names in English by which I could identify what the dish was about. A dish was mentioned as a constituent of different items within whose names were in their native tongue of which I understood very little. Hence I had to ask the steward to assist me. He again suggested the North Indian and South Indian stuff. He didn't seem to have a clue of what's on the menu. By this time, it was around 5 pm and we were starved. When we insisted on the Continental, he suggested a Caesar salad , not on the menu, but some name he was familiar with, I guess. And when we said ok to that, he came back to say that the salad was not available in this kitchen and he had to order it from another kitchen of the hotel and that it would take at least half hour!
Meanwhile, I called up my son and asked him to google and let me know what those ingredients meant. When he explained, then we could decide what we could eat or not. By the time the salad had arrived, we were famished and ate it in a great hurry. It was served with a variety of breads and butter. We gobbled it up as soon as possible and decided after this immense delay not to order anything more. This frugal salad came to around Rs. 500/-  ! By this time, they had started laying out the evening buffet.
I think all those reviews were for their buffets. That's fine but then EVERY restaurant offers food at the regular hours. If you offer a 24 hour service, you better ensure your kitchen runs for 24 hours and ALSO have a steward who helps you with understanding the menu. You deserve at least this with all the exorbitant pricing. For people who have late breakfast, or those who want to have lunch at their convenient time and not be restricted by the usual and expected lunch hours, Taj is not the place to head to.

The religion of pickle-preparation

The Telugu-speaking need no introduction when I speak about pachadi or avakayi ( chutneys and pickles). We live and die by them.

Now that the season of pickle preparation is on, my mind goes back to my childhood days when pickle preparation was almost like a ceremony. Summer would bring raw mangoes into the market. We would start the season with mamidikayi pappu (raw mango-mixed dal) and mamidikayi pachadi (raw  mango chutney). Further, before the right mangoes for pickle preparation hit the market, mother would make something that she'd call the temporary pickle which would be prepared like the conventional pickle but with much smaller pieces so that it was ready to eat as soon as possible.  

The pickle preparation would start with elaborate planning. How many varieties of mango pickles to be prepared? How many varieties of mangoes need to be bought? But even before buying the mangoes, more elaborate preparation awaited. Transfer last year's left over pickles, if any, into smaller jars and wash and keep all those big glass and ceramic jars out to air in the sun. Buy mustard seeds, buy red chilies and dry them out in the sun for 1-2 days. Once the chilies were dried and crisp, mother would pound these in the mortar with a long wooden pestle.There was also a belief that unless mustard powder was quickly mixed with salt, it would turn bitter. Salt used then was the crystal salt. These powders were then sieved through a cloth to ensure that the finest powders were used for optimizing the tastes. 

After the jars and powders were ready, father bought the mangoes. Different varieties of mangoes were used for different types of mango pickles but the first and the sourest ones to hit the market were used to make 'Pachi Avakayi' (Raw mango pickle). Other varieties would involve the sun-dried and other varieties of pickle.

Cutting and preparing the pickle was a family affair. Mother, and sometimes father would cut the mangoes into halves. We kids would sit around with screw drivers in hand to remove the 'jeedi' and the 'pora' (seeds and the thin plastic-like layer surrounding the seed) carefully from the halves and then the mangoes would be cut into smaller pieces, each mango yielding about 15 pieces. Mangoes with any kind of scratches or cuts were declared unfit for pickle. We kids would hang around just for that opportunity and quickly grab those pieces; a small portion of salt and chilly powder in our tiny hands and the sour mango pieces dipped into and eaten with great gusto. 

Once the pieces were cut, then the process of mixing would start. Mother would measure and pour out a mound of red chilly powder. On that would come the green mustard powder, followed by the white salt, the yellow turmeric and then the creamy brown asafoetida powder. I would watch with wonder as she would hand-mix these colors together. The colors would slowly blend with each other till they formed a uniform reddish-brown texture. The huge jars were brought out. Handfuls of the mango pieces scooped up with mixed powder and shoveled into the waiting jars. When the entire amount of the mixture and the mangoes disappeared, mother would pour out the thick dark mustard oil all over the pickle. We would want so eagerly to taste it  but were asked to wait for a week while it got ready.
Most of the time, this whole thing was done after lunch. Remember, there were no excuses saying that I need to do so much today and hence," let's get food from outside" business in those days :) Mother had to cook, we had lunch, dishes cleared away and then the process would start.
Mother would mix the contents of the pickles a couple of times to ensure uniform pickling. And the day she declared it done, we used to eagerly wait at the dining tables to savor the first taste of the season's pickle. Hot white rice, a dollop of avakayi and hot ghee mixed together, eaten while biting into the mango pieces still crunchy and  relishing each mouthful of the great spicy, aromatic experience...heavenly!

My tribute to the tradition this year: a mini ceremony with 6 mangoes

Iddarammayilatho...asale vaddu

These days when I see Brahmanandam on screen, I know this movie is poised for a failure. Movies with good stories don't need such props ('Gundello Godari', 'Mithunam' and even 'Gunde jaari'...examples).
The movie featuring Allu Arjun, Amala Paul and Katherine Teresa is like a typical 'seeti-maar' masala movie with a concoction of romance, dance, crime, comedy. Allu Arjun has an electrifying presence as usual but utterly wasted in this meaningless, headless movie. And why does Amala Paul look strikingly like (a shorter version of) Deepika Padukone? And Katherine Teresa? Gawd! Why the hero didn't give her two tight slaps and asked her to shut up, I don't know. Never seen a more screeching and annoying acting.
Nothing happens in the first half of the movie. The second half is JUST bearable.
Quickly posting this as soon as I came back from the show to alert people who crave for a good story and a good movie. Didn't get tickets for Jawani-Deewani and hence had opted for this :(
Reviewing this movie is a waste of time.Yet, amidst all this is a short but brilliant piece of acting in one scene between the hero-heroine's parents, brilliantly enacted by Nassar, Tulasi, Tanikella Bharani and Pragati. Rao Ramesh displays exceptionally strong acting in the brief role that he essays. Great genes carried forward!
Bright spots in an otherwise lifeless movie.

Indijoe and Westin: food review

Infrequent posting had never been my intention when I started my blog. Agree, there are the ups and downs of moods but nothing earlier had kept me so irregular at posting.
I mean, being the foodie that I am, I should have at least done justice by doing the restaurant reviews.

Two of the  restaurants that I visited in the last few months have been as below. Some memory fades as its been a while but the impressions are as true as they were. I will post the rest in the next few posts. Till then--

Indijoe: Always open to experimenting with different tastes of food, we tried Indijoe. Indijoe is on the top floor of City Center Mall along with other BJN group of restaurants. Sahib Sindh Sultan though expensive was a decent experience. Indijoe didn't let us down either. Indian food forms a very small proportion of the meal. The buffet, modestly priced, if I remember correctly, at around 350+, has a wonderful mix of continental food. What was pleasantly surprising was finding a decent amount of vegetarian stuff in the buffet. Great taste and a good spread. I normally crave for the salads and starters. They could have experimented more with the salads, which I found were rather limited in imagination.
The ambiance was decent though not very spacious. Service was found wanting. No one really bothered about seating you or come to you for your order though it was a week day and we were among the first ones to visit.
I would rate this buffet a 4/5. Not being too expansive nor limited, they served the right number of items per section. Many a time, too many items in a buffet leave you feeling as though you do justice to none. Will I go there again? A big YES. The good quality of the buffet items make me want to try their a' la carte fare the next time.

Westin. Had heard so much about Westin that by the time we visited it, the expectations were sky-high. And all those expectations were met exceedingly well. What's there in Westin? Well, an exorbitant buffet spread priced exorbitantly!
Being a thorough foodie, I prefer to taste across multi-cuisine and never believed in indulging only in Indian. Well, a foodie can have his heart's delight as they have food from across globe. Even when you have a tbsp or two of every dish, you cannot taste everything in the spread! My taste buds go bananas at the mere mention of the Indian street food like the chat, and its unbelievable that I couldn't taste it! I was so filled with just the visual delight of the spread! There were at least 14 varieties of the ice creams! The fun part was that they had ample varieties in each of these cuisines spread across continents. So, people who are not open to experimenting with their food are also not disappointed.
The restaurant is quite spacious with good distance between the tables. Service was quite courteous. If I remember right, the buffet was priced at around Rs. 1100 per head. If I were to be really finicky, and choose to say something negative, I would say that the vegetarians ought to be really careful. Most of the dishes have the veg and the non-veg versions of the dishes placed right next to each other and the labels, though present, are skewed (not enough space to place them) and leads to confusion. I ended up serving myself  some non veg stuffed momos and had to quickly have my plate replaced. After that, I asked the steward before I served myself the suspicious looking ones.
Will I go there again? YES, a hundred times!

Small, little big things of life

"Enjoy the little things, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.”

—Robert Brault

Had this quote forwarded yesterday and at what an apt time!

What I never believed in is:

• trying to appease people so that your selfish needs are met
• trying to comply just because you need to look good in people's eyes
• compete: I am what I am , comfortable in my skin
• consider materialistic things important

If I  was sure of one thing from my childhood, it was the importance of love and relationships.

All that I ever cared for is the perceptive unsaid love one has for one's own. Of love that gifts you what you need and not what they think you need, of love that knows exactly what you want, like, of what pains you and what gives you joy.

My birthday this time was exactly this: gifts of no great value, money-wise. They were all a series of small gestures, very thoughtful and which could come only on being very perceptive of the needs of people we love, things not expressed or asked but given, each one bringing that twinkle to the eye and a smile to the face.
That was my son who made this birthday so special.