Sunday, December 23, 2012

Noodle Bar, Phoenix Market City, Bangalore

For a long time I have been waiting for it. I have heard very good reviews about its other branches but it still eluded me. Finally I made it 2-3 weeks back. By the time I am writing this, I have been there twice and both times it was good experience.

Wondering what am I talking about. ? Its Noodle Bar which opened in Phoenix Market City Bangalore.



 Noodle Bar, owned by Pan India Solutions has opened its door in namma Bengaluru at Phoenix Market City.A true Oriental restaurant that caters to foodies from the exotic corners of Asia, it perfectly suits the palate of the new age Indian gourmand.



I have been there courtesy PRPundit for a review and also went back when I had guests over. First time It was special 3 course lunch with bloggers & friends. Perfect ambience and good service and tantalizing dishes  surely made the day. Starting with a variety of starters like onion pancakes, corn curd, wasabi cottage cheese(the chef assured its not panner or tofu,but actual cottage cheese) along with the usual spring rolls and wontons we attacked the 3 course menu.

 Each starter held on its own and was happily devoured along with the spicy fresh tomato dip, caramelized onion dip and a spring onion dip. Of the three dips, the third was the clear winner.Here I had a small complaint.I didnot notice it then, but going through the menu, I found that corn curd which is a deep fried ground corn fritter is usually served topped with a spiced black bean dip(this is as per the menu) which was missing when it was served to my vegetarian table but was miraculously present on the other. A case of missing beans!?



Anyway what matters was it was good but could have been better if its topping was present. We stopped the starters when we thought we would all burst and ordered the mains. And  we waited and we waited and we waited..... When we had digested most of our starters we got hot steamed jasmine rice with Thai Penang curry, Pad Thai Noodles and burnt chilli hakka noodles.The sides were Chinese Stirfried Greens and also Lion heart cottage cheese dumplings. My personal favourite was Penang curry with rice whereas others  along with me preferred Burnt Chilli garlic noodles. No worries, order both. You wont be disappointed. By the way the burnt chilli garlic noodles also come in a meatier version with lamb.Perfectly suited for non vegetarian.

Unfortunately I couldnot wait for desserts though I had definitely wanted to try the Lime n Lemon Creme Brulee.Clearly lemongrass in a sugary custard is a perfect winner. I would give the second place to coconut jaggery dragon rolls and sizzling nut & fruit brownie which comes with banana spring rolls topped with caramel icecream and caramel sauce.

To give them their due, it seems there is a waiting time between courses. No worries though. It was a time well spent. In between courses we went and talked to chef who showed us around the kitchen or the organized Chinese Kitchen.


Also there is a 'Toss it Up' menu which offers the gourmands space for experimentation & creativity. You can pair your choice of noodles with your choice of veggies, meats and sauces. You can check out few pics here or also on facebook.

Make sure you check out the Noodle Bar this holiday and festive season .


Meal for two would cost:
Rs 1000/- without tax
Rs1300/- with tax

Address:
No 27 First floor,
Phoenix Market City,
White field road Mahadevpura
Bangalore 48

Phone No – 67266466

Monday, December 17, 2012

Neapolitan Cake : Baking Partners Challenge #5

I know I have been late and lazy these days. Posts are ready, I keep on experimenting, but somehow I find myself running late while updating the blog. But don't worry, I am still around and am planning to be there in future as well. Anyways, the cake was supposed to be posted by Saturday, but here I am now with a  simple experimental cake with not so good decoration. 

                                             

For this challenges, we were given 3 recipes and though I had decided to try another one, somehow this neapolitan cake with 3 colourful layers by Susan Ungaro lured me. The problem, 8 egg whites . Now me being me, went with Ener G and Madhuram's advice and little research and the cakes turned out to be okay, but could have been more better if you are a seasoned baker.Also I couldn't find any whipping cream at the nth minute and went for a simple butter cream frosting. Also you might remember I  had talked about how I had whipped up Ener G for the first challenge. Here I added flax seed glue as an additional binder. But I suppose you can go with Ener G alone.

Ingredients: 
Cake Flour: 1 cup 
Baking Powder: 1 tsp
Almonds Powdered: 1/2 cup
Salt: 1/4 tsp

Egg Whites: 8 or 
Ener G Egg whites: 12 tsp powder  + 1 cup of water (1.5 tsp powder +2 tbsp water per egg)

Flax seed glue: 4 tbsp (optional) 
(Boil 1/3 cup of flax in 3 cups of water for 20 minutes. The liquid will turn gluey and thicken. This can be whipped up like a meringue as per one post I saw while googling, but have not tried that.)

Cream of tartar: 1/4 tsp (I added another 1/2 tsp as well)

Sugar: 3/4 cup
Almond Extract: 1/4 tsp

Green & Red food colouring
Strawberry Jam: few tbsp as per taste


Filling:
Butter: 1 stck or 1/2 cup
Confectioners Sugar: 1.5 cups
Milk/cream: 2 tbsp +/-
Vanilla extract:1/2 tsp

Strawberry Jam
Sweetened coconut flakes

Preparation:

Mix the dry items together -flour,baking powder,salt and almond powder. 

In another bowl, whip up the egg whites along with cream of tartar and whip to soft peaks, Sprinkle in the sugar and fold in gently. Sprinkle the dry mix over the egg white and gently fold in.

I had used flax seed glue along with Ener G just to see whether ir 

Divide the batter into 3 containers of the same size and mix red and green food colouring to either bowl. Place the tins onto a baking sheet and bate in a preheated oven at 350F for about 12 mins till the cake is down and the springs back .Let it cool for  few minutes after which each one is ready for frosting.





For the filling, cream together butter for the first 2 minutes, after which add sugar and continue beating on low speed adding milk/cream to adjust the thickness of the liquid.

Take the green cake and place it on aprropriate dish. Spread about 1/3 cup of jam on top and spread another thick layer of cream on top of it. Place the white cake on top of this and repeat the jam and cream process. Finally frost the enitre cake as per your wish.

I am happy with the cake I got, but definitely it can be improved. Good point is I tried frosting. I am very bad at decoratiions and so this one was a success.

Thanks Swathi Iyer for the excellent cake. Looking forward to the next challenge.



Saturday, December 8, 2012

Breaking Bread with Aditya Bal :Meet The Chef Session

As the awareness about food increases and the Indian tastebuds evolve to newer tastes and cuisines, the trend is cashed in by cookery shows and channels and prominent among them is NDTV Good Times. Among the several shows stands out the Chak Le ! India Show hosted by vibrant young chef Aditya Bal. Most of us are familiar with model turned celebrity chef & TV host. I had the opportunity to meet the energetic chef when NDTV Good Times conducted a Meet the Chef session at Le Meridien, Bangalore. The event was a run up to the third NDTV Food awards which were held on 3rd December 2012 and was a widely publicised one. And was so well attended as by the time I reached the venue, it was overflowing with people.



Nevertheless it was a nice session with the chef cooking up 3 dishes namely Delhi Style Aloo Chaat, Bal -style Doi Maach and  sweet Zaffrani Pulao. In between cooking, the chef managed to answer googlies from foodies and also essential cooking tips that were very helpful. 

While making Dilli ishtyle chaat, lucky blogger Valarmathi got a chance to toss up the chaat and thus share the stage with him. After an exciting cooking session, we foodbloggers got few exclusive minutes with the energetic chef and quizzed him regarding his future plans etc. All this was courtesy PRPundit who handle marketing for NDTV GoodTimes in Bangalore.

Be sure to catch up another exciting season of Chak Le ! India on NDTV GoodTimes.  Chef Aditya Bal is highly motivated during his food journey across India and be sure to learn newer dishes and newer versions from the host who has no formal training, but has made a mark of his own in food industry thanks to his love for adventure and travel and desire to find the hidden food treasures of our country.

Do check out  the 3rd NDTV Food Awards 2012 winners as well.

Thanks for visiting my Blog

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