Foodie Land Blog | Indian food and restaurant reviews

The Italian Road Trip @ ALBA | JW Marriott Hotel | Bangalore

Home-made pappardelle, duck ragout & smoked duck

So what do you guys think of a road trip?

Ok, then how about an Italian Road Trip?

This road trip is probably not the same which crossed your mind. In fact, this Italian Road Trip is about an ongoing culinary trip through certain regions of Italy namely: Piedmont, Sicily & Tuscany. This Italian Food Festival is running at one of the best restaurants for Italian Cuisine in Bangalore: ALBA at the JW Marriott Hotel.

They have an elaborate a la carte menu for this but we tried a set menu consisting of Antipasti, Primi, Secondi & Dolci.

We had the following items:

Milfoil with slow cooked chicken with roasted bell pepper, charcoal onion and garlic and anchovies sauce: Beautiful presentation, perfectly cooked chicken, light smoked onions and a mouth-watering sauce were its highlights!

Home-made pappardelle, duck ragout & smoked duck: The highlights were the smoked and juicy strips of duck along with the ragout which not only blended well with the pappardelle pasta but tasted phenomenal! The pasta was al dente.

Chilean Sea Bass with Trapani style Couscous and Ghiotta sauce: Even magnificent does not come close to how well the fish was done. It was juicier than any sea bass we tasted before. The texture of the couscous along with the sauce complemented well with the fresh fish.

Milfoil with slow cooked chicken with roasted bell pepper, charcoal onion and garlic and anchovies sauce

Chilean Sea Bass with Trapani style Couscous and Ghiotta sauce

Cacao, Amaretti & caramel pudding with blueberry: It was mildly sweet with well-defined layers and soft too. A scoop of this with the blueberry alongside and enjoy the magic! There was a lot of cacao in it which also gave it a bitter after taste.

Now that’s a very short snippet of what we thought of this lip smacking Italian Road Trip.

We tried two other items: A ravioli preparation with ricotta and eggplant ragout and another dessert called the fruit cannolo which was very heavy.

All the items we tried were high on natural flavours and brilliantly executed.

Cacao, Amaretti & caramel pudding with blueberry

Fruit Cannolo

It is the culinary expertise of Chef Matteo which made this possible.

This is on till the 12^th so do try & plan a visit to experience these masterpieces!

Do let us know about your experience.

Till then—stay tuned and bon apetit!

15:00
1 Comments

The North Italian Food Festival @ Alto Vino | Marriott Whitefield | Bangalore

Alto Vino

Potato Gnocci with lamb ragout and cream of parcini

We, as in those who love food think about Cuisine in general but rarely do we think about the regions involved especially when it comes to foreign Cuisine. For us, there is North Indian, South Indian, Punjabi, Bengali etc. so the same applies for other Cuisines too!

So, this time we were invited to Alto Vino, Marriott Whitefield’s specialty Italian restaurant for experiencing their one of a kind North Italian Food Festival, specially curated by Chef Marou who himself hails from Northern Italy.

Although Italian Cuisine has the same base concept, different regions use different herbs and ingredients and techniques so there is a lot more involved than it seems.

We had Mr. Viraj Sawant with us for dinner who is a well-known sommelier and he talked a lot about the wines which he had chosen to pair with the food. We had two white variants and a red. The first one was citrusy and acidic, the second variant called Gavi had mellowed notes. Lastly the red did not have the kick we expected but had the correct amount of tartness.

We tried a set menu which was specially crafted for wine pairing. Let us take you through the highlights of our North Italian meal:

19:41
2 Comments

The Bombay Brasserie Experience | Indiranagar | Bangalore

bangalore

Ras-E-Aam

We are back!

This time we have news about yet another new restaurant in Bangalore which has a name you will remember and if you visit, the food will stick to your palate for quite some time because delectable items are their speciality!

So, the new member is none other than Bombay Brasserie which launched very recently and it is located in Indiranagar. The word Brasserie means a restaurant in French style and which also serves conventional food in an unconventional way. In this case, we found glimpses of French and Italian style here and the food hits the spot.

Let's take you through what we tried.

We tried quite a few items and it was difficult to mark our favourites as most of them fit the bill!

From the beginning: The Aam Papad Paneer, Marathi Jhinga Mirch and the Calcutta Club Fish Fry were our starters.

Side by side, two drinks: Southern Express & Sailor’s Spiced.

The Aam Papad Paneer was very appetizing. The quantity was sufficient with big chunks of Paneer & Lotus stems. It was tangy & spicy with a hint of mango which you’ll feel in every bite.

The Fish Fry was done perfectly like the ones available in Calcutta, except for the fish of course. Normally Bhetki is used but in this case they used another type of fish. The fish was fresh and the coating was really thin so thumbs up!

The Marathi Jhinga Mirch was amazing. Good sized prawns tossed in a spicy mixture of chillies and garlic. It also had peanuts in it which gave it a good crunch. It was not too spicy and really well balanced in terms of flavours.

The drinks were perfect alongside these starters. The latter was not sweet but had a spicy touch. The former tasted like Rum and coke but with a whole lot of additives. Both tasted unique and went well with the food, especially the Paneer.

Aam Papad Paneer

Calcutta Club Fish Fry

Marathi Jhinga Mirch

Sailor's Spiced

Now for the big main course:

Old Delhi Murgh Boti with Butter Roomali, Galawati Kebab, Kashmiri Naan Kebab, Mario’s Mango Prawns with Coconut rice & Goan Prawn Biriyani.

The first three gave us a taste of what proper North Indian kebabs taste like!

The Murgh Boti was soft, tender and spicy. The Roomali was soft, not too stretchy and a perfect partner for the Boti. Taste it to believe it!

All we have to say about the Galawati Kebab is: If you don’t know what melt in the mouth feels like, try this!

The Kashmiri Naan Kebab looks humungous but it was insanely tasty and we didn’t realize that we finished it off! The kebab was all about good old lamb and a combination of spices and coriander. It tasted phenomenal!

About the Mango Prawns: The gravy was delicious and the prawns were juicy but the star of this dish was the Coconut rice. The flavour of coconut was so refined and this creamy rice was itself enough to please us. Plus along with the tangy mango based gravy it tasted even better.

The Biriyani was spicy and lip smacking! It is more of a Lucknow style biriyani with loads of fresh & sweet prawns.

Old Delhi Murgh Boti with Butter Roomali

Galawati Kebab

Kashmiri Naan Kebab

Mario's Mango Prawns with Coconut Rice

Lastly, dessert time:

Ras-e-Aam and the Mintu’s Chocolate Surprise ended our delicious meal.

The latter needs some improvement. It’s like a chocolate crepe with hazelnut spread. It has chocolate, so it’s doable but the paratha was a little stiffer than expected.

The former was one of the best desserts we have had. It is a fusion of Roshogolla, Rabdi and Aam Ras. The presentation was amazing and the taste was unparalleled! The Roshogollas were spongy and had a glazing of aam ras. The pool of Rabdi had the perfect consistency and we look forward to trying this another time!

Mintu's Chocolate Surprise

That’s our Bombay Brasserie Experience, short and sweet.

The visiting crowd here is quite polished. We visited on a Thursday night and it was pretty full. Their pricing, quantity & quality all fall in line and no wonder people love visiting!

Do give them a visit if you want to have a good & reliable experience.

We’ll be back soon with more updates.

Till then—keep munching, keep rocking & bon apetit!

22:36
0 Comments

Lagan Nu Bhonu @ SodaBottleOpenerWala | Bangalore

bangalore

Weddings are always an extravagant affair irrespective of culture. We have been to SodaBottleOpenerWala quite a few times for the launch of their new menu and their New Year feast called the Navroze Bhonu. This time, our visit was because SBOW is celebrating their 3 year anniversary and the celebrations are in the form of a month long traditional Parsi wedding feast.

The Parsi wedding feast or the Lagan Nu Bhonu is mostly associated with non-vegetarian items like chicken, mutton and egg and also fish & rice which is considered to be a good luck charm. However, that would not be fair for the vegetarians so they do have vegetarian options as well. The Bhonu is in the form of a thali which has two variants as mentioned.

They serve a special & nearly extinct variety of raspberry soda which is a must try followed by the usual non veg or veg thali and then 2 varieties of dessert.