Cuisines Of The Coast @ Nook | Aloft Cessna Business Park | Bangalore

Aloft
Cuisines Of The Coast @ Nook | Aloft Cessna Business Park | Bangalore
Crab & Chicken preparation served with Kerala Paratha

Honestly speaking: we have been to so many food festivals that we have actually lost count! This time, we bring to you news about another special & unique festival which is running at Nook, Aloft Hotel, Cessna Business Park, Bangalore.

The Cuisines of the Coast festival highlights the food available in the coastal regions of India: mostly Kerala & Goa.

We’ll make this one short & sweet so you know what to target if you visit!

With their infrastructure, they could have made this festival larger than life but it did not quite live up to our expectations.

A few highlights of the festival: Tender coconut water, Chicken Cafreal, any crab preparation you can get your hands on, Kerala Paratha, Chicken Kola Urundai, Sea Food Bar & the two insane prawn preparations we tried!

Apart from this there is a regular buffet with the normal items which are irresistible. The prawns were marvellous, especially the Prawns & Mango salad preparation. The dish had thin slices of mango, with big poached prawns & micro greens. It tasted heavenly and the prawns were mildly sweet even after perfect poaching.


Cuisines Of The Coast @ Nook | Aloft Cessna Business Park | Bangalore



We tried the Nandu Varutharachadu which was the crab preparation. It was spicy with loads of masala and tasted exceptional. The problem was with the meat which was non-existent.

The tender coconut water is a heat buster and it is always a good idea to take a sip before entering the buffet battlefield. The Chicken Cafreal met expectations and it was exactly the way it should be. The longing smell of coconut milk always feels good!

The Sea Food Bar was a bit disappointing. The prawns, squids, octopus & clams were simply boiled and served with sauces. It would have been much better if they were stir fried at least.

The Kaalan Milagu Piratti, a spicy Mushroom preparation with pepper had a tangy taste & had loads of onions. The Mushrooms were big in size and the overall preparation was pretty spicy. A similar preparation with prawns was served which tasted even better!

That’s about it from the festival point of view. About their regular buffet spread: Don’t forget to try out their fish preparations, especially in the starters section. Also, their Chinese starters are top notch but their Creamy Alfredo Pasta is just irresistible!

Cuisines Of The Coast @ Nook | Aloft Cessna Business Park | Bangalore
Prawn Salad



Dessert Section

About the desserts: Have a look at their Rasgulla bar. Their pastries are worth a try but the Puli Pitha was the star dessert of the festival. It is a Bengali classic prepared with milk & wanton like things in it which are stuffed with coconut, kheer etc. It was the real deal.
This festival is on till the 26th of this month.

So, if you have seafood & spicy coastal cuisine in mind: you know what to do!
We have given our recommendations so, do let us know about your experience if you decide to crash.

While you're at it, do check out their refreshing mocktails & cocktails. This festival does not have any designated drink other than the tender coconut water.

We’ll be back soon with another food festival.

Till then—live to eat & bon apetit ;)

The Hyderabadi Food Festival @ M Café | Marriott Whitefield | Bangalore

bangalore
The Hyderabadi Food Festival @ M Café | Marriott Whitefield | Bangalore

Anyone in the mood for some Hyderabadi Cuisine?

Well, the land of the NIzams have a lot in store when it comes to food and not everything is super spicy!

In this post we’ll talk about the Hyderabadi Food Festival, which is on at M Café, Marriott Whitefield Bangalore. This time they’ve mixed things up a bit and the outcome was rather pleasant.

So, moving forward:

For this festival, the setup is just outside the M Café entry so you can sniff up the aroma well in advance.


The Hyderabadi Food Festival @ M Café | Marriott Whitefield | Bangalore

We tried a whole lot of items from the special festival menu and the regular buffet and almost all of them deserve praise!

From the festival menu, the must tries are:

Starters: The Paneer & Lamb starters along with the Ulte Tawe ke Paratha

Their Haleem had a smooth consistency and was super heavy on the stomach! The taste was unparalleled and this was the culprit behind us getting full. It has shredded meat all over, with caramelized onions & a shallow fried egg on top. It was literally mouthwatering.

The Paneer starter was well done and soft. The Paratha along with the lamb starter tasted heavenly. The lamb was slight spicy and tasted similar to a mutton chaap but was boneless.

From the mains: The Lamb preparation called the Dakha Gosht and the Paneer Pista Korma deserve a try! The fact is, one you try these you might not be able to stop!
The former is cooked with lentils & is spicy and heavy but super delicious. The latter is a rich paneer preparation which is green in colour and the creamy consistency felt great with the soft cubes of paneer.
Biryanis @ The Hyderabadi Food Festival @ M Café | Marriott Whitefield | Bangalore
Biryanis: Chicken, Mutton & Veg

Vegetarian Main Course Preparations

Haleem & Fish Tikka @ The Hyderabadi Food Festival @ M Café | Marriott Whitefield | Bangalore
Haleem & Fish Tikka


The Biriyanis tasted different and were pretty decent. They were prepared in a different style and were slightly spicy.

Now it’s time for dessert.

Everything is worth a try but the special ones were: The paper type dessert which was fun to have. Its name is very complicated though. The Cham Cham was spongy and tasted good. A little less sweet and it would have been much better.
Desserts@The Hyderabadi Food Festival @ M Café | Marriott Whitefield | Bangalore
Desserts Counter

Lastly, the beetroot halwa was amazing. The colour, crunch added by the almonds and the taste was top notch. Moreover, it had the right amount of sweetness as well.
There are many things to explore in this festival and we have merely given a glimpse of what we feel is worth a shot.

That’s all from our side!

The festival is on till the 25th of this month.

Do let us know about your experience if you visit.

Till then—rock on & bon apetit!

The Cheung Fun Festival @ Zen | The Leela Palace | Bangalore

bangalore
Steam Angus with Spicy Hoisin Cheung Fun @ The Cheung Fun Festival @ Zen | The Leela Palace | Bangalore
Steam Angus with Spicy Hoisin Cheung Fun

Cheung Fun anyone?

Well it’s time for something new again and this time we bring to you a Cheung Fun festival. We have tried Cheung Fun before, but this is the first time we have been to a festival dedicated to them!

So, this time we were invited to Zen, The Leela Palace Bangalore for experiencing this festival. Even before we get to the food, the grandeur & simplicity of Zen is enough to transform any experience. Such an ambience always has an effect on dining because it is the entire package which matters.

Not only did we indulge in a luxurious dining experience, but also most of the items deserve praise.



Moving on to what we tried:

7 varieties of Cheung Fun were on the tasting menu out of which 4 were non-veg and 3 were veg.

In non-veg, there was Chicken, Prawn, Angus (Beef) & Pork whereas for veg: Asparagus, Crispy Vegetable & 3-way Mushroom.

So, we’ll take you through the highlights of this tasting menu.

The must tries from the non-veg Cheung Fun are:

The Steam Chicken & Black Pepper Cheung Fun & the Steam Angus with Spicy Hoisin Cheung Fun. In both the cases the meat was tender & retained all the flavors of the sauce. Black pepper is a magic ingredient and although it might sound surprising: The chicken was the best of the lot! The flavors & the taste complemented perfectly. The beef was cooked exceptionally well as it is rare that it melts in the mouth. The Hoisin sauce goes well with beef preparations & the sweet and sour taste worked wonders.

The Crispy Prawn Cheung Fun was presented well & tasted great. The flying fish eggs on top gave a burst of flavor. The sauce and the Cheung Fun did not quite blend well, we believe and did not quite cut it.

Chicken Cheung Fun @ The Cheung Fun Festival @ Zen | The Leela Palace | Bangalore
Chicken Cheung Fun

Prawn Cheung Fun

The BBQ pork Cheung Fun had the best sauce out of them all, but the meat did not quite retain the flavors as expected.

We tried only two of the veg: Mushroom & the Crispy Veg.

The latter had quite a variety of vegetables in the roll & everything was well balanced and slightly crunchy. The former was mind blowing! There were 3 varieties of mushrooms in the Cheung Fun and all of them could be identified distinctly. An amazing preparation! The sauce, the truffle essence & decent sized mushroom chunks were the secret to its success.

That’s all from the festival menu.

Pork Cheung Fun

Wasabi Cheesecake

The Cheung Fun Festival @ Zen | The Leela Palace | Bangalore
Litchi sorbet with green tea

A special mention to the litchi sorbet & the Wasabi cheesecake which were both outstanding! The sorbet was so good & fresh that it felt like we were having fresh litchis. The cheesecake was made with fresh ingredients and one can make that out with one bite. The layering & the sweetness was perfect.

Hope you had a great time reading, because we sure enjoyed eating ;)

This festival is on till the 15th so, quite some time left. If you have Cheung Fun/Chinese on your mind: say Thank you!

We’ll be back soon with something tasty soon.


Till then— chillax & bon apetit!

Quality Nuts & Dry Fruits | Goingnuts.in | Bangalore

bangalore

In our fast paced lives we rarely get to do what we enjoy, leave aside leading a healthy lifestyle.

Even in our case, we eat out most of the time & no matter how healthy we try to eat at other times, it does not quite cut it.

One of the reasons why the number of restaurants keep rising is that we always choose convenience because the better things in life always require time & effort.

This post is dedicated to our Nutty future! We recently stumbled upon a website from which we ordered a lot of stuff and we were impressed at the value of money they provide and on top of that: Quality of the products.

The website we are talking about is: goingnuts.in and they specialize in quality nuts & dry fruits.
Their site is very informative as it contains a lot of details about their products apart from being user friendly.

Without further ado, let’s move on to what we tried and why we support their cause:
Walnuts (Without Shell)
We tried their Flax seeds, Chia seeds, Blueberries, Gojiberries, Hazelnuts, Dried dates & a few others. This post will not only be about these items but also about how we are currently using them.
The products mentioned above are all fresh, properly packaged and also the rates at which they are available are lesser than market standards.

Now for the items they sent us to try:

Walnuts without shell, Cranberries, Unfiltered Wild Raw Honey & a couple of Trail Mixes.
The ultimate challenge concerning walnuts is getting the stuff out, but in this case it’s all extracted before-hand. The only thing to do is munch on these fresh walnuts which are ultra-nutritious. For all the mentioned, we will not be listing health benefits as you can always Google it! ;)
Cranberries
Now comes the Cranberries! The cranberries have a tarty & sweet aftertaste. Going Nuts brings sulphate free quality Cranberries all the way from USA. Apart from what you can Google, this is one of the best available anti-oxidants & excellent for the urinary system.

The Trail Mixes from Going Nuts have a good balance in terms of nutrition, sharpness in taste & crunch. We are currently avoiding junk food by snacking on these babies as they might just help us live longer for a change! Going Nuts sent us the Peanut Trail Mix and another one called the Going Nuts Trail Mix.

The former has a predominance of peanuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, walnuts, chocolate chips & cranberries. It is balanced in terms of the crunch, the bitterness from the walnuts & the sweetness of the chocolate chips & the cranberries. They really have done their homework! It not only tastes good but also is high on nutritional value. A perfect carry on snack while travelling.
Peanut Trail Mix


The latter has a mix of walnuts, almonds, cranberries, blueberries and pumpkin seeds. This has a different focus than the above. It emphasizes more on health benefits, good carbs & anti-oxidants.

Now moving on to something which is rare indeed: The raw un-filtered honey!

If you have tasted wild honey, you must be knowing that none of the commercial brands sell honey that is even remotely close to that taste!

In this case, the honey is thick, has a darker colour & tastes very similar to wild honey. There is always a difference between the real thing and what we get packaged but this is very close to the real deal! In this case, we received the multi-flora variety. They have some more as well which you can check on their website.
Going Nuts Trail Mix


That’s all about the products which we have tried/ are trying. Now for the new stuff: How we are using them!

Well, morning shows the day and whatever energy we have throughout the day is the result of our body burning our breakfast so, the stress here is on breakfast and how nutritiously heavy & light on the stomach it can be.

We have plain instant oats boiled with water. Nothing so special about this right? Along with this we add diced berries: either cranberries or blueberries (A daily shot of antioxidants), crushed almonds/ walnuts for the crunch, some chia seeds/flax seeds (because it helps in weight loss) & finally the wild sweetener!

Now this works! Not only is it super light on the stomach, but also it has all the magic to keep you brimming with energy all day.

Since we do not do recipes, that’s all you’re going to get from us ;)

That’s all from our side. A big shout out to Going Nuts for their top notch products. We are using their products for quite some time now and we can really feel the difference.

They deliver only in Bangalore and the best part: orders above INR 749/- include free shipping.

For all those who value their health in these polluted times: Happy to help!

Do let us know your views if you try out their products. From our experience, we don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

We’ll be back with a bang soon!

Till then—love yourself & bon apetit!

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