Foodie Land Blog | Indian food and restaurant reviews

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

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 15^th 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!

22:18
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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!

16:09
12 Comments

The Mexican Food Festival @ Barbeque Nation | Bangalore

bangalore

Aam Punch & Mango Delight

Well it’s time for another festival!

We (Indians) mention this restaurant whenever we are questioned about a buffet. Any guesses?

It’s none other than Barbeque Nation and this post is all about their new ongoing Mexican Food Festival. The natural expectation is that there is a lot of spiciness involved especially on the grill.

Without further ado, let’s walk you through what this festival has to offer. This is Barbeque Nation we are talking about so quality and quantity both remain un-compromised.

Their setup is classic and everyone around will be in Mexican attire to give you that authentic feel. About the food, initially they give less spicy kebabs on the grill as they don’t want to kill you but the real deal starts when you request for spicy stuff.

20:34
5 Comments

The Whitefield Arms Experience @ The VR Bengaluru

bangalore

Chocolate Sin

Earlier we used to visit restaurants only in our vicinity for convenience, but now we have expanded our circle of concern & influence.

Because of that, we not only have larger exposure but have an array of unvisited restaurants!

This post is dedicated to one of our recent encounters with a beautiful outside & a funky inside: The Whitefield Arms.

The Whitefield Arms if a pub cum restaurant which will amaze you! From the outside, it has beautiful ambient light with flowers, wooden seating arrangements & speakers which look like stone. From the inside, it’s dim with decent music & comfortable seating arrangements. Their bar is huge by the way!