Mad Men: Global Fusion

Global Fusion is a new restaurant from the China Gate group. It is at the top of the Croma mall building on Linking Road, Bandra, Mumbai.

I went there twice in the last two weeks. Consider the facts;

- they have a sushi counter with a wide variety of lovely sushi and sashimi
- a dumplings counter with an array of dim sums – crab, chicken, prawn, just name it
- Oriental salads – I was particularly in love with the sticky and sweet khimchi squids
- a live Japanese grill counter – delectable Tepenyaki prawns, huge prawn tempura with a very fine, thin crust, stuffed wings and so on
- great Chinese steamed dishes. The steamed garoupa was to die for and the steamed prawn was very well flavoured
- the soups were good and the Tom Yum was hot, spicy and authentic
- a main course which had crabs and big prawns on both days. Both were quite fresh and tasty. And regular meats too and some nice fried rice and hakka noodles
- unlimited green tea, ice tea and soft drinks. They have alcohol which you can order separately. I skip this so that I can eat till I burst
- and wait, there is the dessert counter. This has an assortment of Baskin Robbins ice creams and a range of mini cheese cakes, litchi slushes and so on

The ambience was quite nice with a high ceiling, Japanese ponds and the odd Oriental open huts too for groups.

The name, Global Fusion, is intriguing as the menu is Oriental (Chinese, Japanese, Thai) and not global.

It apparently has 131 dishes. I feel it has something everyone. Adventurous folks would thrive on the sushi, sashimi, sticky rice and other less common dishes. I don't think there was any pork or beef though. They have the ‘traditional’ spicy Chinese fare of Indian restaurants. There are enough and more grilled and steamed stuff for the health conscious. And don’t get put off if you are a vegetarian. They have most of the above dishes, including sushi (!), in vegetarian options.

I know this reads like a paid review but I thought I owed this to them after the Emperor’s feasts that I had there at a ridiculously cheap price of Rs 750 (15 USD). This is the rate on Monday to Thursday. It is 100 Rs more expensive on Fridays and weekends.

I wonder how long they will be able to keep this pricing on.

Photos:

Great desserts. I love Baskin Robbins:


Sui Mui from the dumpling counter: Its difficult to wax eloquent on something that's so healthy

Steamed prawns: the sauce was more delicate than the finest silk

The sushi counter: the sushi was as good as any that I have had

Stuffed bird wings: who says exotica doesn't come cheap

Khimchi squids: I must have 5 little bowls in my two visits

I love sushi. Made an insane number of trips to refill

Those days

I am down with food poisoning since morning. The culprit was a tuna salad sandwich which I bought yesterday and had for breakfast today. I went for work but came home mid way.

So this 5 feet eleven inches man weighing a good 85 kilos was felled by a little tuna.

I am quite acquainted with the drill by now - nausea, fever (mild this time), stomach cramps. I wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow. But work beckons.

My Mom and brother are coming tomorrow and we are all off to Goa, the land of food on Wednesday. Need to be up by then.

The doctor is quite used to the regularity with which I come with my food poisoning woes. I am quite susceptible to fish. She knows that I am a foodie and I wonder whether she takes me seriously. In fact she gave the recipe for pork chops the first time I went to her with my cramps.

A woman's cramps could hardly more regular!

Anyway went to Candies for a hot chocolate. That's a tradition I have started to follow a visit to the doctor.

Number 3

I started my third blog, Mumbai Coffee House, today.

I have often felt constrained by the fact that my current blogs are about food and travel. Doesn't give one the scope to write on life beyond food and travel. I heard there is such a thing.

Coincidentally I started it on a day when I complete ten years at Mumbai. If that doesn't fill one up with experiences, then nothing would.

Lazy liver

“Liver is good for you”, I kept hearing this from my mother while growing up. I used to kick a fuss about eating this bitter cut of meat. Then when I grew up I was told it was bad for cholesterol so I happily stayed away from it.

Then I met a woman who loves liver and most other organs (these form a big part of the Parsi diet). Then I married her. I am a bit of a food bully so my preferences largely determine our dinner fare. So liver rarely features there. I make quite a decent liver fry though.

I made this after ages for Kainaz the other day.

Here’s my recipe for liver:

Cast:

- 1 tea vegetable spoon oil
- 250 g chicken liver, cut into small peices
- ½ finely chopped onion
- 1 chopped tomatoes
- ½ table spoon grated ginger

- 1 potato - cut into small cubes and parboiled - 6 minutes in a micro
- 5,6 curry leaves
- Spices – 1 tea spoon each – jeera (cumin) powder, garam masala, ½ tea spoon each – red chilly powder, black pepper powder, table salt. I added a tea spoon of tandoori masala and East Indian bottled masala which was at home but are not crucial
- Green capsicum/ bell pepper


Story
- heat the oil in a pan
- add the curry leaves
- add the onion and sauté them till the onion is translucent
- add the tomato and stir till the tomato pieces go soft

- add the potato and the spices (there can be no liver without potatoes says the missus)
- add the liver and stir till the liver becomes dry and firm from the original pink
- add the capsicum and stir for a couple of minutes
- The end

Duration – 15 - 20 minutes from start to finish

Best had with parathas

Note: I realized that we have three bulbs in our kitchen which focus on the bus table. So I experimented taking photos without the flash. I thought the effect was quite nice. The 'burnt' (photo, not food term) look which comes with flash in macro wasn’t there.

The Knife on the web

I did a review for Feastguru after quite a while. Feastguru's 'chief foodie', Kirti (in the picture below) and I became friends through Orkut over discussions on Bengali food and Bombay restaurants.




Apart from being a fellow crazy foodie I quite admire his desire to follow his passion. Feastguru is a result of that. Kirti takes fantastic food photos. He also makes kick ass Calcutta styled biriyani apart from some great pork spares and phirni. He is a big hearted host and I hope he takes all the hints and invites us again soon.



My first formal review was on feastguru and so Kirti is my first food editor.



Luckily he no longer has a space constraint and can allow me to wax eloquent without much editing. This is my review of Flags which is pretty similar to what I had put on the blog http://www.feastguru.com/restaurant-reviews/1-restaurant-reviews/682-the-world-on-your-platter-flags-colaba.html

I have still not made any money out of food writing but I have at least got a few free meals so far!

Notes: well wishers who are worried that I ate all the stuff at Flags needn't worry as I had a couple of spoons everything except the drinks which I finished.

The world on your platter: Flags, Colaba, Mumbai

I was quite intrigued when I heard that there was a restaurant called Flags. Feastguru approached me to review this Colaba based restaurant for them. I requested our friend, Jamshed, who has seen the world and eaten the best it has to offer to accompany me.

A little reading up on the restaurant indicated that they serve cuisines from all parts of the world. Just the sort of thing for yours truly, the international man of food. Yes, I can at least be the 007 of the food world, a license to eat, demolisher of plates…

Well I’d better get back to Flags before I get carried away!

The menu at Flags did live up to its international food billing. Where else would you find mutton rogan josh, lamb mussaman curry and Sri Lankan mutton curry beside each other in the same menu card? In fact they test your geography skills at Flags. They have put arrows from the food items to a world item leaving you to guess where the dish comes from. Though they have promised to put the names of the countries on the menu soon.

I must confess that I was a bit sceptical about the concept. Indian cooks, remembering their NRI days, a bit of everything on the menu… it had the potential to be a recipe for disaster.

I was quite happy with what I saw by the end of the meal.

So let’s start with the tipple quotient. I had a green apple Margherita which was quite nice. The green apple flavour was subtle and the salt on the rim of the glass was a nice taste breaker. I later tried a Mojito which was again refreshing and well balanced. My only grouse was that Halle Berry didn’t pop up in a bikini after I took a sip. Jamshed tried a spicy Bloody Mary and seemed quite happy with what he got.

I also tried a pomegranate Martini. The folks at Flags were quite proud of their fresh fruit Martinis. This didn’t work for me though. It was a tad too sweet. I guess I don’t like my spirits to be healthy.

Our international jaunt then started with the appetizers.

We had a Creole Cottage Cheese (USA, Rs 225, 4 USD). The sight of this set made the mouths of us die hard non vegetarians water. It was a really beautiful dish. The cottage cheese had a nice bite of red chilly flakes. What I liked is that this offered vegetarians a flavour of an otherwise sea food dominated cuisine from New Orleans. See, and people say I am not kind to vegetarians!

We tried the buffalo chicken strips (USA, Rs 250, 5 USD) next. This had a nice tomato based barbecue sauce. The dish really came alive when one had this with the accompanying garlic mayo dip. Interestingly this was a boneless chicken wing dish. So one could enjoy the tender cut of meat without the usual mess one associates with chicken wings.

We then shifted to slightly more exotic locales with the Columbian Aji prawns (Rs 500, 10 USD). The prawns were huge and fresh and char grilled to perfection. It had a burnt edge without being hard or over cooked. The prawns were very juicy and had a strong, spicy after taste which hit you a bit after you bit into it. This was quite thrilling. The experience was slightly marred as the dish was a bit salty. I pointed this out and they would hopefully get the balance right in the future.


We shifted to the main course after a fairly pleasant start. Normally I prefer the starters to the main course. But I must admit that I was blown over by the main course dishes at Flags. They were truly memorable.

I tried a Greek (!) pizza (Rs 350, 7 USD). This Greek take on a quintessential Italian dish was a master piece. I had it twenty minutes after they brought it to the table as I was busy photographing the food. You would expect the pizza to become chewy and the cheese to become a lump? Well the Greek pizza remained miraculously soft, light and crispy despite being out in the open for a while. The toppings of feta cheese, chicken, olives and ‘Greek dressings’ was a fantastic combination. I would strongly recommend this to pizza lovers. This is one battle where Alexander seems to have left good old Julius Caesar behind.



We then had a Grilled Chicken Pontablo (USA, Rs 300, 6 USD). This chicken steak was served in a lovely wine sauce. I am not much of a steak person but Jamshed liked it quite a bit. The chicken was quite tender despite the breast pieces. They apparently avoid my favourite cut, leg pieces, as they prefer to serve boneless cuts at Flags.

Flags has a great bread basket. I love good breads and nothing gives more joy than soft, slightly crusty, well flavoured bread. This is not complementary at Flags though and is priced at Rs 125 (3 USD).

We then headed to the Far East where we had a vegetarian Khauwse (Burma, Rs 300, 6 USD). I had wanted to try this dish for long and I seemed to have come to the right place. This coconut milk based noodle dish tasted heavenly. The sauce was mild and creamy. Yet it had a strong coconut overtone reminiscent of the Far Eastern tropics. We mixed the accompanying crispy noodles, fried onions and vegetables which would give sudden, cheerful crunches in between the maternal bites of steamed noodles. I didn’t miss the lack of meats at all.

We closed our dinner with a Massaman curry (Malaysia, Rs 350, 7 USD with lemon rice). This tasted quite authentic and took my back to our holiday at Malaysia a couple of years back. The curry had a nice blend of tanginess from lemon grass, nuttiness from peanuts and was held together by creamy, coconut milk. Jamshed, who had begun to miss rice by then, enjoyed the lemon rice which came with it. Both of us were floored by the quality of lamb. These were astonishingly tender and were interspersed by the occasional, seductive bite of fat. It was clearly one of the tenderest cuts of lamb that we had ever had.

Our world tour ended in a pretty sweet manner. We had a chocolate ganouche torte (Rs 250, 5 USD). The mousse base was firm with the right amount of sweetness. The quality of chocolate was very good and there was a strong taste of liquor. It was served cold which was soothing after the heavy dinner.

We also tried a Banofie pie (Rs 250, 5 USD). The staff insisted on this so I thought I’d indulge them. The result was a quite a mind blowing and formed the perfect, sweet end to the night. It had a nice condensed milk like taste which I am particularly fond. I finished quite a bit though I was stuffed to the gills by then.

And the true international man of food, Jamshed Adrianvala, gave Flags his stamp of approval.

So how would I sum up the Flags experience?

You should go here if you want to ‘sample’ cuisines from all over. Especially, if you want to try those that are not as easily available at Mumbai. The pricing (average dish price of Rs 400, 8 USD) seems to be at par with restaurants of its standard. In fact the pricing is probably a bit on the lower side given the exotica at offer. It is also a good place to come to if you are in a group where people have different preferences or can’t decide on what to eat.

The ambience is muted and classy – a lot of wood and dim lights. It gives you a sense of privacy and yet has a buzz. Though I must say that I didn’t find the décor distinctive or very impactful in comparison to places such as Moshes, Indigo Deli or Out of The Blue which are my favourites in the same price range.

You would do better at specialty restaurants if you want to explore specific cuisines such as Thai, Japanese, etc in depth. But like I said this is the place to come to if you want Japanese, and Turkish and Brazillian.

They don’t serve pork or beef at Flags which slightly limits the international experience.

Disclaimer: the food and drinks in the review were sponsored by Flags restaurant.

Chicken soup for a hard day's night

I had gone up to warm my lunch at the office micro a couple of days back.

I (involuntarily!) eavesdropped on the conversation of a couple of girls who were heating their food. One was telling the other how she found cooking to be a stress buster. She went on to say that she would forget whatever happened at work as she began to cook.

Actually that used to be true for me too. I cooked fairly regularly for the past seven years. And yes, I did enjoy putting a good meal together. There was a sense of accomplishment. Planning out the dish and putting it together did help me forget the moments that made up a dull day.

Then I handed over the kitchen to our maid, Banu. My role now is limited to teaching her how to cook.

But eavesdropping on this pop psychology did give me an idea. I was in need of some serious anger managment that day.

A friend of ours from K's office had cooked some amazing pork spare ribs. He had sent a special stash for me. The honey spares were out of the world. They backed his claim that he often goes to restaurants and feels that he could make better stuff at home. I have rarely had such good spare ribs before.

That's when the idea of cooking my way out of working class alienation struck me. I picked up some vegetables and noodles from the market after my walks, used the couple of eggs and sauce sachets at home and made an egg hakka noodle.

Results:

• An egg hakka befitting the glorious spares
• Our new kitchen was inaugurated
• What me worry?

Calcutta Roll Centre: flatters to deceive

I had earlier written posts praising the rolls at Calcutta Roll Centre, Bandra, Linking Road.

We went there on 31st evening and had the chicken kosha rolls. Must say that we were quite disappointed. So I thought that I must put a disclaimer.

The nice, firm chicken kebabs were replaced by a chicken curry, a la Frankie. And my repeated requests to them to fry the onions were turned down. Apparently their seth has forbidden them to!

Another one bites the dust.

I guess you need to come to Confidence Apartments for good chicken rolls. Sumeru Malabar paratha willing.

Spicy, but defintely not fishy...Jai Hind

Years back, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, coined the slogan ‘Jai Hind’ to rally his army in our fight for independence. Political leaders still end their speeches with ‘Jai Hind’.

Today though, when a colleague of ours got into cab and said Jai Hind, she was referring to the chain of Malvani restaurants at Mumbai called Jai Hind.

Jai Hind had started as a simple, local sea food joint. They have spread quite a bit since. Branches which come to mind are opposite Kamla Mills (favoured by the office crowd), before Dadar station on Tulsi Pipe Road, Pali Naka (a simple one), Hill Road. The core cuisine here is Malwani.

What begun as an office lunch ended up as a slightly coerced birthday treat from a colleague at the Kamala Mills, Jai Hind today. Apparently who was bullied into it, rather quickly I must say, by the girls in our group. He did look a bit dazed through lunch though he sportingly allowed me to take over the ordering. That's my prerogative when we go out in a group. Still, thanks Ashish!

The food was splendid. Eating it hot and fresh was quite different from what we ordered home a few days back.

The bombil (Bombay duck) stuffed with tiny prawns was a delight. The bite of tiny, spicy prawns, inside the crisp, blander fish shell is a delight. Welcome to the Mumbai version of the Peking Duck. Just look at the picture below. Have you ever seen anything more beautiful? I would trade this picture anyday for a picture of Angelie Jolie. Or would I?


We had fried fish – surmai and Bombay Duck – both were out of the world. Surmai (king fish) can be chewy if not fried well. Not at Jai Hind. Here it was juicy and a joy to eat. The masala it was flavoured in really brought it alive. Not literally of course.



The Bombay Duck was nice and crisp. The semolina and egg batter was very faint so one could enjoy the fish. As my mom in law, who loves Bombay Ducks, would say, “worth repeating!”.



We had a lovely prawn chilly fry for the main course - fresh prawns in a thick, fiery, coconut based, red masala tempered with curry leaves. The picture below gives you an idea of its volcanic taste. This is quite different from the vinegar and tomato based, less spicy, Goan prawn chilly fry.

We had this with neer dosas which helped us break the spice. These flimsy dosas were nice, hot and had a slight, pleasant, firmness to it.

We had a chicken sukha too. This is a thick dessicated coconut based chicken dish which Malvani restaurants make fairly well. And it tasted quite different from the prawn chilly fry.

What I liked about Jai Hind was that the fish, prawns and meats were extremely fresh.

In case you are still wondering about how much I ate then I guess the round cheeks are a clear indicator. Must go home and walk today.

Jai Hind is fairly marketing savvy so they have something for vegetarians too. One of us who were abstaining from non veg today had palak rice. This is her favourite here. Her eyes lit up after she ordered a masala papad. This is papad (popadam) garnished with chopped tomatoes, onions, coriander and chilly.



How were these? You are asking the wrong man.

Note: This was a treat so I am not sure of the prices. But I think individual dishes hover around Rs 100 (2 USD)

Living out of the box

We shifted into our new place on Saturday.

We have rented a place which is fairly close to our house at Pali Naka, Bandra. The jury is out about whether we shifted because it is a larger place or because it is even closer to Candies. What to do you think?

Well, we don’t have cupboards right now so our clothes are in cartons and we are literally living out of the box.

Luckily the kitchen is somewhat set though we are yet to connect the LPG. So we are back to the initial days of our first house when we depended on home deliveries and the micro wave for food.

There is an interesting problem at this house when it comes to home deliveries. The building door is locked at ten and flat owners get individual locks.

We did not have this on the first night. So we ordered dinner by 8 PM and sat quietly when we felt like an ice cream after dinner. The closest one has come to incarceration so far.

We got the key the next day and seems that restaurants here know the code. So ordering dinner in worked well so far.

We also picked up dinner from Candies last night. After picking up breakfast (why no petite fours with takeaway coffee, that’s petty) and lunch for office. I picked up a butter chicken from Candies. This is the first time I picked an Indian entrée from there. It was quite tasty. And came with two fairly nice and soft rumali rotis. And we got the post 8 PM 25% discount. Kainaz had a beef rendang which was pretty good, as always.

We had enough of ordering out by last night so I picked up some chicken and Sanjiv Kapoor’s methi chicken mix. You put the two together with 1.5 cups of water and bung it in the micro for 12 minutes. I tasted a bit after Banu made it. Tastes quite good. This was a pleasant change from the other mixes which we have tried which are normally heavier. I guess Sanjiv Kapoor would ask for a certain quality before putting his name to a product. This is a good option for people who can’t cook but don’t want to order out. The spice pack costs Rs 44 or 1 USD.

I hope our gas/ LPG is connected soon. Need to inaugurate our kitchen by whipping up something. All I have made so far is coffee.

By the way we painted our kitchen walls in this nice Goan Portuguese blue. At the risk of sounding like a stalker, Candies has the same blue and white scheme going.

My 8 cc of fame: the Knife in press

We shifted into our new place on Saturday night. We have rented a place which is even closer to Candies.

Sunday was our first morning in the new house. Sunday was also the day when my first food and travel article came out in print. It came out in Mumbai Mirror, a daily in Mumbai!

I haven’t stopped grinning since then. This was like a dream come true.

Don’t get me wrong. I am indebted to whoever invented blogging and the folks at Google and Blogspot. I have really enjoyed every moment of blogging. I loved the opportunity it gave me to do something I love, to write. And on things which I love; food and travel.

But I also belong to a generation to whom print rules. To me getting published in a leading publication is right up there with the best things in life. Also you are your own editor in your blog. Here someone has to approve of what you write, like it and publish it.

As a fellow blogger had once said, behind every blogger is an aspiring author. Well it’s been a start. Tiny in the scheme of the universe but it means a lot to me.

In fact I owe this article to my blog. A lady from Mumbai Mirror wrote to me on my food blog asking me if I would write something on food on travel. This was around last September.

I jumped at the opportunity and wrote one on my Singapore trip on my travel blog.

A few months of anxious waiting later it came out yesterday!

Interestingly my first job, all of one month, was as a sub ed for a newspaper called Asian Age when they had started in Calcutta in 1995. Then I went on to do my MBA. Sometimes I wonder how life would have been if I had stuck to writing. That's clearly what I love the most. At least thanks to blogs I can follow that up now.

Disclaimer: The headline of the article is not mine. Mine was 'In search of the chilly crab trail. Rest is trimmed but not changed as such.

Great things happen Out Of The Blue

I thought I will write my first post of the year on one of our long standing favourites, Out Of The Blue (OOB). This is the continental restaurant at Bandra, Ambedkar Road.

I had first heard of it as one of the two places that served fondues in the early 2000s. The other was Starters and More which has shut down now.

Kainaz and I first went to Out Of the Blue while we were dating in 2000. We dug into the wondrous, cheesy world of fondues. It was a discovery which in our world matched up with Colombus’ discovery of the Americas. Little bits of meat to dip in a pot of melted cheese. Few experiences can match up with this.

I also associated them with the variety of flavours which they introduced in sizzlers which went beyond the pepper sauce and shaslik fare of Kobes and Yokos. Plus OOB offered small and large portions which allowed Kainaz and me to chose individual platters.

Over the years OOB remained a favourite of ours.

Out of the Blue has a nice ambiance. It has an indoor section as well as an outdoor one. It has expanded since when it had first opened.

There is a certain magic in the air here which is difficult to define. The place is very smartly designed. The dark wood furniture, the candle lights at night, the pebbled section at the entrance with a tiny fish pond gives a lovely laidback, relaxed feel to it.

It has become a bit of a special occasion place for us. And it is not just about the ambiance. The food here is really memorable.

We have explored their menu beyond the sizzlers and the fondues. They serve great pastas. The best thing about their pastas is that they get it to the table fresh and hot. In fact I have often seen the chefs get it straight to the table from the kitchen.

We love their four cheese pasta which is a cheese lover’s (we both are) delight. I love their penne pesto too as it is one of the few places which understand you if you want a non creamy pesto. We went there yesterday, 1st January, and had a lovely penne pesto with prawns. The penne flavour is very delicate and you can make out a fine balance of basil, cheese, garlic and olive oil. No ingredient is over powered by the other. In fact they are one of the few places who always get a pesto right.

They have lovely barbecues as well. Yesterday we had a barbecued pork with sage. The meat had a slight ham like taste, was very tender and the sauce was amazing. Each bite was a pleasure. They had presented the dish very nicely on a dish of garlic flavoured hash. The look of the dish itself was orgasmic (the photo below is from my mobile camera). As was the taste.

I am also fond of their red ginger pork spare rib sizzler. This is very different from what gets elsewhere. The quality of the pork is fantastic, extremely tender and fresh. Plus you don’t get pork in most of the standard sizzler restaurants here. The sauce is very different too.

The wine list is quite wide and they have a good selection of drinks. I am often tempted to go in for a nice red wine, martini or vanilla Absolut here over my usual poison of Old Monk rum. These add to the bill considerably but brings alive the meal.

Kainaz and I love Out Of the Blue. I have also recommended it to, and gone with, colleagues, clients, friends and family members. And each visit has been successful as whoever I have suggested Out Of The Blue too has loved it.

I would consider Out Of the Blue on the steep side. The average dish costs between Rs 250 – 500 (5 – 10 USD) and the drinks touch Rs 300 (6 USD). Basilico and Pot Pourri at Bandra would be cheaper options. But Out of the Blue would be more memorable both in terms of experience and in terms of the food.