On My Plate : Vikram Doctor

Sample these few juicy lines: This one protests about buffaloes being overlooked in favour of cows. Buffalo milk is the source of mozarella cheese. And inspite of having so many buffaloes in India, we are still importing from Italy. Dhikkaar!

I believe in buffaloes. Not so much in their existence, since they do a good job of existing whether or not anyone believes in them, but in their importance. I have lamented in the past in ET the prejudice that so many Indians, sadly even Mahatma Gandhi, have had for cows over buffaloes. The cultural and religious reasons usually advanced for this strike me as dubious , if not downright racist (or speciesist).

And then taste this, a narrative on the consumption of the humble banana in Germany (East, West and Unified):

Fruit at least was one thing they could buy, and that’s probably why so many bananas were bought in those first days. East Germans were soon eating double the amount of bananas than West Germans – whose consumption was already the highest in the EU. But bananas would also feature as the realities of reunification sunk in. West Germans patronisingly called East Germans ‘Bananen’, while Easterners accused the Westerners of practising patronising banana politics – one former Communist leader accused West German parties of handing out free bananas to lure voters in the 1990 elections.

Now, when one writes about food, it does not have to be about recipes or about cooking. It has to be about the place in culture and to use a Hindi word in the zahan of people. Finally, after much pleading, we have this blog by Vikram Doctor called On My Plate. Immediate bookmarking, adding RSS feeds to Google Reader, etc etc is recommended. And I believe Doc doesn’t mind the odd comment here and there, especially if there is a lead to another topic on food.

An evening in Moss

Saturday the 20th I was at Moss, a neat lounge in Bangalore and there were seven of us including Madhu Menon, the owner of the place. Here are some photographs of the evening. 

 

Savouring our rum

What did we drink?

1. A spicy drink with Old Monk base that Madhu concocted right there in front of us
2. Regular Old Monk with coke

What did we eat?

1. Drunken Beef (really outstanding stuff)
2. A fish preparation which I have forgotten what it is called
3. Black pepper prawns
4. Thai combo meal
5. An aubergine (baingan) dish
6. Chicken satay 

There were four of us from IIM Bangalore tho’ that was purely incidental. The conversations ranged from the latest on the recession, food, pop-culture, IPR issues in playing music in pubs and lounges, etc.

Good meal. Went back to my room in IIMB in an auto paying Rs. 200 for the fare. I have never paid anything more than Rs. 100 for an auto in Mumbai. The maximum I ever paid was when I was working in Delhi – I had to go to Greater NOIDA to the LG office from my office in Malviya Nagar. So I fixed an auto guy who took me there and brought me back. His meter ran out two times over.

Recession dinner time

A friend of mine who runs a lounge in Bangalore spoke of how the economic situation is hitting the fine dining places in many of the large cities. Popular hang out places are running 40%-50% – much much below normal. 

In Mumbai, the situation seems to be mixed. Today itself I came back from a dinner at Oh! Calcutta in Tardeo. I was with the wife and the wife’s parents. We had an elaborate meal. We made a reservation in the morning itself. We came in by 8.30 pm and took our seats. By 9 pm, the restaurant was full. Oh! Calcutta does have a reputation for leisurely service. With the restaurant full, the leisureliness became a tad too irritating.

Anyway, the point of the matter is that Tuesday evening, i.e. working day, we have a full restaurant where the average meal for four people is around Rs. 3K. So are people recovering from the economic crisis?

Cut to Toto’s Garage Pub in Bandra. A typical working day night would resemble a Borivili local train. Friday and Saturday nights would resemble a Virar local train. These days, it resembles the early morning harbour line trains. There’s enough place to stretch out horizontally and have your drink, zamindar style.

Of course, for Toto’s the additional hit happened because of Ramodoss’s smoking ban. The smoking ban has significantly changed the usage behaviour of the patrons of Toto’s. Now, half the customers are standing outside in the footpath puffing away. After one puff, customers go in, finish their drink and order one more. Even as the bar tender is preparing the next drink, they are back outside for another puff. And life goes on.

By the way, at Oh! Calcutta tonight, for those who are interested, we had the following

1. Mutton Ryzala
2. Shorshebata Ilish (with bones) – without bones is for the cowards and pretenders
3. Chittagong Chicken
4. Bhaja Platter – an assortment of fried vegetables including brinjals, bhendi, fulgobi and alu
5. Luchi
6. For starters, we had bhetki fish fry and prawn cutlet

For drinks I had Vodka with aam panna (which was interesting) and the wife tried Vodka with tender coconut water (which wasn’t exciting at all) .

The memories of Raan

Our friends Jenny and Dave have experienced Karim’s at Jama Masjid. The visuals and the talk of the heavenly fare brought back memories of one dinner on a cold winter night in December 2006. We started with some, well, starters – sheekh kababs and shammi kababs, while the raan was being made. Then some chicken legs followed. And some more kababs. Then came the raan – a full leg of mutton nicely roasted with all the spices that brought Europeans all the way from their cold houses to the tropical lands of the Indian subcontinent.

After about three hours of quiet, focused and extremely epicureanistic consumption of the food, we sat back – hunger satiated, tummies double in size, and the body nicely warmed up.

The temperature outside was in single digits but I slept the whole night without a blanket.  

In the past, I have eaten at Karim’s at Hazrat. Of course, the food here is at the same level. But the ambience of the majestic Jama Masjid, the cloistered lanes and streets of old Delhi and the general chaos gives a completely different experience.

Note: Vegetarians may find this place a bit unappetising

Cosmopolitan Thali

I saw this sign outside a restaurant in front of the Konark Temple, last week.

The sign reads

“Dosa, Ittle (Idli, I suppose)“

and then a whole range of thalis

“Marwari Thali, South Indian Thali, Bombay Thali, Gujurathi Thali, Orissa Thali“

This is truly cosmopolitan – people of all cuisine preferences will get their kind of Thali.

For the hungry Bongs, fret not, you just have to walk down couple of shops and you will see this

Bengali Thali – Veg and Non-Veg complete with an Air India Maharaja welcoming you