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Got the chance to go back to Slice of Spice restaurant in Trivandrum today… This is my second visit to the place… It was a rainy day with some of the roads along the way looking like the Ganges and traffic difficult as routes were diverted due to fallen trees… Inspite of it, I found the place to be quite crowded but still, managed to get a seat…

Slice of Spice

Last time I had made the mistake of ordering stuff that were clearly not in their wheelhouse… So, this time, I decided to stick to their specialties… Hence, went for what the waiter recommended for me… This included what they call their “Healthy Herbal Chicken” Soup, what they call their “Mediterranean Heat” and a piece of their famous “Al-Ashrouf” Chicken…

Once I placed the order, I contacted the owner to know if he was in as I wanted to personally thank him for suggesting and letting me try a new dish they were introducing in the menu back during my last visit… Turns out he wasn’t there and instead, his restaurant manager spotted me and greeted me… So, this time, the owner thru the manager had me try a new version of an item that they are yet to start serving… In fact, based on what he told me, they made a portion of it exclusively for me to try and let them know my thoughts on it… This item is what they call their “Sweet Surprise”…

So, these are what I had today: Healthy Herbal Chicken Soup, Meditteranean Heat, Sweet Surprise and a Juicy Leg Piece of Al-Ashrouf Chicken…

Healthy Herbal Chicken Soup

Mediterranean Heat

Sweet Surprise

Al-Ashrouf Chicken

Even though the place was crowded, the soup came faster than last time… What I got as recommended by the waiter was what they call as the Healthy Herbal Chicken Soup… This is essentially a Chicken Soup consisting of a very flavourful Chicken broth thats thickened along with some pieces of shredded boneless chicken, Egg-White drop, Broccolli and Baby Corn…

First of all, having the word “Healthy” in the name, I didn’t expect the soup to be thickened with corn starch… Even though the level of thickening is less compared to most places, I think being a “healthy” soup, the corn starch could’ve been avoided altogether… It doesn’t really affect the taste (until the soup cools down) afterall 🙂

Healthy Herbal Chicken Soup

Now coming to the taste, the chicken broth had a strong flavour of Chicken along with the ginger, garlic, celeriac stems (not visible but flavour seemed to be there), pepper and then there was the flavour of Broccoli infused into the broth… The baby corn seemed to have been pickled in vinegar, hence giving the sour taste of vinegar when chewed into… The Egg White drop clearly added richness to the whole soup… The pieces of Chicken in there were cooked perfectly… Altogether a really great soup… Only suggestion I have is that instead of the Broccoli, I would’ve preferred some Coriander leaves and Bok Choy in it… Not that the broccoli is bad… Its just my personal preference… 🙂

As I was starting on the soup, they brought in the Mediterranean Heat… They call this a kind of grilled Pita bread sandwich, consisting of grilled chicken along with some cheese (cheddar) and veggies mixed with a Mayo dressing with their signature blend of spices… The veggies included carrots, cabbage and onions… Altogether, to be completely honest, it looked like one of whats knows as a “Shwarma Plate” but of-course, different from the rest… The sandwich was grilled and then served with a cup of their signature spiced Mayo and some pickled vegetables (carrots and cucumber)…

Mediterranean Heat

Coming to the taste, this felt exactly like eating a Shwarma Plate, but whats different is the taste of the spices here which we don’t find elsewhere… The Pita bread was grilled to a good crisp condition, with some charring as can be seen… The Chicken and the veggies were cooked well… As I ate it, essentially what I could taste was the spices used and the level of spiciness does indeed justify the word “Heat” in its name… From the taste, I could make out that the cup of spiced Mayo that was given is the exact same Mayo that has been used to dress the filling… The combination with the pickled vegetables seemed to work fine as the pickled vegetables seems to give a cooling effect to the sandwich… The quantity of the filling seemed to be just right considering the volume of the bread… The problem I had with the filling is in the Chicken to veggies ratio as I felt that it needed more Chicken in it… Another problem I had with this sandwich is that the taste is completely dominated by the spices and hence was hard to detect the taste of the ingredients… I firmly believe that Spices should only complement the taste of the ingredients and not supplement it… So, not that its bad, but I think some amount tweaking on this recipe should make it better… 🙂

As I was about to start on the Mediterranean Heat, the manager himself came over and served the “Sweet Surprise” the dish that they made exclusively for me to try… The Sweet Surprise turned out to be a starter of chicken thats made with a cream based marinade with very less spice… This is served with a small cup of garlic Mayo and pickled vegetables (same as what was served with the Mediterranean Heat)… Essentially this looks like a variant of the popular Reshmi Kebab…

Sweet Surprise

Sweet Surprise – Pickled Vegetables

Sweet Surprise

Although it looks like a variant of the Reshmi Kebab, the taste felt different, as in its sweeter and the marinade seems to use cream and cashew-almond paste from its taste and it was lightly seasoned with salt and pepper… The Chicken was cooked perfectly and the combination of the sweet kebab with garlic Mayo and pickled veggies worked really well for me… Only complaint I had was that the kebab was a bit too sweet for my taste… A suggestion I conveyed to them was to reduce the sweetness slightly or instead of serving with the garlic Mayo, use their spiced Mayo instead or in addition to the garlic Mayo (tried using the one I got with the Heat and I found it to work beautifully 🙂 )…

I had asked the waiter to hold the Al-Ashrouf until I finish the items that I have been served… Once I was done with the Sweet Surprise and the Mediterranean Heat, I got served the piece of Al-Ashrouf Chicken that I had ordered… The Al-Ashrouf grill is what Slice of Spice is famous for and what I had been hearing ever since I heard about them… Whats special about the Al-Ashrouf is that its a Spice and Herbs mix that proprietary to Slice of Spice and they say they use a charcoal grill to grill the meat marinated in the signature marinade, to perfection… Among the choices, I went for the one they call the “Original Juicy Leg” and its a whole leg of the Chicken thats marinated and grilled so that the meat is cooked and remains juicy… The Chicken is then served with a spiced salad consisting of cabbage, carrots and cucumber along with a small cup each of their Garlic Mayo and their spiced Mayo…

Al-Ashrouf Chicken

Garlic Mayo and Spicy Mayo

Al-Ashrouf Chicken

Now coming to the taste, this is indeed different from any other piece of grilled chicken that I have had so far… The Chicken was cooked perfectly and it felt spicy and sweet at the same time… The spice mix kind of tasted like a variant of our garam masala but the taste of the herbs makes it completely different… I feel the sweetness might be because they may be using a caramelised onion-ginger-garlic paste along with yogurt as the base of the marination… The two versions of Mayo that were served were lighter than others that I have seen before… The salad was seasoned well with spices and lime… Altogether a great Grilled Chicken experience thats a must try…

So, overall, a nice lunch that definitely worth ever penny… I am looking forward to be able to try more from their menu very soon…

Slice of Spice – Healthy Chicken Soup, Mediterranean Heat, Sweet Surprise, Al-Ashrouf Chicken Got the chance to go back to Slice of Spice restaurant in Trivandrum today... This is my second visit to the place...

Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum Got the DVD of the movie Thondimuthalum Driksakshiyum from the supermarket and finally watched the movie... As you may already know, the movie has been in the limelight for quite some time especially because of its casting of actual police officers to be as realistic as possible...

Went back to Kaffeehaus today for lunch, which is a Swiss Cafe that opened about a month ago here in Trivandrum… This is the visit after my last post about the place and I found the place to be decorated in the Halloween theme as they have a Halloween fest going on this week…

Kaffeehaus

This time, I chose the Nudelsalat Mit Hühnchen which is a Pasta salad with Chicken… Then for mains decided to try the Raclette, which is a swiss speciality dish with molten cheese and a set of toppings and then for dessert, took whats called Jungfrau which is basically Oatmeal Cookie served with Ice-cream… I also took a glass of their Cold Coffee to drink with all this… 🙂

Nudelsalat Mit Hühnchen

Raclette

Jungfrau

Cold Coffee

So, the first course was the Nudelsalat Mit Hühnchen… Essentially this is a pasta salad consisting of Farfale pasta along with fresh veggies and grilled Chicken served on lettuce and dressed with house dressing of your choice… The choice of dressing included Mayo, Vinaigrette and Yogurt… Considering health quotients, I went for Yogurt this time… The salad was therefore tossed in some Yogurt and topped with some chopped Parsley and included, Cucumber, Tomatoes, Carrots, Bell Peppers, Mushrooms, Pumpkin Seeds (I guess as per the Halloween theme going on), diced Grilled Chicken and some Croutons in it… The salad was indeed seasoned with some salt and pepper… 🙂

Nudelsalat Mit Hühnchen

It was indeed a refreshing salad, although to be completely frank, the presence of the Yogurt really made me feel like its a fancy Raita 😀 😛 The Veggies were all clearly freshly cut and clean… The Pasta was cooked perfectly to al dente and the Pumpkin Seeds gave it the essential crunch/nuttiness to the whole salad… Only complaint however is that I found the croutons to be hard to chew and the yogurt was slightly more sour than what I would prefer… Other than that, it was a nice refreshing salad to have as a starter…

Once I was done with the salad, they brought in the Raclette… Its essentially dish thats prepared on the table and so, they first brought in and set up the electric Raclette Stove (what you see at the back in the first pic below)… Then they brought in the Cheese slices along with all the toppings and seasoning options and also some toasted bread to go with it… The owner informed me that normally they don’t serve the bread but here due to popular demand, they started including the bread as well…

So, the Cheese traditionally used for Raclette is actually known as the Raclette Cheese which is a Swiss cheese made of cow’s milk that they make it as a wheel… Then what they usually do is that they cut that wheel in half and then start heating the cut side and melt the cheese little by little and then scrape the molten cheese all over roasted potatoes and then eat it with pickles as condiment… Here however, as the owner informed me, due to popular demand, they use Cheddar cheese (a bit disappointed as I was hoping to try the Raclette cheese)…

The toppings given include Sun-dried Tomatoes, pickled Jalapenos, pickled Olives and Gherkins along with pieces of cooked Potatoes… Once again, as the owner informed me, due to popular demand, they included some raw onions and tomatoes as well… While placing the order, the waiter informed me that I get to pick optional additional toppings that include Chicken and Bacon… I went for the Chicken option… For seasoning, they gave me some Salt, Ground Pepper and powdered Smoked Paprika…

Raclette – Chicken Cheese, Pickled Sundried Tomatoes, Jalapenos, Olives, Gherkins, Raw Onions, Tomato, Potatoes and Seasonings (Salt, Pepper and Smoked Paprika) along with the Swiss Raclette Stove

Raclette – Chicken

Toasted Bread

Raclette Prep in the Stove

End Result 🙂

So, as can be seen, the way they serve this dish is in a DIY format (the staff is as always very eager to help you out)… But being completely new to this and being the DIY model, I asked for help and the owner showed me how to do one and even though she was willing to help further, I did the rest myself… So, essentially you need to melt the cheese using the stove… You can either put in the small trays, just the cheese and melt it or you can put in the toppings as well and get them toasted while the cheese melts… Once that melts, you can scrape it out using a spatula thats given and eat it as it is or with the toasted bread as shown in one of the pics above…

So, the bread was amazing as it was toasted crisp in butter and flavoured with a bit of garlic… The Cheese even though the owner mentioned to be Cheddar, to me, it didn’t taste like any of the Cheddar cheese that I have ever had… To be frank, I thought it might actually be the Raclette Cheese… This is because, all the cheddar that I have had had a sour component to its taste… That was completely missing in this and it almost tasted like the processed Mozzarella, that we get in most pizza chains but not exactly it… Anyways, the pickled toppings worked great with the cheese and the bread and addition of the Chicken gave another dimension to it as well… The chicken is the same grilled chicken that was served in the salad, but diced to smaller pieces… However, even though the owner mentioned that the raw onions and tomatoes were added as per popular demand, I didn’t like it in this…

So, altogether I think this is a great experience, especially if you have company to have this… But if you are with kids, then you need to be careful as that stove can get really hot and we don’t want the kids to burn their fingers… Of-course, you’ll need some patience too as you end up having to wait for the cheese to melt 🙂 I tried making one like a grilled cheese toast and I must tell you that it was the best one I ever had… I would definitely recommend you try doing the sandwich with this… That is, melt about 4 slices of the cheese (might wanna use two trays) with the toppings of your choice (I went for Chicken along with all the pickled ones and potatoes) and when they are ready, scrape it on to a piece of the given bread and then season with a pinch each of salt, pepper and paprika and then close it with another piece of bread and try having that sandwich that you just made… 🙂 So, as you can see being DIY, you can eat it however you want… 🙂

Once I had my fun with the Raclette, I ordered a dessert, which I picked this time to be their Jungfrau… The Jungfrau as per their menu is essentially their Oatmeal Cookie served with Vanilla Ice-cream… As can be seen from the pic, they have topped it off with some Chocolate sauce and some White Chocolate Chips… Also, as a drink, I had been drinking their Cold Coffee all along till now… They had served it even before the salad 🙂

Cold Coffee

Jungfrau

Regarding the Cold Coffee, it was indeed lite and refreshing with a strong presence of Coffee in it… They use a machine by Lavazza (known as Italy’s finest Coffee) for all their Coffee options… So, felt quite a kick in my palette to be completely honest and I found the sweetness level to be medium, just the way I like it, which means that if you have a strong sweet tooth, you might need to pour in some sugar/sweetner from the packets that they give you… 🙂

Now, coming to the Jungfrau, I found the Oatmeal cookie to be warm and slightly soft in the inside and crispy on the outside… The sweetness level is as one would expect from a cookie (if I am not mistaken, I detected a hint of honey in it) and the Chocolate Sauce and the Vanilla Ice-cream perfectly complements its favours… As can be seen in the pic, it essentially came like a sandwich with the scoop of ice-cream between two pieces of the cookie… I don’t think the White Chocolate Chips add anything in particular to this, but since its there, well and good 🙂 The Vanilla Ice-cream had a rich taste of Vanilla in it and it is definitely one of the better options of Vanilla Ice-creams that I have had so far… Altogether, a good dessert to have… 🙂

So, this was my third visit to Kaffeehaus and got to try what I hadn’t had before, especially the Raclette which was my very first time trying it… Safe to say, that its going to be my regular choice from now on 🙂 Anyways, check it out and let me know how it felt 🙂

Kaffeehaus – Nudelsalat Mit Hühnchen, Raclette & Jungfrau Went back to Kaffeehaus today for lunch, which is a Swiss Cafe that opened about a month ago here in Trivandrum...

Yesterday, I got the chance to visit the restaurant Coco Bongo at Pattom, Trivandrum… I had been seeing a bunch of posts praising the Biriyani that they serve here and so since I happened to be nearby, stopped by for lunch 🙂

For those who may not be aware, the restaurant is located right next to the gate of St. Mary’s school and it above the Chicking outlet over there… Contrary to the way leading to the restaurant, I found the restaurant to be incredibly clean and shiny with a look that reminded me of a starred place… I was alone in there as I walked in, but soon found the place to be packed with practically everyone going for the Biriyani… 🙂

Coco Bongo

The menu here definitely a multi-cuisine one with options ranging from Sandwiches and Burgers to Steaks 🙂 But as mentioned before, I was there to check out the much revered Biriyani of theirs… Also, since I was in the mood for some soup, went for their Sweet Corn Chicken Soup as well, along with their Chicken Biriyani…

Sweet Corn Chicken Soup

Chicken Biriyani

So, after about 20 mins or so, I was served the soup… The Sweet Corn Chicken Soup is something I have been seeing in practically all restaurant menus throughout my life and is one of my favourites since its usually the one soup thats not spicy and rather has a pretty vocal sweet component to it… Of-course the Cream of Chicken came later 🙂 Anyways, it was light and slightly creamy, made with Chicken stock, Sweet Corn and Egg white drop… It also had some shredded chicken white meat as well in it and was served as shown in the below pics…

Sweet Corn Chicken Soup

Now coming to the taste, it was indeed sweet and the flavours of the Chicken stock and the egg really came thru and the pieces of chicken in it were cooked perfectly… As can be seen fro the above pics, there is no shortage of Egg white in it… However, what I found lacking in this is the seasoning (Any Sodium Police in the house?)… I ended up having to put in quite a lot of salt and pepper from the shakers on the table to be able to enjoy the soup… Once I put in enough of those, the soup tasted excellent… 🙂

Once I was done with the soup, the Biriyani arrived… I was indeed surprised at how the Biriyani looked when it arrived… I mean just look at the pics… The shape is just perfect and smooth… To be frank, what the shape reminded me of was the stone they use in the sport known as Curling in the Winter Olympics (feel free to look it up)… Anyways, the biriyani arrived on a plate topped with some fried onions and a couple of fried cashew nuts and was served along with a small cup of the Vegetable Raita and some Pickle made out of Dates… The Biriyani was found to be made in the Malabari style with the aromatic small grain rice with the meat that was pre-fried before cooking into the Dum…

Chicken Biriyani

The Raita and Pickle

Chicken Biriyani

Regarding this Biriyani, first of all, the flavours seem to perfectly match that of the Biriyani thats sold by the nearby bakery named Square One and so I am not entirely sure if thats just a coincidence that it tasted exactly the same (only difference is in the rice used)… Maybe the owner can clarify at some point… So, basically loved the taste of the masala used and the rice was indeed of the aromatic kind… The masala was of mild spice level with a perfect sweet to spicy ratio with the tastes of the ginger-garlic paste and the garam masala (with some extra cinnamon, cardamom, clove and the maze spice) along with the taste of caramelised onions and there was a slight hint of ghee in it as well… The flavours worked incredibly well with the aromatic rice… The Chicken as I mentioned appeared to have been pre-fried as can be seen… The Raita that was served had onions, tomatoes and green chillies and the curd was indeed fresh as in, not turned sour yet… The dates pickle was awesome… Intense flavour of the date and chillies throughout making it incredibly sweet and spicy at the same time… Both the raita and the pickle worked incredibly well with the Biriyani…

Now, unfortunately I must mention the negatives as well… Regarding the restaurant service, I would suggest the owner give some training to the staff because, two things were observed:

The staff looked absolutely clueless when I walked in… Thats is, felt like they were confused and weren’t expecting any customers even though it was close to 12:30pm… [I hope it was not because of my appearance… lol… 😀 😀 😛 ]

I was never served water to drink until I ran out of patience and asked for it… This is not a good thing to do especially when you only have one customer in the restaurant… So, clearly being understaffed is not an excuse… And towards the end of my visit, when the room became packed, I looked around and observed that not a single table was served water… Not sure why this basic courtesy was being ignored…

Now coming to the food, I don’t have any complaints about the waiting time, but I did find a couple of issues with the Biriyani that I got…

The first is that as I mentioned earlier, the Chicken looked pre-fried… But the problem is that when I tried eating the chicken pieces, I found it to be overcooked, to the point of it being dry and tough to chew… Chicken when cooked properly has to be incredibly soft that at the slightest touch with a fork or a spoon, the meat has to just slide and fall off the bone… As you can see from the closeup pic below, its clear that the meat is dry and has shrunk (you can see the meat fiber curled up) which only happens when you overcook the meat… It was a bit disappointing because, the flavours of the masala and rice like I mentioned before was just perfect… The Biriyani came with a breast piece and a shoulder with wing piece… Both ended up being overcooked, with the breast piece being the worse of the two as its the part of the chicken that cooks the fastest… I seriously hope that this was an isolated incident and won’t happen again…

The other problem is that I found the Biriyani to be a bit more greasy than most of the options I have had… The pic below shows the amount of oil traces left at the bottom of the plate which should give an indication as to how much oil content was there in the Biriyani… The whole point of Dum cooking is that you get a healthy way of cooking by locking in all the steam and flavours and this doesn’t actually need any oil to be poured in… At best, you need just a minimum amount (teaspoons max) if you really want the taste of the fat being added (e.g. ghee… Can’t really understand the point of adding the almost tasteless refined oil)…

Overcooked Chicken

Oil Content

Anyways, even with the pitfalls mentioned, hoping that this was a bad day, I do hope to go back there again on a regular/good day to be able to try again… From what I understand regarding the place from a friend of mine, there are enough items in their menu which I really should be trying… So, hopefully will be doing the same soon…

Coco Bongo – First Visit – Biriyani Yesterday, I got the chance to visit the restaurant Coco Bongo at Pattom, Trivandrum... I had been seeing a bunch of posts praising the Biriyani that they serve here and so since I happened to be nearby, stopped by for lunch 🙂

Thupparivaalan Just saw the movie called Thupparivaalan thru Amazon Prime today... The film, directed by Mysskin, was produced by the actor Vishal who also played the lead role along with a cast involving but not limited to Andrea Jeremiah, Prasanna, Vinay and Anu Emmanuel...

This is an idea that came to mind which I guess is inspired from both the Fruit Granita and the ever so known Sharjah Shake, which I happened to buy as take away and then accidentally left in the freezer overnight… 🙂 It was indeed a hunch based on those experiences, but ended up working like a charm… However, I must point out here that even though the idea came up in my mind, after googling a bit about it, I found out that this is not really an original recipe… It just happened to be a coincidence that I came up with the exact same thing… 🙂

So, here goes… Basically this is an ice cream like frozen dessert but made almost entirely with sweet bananas… For some reason, when done right, it gives you the texture and creaminess of the ice cream but being very healthy at the same time because essentially you are eating frozen fruit ie, the banana… Since the taste of milk is essential for an ice cream, this recipe has some milk, but at the minimum level… The result is as shown in the pics below:

Healthy Ice Cream

For this recipe you’ll need the following:

Bananas – 3 in rip condition (for this one I used Ripe Plantains i.e. the one we call “Ethapazham” or “Nendrapazham” in Malayalam)…

Milk – 1/5 of a cup (basically meant less than a quarter cup)… I guess if you want it to be richer and creamier, go for cream itself instead…

Vanilla Extract – 1/2 teaspoon (the one I have here is not that concentrated… I would suggest you go by taste)

Sugar – to taste if needed… I ended up using a couple of teaspoons of Sugarfree Natura powder as I intended to let my grandma have some of it 🙂

So, heres how you do this:

Peel and roughly chop the bananas and keep in freezer overnight or until frozen solid (like a rock essentially)

Add the frozen bananas, the milk, vanilla extract in a blender and blend till you get a smooth paste out of it…

Check the taste and add the sugar/sweetner if needed… Same goes for the vanilla extract…

Transfer the whole mixture into a tray and put it back in the freezer for about 2-3 hours or until set and its ready to be served…

Now, a fair warning is that no matter what you do, the taste of the bananas will remain… So, if you hate bananas, this is not the recipe for you… However, I ended up liking the result inspite of being an extreme hater of bananas 🙂 As as for the flavourings, you can replace or add to the vanilla extract with anything you want in your ice cream… Fruit jams, Syrups, etc… Maybe add some nuts/dry fruits to it to make it richer if needed, etc… But obviously doing so will reduce the health coefficient of this 🙂 At this point I am guessing the same idea can be applied with other similar pulpy fruits like Mangoes, Papaya, Avocado, etc… Anyways, do try this out and let me know how it goes… 🙂

Healthy Ice Cream Option This is an idea that came to mind which I guess is inspired from both the Fruit Granita and the ever so known Sharjah Shake, which I happened to buy as take away and then accidentally left in the freezer overnight...

Got a chance to visit the Imperial Kitchen restaurant as I ended up nearby for shopping… As an independent blogger with near to zero resources, it is always a challenge to write about the food here simply because for reasons that I cannot fathom, it is not a photography friendly environment, unless ofcourse you are into flash photography which I am not… 🙂 This is because the restaurant’s dining hall has minimal lighting and so its really impossible to get clear images of the food inside 🙂 Whats included here are the result of me enhancing them a bit and you can easily see the clarity issue when you zoom in a bit 🙂 I did wonder once that whether the lighting is set deliberately by the owner so that customers don’t get to see the problems in the food that they are being served… But considering the fact that they don’t taste so bad, I can safely conclude that its not so 😀 😛

Imperial Kitchen

Arabic Combo

Anyways, as I was sat down this time, the waiter informed me that they have started doing combo meal options… There are 5 of them covering Indian and some of the international cuisines… I guess he detected that I was a bit confused on which to choose and he suggested that I try the Arabian Combo this time…

The Arabian Combo as the menu states, consists of a portion each of Sumac Rice served with Mutton Saloona, Veg Pathakar, an assortment of Chicken Kebabs, Hummus and Fathoush Salad… The one I got had Sumac Rice, the Mutton Saloona, a piece each of 4 kinds of Chicken Kebabs which were as informed by the ever so friendly waiter to be Pesto, Lari Thoom, Tahini Spicy Kebab and what they call as the Dajaj Zakhath, along with a piece of their Fish Kebab, Hummus, Fathoush Salad and two of what looked like mini Lebanese Pizzas which are essentially Pita Bread with sauce and toppings… All of these were served as shown in the pic, on a single plate… I showed the pic to one of my friends before writing this post and the immediate response was that it looks incredibly heavy… So, let me clarify that it is not so and the plate you see here in the pic is a regular sized plate that you get in most restaurants and the portion sizes are just enough that a single regular person, in my opinion can actually eat two of these combo meals as a meal… But for people like me who can’t eat that much, the quantity here is just right to be satisfied 🙂

Arabian Combo

First of all, I am somebody who doesn’t eat any other meat than Chicken and so when informed about the presence of a Mutton dish called Mutton Saloona, I was a bit skeptical… But turns out I could eat it without any problems and I did indeed like the taste of the same… The Saloona is essentially a middle eastern stew recipe made with onions, tomatoes, garlic, bell peppers, zuccini, parseley and an assortment of spices… Flavour-wise, it does have resemblance to the masala used in North Indian cuisine and so almost like a version of the garam masala has been used in it, but clearly cooked in olive oil with the smell of garlic dominating… The mutton was in the form of mince meat balls that were cooked perfectly…

The rice was incredibly flavourful with the sumac powder clearly visible, but taste-wise, I got reminded of the rice we get when we get a Kabsa… Thats essentially how it tasted and the Fathoush Salad felt to be made up of freshly cut vegetables that were seasoned so perfectly… The Hummus tasted exactly like the hummus I had from the Lebanese Rolls place in Mumbai… So, incredible flavour of chick pea and olive oil…

Now coming to the kebabs, like I said there were 4 kinds of Chicken kebabs and a Fish Kebab… The fish kebab felt like the classic Indian fish tikka… Fish was cooked perfectly with a very flavourful tikka masala marinade that was spicy but only at medium level… This is the red one to left of the Hummus in the pic… The Chicken ones were as the waiter informed me: Pesto, Lari Thoom, Tahini Spicy Kebab and what they call as the Dajaj Zakhath, in the anticlockwise order on the plate… The Pesto had a good flavour of basil in it… The Lari Thoom clearly had saffron in it… The Tahini one felt a bit on the spicy side and then finally the Dajaj Zakhath had the flavour of coriander dominating it… I could tell that all of them were marinated in a yogurt base because of how tender the Chicken pieces were… The meat was indeed cooked perfectly and the rest of the spices in all of them seemed similar, as in the classic Arabic spice mix…

Finally, I am not sure if what they mentioned in menu as the Pathakar is indeed those two pita breads with toppings that were given cause food is apparently the last thing googling the word Pathakar would ever result in… What it was is infact a round thin piece of Pita Bread with a tomato based sauce and some vegetables (carrots, onions, etc) and some cheese… The thing is that it tasted exactly like a pizza with the sauce tasting exactly like the italian tomato sauce (Pomodoro) thats used in a pizza… Hence, I guess this is an attempt at making a mini Lebanese Pizza…

So, it was indeed a pleasant experience to try the Arabian Combo… They informed me that its only available in the weekdays and unfortunately not during the weekends… Among the other combo options, there is an Italian Combo and a Chinese Combo which has peaked my interest and so am hoping to be able to go back there and try them very soon…

Imperial Kitchen – The Arabic Combo Got a chance to visit the Imperial Kitchen restaurant as I ended up nearby for shopping... As an independent blogger with near to zero resources, it is always a challenge to write about the food here simply because for reasons that I cannot fathom, it is not a photography friendly environment, unless ofcourse you are into flash photography which I am not...

Star Trek Beyond I just happened to see the Star Trek Beyond movie thanks to my Amazon Prime subscription... Star Trek beyond is the 13th movie from the Star Trek franchie and the 3rd one since the reboot in 2009...

Today I got the chance to visit the new branch of Burger Lounge at Chalakuzhy Road, Trivandrum… This is my first visit to Burger Lounge as I had never been to the original branch… The place is located towards the Pattom side of the Chalakuzhy road and its like the second building or so as you enter the road from the Pattom side… The place looks quite modern especially from the outside with the inside being like the inside of any other fast food chain… Personally speaking of-course, I felt like they could’ve gone for furniture that was a bit more comfortable, but then again I guess like most fast food places, they are designed so that customers would be just comfortable enough to want to eat and leave asap once done 🙂

Burger Lounge

As I sat down, a number of menu flyers were found on each table and found a good variety of burgers, hotdogs and sandwiches along with a couple of side options… Each My table had 3 of these flyers and I saw mentioned that they provide free WiFi but based on previous experiences, I prefer using my cellular and so didn’t try using it… 🙂

Burger Lounge – Menu

Since this was the first time, I was indeed confused on which to go for… After some time of confusion, I finally chose to go with what they call as their Jumbo Cheese Burger and went for the Chicken version… Along with that I took their Saudi Shake… When giving the order, the server asked if I need extra sugar or just regular… Since I don’t like having too much sweetness, I opted for regular, which was barely sweet even for me… 🙂 The burger didn’t turn out to be as big as I hoped and so, went for what they call as their Fried Zinger Plate which I assumed was a side (apparently not as can be seen in the pic) and then since I found myself wanting another drink because of issues I’ll talk about later, I went for the light Cold Coffee and had it (which turned out to be good) instead…

Chicken Jumbo Cheese Burger

Saudi Shake

Fried Zinger Plate

Cold Coffee

They all came as shown in the above pics… I was initially served the Jumbo Cheese Burger and the Saudi Shake together… The Burger came wrapped in paper and held together with a toothpick… When I opened it up, I found the burger to consist of two thin Chicken Patties, Coleslaw, slices of Cucumber, a Fried Egg, Cheese, Ketchup and Mayonnaise sandwiched between two halfs of a lightly toasted bun…

Chicken Jumbo Cheese Burger

This is an incredibly different burger than what I have been used to and by different, I do indeed mean different and in no way bad… Why I say this is because, on my first bite, what I got reminded of was essentially the Shwarma… The bun tasted exactly like Kuboos… The Mayonnaise tasted exactly like the one i.e Lebanese Garlic Mayonnaise we get along with the Shwarma in most of the other places in Trivandrum… The Chicken Patty was essentially made like a cutlet ie, with potatoes as well and then fried, coated in a thin layer of breadcrumbs… It tasted just like the meat we get in a Shwarma and I guess they use the same Arabic spices for this… So, in short, felt like a Shwarma morphed in the form of a burger with Egg and a slice of Cheese 🙂 The only complaint I have is regarding the Patties because I personally don’t like the idea of putting in deep fried ones and if I am not mistaken, it felt like the patty had more potatoes than I would prefer… But anyways, no complains on the taste 🙂

Along with the burger, I got served the Saudi Shake… Essentially for those who may be unaware, a Saudi Shake is a milk shake made with Dates and Nuts (Cashews / Almonds / Peanuts)… It is a milkshake option that I like to have because of the Dates in them… It came as shown in the below pics…

Saudi Shake

Unfortunately I ended up unable to enjoy it this time and ended up abandoning it… First of all, the “regular” sweetness felt like not sweet at all… Also, I couldn’t detect even the slightest hint of any dates and it was loaded with ice blended into it that essentially what I was tasting ended up mostly being the taste of Ice… I tolerated it for about 1/5th of it and lost the patience with it… 😦 I guess maybe it would’ve been tolerable with the extra sugar as it will have some sweetness to it rather than being bland…

Anyways, like I said before, since the Burger didn’t fill me up enough, I went for what they call Fried Zinger Plate, ofcourse assuming that its a side but clearly from the pics, its quite obvious that its really not so… 🙂 Essentially its small bite sized pieces of boneless Chicken fried in crispy batter (kind of like KFC but not tasting same) served on a plate as shown in the pic, along with French Fries, a Bun and some of their Garlic Mayonnaise…

Fried Zinger Plate

Since I found the portion size to be too much for me, especially after having the Burger, I skipped the Bun and the French Fries (ultimately, just fried potatoes, rt? 😀 )… I found the chicken to be cooked perfectly with the outside being just crispy… Seasoning however was minimal with the whole thing being not spicy at all… I think just basic salt and pepper seasoning… But still, I liked it because I liked the taste especially the combination of it with the Garlic Mayo and then Ketchup adding a whole new dimension to it…

As I mentioned earlier, I couldn’t tolerate the Saudi Shake they gave me and so, I ended up getting a Cold Coffee instead… It came as shown in the pics below:

Cold Coffee

This turned out to be good… Great rich taste of the Coffee with a slightly creamy milk… Fortunately, it didn’t have the ice overload and so no dilution of flavours… This time I asked them to go for the extra sugar instead of being “regular” and so, it was sweet but not too much, just what can be considered as “medium” level which is exactly how I like it… So, it felt good 🙂

So, altogether, ignoring the disastrous Saudi Shake, it was a fine lunch to have… I liked the Lebanese twist to the burgers which I hadn’t seen before ever… However, considering the health factors, I don’t recommend making this place a regular as things are quite oily here(as can be seen from the state of the wrapping paper in the pics) and so I would rather recommend the place as a once in a while indulgence… 🙂

Burger Lounge – First Visit Today I got the chance to visit the new branch of Burger Lounge at Chalakuzhy Road, Trivandrum...

A few days ago, I got the chance to visit the restaurant at Hotel Ginger near the Technopark campus near Kazhakuttom… This was after more than a month since my last visit and unfortunately I have a bad news… They stopped doing their lunch and dinner buffets (which I wrote about in my last post on the place), but are open to doing the same to order… Hence, went for the ala carte menu and went for the classic Soup-Rice-Curry-Dessert combo by picking their Chicken Cream Soup, Chicken Fried Rice, Butter Chicken Masala and a portion of Kulfi for dessert…

Chicken Cream Soup

Chicken Fried Rice

Butter Chicken

Kulfi

So, the first to arrive was the Chicken Cream Soup… The soup consisted of some shredded chicken in a chicken broth made with cream, seasoned perfectly with salt and pepper… Usually how the soup is made is that the chicken is cooked first either separately and then added to the broth when making the soup or they chicken can be cooked in the broth itself while cream gets added at the end along with the seasonings…

First of all, you won’t find this or any other soup mentioned in the menu as they just say “Soup of the Day” in the menu… So, one must ask for this to get this… Also, most places end up making this soup as thick and creamy like a chowder that it feels heavy to have as a starter… However, the version here is made to be very light as in not thick at all and not too much cream as well that I think this might be the least in the calories version of this soup… The chicken pieces were found to be cooked perfectly that it melted in my mouth and the broth was packed with flavours of what I could detect to be chicken, ginger, garlic, green onions, celery stalks (I guess from the chicken stock) and then of-course the black pepper… Altogether an excellent soup that I will be getting again…

Once I was done with the soup, I got served the Chicken Fried Rice and the Butter Chicken Masala… This is a combination that I find to be a personal favourite of mine because of the mildly spiced nature of both… The Chicken Fried Rice consisted of long grain rice with shredded chicken breast, egg and an assortment of vegetables including carrots, green beans, celery stalks, onions and spring onions stir fried together and seasoned with salt and black pepper… The Butter Chicken Masala is a mildly spiced curry that had pieces of chicken marinated in spices and yogurt, cooked in a rich butter, tomato, onions and cashew-nut (optional) based sauce cooked with a version of the garam masala…

Regarding the fried rice, it felt so incredibly clean, cooked in a hakka style where one can taste each and every ingredient in the same… Even the egg scrambled into it was in perfectly cooked condition (In many places, I have found it to be dry) and the vegetables was cooked but still crispy on the outside, which worked marvellously with the perfectly cooked rice… The flavours are so good that this is currently my favourite version of the Chicken Fried Rice… Another important thing to note is that unlike most places, this fried rice is not oily at all… Hence, I believe this would be the healthiest Chicken Fried Rice as well…

Regarding the Butter Chicken Masala, once again, I believe is the healthiest version of the same when compared to other places from where I have had the same… Why I say this is because compared to the other versions, I felt this one to be much less creamy and had much lesser amount of grease in it… There is the taste of butter in it but you don’t find it dripping as you take a spoon-full every time… I could taste the spices used in the masala in each bite which based of how I could detect consisted of cinnamon, cloves, mace-spice, black pepper and cardamom to be dominating the sauce…

The combination of this particular version of the fried rice and the curry turned out to be so great that this particular version of it has definitely made its way into the list of my all time personal favourites … It felt so great that I can’t wait to have them again… The only complaint that I have is that unlike before, they seem to have increased the portion sizes because of which I ended up not being able to finish the whole thing…

Finally after I was done with the mains, I got served the Kulfi as the dessert… Kulfi is as you may already know, is an ice cream that dates back to hundreds of years in India and is considered as one of the traditional desserts of India… Unlike modern ice creams made with custard and cream base, The Kulfi is made by reducing full fat sweetened milk giving it a caramelised flavour and creamy consistency and then freezing it over ice after adding nuts like pista, badam, etc… [ A short cut to save hours of reducing is to start use condensed milk ]

The Kulfi that I got was incredibly creamy and packed with cashew-nuts… It felt incredibly rich and creamy and the level of sweetness was just right for me rather than being on the verge of sending me to a sugar-induced coma like most places… The portion consists of two small scoops as shown in the pic…

So, altogether a great meal and to be frank, I may have gone a bit overboard by ordering the dessert this time… But then again, its only once a while indulgence and not a daily affair… 🙂

Hotel Ginger – Chicken Cream Soup, Chicken Fried Rice, Butter Chicken, Kulfi A few days ago, I got the chance to visit the restaurant at Hotel Ginger near the Technopark campus near Kazhakuttom...

Visited the Old’s Cool Bistro today… I have been hearing about this place for quite some time thanks to one of my friends and thru some reviews in Facebook… Apparently the place is what used to be known as the Truffle’s Bistro… So, happened to go around Kuravankonam for some shopping and so got the chance to check the place out… First of all, I must confess that I never got the chance to go to Truffle’s Bistro and so I can’t make a comparison between how things used to be there to how things are over there… I have been hearing some people say that the standards have dropped and so things are not as good as how they used to be, but like I said, I can’t make that comparison…

It was lunch when I went there… As I climbed up the stairs leading to the place, a guy greeted me and escorted me to my seat and handed over the menu… I did find the decor to be nice with all the wood work… As can be seen from the pics, I guess they were going for the old days look of what we used to call as the “Virakupura” with what kind of looks like logs of firewood stacked together… Then they complemented that with the bench seating which again brings back memories of how restaurants used to be long time ago… However, the menu is nothing like the old days… 🙂

Old’s Cool Bistro

The menu here consists of options of Steaks, Sandwiches, Burgers – the classic Bistro menu with ofcourse some starters and salads thrown in there… They are yet to get a proper menu though as they handed me a laminated xerox paper with the menu as a list 🙂 So, since its been so long since I had a burger, I had to have one and so, went for their Mexican Chicken Burger and along with it as a starter, their Chicken and Egg White Salad (something my dietician has been asking me to have) and then to drink, what they call their Truffle Ecstacy… When ordering for the Truffle Ecstacy, the waiter informed me that they have changed the recipe and now they use Bananas and Dates for making the smoothie… Being not fond of Bananas, I was about to order for another one when the waiter insisted that I must try the Truffle Ecstacy as it is as I quote, “really good milk shake” 🙂

Chicken and Egg While Salad

Mexican Chicken Burger

Truffle Ecstacy

It took unusually long (25mins) to get served the salad which I am not complaining about, but it is unusual considering the fact that with salads you don’t really have to cook anything… 🙂 My best guess is that maybe they prepared everything and then served them one by one 🙂

So, the first item to arrive was the Chicken and Egg White Salad… The salad came in a bowl as shown in the pic and I am not sure if its really visible in the pic but it was indeed piled high… It was loaded with pieces of shredded roasted Chicken and boiled Egg White and Vegetables including Tomatoes, Bell Pepper, Lettuce and sliced Olives… The salad was seasoned well with salt and pepper and the dressed with Lime juice…

Chicken and Egg While Salad

I first thought it may be vinaigrette but then realised that there is no flavour of the olive oil in there and so realised that its just lime juice… The vegetables felt freshly chopped and the Egg Whites and Chicken felt perfectly cooked and seasoned… However, I felt that the amount of lime juice that went into the salad could’ve been much lower as I felt that it ended up dominating the whole salad’s taste… So, to somebody who is not into tasting sourness beyond mild levels, it won’t be a pleasant experience to eat this salad… I ended up diluting the taste by drinking some water with it… I guess it would’ve been an incredibly good and healthy salad for me had that lime not been added that much…

As I was almost done with the salad, I got served the Mexican Chicken Burger that I ordered as the mains… It came on a tray along with some French Fries and a sachet of Ketchup… The burger itself looked pretty big with a big bun topped with some melted butter with a spicy Chicken Patty inside sitting on top of some Salsa and a piece of Lettuce and then topped with some more Salsa along with what I think is their version of the Chipotle Mayo…

Mexican Chicken Burger

Mexican Chicken Burger – the Ketchup

Mexican Chicken Burger – Fries

Mexican Chicken Burger – cross section

Mexican Chicken Burger

First of all, the bun felt good as even though as clearly can be seen, it looks like a very bad bun to meat and condiments ratio, turns out the bread was incredibly soft and airy that I didn’t feel like there is too much bread in the burger… The patty was cooked so perfectly that it literally did melt in my mouth… I wish the burger had a bugger patty either ways… However, regarding the taste, unfortunately, the burger felt quite average in my opinion and I felt everything could’ve been seasoned better… When I saw the salsa, I expected it to taste better than the bottled one we get in the supermarkets and unfortunately it didn’t go much better than it… There was the overwhelming taste of vinegar in it that I found it hard to taste the chicken in the patty… I do seriously hope that it was a mistake there but if you are somebody who loves things that are sour, then I guess you won’t have a problem with any of it except for the seasoning part… Anyways, the fries were as good as how it could be which I could enjoy with the ketchup…

Finally, I got served the Truffle Ecstacy which as the waiter explained is a milk shake made with Bananas and Dates… Those who know me personally would know that Bananas are what I would eat only if there is no other option… So, the reason I went for this is for two reasons: 1) Its the only non-chocolate milk shake option in the menu and 2) It had dates in it which I love in a milk shake 🙂 So, I got served the same in a tall glass topped with some chocolate sauce as shown in the pics below…

Truffle Ecstacy

This shake was awesome… Loved every drop of it… Even though this has Bananas, for some reason, the incredibly rich combination of it with the dates, is what I loved so much that I’ll definitely be having this again… It is indeed surprising to find myself liking something made with Bananas so much that this milk shake can definitely be among my favourites of all time… 🙂

So, altogether a meal with mixed feelings this time… Maybe its a bad day for the kitchen and I ended up ordering the worst choices of the day… Anyways, I for one will definitely be going back there, at-least to have that milk shake and I do sincerely hope that things be better then…

Old’s Cool Bistro – First Visit Visited the Old's Cool Bistro today... I have been hearing about this place for quite some time thanks to one of my friends and thru some reviews in Facebook...

Back at Supreme’s Oriental Spice restaurant, at Kuravankonam again after a while… Its been more than a month since I’ve been there and I did end up having a bit of craving for the Kung Pao Chicken… Other than that, I decided to go for what I haven’t had before from there… So, this time, I went for their Spicy Chicken Soup first… Then because of watching too many of Mark Wein’s videos recently, I wanted to try something that I haven’t had for years : The Crab… The reason for the gap is because I didn’t think it was worth the effort of cracking open the shell to drag out the meat… So, on being informed by the waiter that they don’t serve with shell, I decided to try out the Singapore Chilly Crab starter… Then when checking the out the options for mains, one of the items that I have been meaning to try ever since I saw Anthony Bourdain’s episode on Penang i.e. the legendary Char Kway Teow, which is available in their menu as Kway Teow… So, I went for the seafood variant and ofcourse, along with it I ordered a Kung Pao Chicken as well…

So, to list them all, they are a portion each of the Spicy Chicken Soup, Singapore Chilly Crab, Seafood Kway Teow and Kung Pao Chicken… This is a place that I have been constantly complaining about having too much quantity per portion… So, I must mention here that I took the leftovers (more than half) as parcel and basically had enough for me, my dad and my grandma to eat for dinner… 🙂 So, if you who is reading this is an owner/manager of this restaurant, pls reduce the portion size or at-least have an option of 1/4 plate for single cover… This time, I happened to be heading directly home from there which is why I decided to go there in the first place… 🙂 Else, its a huge wastage of food…

Oriental Spice

Spicy Chicken Soup

Singapore Chilly Crab

Kway Teow (Seafood)

Kung Pao Chicken

So, once I placed the order, I was served a cup of hot Green Tea… After a few minutes, the soup arrived… The soup that I ordered was what they called as their Spicy Chicken Soup… When I asked the waiter about it, he merely said that its a soup with Chicken, Mushrooms, Chinese greens and Green-chillies for the spiciness… And when I asked for the spice level especially when compared to the spicy fried rice that I had from one of my previous visits, I was informed that it is only slightly spicy rather than full on spicy… Thats why I decided to try it out… So, the below pic is how I got it…

Spicy Chicken Soup

First of all, my only complaint regarding this soup is that they used corn starch and made it thick… However, the soup tasted awesome with a really nice taste of the Chicken broth along with a rich flavour of Green-chillies, Ginger, Garlic and Coriander leaves, seasoned absolutely perfectly with the right amount of salt and pepper… The soup contained shredded Chicken, Mushrooms (mostly Button and a little bit of Shiitake) along with some Chinese Lettuce, Bok Choy, Green Onions, Coriander leaves and grated Green-chillies and also a bit of Egg dropped as well… Its clearly one of the best Chicken based soups I have had… I only wish it was not thickened…

After I was done with the soup, the starter arrived and as mentioned above, it was my attempt at having the Crab after so many years… So, what I got was what they call their Singapore Chilly Crab and I got served as shown in the pic below…

Singapore Chilly Crab

First of all, I couldn’t quite figure out where the crab was, because all I could see were these noodle like things that even tasted exactly like noodles… So, I called up the waiter and asked if there has been any mistake but apparently those “noodles” are the crab meat… I couldn’t believe it cause not only did it not look even remotely to the crab meat that I had many years ago when I had to crack open a crab myself, it didn’t even taste like crab and it really tasted like noodles to me… So, when I enquired further, I got informed that what they use is “Crab Sticks” and when I googled about it, I found out that the noodle like look made sense… So, if you are the owner/manager of the restaurant reading this, I’ve got bad news for you… Crab Sticks are not made up of real crab meat… They are imitation crab meat (Don’t believe me? Click here to find out more) with an artificial crab flavour added to it… There are many versions of it and unfortunately none of them use actual Crab meat in it… I think what got served for me was the version where they use wheat flour fillers and hence what I was feeling to be noodles were indeed noodles… 🙂 It is my humble request to stop using this fake crab meat and use real crab meat instead…

Other than the fake crab, the Singapore Chilly Sauce tasted absolutely divine with some strong flavours of soy and chilly along with crispy juliennes of vegetables like carrots, green beans, red cabbage, bell pepper, green-chillies and coriander… Its the perfect sweet and spicy taste that I will definitely like to have again… Since I felt that if I eat the whole thing, I wouldn’t have room for the mains, I just had that bit which was served onto my plate and asked the waiter to pack the rest for home…

So, once that was all done, I got served a fresh plate and along with it the mains… What I got for the mains were their Kway Teow and ofcourse my all time favourite Kung Pao Chicken to go with it… For those who are not aware, the Kway Teow or rather Char Kway Teow is a Malaysian dish, made with thick flat noodle pastry (rice cake strips) stir-fried in high heat in a wok with vegetables (traditionally bean sprouts, Chinese chives and chillies), Soy (both light and dark), Shrimp paste and assortment of seafood… Here, however, they also offer a Vegetarian as well as a Chicken based version of the same… I went for their Seafood variant and that came with some Fish, Crab Stick and Prawns along with an egg in it along with Juliennes of Carrots, Green Beans, Onions, Bell Peppers, Chinese Lettuce and Spring Onion… I have been wanting to try this ever since I saw the old episode of Anthony Bourdain in Penang and hence was incredibly surprised to see it in the menu here as I had been looking for it for years in India… Essentially, Kway Teow is to Malay cuisine what Pad Thai is to the Thai cuisine…

Kway Teow (Seafood) & Kung Pao Chicken

Kway Teow (Seafood)

Kung Pao Chicken

Now coming to the taste, it felt exactly as what I imagined it to be… It can be considered sweet and spicy but indeed mildly with the nice flavour of the sea to it thanks to all the seafood in there which indeed was packed full as can be seen in the up-close pic… Every ingredient in it was cooked perfectly especially with the pieces of fish literally melting in my mouth… I loved it so much that I am looking forward to having it again in my next visit, when it happens…

Now, the Kway Teow was perfectly complemented by the Kung Pao Chicken, although considering the portion sizes, I wished for an option where I could just just the Kung Pao sauce alone without the chicken for it… Its not that there was anything wrong with Kung Pao Chicken, which rather tasted awesome – even better than before, its just that with all the seafood in the Kway Teow, having the chicken pieces felt a bit too much to eat 🙂 That being said, the Kung Pao Chicken was absolutely perfect… Perfectly cooked chicken pieces in the most amazing sauce with Smokey Peanuts and Cashews along with the sweet yet spicy taste of the Schezwan Chillies in it… Compared to last time, I felt that it had a bit more stronger flavours, which is good as I liked this version better, especially with the Kway Teow…

So, altogether yet another glorious meal from the Oriental Spice restaurant… Once again, I still have issue with the portion size… I mean, I could literally eat only 1/4th of what was served and if you’ve seen me personally, you will know why thats a big deal… Other than that, only complaint I have is regarding the use of Crab Sticks instead of real crab meat, which I hope they do make the shift to very soon… 🙂

Oriental Spice – Spicy Chicken Soup, Singapore Chilly Crab, Kway Teow, Kung Pao Chicken Back at Supreme's Oriental Spice restaurant, at Kuravankonam again after a while... Its been more than a month since I've been there and I did end up having a bit of craving for the Kung Pao Chicken...

I happened to go out today with my parents for some shopping and along the way back we stopped at Kerala Hotel at Akkulam, within the NH bypass road (next to where the Toll gate used to be)… It was quite crowded plus my mom’s inability to handle the smell of fish prompted us to just get parcel and leave… So, got their Pothichoru parcel about which I had been hearing recently from the foodie groups in Facebook… The Kerala Hotel is a place that has quite a large number of positive reviews in these groups and so I really had been meaning to check it out but didn’t really get a chance until today…

I was first a bit surprised at it because when I got handed over the bad containing the parcel, unlike usually I felt it to be lighter which is an indication that the quantity is probably lesser than the other Pothichoru options I have had so far but the person in the restaurant said that there is enough for two people… Quite frankly, I beg to disagree there… The quantity really is apt for a single person as I don’t think it will be enough for two… Once again the problem of too high rice to curries ratio applies here as well because I felt that the quantity of the side dishes could’ve been much more considering the quantity of rice, but, considering the much lower price compared to the others, I am not complaining but rather would suggest that they reduce the quantity of rice in it to match instead of maintaining the disproportion… Then again, its just my personal opinion 🙂

Now coming to the contents and here I am typing this from my memory hoping not to miss anything; the parcel consisted of Rice (Sulekha or a variant of it), Aviyal, Omlette, Plaintain Mezhukkupuratti, Chemmeen Peera, Chammanthi and Lime Pickle all wrapped in a Banana leaf… Along with this package, they have given a portion each of Dal/Parippu, Sambhar, Fish Curry, Kappa, Pulissery, a piece of Fried Fish and Pappadom along with a Fried dried chilly (Mulakukondattam)…

Pothichoru

Pothichoru – Onlette, Chammathi

Pothichoru

Pothichoru – Fried Fish

Parippu, Fish Curry, Sambhar

Sambhar, Kappa, Pulissery

Parippu, Fish Curry, Sambhar, Pappadam, Kappa, Pulissery

Pothichoru

Now coming to the taste, on the overall, ignoring the part where I felt everything needed a bit more salt, quite frankly, the way it tasted, didn’t feel like its from a restaurant at all but rather felt home made with simple and clean ingredients cooked just like we do at home… I mean, if somebody brings this to me and say that it was made by a homechef, I would definitely believe it cause thats how it tasted… Plain and simple flavours cooked well…

Coming to the individual items, I liked the aviyal… Its not as sour as I usually get from my home, what made me like it even more is that I was able to taste each and every ingredient used… However, I do wish it had a bit more salt, which I did add on my own here 🙂 Once I added the Parippu to the rice, I could taste the taste of ghee in it as it seems like they have indeed added some ghee to the Parippu… The Parippu appeared to have been made mostly with Green gram (Mung Dal)… I didn’t take the sambhar (gave to my grandmother instead of the parippu which I took), but I did get to taste the Pulissery, which even though from the outside looked like a packet of loose coconut chutney, it was indeed packed with the taste of yogurt and the tempering… What it did it that it brought a slight sour component to the whole meal which was welcoming considering that none of the other items had any sour component to it… The Kappa was ofcourse just like any other, and cooked to a pulp…

The fish curry was made with coconut in the simple way with the classic fish masala… The same was the case with the Fried Fish… Classic fish masala coated and fried to be cooked perfectly… A surprise here was that I couldn’t tell which fish it was and so I contacted the owner and he informed me that its “Puzhameen” that they used today which is a fresh water fish… Normally I don’t like fresh water fish at all, but what I got today turned out to be an exception… 🙂 The fish tasted incredibly fresh that I do wonder if they had just caught it from the canal or lake nearby before cooking and giving me the parcel today 🙂 Also, unlike the rest, the Fried Fish was seasoned perfectly for me…

So, altogether a good meal option indeed although I personally think it could be a lot better if the food seasoned better, but then again, its just my personal view… So, pls check it out and reach to your own conclusions on it 🙂

Kerala Hotel – First Time – Pothichoru I happened to go out today with my parents for some shopping and along the way back we stopped at Kerala Hotel at Akkulam, within the NH bypass road (next to where the Toll gate used to be)...

Hotel Annapoorna @ Kazhakuttom – Early Breakfast Option If you know me personally, you would know that I tend to dislike Idlis and prefer Dosas to it any day...

Young Sheldon Recently heard about this new series from CBS and the makers of the ever so famous television series, The Big Bang Theory, called Young Sheldon based on one of its main characters Dr.

Recently, I heard about this new Swiss coffee shop named Kaffeehaus that opened in Vazhuthacaud, Trivandrum from a friend of mine and since a Swiss place is a first in Trivandrum, I decided to check it out and went there with another friend of mine… That time ended up being a bad day because the place had just opened and they were still getting their act together with the staff just learning to do what they do and to make matters worse, the main expert, who is also Swiss, ended up being on leave sick… So, long story short, things didn’t go as well as I had hoped but considering the circumstances, I felt it to be unfair to write the place off and hence decided to try again later… This was about a couple of weeks ago and the revisit happened today and boy am I glad I took that decision to come back…

Kaffeehaus is a cosy little place located at M.P Appan Road in Vazhuthacaud (walkable distance from the junction)… I had the chance to speak with one of the owners of the place and hence got to know that she along with her Swiss relative is owning and running the place and the Swiss relative is the mastermind behind the menu and the decor of the place, which as you can see from the pics, screams Swiss everywhere… Also, from what I could understand, they don’t have a fixed menu yet as they are still in the experimental phase… Hence, there is no menu card as such but there are a couple of blackboards on the wall where the menu is written by the owner on a daily basis… The owner also mentioned that they have chefs flown in from Switzerland to train their in-house chefs and hence they try their best to give the most authentic Swiss coffeeshop experience that they can and based on how their food tasted today, I don’t doubt that at all 🙂

Kaffeehaus

Kaffeehaus – Menu

Kaffeehaus

So, among the options today, I had a Hühnchensalat, a Rösti and then their Jura… Along with those, I had a Lime Iced Tea to drink and by the end of meal, I felt like having one more iced tea and this time the waiter offered to get me the Peach Iced Tea instead which I accepted 🙂

Hühnchensalat

Rosti (Chicken)

Jura

Lime Iced Tea

Peach Iced Tea

The Hühnchensalat is basicalled a Grilled Chicken Salad… It came as shown in the pic consisting of shredded Grilled Chicken, Tomatoes, Carrots, Cucumber and Lettuce dressed with what I can guess is a lite mayo and vinegrette based dressing seasoned perfectly with salt and freshly crushed pepper and then topped with some chopped Parsley and some chopped Black Olives thrown in there… 🙂

The Vegetables were indeed crunchy and I could tell that they are indeed freshly cut and the whole thing tasted so wonderful that I must say that its by far the best Grilled Chicken Salad that I have ever had… I would definitely rate this as the best in Trivandrum and possibly one of the best in the country right now 🙂 Only complaint I have is that towards the bottom, I felt that it had too much of the dressing, and so, I guess a suggestion I can make is to reduce the amount of dressing used or toss the salad with minimum amount and then provide the extra on the side and it should be perfect… 🙂

Next was the one listed under Kaffeehaus specials as Rösti… When I asked about it, the waitress informed me that its a potato based savoury pancake topped with the cheese and vegetables or protein of my choice, with the choice being either Chicken or Bacon… Since I am not a fan of pork and just had all the vegetables I can eat for a day in the salad, I went for the Chicken option… So, turns out as can be seen in the pic, the pancake is basically a giant Potato Fritter (or think of it as a giant Hashbrown with onions in it) topped with the shredded grilled chicken and cheese, seasoned with freshly ground pepper and what I think is some smoked paprika powder… It is served on the plate with a sliced Olive and Parsely to the side (which I guess is intended as garnish)… 🙂

First of, the chicken tasted amazing with the cheese and the seasonings… However, what I missed in this is salt… I mean, it was perfect when I ate a small piece of the fritter with the cheese and chicken, but when I ran out of cheese, I had to put in the extra salt to be able to enjoy the fritter better… I guess its the Indian in me talking here, but I think it would be great idea if the potatoes were seasoned to begin with… It doesn’t have to be much, but could use some seasoning, at-least lightly… Or an alternate option would be to include more Cheese and Chicken in it, which is exactly what I would prefer… 😀 😛

For dessert, came the Jura… The Jura is basically a creamy Panna Cotta topped some Chocolate sauce and some Pomegranate as shown in the below pic… The Panna Cotta was slightly firm on the outside but incredibly airy and creamy inside… The Panna Cotta itself tasted of cream with a very slight hint of Vanilla… The amount of sweetness was just right for me… The chocolate sauce felt like it had a slight hint of Coffee as well… The Pomegranate gave a crunchy texture to it which along with the fruitiness of it made it to be quite a refreshing dessert to have for me… Infact I loved it so much that I simply couldn’t resist getting another one… 🙂

Jura

Lime Iced Tea

Jura and Peach Iced Tea

Regarding the Iced Teas, the owner had informed me earlier that what they serve is made completely from scratch in-house and is not made by using the pre-made mix like how most places usually do…

I first had their Lime Iced Tea that had a nice flavour of Green Lime and Mint with the right amount of sweetness, but unfortunately it tasted slightly bitter for me, I guess some of the Fibers / Zest went into it that usually causes bitterness… So, when I wanted some more to drink, I went for the Peach option when offered by the waiter…

The Peach Iced Tea however, was simply perfect… Great refreshing taste of Peach along with Mint with the Tea… In fact, I felt it to be best Iced Tea option in the city right now that I’ll definitely be getting in my future visits…

So, altogether a very promising place to eat and hangout and unique as well as I think this is the very first authentic Swiss Coffee Shop in the city… Based on what the owner told me, they are bringing in more Swiss dishes very soon… One thing I found missing in the menu is the cold brews of coffee which too is going to be available very soon as per the owner… So, I think Kaffeehaus is probably going to be a regular spot for me whenever I go towards the city… 🙂

Kaffeehaus – First Visits Recently, I heard about this new Swiss coffee shop named Kaffeehaus that opened in Vazhuthacaud, Trivandrum from a friend of mine and since a Swiss place is a first in Trivandrum, I decided to check it out and went there with another friend of mine...

Tried visiting The Cinnamon Route at Kuravankonam, Trivandrum finally… Been wanting to try ever since I saw their ads regarding their thali options and more recently their biriyani options as well… I ended up reaching at around 12:30pm and pretty much found myself to be the only customer in the place (as can be seen from the empty dining room pics) that I wondered if the place is closed 🙂 But very soon got greeted by a waitress and so, I guess it turned out to be a fluke day 🙂

The Cinnamon Route

Bade Miya Thali

I was handed the lunch time meals menu and it had options of their Thalis and Biriyanis… I had gone there expecting to try their biriyani but I changed my mind and decided to go for their Bade Miya Thali… Now the Bade Miya Thali as per their menu and ad consists of Boiled Rice, a Phulka, 4 Non-Veg sides, 6 Veg sides, Pickle, Chammanthi and Payasam and the Non-Veg sides are mentioned to be a side each of Egg, Chicken, Fish and Meat and when I enquired, I found that by Meat, they mean Beef… Since I don’t eat Beef, I asked if they could replace the Beef with any of the others… They happily obliged and so, got one extra portion of the Fish Curry as you can see from the pic 🙂

What came in the Thali other than the two portions of Fish Curry, Rice and Phulka were an Omlette, a portion of Chicken Curry, Curd, Pappadom, Ginger-Lime Pickle, Aviyal, Cabbage & Carrot Thoran, Pachadi, Kappa (Tapioca/Cassava), Sambhar, Pulissery and Semolina Payasam…

Bade Miya Thali

Bade Miya Thali – Payassam, Fish Curries

Now coming to the taste, the only problem I had with the whole Thali was that it was too spicy for me, especially the Fish and Chicken sides… However, flavourwise, I found everything to be spot on… The fish was a proper Naadan Fish curry made with Coconut and Coccum… The fish turned out to be Tuna-Mackerel which was perfectly cooked… The Chicken curry was a version of the Pepper Chicken Masala and the portion consisted on a single piece with a medium thick gravy that was loaded with crushed black pepper in it… The Phulka I think was made with Maida and the Omlette had chopped Onions, Green Chillies and Tomato in it… The Omlette was cooked perfectly without the Egg going dry like how it does in most places here in Trivandrum…

As for the Vegetarian sides, I felt that the Sambhar and Aviyal were as good as can be expected, with nicely seasoned flavours and almost crispy Vegetables… The pachadi was the standard one with cucumber in it… The Thoran was made with Cabbage and Carrot, which is my favourite combination to have in the Thoran (maybe add in some Beetroot as well 🙂 ) and the Kappa was made to be the dry kind… The Pulissery on the other hand was something I loved from the Thali cause of two reasons, the first being that it had the flavour of Mango in it and the second being that it helped me neutralise some of the spiciness of the rest of the dishes when mixed with the rice… The pickle turned out to be awesome though, made up of Lime with a lot of ginger… Its not the pickle pickle that we are used to in a meal, but rather the diluted kind, the one we called Naranga Curry up in the North 🙂 Finally, the Payasam was quite rich and creamy and consisted of Semolina and roasted Cashews and dried Grapes…

Anyways, definitely a good Thali to have that tasted quite authentic with the flavour of Curry Leaves and Coconut throughout… I only wish that it were less spicier that how I got it… But thats just me… 🙂

The Cinnamon Route – First Visit Tried visiting The Cinnamon Route at Kuravankonam, Trivandrum finally... Been wanting to try ever since I saw their ads regarding their thali options and more recently their biriyani options as well...

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