Review: Status Vegetarian Restaurant, Nariman Point

Last week, I was in my home-town in India, vs. Mumbai, and to eat out was inevitable. To celebrate my arrival, my family took me to a movie at the Inox theatre. After the movie, we went across to this restaurant where the crowd was not overwhelming as it was a week-day. We got a table quite easily without waiting. 

We ordered a sev-puri that was presented in six small glasses in a plate known as "Sevpuri shots". This tasted just like the authentic thing and it was quite exciting and tasty. 

For the main course, we ordered a "Vegetable Kadhai" with assorted bread. This item was good, but not great. However, it had the right amount of chilli. 

After this, we ordered the famous Gujarati Khichdi with pure ghee and sweet kadhi. This is something so unique, you can't have the combination in any other kind of cuisine. It was excellent enough for us to re-order another one to carry with us home.

During the dinner, the service was really good. Waiters were almost always within sight and kept coming to us to help with the serving of food, or replenishing the water in our glasses. 

On the whole. a very good experience.

Ratings:

Food 5*
Ambience: 3.5*
Service: 5*
Overall: 4*

Recommendation: Try the thali. Although I did not eat it, and this is not a thali speciality restaurant, I did see it being served on a neighbouring table and it looked gorgeous.

My family

Sevpuri shots

Kadai vegetable

Phulka

Chocolate overload - delicious!

Cook: Bohri-style Chicken Curry -My first attempt to create a cooking video

Some days ago, I made "Kaari masala". This is one of the tastiest recipes from a Bohri kitchen. It turned out very nice. I kept taking photos as I cooked. I haven't started on the road to vlog my recipes or cooking, but I used the Windows Movie Maker to make a slide show with narration and subtitles and posted it to my channel on YouTube. Do watch it HERE.

Here are the final photos from the show to entice you to watch the video and to try and make the recipe. If you cannot get your hands on authentic dry Kaari masala, fear not. I promise to make another video and will teach you all how to make an authentic dry Kaari masala. 

The whole spices are getting tempered

Tamarind paste - a crucial ingredient

As the cook continues, oil begins to separate

The final product, ready to eat with rice/bread/roti

Having it with shredded tandoori roti

Thanks for visiting. Do watch the video and let me know if you liked it. Even better, do try out the recipe. If you are in India, you will get the dry masala powder from any Bohri grocery shop. If not, wait a while and in some days, I will post the recipe and/or post a video on my channel on YT. 

P.S. You can make the same recipe with lamb meat as well. 

Recipe: Kerala style "thoran": Cabbage stir-fry

Cabbage Thoran (Kerala dry, stir-fried cabbage)

This is a special item on the kerala meal. Preparation varies from one cook to the other. I first ate this in Alleppey, then checked out the recipes on YouTube. My method is an amalgam of the best of these.

Ingredients:

1 medium cabbage
4-inch piece of carrot
2 shallots
grated coconut (1/2)
curry leaves - many!
garlic - 4-5 pieces off a fresh pod
red chilli - 2
moong dal without chilka 1 teaspoon, washed
cummin - 1/2 tsp
mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
green chilli - 3
turmeric - 1 tsp
coconut oil - 2 tablespoons
salt - to taste

Preparation time: 

To cut the cabbage to a fine grate - (using a chopper device) - 5 minutes
To clean and dice the rest - another 5 minutes
To grate the coconut - 5 minutes

Method:

Use fresh cabbage. Remove the leaves, a few at the time, add them to the chopper, and grate them into a finely grated condition. Take the carrot, grate it with a normal grater. Mix the two. Add salt, and turmeric. Mix everything in a large bowl. Allow to stand for 10-15 minutes. 

In the meantime, using a mortar and pestle, crush the three green chillis, a small piece of ginger, all the garlic, the shallots, the cummin seeds and 8-10 curry leaves into a paste. Keep aside.

Reach for the cabbage mix and squeeze out all the water from it, handful by handful, till the mix is water-free (to the best of your ability).

In a large saucepan, take coconut oil. Put on the heat. Once the oil is heated, splutter the remaining curry leaves, mustard seeds, the washed, skinless moong dal and the red chilli. Once they are spluttering, add the grated cabbage mix, the grated coconut, the crushed spices from the mortar, and now stir fry the whole mix - never stopping the stirring of the mix - till the entire mix starts coming together and the coconut oil leaves the sides of the mix.

Your thoran is ready. Serve it in a small bowl as a side to fried fish or egg curry and rice. Or, just eat it by itself. It is delicious.

The final look

Review: Bombay Vintage, Mumbai

On my 58th birthday, my family and I visited the Bombay Vintage restaurant located on the ground floor of the Indian Mercantile Mansions opposite the Regal Cinema. This is a new venture by a team of three experienced restaurateurs M/s Shah, Gambhir and Honaver. These three worthies are already owning the Woodside Inn located on the back-side of the same premises at the very northern end of the Wodehouse Road (Nathalal Parikh Marg). Listed on Zomato, this restaurant has seen some of the best reviews. We, therefore, decided to reserve a table and booked ourselves in for dinner.

During my phone call to them, I had informed them that we were coming there to celebrate my birthday. They wished me, one and all, very effusive birthday wishes as my family and I checked in to have our meal. The ambience of the place is distinctly vintage Mumbai. There are frames and various paraphernalia of an era that is perhaps half a century into the past - or even more. A manual typewriter sits in a window alcove on the first floor of the eatery. There is a vintage dial-up rotary telephone stuck to the wall. Also found are other similar curios that hark-back to the past.

The tables and chairs are comfortable without being elaborate or ostentatious. A ceiling AC machine that juts out from the centre of the roof looks a bit jarring and in need of some modesty as it looks down upon the diners in full view, wires and machinery and all. 

At the entrance, Mr Vikas, who had taken my reservation over the phone, was the first to greet me and wish me a happy birthday.

Mr Mahesh, one of the waiters,  greeted us once we were on the top floor and helped settle us into our chairs. Throughout the meal, he remained cheerful, attentive and responsive to our needs. He even offered to take our photos. 

We also met Mr Deepen Kunwar, their manager. This gentleman entertained us with his stories of working in different restaurants elsewhere. He was, in the past, an overseer of a chain of restaurants that go by the Rude Lounge tag. 

The meal was fantastic. We had "Prawns Sion Koliwada" and "Chicken Uruval" as starters with "Sol kadi" for an appetizer/starter. Following this, we had a main course of "Bharli Vangi" and "Chura Paratha" and "Gomantak Surmai curry" and "Red Rice". To be honest, the portions were a bit smaller than we expected, but they then did something remarkable: they served us two dessert items ON THE HOUSE. This included a very unique "Tomato Halwa" topped with an ice cream AND a "Chocolate Ganache Mousse" from their own Pantry Cafe just a stone's throw away.

Our only grouse was their "Turmeric Almond Milk soda", which the family at the next table also had. This drink lacked any distinction. However, the sol kadi was great. Hence, as a reviewer, I am willing to overlook this little issue!

After the meal, we requested to speak to their sous chef, who has previously worked at many other distinguished outlets. Mr B. Kotliwal is from Uttarakhand. He was very effusive and gave us a tip or two on the foods he had cooked.

Ambience: 5*

Service and Staff: 5*

Food and Drinks: 5*  

Recommendations: Go there and stuff yourself. Almost every item is good, but I especially found their Bharli Vangi (creamy and the best aubergine/brinjal I have had), Chicken Uruval (positively enhanced by the roasted cashews) and the Tomato Halwa (yummy)delicious.

Final words: Expect the unexpected. Be nice to the staff and they will be more than welcoming to you. Chatting up with them is very entertaining and instructive. 

Recipe: Methi-gosht

METHI-GOSHT

I made methi-gosht last Saturday as part of my long cook-a-thon which saw me making many other foods.

Here is the recipe for my methi gosht.

Ingredients:

400 gm lamb pieces - I prefer the shoulder cut;
10 grams of methi leaves, washed and dried;
Onions, 2 sliced long thin;
Tomatoes - 1 vine tomato;
Yoghurt, 2 tbsp;
Whole spices: 2 bay leaves, 4-5 green cardamoms, 4-5 pieces of cinnamon sticks, 8-10 black peppercorns, 4-5 cloves, a tsp of cummin seeds;
Ground spices - red chilli powder, garam masala, coriander powder - all 1 tsp; cummin powder and turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp;
Ginger paste 1.5 tsp;
Green chilli paste, 1 tsp;
Salt - as per taste;
Oil 1 tbsp for tempering.

Preparation Time: 20 minutes
Cooking Time: 25 minutes

Serves: 2

Preparation:

1) Wash the pieces of mutton, then boil them for 10 minutes to soften them. Keep the water you boil them in.
2) Wash and dry the fenugreek (methi) leaves and leave aside.
3) Slice the onions thin and longitudinally
4) Dice the tomato into cubes

Method:

1) in the pressure cooker, heat oil till it is just under smoking heat, then reduce the heat, and add the whole spices one by one except for the cummin. Once they splutter, remove them with a fenestrated spoon and keep aside.
2) Splutter the cummin seeds, then, fry the onion till it is slightly brown (more than pink)
3) Add the ginger paste, then the green chilli paste, then the ground spices, sequentially. Add salt here.
Allow them to cook and let the oil separate. Add the diced 🍅 and the yoghurt, then cook further.
4) Now, add back the whole spices.
5) Add the methi, cooking for a minute.
6) Add the lamb pieces, stirring all the while.
7) As the whole pot cooks, add water which you saved from the boil.
8 ) Close the cooker, pressure whistle for 7 minutes on medium heat or 4-5 minutes on full heat.
9) After cooling, open the lid. Slow cook the mix on low heat for a further 10-12 minutes, or till the water is about 100ml.
10)Taste, and add more salt to season as per your taste.
11) Serve hot with pulao rice, naan or paratha.

Important notes:

1) You can marinade the meat with only yoghurt, ginger paste, green chilli paste, tomato paste, a little oil and all the ground spices for 1 hour outside the fridge or 2-3 hours in the fridge - instead of boiling it.
2) The entire recipe can be duplicated without a pressure cooker with longer cooking times.
3) Salt is as per taste. I prefer to add in the cook, as it is more healthy, rather than the new-fangled way of adding it at the end.