Schezuan Potatoes

            I have created quite a few dishes that I am proud of. The dish I am posting today is my favourite yet! So a heads up to all you readers. To cook my usual dishes, you just have to do something similar to what I explain and you don’t actually have to as accurate as I explain. But, for this dish, please try to do exactly what I say. I am not saying I am a masterchef or anything, but from experience I can say that even a small change in the crucial part of this dish will mess it up. Trust me. This dish is easy to cook, but requires a little more attention than my usual recipes. So, brace yourselves for the new recipe!!!

The Ingredients

Ingredients:

5 medium sized potatoes (Diced)

4 Onions (Diced)

Half a Capsicum (chopped lengthwise)

2 Green Chillies (finely chopped)

3 tablespoons of “Ching’s Schezuan Chutney”

½ tablespoon of Tomato Sauce

¾ tablespoon of Dark Soy Sauce

1 tablespoon of Green Chilly Sauce

3 teaspoons of Black Pepper powder

2 tablespoons of Vegetable Oil

Salt to taste

How to MAKE:

I usually don't garnish...!

            First, cook the potatoes in boiling water till they are about 3/4rth cooked and keep them aside. Now, heat the oil in a pan and then add 2 tablespoons of the Schezuan Chutney. Stir it and immediately add the onions to this. Cook the onions till the smell of the “Chutney” subsides a little. Now, add the capsicum and saute it till the raw smell of the capsicum settles. Next, add the potatoes and mix everything together well together. Make sure that the reddish colour spreads evenly all over the potatoes. Now, add pepper powder, the last tablespoon of the Schezuan Chutney, and the 3 different sauces and toss it around to mix it well. Now add salt to taste. Now comes the most crucial step of the dish. Add about 50 ml water to the dish, keep it on high flame and keep stirring it till the water evaporates. Do the same thing exactly 3 more times with the same amount of water. This is the crucial step because, this makes the flavour go into the potatoes. If you cook it on low flame by adding a lot of water, the entire dish will become soggy and won’t taste as good. Finally, add the green chillies and mix well. Add 50 ml and do the previous procedure one last time. But this time, instead of plainly stirring the dish, mash one or two pieces of potatoes and then mix everything well. Now, finally, turn off the flame and the potatoes are ready to be devoured!! Serve hot!

P.S: While stirring, make sure not to crumble any potatoes if possible until the last step.

Paragon

                I have always loved the city of Kozhikode (Calicut) for its amazing culinary base and even for the hospitality of the people living there. Kozhikode is very well known for its amazing biryanis. and when talks about Kozhikodan biryani, the first place that comes to my mind is hotel Paragon and the amazing biryani available there. I have eaten my fair share of biryanis but the one at Paragon is one of the best. But the only sad part is that I live in a completely different region of Kerala and going to Paragon just to eat biryani isn’t feasible. I know there are tons of people who have similar sorrows and thanks to Lulu Mall, Kochi, all of us here are quite happy.

                Paragon at Lulu Mall, Kochi is everything that one expects it to be. I would actually say it is much more than what I expected. It is established over the first, second and third floors of the Mall. The quality of dining received is as good as or even better than the one in Kozhikode. I was pretty excited to eat here and I hope everyone will!

The Order

                Starting with the restaurant, it offers a wide variety of food on its menu that covers more than just the classic Malabar cuisine. It offers the traditional Malabar cuisine as well as Italian, Chinese, and the classic Kerala style dishes as well. As all restaurants, Paragon has both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes. For all the “health” conscious people, Paragon also has a variety of salads available.

                Speaking of service, no one can have any sort of complaints. The food that we ordered, took even less than 10 minutes to arrive. I have seen service faster than this only at any roadside fast food joint. The waiters were very attentive and very polite. They were quite humble and patient as well, a quality not seen in many waiters.

                Coming to the restaurant itself, the interior isn’t your designer stylish kind of design. It is simple and well maintained. The seating was also pretty good and comfortable. The restaurant has maintained a particular class and it gave me the feeling one gets while fine dining. When one enters the restaurant, you get to see an open air kitchen. It has shelves with fresh fish and I guess the fish dishes will indeed taste pretty fresh. I don’t know exactly how this open air kitchen works but I guess they might cook fish as per requests and that the customer gets to pick out their desired fish. I didn’t get enough time to enquire about it since I was there at rush hour. Sorry about that. For the people with a sweet tooth, they offer a lot of desserts as well.

Looks good in a plate too

                Now coming to the actual important part of the restaurant, the FOOD! I could go on and on about the food served at Paragon, but since you would get bored, I won’t! So, the dishes that we ordered were, ‘Paragon Chilly Chicken’, ‘Beef Ullarthiyathu’, and a few Parottas. As I mentioned before, the food arrived pretty quick and was kind of hot also. So I was sure that it is freshly made. The dishes looked quite normal and the presentation didn’t stand out very well or anything. But once a piece was in my mouth, I realised that the proverb “don’t judge a book by its cover” can never get a better proof. The Paragon Chilly chicken, which I wondered how it would be different, was the most surprising one.

Beef Ullarthiyathu

                     Unlike regular Chilly chicken, this dish actually had a little smoky flavour to it. It was not so powerful so as to ruin the dish, but was very well tamed so that the taste was as a whole boosted. They tried to keep the traditional flavour of the chilly chicken and at the same time infuse it with their very own style making it truly awesome. The meat was perfectly cooked, it was tender and was not at all over cooked by even a bit. The gravy was as delicious and not very runny either. The beef on the other end of the taste palate was crispy and spicy, and was immensely flavoured. It had this tenderness that every meat lover wants in their beef and also had this very small hint of a crunch to it. It too, was perfectly cooked and not even a single piece had any sort of rubberiness that the beef might have when not cooked well. I personally felt that it left a small oiliness in my mouth and it was a little annoying. But the taste of the dish made me overlook this.

                           Finally, the parotta that accompanied us on our delightful battle with the dishes. It was slightly crunchy and soft and what not. I can say that I literally have not eaten parotta as good as this in around 5-10 years! It didn’t even have slightest bit of rubberiness or any of those drawbacks of the usual “parotta”. It was so skilfully made and tasted so good that I would have eaten the parotta on its own if I had to! We didn’t bother to order any drinks since we didn’t see anything catchy on the menu. The only complaint I would have is that the Paragon Chilly chicken could have maybe one or two more pieces in it! The pricing that may be considered as some as too much. I do agree with them since it is not as cheap as your regular restaurants. But, in no way is the money paid wasted. Every single rupee paid is worth the food and service received and is totally worth it all!

Paragon Chilly Chicken

                Finally, I would say that my entire day was brightened up because of the lunch I had here and it would be totally worth my time and money to pay another visit to the restaurant. As a concluding statement,

Thakkaram Restaurant

The Outside View

                I have always felt like taking a trip to the Malabar area in Kerala to try out the cuisine available there. But since I am an engineering student, I don’t get the time travel there just to eat their food. But Thakkaram restaurant, opposite Gold Souk, Vytilla, provided me with just what I wanted. Specialized with Malabarian cuisine, this hotel provides every customer with an experience that would not be easily forgotten. I visited this place with two of my friends, and I am sure that they had as good a time as I did.

                

The Interior

The restaurant is open from 11 in the morning to 11 at night. The specialties here being classic Malabar food, this place also offers other cuisines for the ones who might not like Malabar food. Also, it has vegetarian as well as non-vegetarian dishes. So no one steps outside this place with an unhappy mood.

                The service here was one of the best I have seen in restaurants. The waiters were polite, attentive and very efficient. Most of all, they were patient, I can say this because we took a while to order but our waiter was still as polite as he was initially and didn’t show any form of uneasiness.

The Order

                I cannot complete this article without talking about the interiors and exterior appeal of the restaurant. Outside the place, the first thing that would be noticed is a large bus parked in front. Awkward at first, but then I realized that this was an outdoor dining area, which had a set of tables and proper cooling. I was stunned by this sort of innovative designing and thought put into it. Going into the restaurant, I felt marveled by the sight I saw. Though the walls were plain white, they had various caricatures drawn on them, caricatures of the scenes one would get to see if they were to travel to Malabar area of Kerala. They were carefully planned out and drawn and were totally awesome. The restaurant had a main dining room, while the rest of the place was divided into many rooms. Each room had a name, which I later found was named after places in the Malabar. The attention paid to such minor details is awesome and deserves a great deal of appreciation. The ambience of the restaurant was really very good and unforgettable.

                Finally, talking about the food, I would say that it was good. The food was not the best of its kind, but it was well above average. We ordered a dish called “Kozhi Varutharacha curry” and “Pothirachi(Beef) Kurumulakittu Vatichathu” with Biryani Rice. It took about 10 minutes for the waiter to bring out our food and this made me very happy. The dishes were presented pretty well and it looked very good. 

Kozhi Varutharacha Curry

The chicken dish was a type of chicken curry that used ground coconut as a base ingredient for its gravy while the beef used pepper as its base ingredient. The biryani rice was just a dish made with basmati rice with some biryani masala. The biryani rice was pretty awesome along with the two condiments, the usual salad and a type of beetroot pickle. The beef was pretty well flavoured, but it lacked proper seasoning. The dish was dry, gravy-less and the pieces were fried. But even then, the pieces of beef were a little bit chewy. But this was overlookable since the dish was hot. The chicken however, was very well flavoured and seasoned, and the gravy was thick and had a very good texture. The pieces too, were well cooked but a few portions were a little overcooked and chewy. This wasn’t very noticeable and didn’t affect the taste of the entire dish at all. Personally, I liked the beef more than the chicken but that might have been since it had been a long time since I had eaten beef. The pricing of the food was pretty affordable too. It was not at all overpriced and the money spent was totally worth it!

Pothirachi Kurumulakittu Vatichathu

                Finally, as a conclusion, I would say that my experience here was totally nice and I would never hesitate to revisit this restaurant again. I will visit this place again because I really want to try out other dishes available here. This place is very peaceful and it gives a kind of serenity while eating here. 

Egg Noodles

The Ingredients

Ingredients:

Noodles

4 Eggs

3 Onions (diced)

½ Capsicums (diced)

2 Green chilies (fine chopped)

3 teaspoons of Ginger Garlic paste

4 teaspoons of Red Chilly Powder

3 tablespoons of Tomato sauce

2 tablespoons of Chilly sauce

1 tablespoons of Soya sauce

4 teaspoons of Black Pepper powder

1 teaspoon of Turmeric Powder

2 teaspoons of Pepsi (Yes, you read that write.)

3 tablespoons of vegetable oil

Salt to taste

How to MAKE:

The Final Thing

                First, cook the noodles and keep it aside. Then scramble the eggs with salt to season and keep it aside. Now, heat the oil in a pan and when hot, add the ginger garlic paste and the green chillies to it. Sauté for a few seconds and then add the onions, and capsicum to it. Sauté this for a while until the onions turn slightly brown and the capsicum starts to sweat. Now, add the scrambled eggs to this a sauté for about a minute. Now, add all the different powders (including salt) and mix everything well. Add the 3 different sauces and sauté for about 2 minutes.

 Now comes the step for which you need to trust me. Not using this ingredient won’t make your noodles tasteless, but using it will make it a hell lot tastier! So it is up to you to use this or not. The ingredient I am talking about is the 2 teaspoons of Pepsi. Add it to the dish, and try to burn it off using the flames (it is ok if you can’t). Sauté for a minute and finally add the noodles to it (make sure the noodles aren’t sticking together when you are adding them).  Now stir the entire thing together until is evenly mixed and then cook it for about 2 minutes. Now turn the flames off and your noodles are now ready. Serve Hot!

Tip: If you find that you have not added enough salt at the end after you have added noodles, instead of adding the salt directly, try and mix that salt with very little water and then add it. This will ensure that it spread evenly. This water will evaporate away quickly.

BBQ Square

It looks pretty awesome at night

Located at Palarivattom, BBQ Square has one of the best locations that any food joint can have in such a crowded city. The restaurant itself looks pretty good. It has a very simple and elegant appearance on the outside while the interiors have a very good aesthetic appeal. The arrangements made for seating are pretty great too. The only problem that I had with the interiors was the lack of ventilation, but it was not that big of a problem because it isn’t that hot inside.

The restaurant is open from 12 in the noon to 12 at night. It offers a variety of dishes in the grill, kebab, and barbeque category. It also serves burgers and salads too. So, I guess the vegetarians won’t be completely left out here. But since I am not one, I won’t go into details about the vegetarian dishes.

The service was excellent here. The waiters were very polite and very attentive too. These guys were well groomed too. So I wasn’t worried of them contaminating my food. They were bringing out food pretty quick.

Now talking about the food, I would rank it over average. I cannot say that it was very excellent though. But the fact that some of the items mentioned in the menu weren’t available was a total disappointment. I visited this place hoping to get some barbecue beef. But this was unavailable since the chef who handles beef was still “sleeping”! The next dish that caught my eye on the menu was barbecued jalapeno wings, but this dish too was unavailable. This was utterly disappointing since the waiter told me that the only dishes that were available at that time were the grilled chicken, barbecue fish, and some kebabs. Since I wasn’t in a mood for seafood, I ordered the grilled chicken. The proper name given to the dish is ‘Turkish Spicy Grill’. I also ordered a drink called the ‘Tongue Twister’, which the waiter said was a drink made with oranges and mint.

The complete order

 The food arrived in about like 10-15 minutes and was pretty warm. I mean, it was neither very hot, nor very cold. It was just the perfect warmth. There were four pieces in total, which was accompanied by 2 pieces of kuboos (which is an Arabian flat bread made of wheat flour and such), and two different kinds of condiments- the usual garlic paste and a kind of spicy paste which they call a ‘Spicy Thoom’ (I am guessing it is made with pickled green chillies and mustard paste and stuff). The garlic paste was good, but my favourite was the Spicy Thoom. The kuboos was just the same as I would be served at any other Arabic restaurant. The grilled chicken was which supposedly called “Spicy” was not at all in agreement with the name. The first serving of these was free, but a second helping would be subject to be charged. 

The chicken was nice and crispy on the outside, which is one of my most favourite things I like in grilled chicken. But as I kept eating and went deeper into the meat, I found that the insides weren’t as tasty as the outside. The inside of the meat was dry and not very flavoured. The Spicy Thoom actually helped a lot in masking this flavourlessness and simply made the chicken taste more incredible than it actually was. 

The drink that stole my heart

Now coming to the drink, I was a little extra curious to how good the drink would taste, because after the experience with the chicken, I didn’t expect something miraculous. But, I have to say, the drink was more than what I expected it to be. It was simply beautiful. The appearance itself made me like the drink a lot! The mix of oranges and mint was simply awesome!! It was pulpy and thick, and was just not some watery orange juice. They had used the pulpy orange juice and blended the mint into the drink. I loved the drink the most out of all the other food that I had ordered.

Concluding, I would say that this restaurant is pretty nice. Even though the chicken was a little dry, I loved the entire ambience of the place. Also, since the drink stole my heart, I cannot say that this place wasn’t good. I will surely visit the place again and review it again after I get a taste of the barbecue beef that they serve and the Tongue Twister will surely be ordered once more! The prices here are not too bad, since anywhere outside too I would have to pay around the same amount to get grilled chicken. So in short, even though it was a turn down initially, it was actually pretty good in the end!

Flakes Bake House

       Flakes is a bake house near Chottanikkara, on the Tripunithura-Chottanikkara road. My visit there was purely not planned. I was on my way back from an exam, with my friends, when one of them suggested this place.

                The place has average look on the outside, while the interior was a little better. Personally, I have been to better bake houses. The main part of the building was the bakery, and there was a partition that separated the bakery from the larger dining area. I found it a little uncomfortable that all tables could seat only around 6 people. There weren’t tables for smaller groups and since we were a group of about 10-11, about 3 of us had to sit separately on this huge table. But the tables and the dining area in general was pretty clean. The washroom however was an entirely different story. The water flowed in a very thin and weak stream and the basins were not cleaned well. This was the only problem with the cleanliness.

                Coming to service, the waiters were quite polite, but that is not all that matters at the end of the day. Our order took about half an hour to arrive. We had ordered food that would usually be ready made at any hotel and yet the delay. But I have to say, the bills arrived pretty fast.

Chicken Biryani

               

      Now coming to the main part, the Food! I had ordered a plate of Chicken Biryani. I have had different types of biryani, and I can assure you that the biryani I ate here was nowhere near even half of the best biryanis that I have ever eaten. The biryani was not at all hot to point out the first problem (considering that they took half an hour to bring it out!), but I wouldn’t mind overlooking that fact. Firstly, the rice used was the ordinary raw rice, rather than the usual basmati rice that I have seen being used in every other biryani. This rice was well cooked, but was a little on the dry side. Secondly, the masala, which is one of the best parts of a biryani, totally lacked the spiciness and flavor that clearly differentiates a biryani from its look-alike, ‘The Kabsa’. The masala was so less in quantity when compared to the rice and had not mixed well with the rice. Finally, the chicken pieces in the biryani, the most important part, weren’t cooked properly at all. They were fully cooked, but they weren’t allowed to absorb any of the masala that is present in the biryani. They basically were a bunch of cooked chicken pieces (2 to be exact) in the biryani. I am more used to chicken pieces that have been initially fried a little before being added to the biryani. If not it is supposed to be a ‘Kabsa’. But this dish was nowhere near that either. Now speaking of the condiments served along with the biryani, the curd salad served was too runny and was low on salt. There was this thick chutney (I am guessing it was mango based), that accompanied it. I loved this chutney and it was the one thing that helped in flavoring the biryani actually. After a biryani, I also ordered a Chocolate Swiss roll for dessert. It was a little dry, but then the filling was very creamy. So I actually liked the Swiss roll. Putting it simply, the dessert was much better than the main course itself!

                Concluding, I would say that the Flakes, is a better bakery than a restaurant. Also, it is a little overpriced, because the food doesn’t actually stand up to the quality that can be availed at such a price. My friends had the same opinions since the order they had placed too, were a little off on the quality side. The service could be made faster because slowing the service down and yet serving cold food is seriously annoying! If you w are hungry and have no other option, you could go here. But, otherwise I would seriously not recommend this place to anybody, because much better food and service can be obtain for almost the same rates, elsewhere.

Who doesn't like Sevpuri!!

                                                      Sevpuri is a snack that I have loved ever since the first time that I had eaten it. It has also been one of my favourite food. But even with all the craze, it is recently that I found out the fact that the puris are actually available in the market and these are fried to get the puffy and crunchy puris that we all eat in a bite!

                             After the puris are fried, its pretty straight forward from there. Just make a little masala using mashed potatoes mixed with salt and chopped green chillies. Stuff the puris using this masala and garnish with tomato sauce, sev, chopped tomatoes and onions, coriander leaves and a sauce made by blending mint leaves and green chillies in a mixer. Voila! The sevpuri is ready!

P.S: I use a little Tabasco sauce to add a little kick of spice. It sounds crazy but tastes good!