Nacho Bhel puri, Escape cinemas Chaat

I am someone who loves to experiment with food & flavours. Mix & match ingredients when I cook to see how it turns out and so far, it has been more hits than misses. Last week, when I had gone to Escape Cinemas in Express Avenue for a movie, I was quite hungry. It was lunch time, and I hadnt had anything. The chaat menu looked appealing and one item on that caught my eye. It was Nachos Bhel Puri.

Yes, I do get that sometimes fusion food can go so wrong, there is no redemption, but then throwing caution to the wind, I went ahead and ordered a plate of the Nachos Bhel Puri. Priced at Rs100 [same as the regular Bhel Puri], this one had Nachos instead of the crisps and a few mexican spices thrown in the mix as well.  There were a few stares as I picked up the order, one lady came close and asked me what it was and how it tasted..  Told her I hadnt tasted yet, but then I love Nachos, I love Bhel, so it cant be bad.. 

Must say, it tated quite yumm.. The Nachos on top were still crispy while the ones below had soaked up the sauces and had gone soft.. Used the ones on top to scoop up the chaat and savour it. Next time you are here, do give this a shot.

What is the one fusion food you tried [with a big dollop of scepticism thrown in] and ended up loving? 

ID, Sathyam Cinemas, Chennai

Many a sunday morning movies has been done at Sathyam. And they were all possible because we would grab a good breakfast at ID before the flick. We would all reach ID around 8.15, grab a table, and dig into the hot pongal or idli vada and gulp down a hot cup of filter coffee before moving over to the movie theaters. That is how good and reliable ID is.  And if you are not a coffee drinker, you can have a glass of fresh fruit juice to quench your thirst :) 

For as long as I can remember, we have eaten at ID- I enjoy their pongal, kasi halwa, and my alltime favorite is the keerai vadai. Apart from these, they also serve adai, and a MLA pesarattu which has upma stuffing. I love the chutneys they give, white coconut chutney, tomato-red chilli chutney and ofcourse the piping hot sambar. I have been here so many times that the staff know me by face. 

I have also visited their outlet in other malls and find the quality to be just as good! The most recent being a visit to Forum Mall where a friend wanted to grab a cup of kaapi when her son insisted he wanted idiyappam. He ate them plain and devoured them, which is a sign that the food is good. 

It is such a saving grace for movie goers and morning movie watchers like me and my group of friends! 

A big thumbs up for ID and Sathyam Cinemas!

Blur Cafe, Chennai

So, the Best friend is in town and we made plans for Lunch & Movie. There was no confusion in deciding on the movie because we both had decided to watch Hugo together, even before she landed in Chennai. 

Now, the question was "lunch", where? I kept wracking my brains trying to zero in on a place that is close to Sathyam Cinemas and not too far for either of us, she was coming from Ashok nagar and moi from Chetpet. Finally, thought why not head out to Blur Cafe in Sathyam, and have lunch there. I had heard about the place, seen it while spending hours in the bowling arcade, but never eaten there. Trusting my instincts, messaged my friend "Lets meet at Sathyam cinemas around 1.30". 

She was there on the dot, and alas, i was late by a few minutes.. Once i spotted her standing waiting for me in the lobby, ran and gave her a hug, before waiting for the elevator. We went up to the 5th floor, and onto the Cafe that was enveloped in Orange. 

The tables were rounded and orange in colour with thin beaded lights running along the sides. The chairs were funky plastic moulded ones and cutlery was stainless steel on white plates. The place was pretty empty but for another couple. Sat ourselves, got comfortable and started catching up on our lives [ well, not that it had been long since we had last met, or spoken to :-) but still, we seem to never have dearth of topics to talk about]

My friend then looked at me and said "shall we go see whats in the counter?"

Me: Chalo. 

My friend: dang, i have changed, wouldnt have done this few years ago.. now i dont know me

Me: Good for you girl :)

We spent a few minutes oggling at the desserts laid out in the counter- Chocolate crumble, pana cotta and so much more. Right beside this was the ice cream collection- there was fresh coffee ice cream, vanilla bean ice cream among other flavours.

The waiter [sweet chap, forgot his name though] gave us the menu card, a few minutes and then came over to ask if we were ready to order. After a bit of deliberation, we asked him to recommend. Only criteria being vegetarian. He said we could try the Wood fire pizza... Ran my finger through the list of pizzas and chose the Guiso [Pesto with different vegetables- thin crust 9inch pizza] and my friend suggested we order a Vegetable Grilled sandwich as well.

She had a bad cough, and when asked if they served green tea, the waiter recommended the Masala Chai, which landed in our table within a few minutes along with food.

The pizza was thin, light and filled withe flavour. It had a bunch of lightly roasted garlic amidst fresh basil leaves. The pizza toppings were - Olives, Cherry tomatoes, capsicum, and cheese over a pesto sauce. Each bite was sinful, and we polished it off within minutes.

The grilled sandwich looked quite appealing. It was brown bread with mix of colour peppers, tomato served along with a small serving of onions, capsicum and cabbage shredded finely.  It was simple, filling and packed with flavours... Good we dint order too much, there was one slice of pizza that we decided to finish off amidst all our chats. 

 

Seeing the time, i noticed it was close to 3pm and the movie was at 3.30pm. I looked up to catch the gleam in my friend's face.. "Shall we try one of those yummy looking desserts, we will share one, ok?" .. Well, i can never say No to her[she will give me a earful and a lecture to boot, such a mom she is], and we ordered the Panna cotta. The waiter told us it was what he would recommend and that it came with Blueberry Compote.

Alrighty!! [Now i have had Panna cotta in Tuscana couple of times and loved it, so expectations were high] and when this one landed on our table, it looked good. My mind was already doing the "find the 5 differences between the two- this was served in a cup, while the other is on the plate, this looked a little hard, the other looked like jelly or caramel custard.. and so on..." Breaking away from my thoughts, we took a spoon each and went in for it... 

It came away easy on the spoon, and then was the taste test. My friend loved it, it was the 1st time she was eating such a dessert, but i kinda was still playing the 5 differences... :-) It tasted good, but texture was a tad thick. The blueberry compote was gooooood.... But it was sheer joy watching my friend devour the dessert, right down the last drop. All the 5 differences flew out the window and replaced with happiness :)

Phew... what a lunch that had been. The meal worked out to Rs550 [incl tax and Service charges], which i thought was reasonable. We left the place thanking the waiter with a big grin on our faces and all set for the movie!

Ambiance: 8/10 [ It was nice and quiet, but am guessing there are times when the place is buzzing with noise and crowd
Food: 8/10 [ Pizza and Sandwich were yummy, the pannacota was alright]
Price: 8/10 [Meal for 2 came to Rs550]
Overall Rating: 8/10

Address:
Level 5, Sathyam Cinemas
Royapettah
Chennai - 600 014
Tel.: 044 43920341
Open from 11am to 11pm

PS: Please to pardon the quality of photographs, they were taken on my poor Blackberry Curve 8520.