Auntie Anne's pretzel, Bangkok

Me: Hey, am headed to IKEA today.. want anything?

A: You are headed all the way to Megabangna? 

Me: Yes.. Am on the train now.. 

A: Wow, have a Auntie Anne's pretzel for me please. It is near the IKEA store. You can't miss it!

Me: Okies.

This is the conversation I had with a friend whilst on the BTS.. And when I reached Megabangna, I discovered it was huge and I kept walking, exploring places, shops and realised it went on and on like a never ending path. Maybe this was the rabbit hole and I was Alice.. 

Finally I took a turn and was told IKEA was down the end and that is where I noticed Auntie Annie's pretzel stall. I have never had a pretzel, but heard a lot about it from people who have been abroad. So, when I saw one up close, I was quite excited. 

I noticed there were quite a few varieties, but i opted for two plain ones and along with a drink, it costed me 25Baht [if i remember right].. I ate one and put the other in my bag and nearly forgot about the pretzel till we boarded the flight back to Chennai. The pretzel was soft, fresh and yummy.. I thought Pretzels were just the crispy kind, but this is where I discovered a whole different kind of pretzel.. 

What is that one new dish/item that you tried and was pleasantly surprised by? 

Desserts - Crazy Evening part II

To read how the evening began, click here... After the initial round of decent food at Holas, we stepped out wondering where to go for Dinner. Got into the car, pulled it out and drove towards the beach looking for a spot to park in. Actually, no we kept looking for Kwality walls or Arun ice cream vandi and found one.. :)

Headed for the stall, asked the lady if she had mango, if she had grape, if she had orange.. and what not.. I got grape, the others picked various other flavours [ we also got a boy an ice cream, he kept pestering us for money, and finally gave in and said -ok saar, naan ice cream sapduvein] .. Yumm is how the ice cream was.. Finished it, got back to the car but Doc was loitering about the beach for a while, he then comes back to the car with a perplexed look "Enna sundal ella sapadliya? " hehe... 

We then got on the road and after much deliberation, ended up at Jonah's.. Had a bit of doubt if they would be open [was nearly 10.30pm] but was told they are open past 11pm.. Yay!! Waltzed in, attacked the dessert counter. We ordered up a storm.  I wanted waffles, and the staff told us about a fruit waffle, which sounded interesting, and we went ahead ordering a plate of it.. biggest mistake of the evening.. The waffles were stuffed with canned fruits, soaked in that syrup and was yuck.. The others were quite good- eclair, fruit tart, flan, and cheesecake.  The flan was a pleasant surprise, so was the fruit tart. 

The dessert bill was around Rs1200... 

[Picture courtesy- Shady boy]

Wound up for the evening and scooted out onto the night to see where else we could prowl..teehee... Luckily, none of us had a curfew and we ended up at a friend's house, yapped there till about 2.30am and finally dragged ourselves home... 

Was one helluva night.. Looking forward to the next one already... 

Jonah's Bistro 

147/9, 2nd Avenue, Besant Nagar, Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600090
044 4351 1119

Disclaimer: 

No animals were injured during the evening, well, except maybe for a chicken that landed on the pizza.. We promise we did nothing but have fun :-) 

Eggless Banana-Pistachio Bread [ bread machine]

I was at home unwell, and it was one of those blah evenings. Couldn't sleep, wasn't able to sit on laptop and do any work.. Mom was wandering around when suddenly I asked "shall we bake bread in the machine? We have all ingredients..".. She was in agreement. Both of us got down to looking for some easy interesting recipes online, I found one and that was it. In about 10mins, I had put all the ingredients together, the machine was set up and we were all set.

INGREDIENTS

1 Cup Water
2 Medium Bananas, Mashed
1 tsp Vanilla
2-1/2 Cup Flour, Unbleached All Purpose
3/4 Cup Flour, Whole Wheat
2 Tbsp Olive Oil, Extra Light
3 Tbsp Honey
1-1/2 tsp Salt
2 Tbsp Buttermilk
2-1/2 tsp Yeast for Bread Machine
3/4 C Walnuts, large chopped - I used pistachios since we did not have walnuts at home

DIRECTIONS

1. I put all the wet ingredients at the bottom
2. Added the dry ingredients on top
3. Finally made a small depression and put the yeast in it. 
4. Set the machine to normal and let it do its job...  Took in total 2hrs 30mins. 
5. If the dough seems lose, add some dough and if  it seems very dry, add some warm water.. [these I know based on past experience]
6.  Also add the nuts towards the end of the kneading process, it mixes quite well and remains intact.. :) 

Recipe courtesy: http://recipes.sparkpeople.com/recipe-detail.asp?recipe=808932 

The bread turned out beautifully. It was so soft and yummy, the entire loaf was gone in a matter of days. The crust wasn't too thick either.. I know if Thatha had been here, he would have loved it and gone on & on to everyone who came home about how we made bread at home and it was yummy.. Miss him dearly...