Eastern Wedge - Pan Asian - Pure Veg, Chennai

When a new restaurant hits town, there is always curiosity,  but then when it is Pure veg, and Pan asian, curiosity makes way for a "drop everything and go over for a visit" momentum. That is exactly what happened with Eastern Edge...

I have known Chef Ramkumar for a few years, and when I saw a few interesting images on his Whatsapp status, I pinged him asking about it. He was tight lipped till early December and then last friday I got the opportunity to visit the place, and try the food.. Only word that comes to my mind at the end of it all - "Delicious"...  

From the Cool Cream Milano Pvt Ltd, Mr Mahadevan's holding company, [which also owns Sera and Ente Keralam,Va Pho among others] comes the newest kid on the block - Eastern Edge, Pan Asian- Pure Veg restaurant... It now sits proudly where Darios once did and offers cuisine spanning across Japan, China, Malay and Thai....  

The menu has been crafted by Chef. Tetsuya Yanagida from Japan and Chef. Low Chee Ee from Malaysia and of course our very own Chef Ramkumar who has been with this group for nearly 16 years experience at the helm of it.. They had Chef come down from Japan, show how the dishes are made, train the staff here before handing over the reigns. Big bold flavours, simple subtle cooking spices, simply cooking methods, each dish standing out with a unique identity of its own... These are what you can expect at Eastern Wedge

The menu does not run for pages and pages, but there are enough options to leave you spoilt for choice... Here are the dishes I tried that evening,

The crunch of the water chestnuts is something alright... I kept going back for 2nds and 3rd and more...

Such a delight to dig into this bowl of cold salad- it has noodles, the sesame dressing, veggies, tofu/paneer...  

 The Chanko Nabe with Udon noodles and assorted vegetables is a house special, and this is the 1st time they are trying a veg version of this dish... It comes with choice of three broths, we chose the Miso one and I loved it.. Such a warm comforting bowl it was... 

I loved this dish as well, the rice and the gravy that had a certain amount of warmth to it was just WOW... 

If your family is like mine "we will not enter a restaurant that cooks non veg even though they have a  good veg spread", take them here and you can thank me later!! Or if you are curious to know what pure veg pan asian cuisine offers, well, just drive down here right away... ;-) 

Kudos to the team for giving us yet another restaurant that not only ticks all the boxes in terms of flavour, options and pricing, but one that is such a delight to dine at... 

Meal for 2- Rs800-1000/-

Website- https://eastern-wedge.business.site/

Address:
11, Kasturi Rangan Road, 
Kasturi Estate, 2nd Street, 
Poes Garden, 
(Next to Ashwini Hospital) 
Chennai - 600018  

Disclaimer: The reviews posted on this blog are based on my personal experience. Also remember these were just my views!! Remember, no two palates are the same. Bon Appétit :-) 

Smoked Tofu and a salad in a jiffy

Last weekend was the By Hand from the Heart event at Crowne Plaza.. For the last few years I have been attending this event, it all began with a friend having a stall, and over the years well it has become a tradition of sorts. The event is different from others because it is a Maker's market, all products on sale are hand made - ranging from clothes, cheese, honey, chocolates, jewellery, bags, etc etc... 

So, on Saturday a friend and I made plans to visit, it was the 2nd day and we wandered about checking out the stalls. The 2nd stall right at the entry point was by Aurosoya, and there we met Dhaval Chandarana who spoke to us about their products and got us to taste the Smoked Tofu. It was love at first bite, we picked up a packet each along with few other items from the stall. 

I have always enjoyed Tofu and was quite excited about using this product in salads or stir fries.  Anyways, after about an hour we were done here and wondered where to head for lunch. I asked friend if she had been to Benjarong and she said it had been ages. It was down the road and within minutes we were in the restaurant and shown to a table. 

I have been here way too many times and the Chef [Ramkumar] is a good friend as well... But that day, I dint tell him I was coming and hoped to get away... [Wishful thinking]. We decided to try the Vietnamese set meal that started with the delicious Vietnamese coffee. Just as we were getting ready to dig into our soup, he came over and we chit chatted. I told him about the exhibition and proceeded to give him the packet of Smoked tofu to try. 

Voila, next thing I see him back at our table with a plate that looks divine. He has managed to whip up a salad using the smoked tofu and raved about its flavours. The salad was simple, yet packed a punch. It had lemon juice, garlic, some peanuts, chilli oil , cherry tomato and few other elements. The one thing about the dish was that it heroed the Smoked tofu...  How amazing is that. Friend was stumped and excited at the same time... 

As we wound up the meal and left the place a statement my friend made plays in my head often... "It is amazing how you connect people and are more than happy to do that"... :-)