Kolkata Street Food Festival at Monkey Bar

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It's that time of the year when Bengali's world over travel back to India to reunite with their loved ones and celebrate the Kolkata's biggest festival - Durga Pujo. The grandeur and the extravaganza of the pandals and the celebrations are spoken about world over and is a festival looked forward to not just by Bengali's but people of different religions and castes as well. Like all festivities, people flock to the pedals not just for worship but also to experience the Bengali gastronomy which is really sought after. 

While Pedals are known to have food stalls set up with some of the traditional bengali delicacies on offer; this year around; Monkey Bar decides to take us on a gastronomic trip down the iconic lanes of Kolkata. 'Next Stop Kolkata' is a special menu curated by Kolkata based home chef 'Its Misra' and Monkey Bar's head chef 'Deeraj Varma' will be available across Monkey Bar outlets in Bangalore, Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai all day from October 4th to 21st, 2018. 

What's different about this food festival is that Money Bar honestly attempts to showcase the classic and traditional street food available in the streets of Kolkata which became available as way back in it's time as immigrants from different parts of the country and world started to make Kolkata its base. It can be said that the Kolkata street food is not the local street food but an inspiration / ode to the global immigrants who have made Kolkata their home.

The menu's got the Chinese inspired prawn dumplings widely available at the Tiretti Bazaar area; Pork momo's widely available at the many Tibetan joints at Elgin Road; Kolkata-Style North-Indian Chaat of Moong Daal Pakodi from Vardaan Market ; Beadon Street Fish Roll and many more. Each dish available on the menu has a Monkey Bar twist to it and it does uplift the preparation for an enjoyable experience. 

During the preview, I tried a few dishes from the menu which includes the lovely deep fried fish fillet breaded on the outside and stuffed with a mince curried shrimp filling called 'Beadon Street Fish Roll' made popular by Mitra Cafe; 'Vivekanand Park Ghooghni' a dish of curried white peas topped with potato sali; normally served with Pav but here was served with a wonderful masala brioche bread.

Continuing the lunch, the Moong Daal Pakodi was served as a chaat topped with khatta-meetha chutney, yoghurt, boondi, sev and crisp fried curry leaves; a Monkey Bar take to the traditional Moong Daal Pakodi served on the streets at Kolkata. 'Esplanade Mughlai Porota' is served in 2 variants - stuffed with egg or with spicy mutton Keema filling. We tried the one with egg and it came served along with Paanch phoron baby potato. 

My top picks for the day were these next 2 dishes:

- 'Girish Park-er Shoitan Deem' aka Egg Devil - This was boiled egg encased in a Shammi Kebab mince instead of the minced potato encasing as available on the streets near Girish Park. Well, another great example of how Monkey does a twist.

- Chitpur Road Chicken Rezala - It's a mildly spiced and flavoured white chicken curry; silky texture getting its subtle flavours from cashew and poppy seed paste comes served with the triangle porota known widely in Kolkata as 'Teen Kona Porota'.

Then; Monkey's got to do cocktails too and so we have 3 cocktails inspired from the flavors experienced and time chef Dheeraj spent on the streets of Kolkata - 'Piara Peara' - Tequila based cocktail with Guava juice spiked with tobacco; 'Puchka Paani Capriojka' - Vodka, Gondhoraj lime, mint and puchka Paani (Pani puri water) and then the 'Thaanda Cha' - Vodka, chillied spices infused Darjeeling Tea.

I'm going back here for some of the above dishes and a round of keema stuffed mughlai porota. When are you headed here?  

Oh! You got to know this; if you hold an original driving licence from Kolkata each day you are in for a treat; courtesy Monkey Bar. 

Bon Appetit!

Address: #610, 12th Main Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Near Crosswords, Indiranagar, Bangalore

Phone Number: +91 80 4411 4455

Note: This visit to Monkey Bar was on invitation but the opinions expressed are solely mine and are absolutely unbiased nor influenced by the brand in any way.
Pictures Courtesy: Monkey Bar

Travel for Food - Escape from Bangalore for a Quick Lunch in Mysuru

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Been nearly a year since I posted on this blog and getting back to it, I start with travelling to another city for lunch. Travel experiences is something I've always wanted to share and this time around I start by combining 2 thing I love the most - Travel for Food. 

Travel to Mysuru makes for a perfect lunch plan. You can do a roadtrip and explore the food at various hole in the wall and legendary outlets or simply take the train if you simply want to get to #Mysore hassle free for a quick yet delicious lunch. 

Depending on how much time you have and how you want to make the best of it, you can also add on a few things to do in Mysore and extend your Itinerary to make it a fun day trip.

What I did this time was - 

8 AM - Boarded train 16536 Gol Gombaz Express from Bangalore City Railway station.

11 AM - Arrived at Mysore Junction and headed out for a meeting.

12:30 PM - Wrap up the meeting and headed straight to Hotel RRR for a wonderful Andhra style meals, Chicken Biryani and some starters to go along. 

1:45 PM - Headed back to the railway station at Mysore which is a 10 minute drive from RRR.

2:15 PM - Boarded 12008 Shatabdi Express for Bangalore. 

4:30 PM - Arrived back at BLR railway station.

What are you waiting for? Go ahead and book your ticket for a quick lunch at Mysore via the IRCTC Website.

Tips:

- Auto is a convenient means of commute.

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Monkey's Coastal Adventure @ Monkey Bar, Bangalore

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Culture of India is known for its diversity; be it languages, dance, music, architecture or even food. There is diversity across length and breadth of this nation and as you move from one place to another or one region to another, this diversity comes across in full rhythm. Keeping our focus on food, this can be experienced at Monkey Bar as it takes us through a delicious journey across the coast of Kerala through Karnataka for the reminder of this month of June. 

This gastropub is known to give a fine twist aka the 'Monkey twist' as it may be aptly called. So when monkey traveled the coast, his adventures led to creation of a menu of food and beverages called 'Monkey's Coastal Adventures' and like always the Monkey Twist' was evident and was consistently good. I set out to experience the Monkey's coastal adventure menu and here's what I relished enroute - 

Not creating a trail, I savored was Kuttari Salad, KP Tacos, Batak dosa, Prawn Ghee Roast, Mandeli fried fish and Ode To Molly. What's a journey without a few drinks to accompany, so from the drinks it was Soulful Khadi, Chilli Puli, Vanakam Panakam. The menu further offered an interesting array of dishes which include clam sukka, Monkee Eggs and Coast to Coast to name a few unfortunately which I couldn't try.

So let's begin this journey with an introduction to Soulful Khadi which was a concoction of Gin, kokum syrup, tender coconut, leaves and lime cordial for that perfect balance. The drink was well balanced and leaned towards the sweeter side and I quite liked the flavor profile. If you are the one who likes your drink to lean towards the sweeter side than the tangy side; this one is definitely for you. 

Soulful Khadi

What did not work so much for was this other cocktail called Chilli Puli which was a tequila based drink with tamarind paste and green chili to lend a flavor to the concoction. This for my taste buds was an overkill in terms of flavor and is good as a pass around drink just for the kicks of it. 

Chili Puli

What really had me wanting for more this afternoon was 'Vanakam Panakam' a whiskey-based cocktail which by the name of it was mixed with Panakam - a drink made usually made with jaggery, cardamom, black pepper and is known to be a cooling agent with a lot of health benefits. For the time being, let's forget the health benefits for this Panakam with whiskey had me clearly wanting more of it.

Vanakam Panakam

In food, we started light with a really refreshing salad of baby spinach, raw mango slivers, shaved coconut, peanuts, curd chilis and at its heart the Kerala boiled rice called the Kuttari Salad. This Salad was a big hit on my table and from what I hear has been receiving some raving response during this festival. The prawn ghee roast on the other had was stir fried in with spices and ghee in typical Kundapur style. The prawns were perfectly cooked in Kundapur spices with ghee and was served up with really crunchy garlic toasts. It wasn't long before this dish was cleaned up among the two of us.

Kuttari Salad

Prawn Ghee Roast

Batak dosa was Kerala style duck confit on bite sized set dosa topped with shaved onions and chutney. The meat was succulent and flavorful on soft and fluffy dosa (uttapam). The onion slivers gave a nice crunch to this preparation and complimented well with the flavor of the duck meat. Mandeli Fried Fish was white anchovies rava fried and served with an accompaniment of baby onion salan puree and plantain chips. Nice and comforting but not something to look forward to from the kitchen of Monkey Bar.

Batak Dosa

Mandeli Fish Fry

'KP' in 'KP Tacos' stands for Kerala Paratha which held Chettinad style pulled chicken with black lichen, baby onion salan, garlic pickle and finally topped with white radish slaw. Bang on flavors for a coastal Indian twist to a classic Mexican dish. We had no space left for mains but the bar had to be raised and so it was 'Ode to Molly' a dish with subtle flavors served as fillets of spice marinated seabass sitting on a bed of fragrant lemon rice surrounded by avial inspired vegetables and a turmeric-coconut milk sauce. This was quite a twist to the Kerala classic Meen Moilee and surely a good one with different textures and varied but subtle flavors to tickle the palate.

KP Tacos

Ode To Molly

I wish my stomach had more room for food to try out the Monkee Eggs a makeover of the popular egg puffs available across the smallest of the bakeries and the Monkey's version of a south Indian thali called Coast to Coast. Nevertheless, it was indeed a Sunday afternoon very well spent catching up with a friend over some delicious food, drinks and conversation.

The festival is on till the 30th of June and is available for lunch and dinner at Monkey Bar Bangalore and Delhi. An average meal for 2 without drinks will cost approx. Rs. 1200 ++ and with a drink each will cost around Rs. 1900++; definitely not heavy on the wallet.

Quick Tips:

I love Monkey Bar and it's a known fact. However, they're offering a really good twist to the classics from this region. There's enough for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians alike. Beverages have cocktails on offer as a part of the special menu. 

From what I've tried, go here for the Kuttari Salad, Prawn ghee roast, KP tacos and Ode to Molly in food and 'Vanakam Panakam' and 'Soulful Kadhi' in cocktails. 

Bon Appetit!

Address: #610, 12th Main Road, HAL 2nd Stage, Near Crosswords, Indiranagar, Bangalore

Phone Number: +91 80 4411 4455

Note: This visit to The Fatty Bao was on invitation but the opinions expressed are solely mine and are absolutely unbiased nor influenced by the brand in any way.