The Ant Blog

It is the 28th of July, the night when Mohammedans the world over are celebrating Eid-al-fitr . While here I am sitting and recounting my Ramadan dinner experience. It only feels like the best way for me to commemorate to their celebrations, by sharing my culinary experience at the famous Mohammad Ali Road. One's experience with Mughlai cuisine, it is said is incomplete without them visiting the sacred lanes of this place and eating with the locals. In my years of growing up in this city, I have come to this place many a times to visit a dear old friend, but never in the times of Ramadan . The roads at Mohammad Ali Road are notorious for their lengthy traffic on weekends and at nights during Ramadan this place almost literally comes to life. So this was officially my first visit here to walk past the local shops, see, eat and basically absorb what I could through all my senses. It was a Thursday night,  two weeks ago and the rains were mercilessly thrashing the city. We had ...

Ever since the day I had eaten at Punjab Grill  , I had made a mental note to myself to be back soon. However, weeks added to months and for reasons one or the other I have not been able to re-visit this lovely chain. Made in Punjab is a newer restaurant chain by the same celebrity Chef Jiggs Kalra. At the beginning of this month I came to know of a Mid-night dinner buffet event to be held specially at Made In Punjab, so it was time I thought to make it for this event. Despite it being at least an hour's drive from my place, we booked a table and went for it. It was a Friday night and the weekend was upon us. And our Punjabi culinary journey had just began for the night. We had entered a little late so we had fortunately not had to wait for a table. We sauntered in, without being attended to, found a table and sat down. We headed straight away for the salads, and a few Punjabi snacks on the counter. I particularly liked the Dahi Vada . The starters arrived on our table. ...

Episode 3:  Montezuma and Mexican Waves in beach-side Fortaleza Fortaleza is way up north of Brasil and is a good three hour flight from Sao Paulo . And of course, the next stop in our ‘ as insightful as an ant’s view of an elephant’s posterior ’ whirlwind tour of Brazil is this little beach town turned into a fast evolving economic hub. The economy of Fortaleza is fueled in large parts by tourism, given its long winding pristine beaches; but much to local disapproval, it has ended up attracting all the other add-ons of the beach bum economy (i.e. think Pattaya ). Benny, a Mexican born American citizen is in the city to study Portuguese as part of an exchange program and his dissertation for the next six months is on  the effort to clean up the tourist trade in Fortaleza. We are staying in a eighty year old Portuguese house tucked away in a quiet part of the town, with a sweet sixty five year old- Ana, her two daughters, six dogs and several Portuguese learn...

Episode 2: A shot of Chile: Futbol at the Vila El Guaton is a cute, unassuming bar tucked away in a little corner of the Vila Madalena - SamPa’s (i.e. Sao Paulo’s) most famous neighborhood. Vila Madalena is a labyrinth of winding roads that seem to slope up and down at will and is peppered with enough bars and restaurants to feed and thrill the entire population of any small European nation of your choice. If that’s not thrilling enough, take a look around you and you will notice, unless you are blind or have a terrible hang-over, that the walls are full of mind blowing graffiti and sublime street art. Bernardo tells us with no note of exaggeration that to many it is like a temple. “You go to Vila when you are down and something spiritual happens.” Grafitti at Vila Madalena So we walk to Vila from Bernardo’s place and pass two magnificent churches and even a Necropolis to boot, in search of spiritual tranquillity before the all-important Brazil-Chile match. We are...

Theobroma is arguably one of the finest Bakers in town. We have had our share of delectable pastries and cakes from here over the years. But it was only recently that we thought of of giving their Breakfast menu a try. They have an outlet quite close to where we live, so on a rainy Sunday morning we ditched our home food and went there for our breakie.. and man, were we pleased! English Breakfast at Theobroma The Interior is very tastefully done, with pale colors and lighting. We seated ourselves and ordered for an English Breakfast and an Egg Benedict . We also wanted to try the Chicken Quiche that the waiter recommended and a Chicken puff pastry. Our Quiche and Puff pastry came in quite quickly. Both of them were good. The Quiche had the perfect texture with a delicious filling. The Puff pastry was also very good.                                           ...

Episode 1:   Cats, dogs and the amazing Play-man Bunny: A                            party in Sao Paulo It’s not easy traveling from India to Brazil. One could argue that this is an exaggeration, considering that all that one does is pass a sleepy immigration officer, browse through the liquor section in the duty free to plan the arrival bootlegging, board a flight, watch the most boring movie on the in-flight menu to put you to sleep, eat bland food, drink bad wine, transit through a sterile airport somewhere and do the same thing all over again. That the aforementioned One can deceive oneself with great dexterity, is the conclusion. Let me put this succinctly- you leave home at  2 am , board a flight at  4:30 am , fly for approximately 20 hours and land at your destination at  3 pm . i.e. you did all the above mentioned rubbish twice over for 20 long hours and realize that some 7 hour...

About a couple of years ago, one of my dear friends had taken me to eat at a stall during the Durga Puja festival. It was probably the first stall by Bong Bong and we were among the first to sample their baked Rasgullas as customers. I was then informed that their restaurant was opening up in Bandra. Given the kind of variety in Bengali fare already available in the city, I didnt think of driving up to Bandra to give their food a try. However, until a few weeks back when I saw their new outlet in Powai. I went straight  up to this place to try a few of their dishes. It was a take away outlet, so I rummaged through their menu card and ordered a few unfamiliar looking dishes, especially the Rolls had a few strange names. I also carried along the menu card, simply because I liked the individuality of it.                                             Bong Bong outlet in P...