The Ant Blog

I recollect this evening with a lot of fondness. The Monsoon season has kicked in , and the showers are typically incessant in Mumbai. On this particular day however the rains were intermittent. We had driven down to South Mumbai to the one end of the city at the  NCPA for an evening performance. The show got over at 9:15 pm and left us with a myriad choices to catch a grub from. After debating for a while, we drove to one of the closest eat-outs The Tea Centre. I had heard of this place a lot, so was happy to pay a visit. The place has an old world charm, and has the look and feel of an era gone by. The name of the place  reciprocates in their menu, where the first few pages are dedicated to various kinds of flavors and blends available. It was late and the diners were all having their dinner. So we thought of trying our ' chai ' at the end of the meal. We ordered for our starters, Chicken with sauteed mushroom and onion , and Chicken Catchatori.       ...

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.                                           ...

The week before last, we had a wonderful Sunday brunch at VongWong ’s. It was a clean stretch of a drive on Sunday, straight up to Nariman point located next to the Oberoi Hotel. I was quite hungry as we had arrived late for lunch. We decided to go with their Sunday brunch menu. I ordered for the Strawberry cooler drink, while my husband went for a Pinacolada . Brunch Salads on the Right and Desserts on the Left at VongWong Strawberry coolie at VongWong I tried portions of most of their Salad options from the spread, and they were good. I quite liked the Seafood salad, and the Prawn cocktail . There was also a Crispy Duck in spring rolls option, which we tried. The duck was cooked in Hoisin sauce , I believe and was a little too sweet for my palate. Crispy duck rolls at VongWong Next we ordered from the Dumplings and Starter options. Among the dumplings , we had a portion each of : prawn and garlic chive dumpling, wasabi prawn dumpling, chicken...

Our Shiro trip was far from impromptu. Ever since we had heard about their Sushi brunch menu , we were dying to go! And we finally landed up there on a Sunday few weeks ago. To anyone who has visited this place, they know about Shiro’s lovely ambiance. It almost has a surreal old-world appeal to it. Due to the very dim lights, I could only manage to snap one of the ceiling lamps, which looked great. Ceiling lamp, below stone carving depictions at Shiro We began with servings of Chicken and Vegetarian dumpling . I loved the vegetarian dumpling with the wasabi  paste. Chicken and Vegetarian wasabi dumplings For the drinks, we ordered a Red wine Sangria and a Green Apple martini . Honestly, I was disappointed with my Sangria . I never expected a place like Shiro to serve me a Sangria with just a hint of wine in it. It almost tasted like a fruit mocktail! I love my Sangrias and can swear by them, so it was a let down. On the other hand the Green Apple martini, I tried ...

As surprising as it may sound, I was not fond of sweets as a child. I feel sorry for myself now to think that I have missed out on all the home made sweets that my mother used to make and everybody used to adore. Now, i do not miss out on any such sweet or desserts. This one is a famous and a very favorite Indian dessert made with Carrots or  Gajar . This recipe is as simple as it’s flavor is gorgeous! Inspired by the famous Indian Chef late Mrs Tarla Dalal, below is the recipe. In the Making: Gajar ka Halwa Ingredients for Gajar ka Halwa: 2 cups grated Carrots 1 tbsp desi Ghee 2 tbsp Milk 4 tbsp Sugar 4 tbsp Mava (khoya) 1 tbsp Raisins 1 tbsp chopped Almonds 1/2 tsp Cardamom powder Procedure for Gajar ka Halwa: Heat the ghee in a pressure cooker; add the carrots and sauté on a medium flame for 4 to 5 minutes, while stirring continuously. Add milk, mix well and pressure cook for 1 whistle. Transfer into a broad non-stick pan, add the sugar, ...

We have been to this place before for lunch, but knowing that Chili’s is a  great place for drinks we headed to the nearest Chili’s outlet last Friday. The place was full and we had to wait for close to twenty minutes to get in, which is acceptable on a weekend night. I was very thirsty after the wait, so we ordered a special drink which I had never tried before. A Beerita, which is supposedly a concoction of their Margarita and Beer. They came in big sized glasses, and I was pretty sure I would not be able to finish that drink. It was a clever mixture I must say, the flavor of the beer was more overpowering. Anyway the place was noisy and fun, so a heady mixture was exactly what we needed.    The enormous Beeritas at Chili’s A funny chimp poster at Chili’s The Beeritas require a big belly! I unfortunately didn’t finish the drink as I wanted to keep room to try another one! So we ordered a Slider and Crisper with a trio dip dish and an Applet...

We were planning to visit the outlet the day it opened, but it got postponed by a few weeks. And luckily so, because I later heard that the first few days were heavily crowded. Dunkin’ Donuts has opened its first 2 outlets in Mumbai, and has been the talk of the town well at least in the foodie circles. Up until now we have had our fare share of doughnuts from our  desi  outlets. We entered at around 11:30 am on a Saturday, and were happy to find a few empty tables.  Store layout at Dunkin’ Donuts, Khar We ordered a Chocolate Orange doughnut, because I have always loved the orange and chocolate combination in desserts too. The classic Dunkaccino, a very big Bagel Burger and some mini munchkins. So, I’ll start with what I liked the most. It was the Burger- it was really heavily filled with chicken, and salads,a decent burger, with the right amount of tang and heat. It was very filling. Next the Munchkins, they were delicious. The coffee was great, went ver...

We headed to a nearby Chinese eatery over a weekday, because we were too tired with the day and just needed to unwind somewhere. We headed to this age old restaurant, which I have seen perpetually standing at one corner of the Powai plaza area in Mumbai. We braved in to find out what it had to offer. The menu card has the regular Chinese fare that most Indian-Chinese places have to offer. I wanted to have a light dinner, so we ordered a Crab meat soup. To our surprise, the soup was very palatable, and flavorful. In fact, the soup gave me confidence to order for the rest of the food here. Crab meat Soup at China House Next we ordered the Crispy Spinach and Chicken, which was also quite good. They are priced very competitively to the quantity they serve here. Crispy Spinach n Chicken   I wanted a light dinner and I had it. However, my husband wanted to experiment further with main course. So he also ordered the China House King prawns. Unfortunately, we w...