The Masala Chain Restaurants – Carrying Indian Food To The World

Down the years, the Taj has been at the forefront of gastronomy in India. It has brought the world to India’s table through the Golden Dragon, the Zodiac Grill, Souk and Wasabi by Morimoto, causing a stir with each new idea. The Masala chain of restaurants including Masala Art at Taj Delhi, Masala Kraft over a year ago at the Taj Mumbai and Masala Bay at the Land’s End in Bandra are the realization of an eight year old dream, that of carrying Indian food to the world in a more contemporary avatar. Not surprising since India is the new flavor around the world.

Says chef Oberoi, who is the man behind all the initiatives, “I think every restaurant I ever opened had people saying ‘this will not work’ but if you are not ahead of the times you’re out or labeled a copycat!”

“About 90% of Indian food served around the world is rubbish and 5% is slightly better than rubbish. Very few – just a handful of restaurants serve good Indian food. We wanted to break the myth that Indian food is heavy, spicy and oily.” He further said.

The Masala Chain does not believe in spoiling classic dishes, so the food at Masala restaurants is Indian food presented in a more contemporary fashion. The chef draws on innovative approach to present food. The gourmet ‘dabba’ service displays the fast paced culture of Mumbai serving Gujrati, Maharashtrian, Bohri and Parsi meals in actual custom made tiffins allowing patrons to order their choice of food and serve themselves a quick lunch – the roti trolley rolls out hot phulkas for guests just like Indian homes and the dal trolley wheels around five different kinds of pulses, to present an opportunity for non Indians to learn about the sheer variety of Indian food. Oberoi nurtures a dream of opening Masala restaurants in at least six international cities. He made a beginning in 2006 when shared a kitchen table with celebrated international chefs such as Tommy Wong, Charlie Trotters, Michelle Nishan and Nobu, at the Rockfeller Foundation dinner in New York.

Taste Bengali Cuisine

Bengali food is not very spicy but yes sweet as much as Bengali girls. Bengalis has this habit of adding sugar to every recipes. Some of Bengali exotic cuisines are made of jaggary (palm sugar), daab (young coconut), malaikari (coconut milk) and posto (poppy seed). Bengalis are inevitably non vegetarian or better say 'fisheterian'. They just love different kinds of fish. There are chingri (river prawns) and various fishes such as bhetki, illish, pabda more characteristic than meat. An excellent dish called bhetki paturi is made up of fish steamed in banana leaf.

Vegetarian lovers please don’t get disappointed. Bengal is food lovers paradise where every type of food is equally welcomed and appreciated. Although vegetarian cuisines are much different in taste than their northern counterpart. Most of the Bengali food are prepared by mustard oil, there are excellent vegetarian choices. Two exotic vegetarian recipes are mochar ghonto (mashed banana-flower, potato and coconut) and doi begun (brinjal mini-eggplants in creamy sauce). Most of traditional Bengali lunch starts with sukto (a fantastic item made from bitter gourd). A typical Bengali lunch comprise of rice, dal(mostly moong), something fried, one seasonal vegetable dish, another vegetarian dish(curry type), fish, chutney, and ubiquitous sweet(s).

Unlike north Indians, Bengalis are not prone to use butter and ghee in their cuisines, they use it little bit for some specific items. Most of the Bengalis Sunday breakfast starts with luchi (puri) and aloo bhaja (fried potato) and round off with sandesh and rossogolla (famous Bengali sweets). A traditional summer drink is aampora sharbat made from cooked green mangoes with added lime zing.

And how can one forget about Bengali desserts? Bengal is a home to countless types of sweets. Bengali sweets are legendary. Most characteristic is misti doi ( curd sweetened with jaggary), best when the crust dries to a fudge texture leaving the remainder lusciously moist.

Culinary Delight at Mumbai’s Colaba Causeway

The old Colaba Causeway remains the same as it was 50 years back. The same ramshackle buildings, the same old buses ploughing through sultry conditions, the same deserted stores where the only buzz is that of flies and not to forget the same old restaurants serving cuisines that people in Mumbai have grown up on. Each food joint has its own singularity, though filthy but totally comforting.

Colaba Causaway is located in the southern part of Mumbai, earlier known as Old Woman’s Island because the place was constructed in 1838 and the two islands were joined to Mumbai. The place is embellished with many heritage structures like National Gallery of Modern Arts (NGMA), Regal Cinema, Khusrow Bagh, Gateway of India and Sasson Dock. The Colaba Causeway is also known as Cultural Square of Mumbai and quite famous among tourists from different parts of the world.

Apart from heritage flavour, Colaba Causeway is much known to locals for various culinary magic. Camy Wafers opposite to Kailash Parbat restaurant is a spicy and sweet delights. Whoever tastes the onion khakhras or kalakand will always remember the forever. The methi khakhras at Camy are the best, but need to check the timing as methi produces much heat in the body. The world of snacks brings people to Theobroma – a relatively recent Causeway bakery, so tiny that there is no space for your stomach to expand. Immensely popular from Byculla to Chinchpokli. Or at least from Breach Candy to Cuffe Parade. They do chocolate in very form, from brownies to pastries to brittle. Innovative ideas and top quality ingredients have made this place quite the winner.

Unfamiliarity is what the Causeway rules. The place is visible with everyone from different nationalists, touts, and tourists, beggars and hookers, branded stores and emporiums with mannequins frozen in the early 1950s. Add to the buttom-pinchers and drug dealers as you negotiate the broken footpaths and almost plunge into an open sewer.

Causeway was built by the British, a road to the southernmost islets of the archipelago from the Fort. Sepia-tinted photos show a narrow causeway, stretching out towards Colaba, with water on both sides. Soon these seas had been reclaimed, leaving this connecting road high and dry. The only sign that waves once lapped against both its shores remains in the name. The word Colaba Causeway would roughly signify the stretch between Regal Theatre and Sassoon Docks. Lined on both sides with stores and restaurants, this was, in its heyday, Bombay’s shopping paradise. Gradually, the world of retail shifted to Breach Candy, and then further, to Bandra, Juhu and the malls of Bombay’s suburbia. Causeway stores stayed frozen in time, the dust of years barely stirred by their old fans. Budget tourists descended in droves, but did little more for Causeway than litter its footpaths with hawkers peddling the ethnic Indian experience, from inlaid boxes to kurtas and kolhapuri chappals. Causeway was sinking, back into the sea from which it rose.

Synopsis - Indian Food, Indian Exotic Cuisines, India Best Food Experience

Culinary Discovery in Thailand

In Thailand, it is the roadside that is almost always, uniformly home to the best food to be had. During the many trips I have made to the country, this truth has only been reinforced. Nowhere is this truer than in Bangkok, easily one of the culinary capitals of the world in general, and of street food in particular. Finding good, cheap street food in Bangkok is not a hard task, all one needs to do is follow one’s nose.

The Thais take their food seriously, and it being a communal affair, roadside eateries heave with people at meal times – adding to the chaos of the already congested Bangkok roads. Needless to say the smell of food permeates the streets too. A walk down a main thoroughfare and the olfactory senses are assaulted with myriad scents and smells – the sweet, charcoal-laden smell of grilled sausages, the pungency of the chillies that accompany any meal, the tanginess that accompanies the soups, the fragrance of lemon grass and basil foremost amongst the many herbs used to flavour the dishes…

From breakfast to dinner to snacks in between, there are no meals that can’t be had on the road. Even the variety of food available on the street is astounding. There are certain foods that are only to be eaten on the roads. The ubiquitous Pad Thai is one. Found literally everywhere, this dish is a thin flat stir fried rice noodles flavoured with eggs, chicken or shrimp, bean sprouts, fish sauce, tamarind juice, lots of red chilli pepper and garnished with even more chilli pepper and an overload of peanuts – a good Pad Thai is an explosion of flavours and textures.

Bangkok, through history, has always attracted migrants from across Asia, and this reflected in the street food as well. The insanely crowded, bustling China Town is home to everything from pork noodles to dumplings to glutinous rice wrapped in banana leaves, not to mention the array of seafood available. No talk of Bangkok street food can be complete without a mention sweets – coconut ice cream, Cendol ( a desert consisting of shaved ice, coconut milk, noodles and palm sugar with optional add ons of red beans, glutinous rice or grass jelly), mango with sticky rice, sandwiches with sweet kaya (coconut jam) or red bean fillings. Though most people don’t much delight South East Asian desserts and given the heat of the Thai capital, it’s the fruit salads that tempt more people. Raw mangoes and fresh juicy pineapples (often accompanied with a sugar and chilli topping, for an extra punch), rambutans, mangosteens, lychees flood the roads. Like everything else had on the street in Bangkok, they are bursting with flavours – fresh and completely satisfying.