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Blogger’s Table @ Varq, Taj Mahal Palace, New Delhi

August 18, 2013 by TheWhiteRamekins

Varq, Taj Mahal Palace

I get really picky when it comes to Indian cuisine, while eating out. There are very few places, which do all the traditional recipes really well. The heavily cream laden curries, is something I don’t care about. I loath it the most, when the kitchen tries to hide the blunders of unbalanced flavors under a greasy thick and spicy curry. And mostly, while I am celebrating with friends and family, I try not to take chances with new setups and stick to my favorites only. So, while I got to know about Blogger’s Table gathering at Varq, a contemporary Indian cuisine  restaurant at Taj Mahal Palace, New Delhi, I initially was a bit hesistant to go. But when I got to know, that the Blogger’s Table is giving farewell to it’s charmingly sweet Cookaroo, I could not resist. I had to attend this for her.  She’s following her husband for his work assignment abroad.

Varq, Taj Mahal Palace

Talking about Varq, the restaurant has featured in the top 50 restaurants in the Eleventh annual listing of The S. Pellegrino World’s Best Restaurants Asia List. The menu at the restaurant is Grand Master Chef Hemant Oberoi’s masterpiece, wherein he has taken food to a different dimension with his new techniques, innovative presentations and usage of organic produce and spices.

Varq, Taj Mahal Palace

Varq’s interiors are studded with the art work of celebrated Indian artist Anjolie Ela Menon, which was done 35 years ago. With limited cover, restaurant offers a private dinning area also to it’s patrons, where we were seated.

The menu at Varq is a rich accumulation of Indian recipes evolved to the next level. retaining the Indian traditional way of cooking while using exotic ingredients like sea bass, sand crab, black cod, morels and Iranian berries.

Varq, Taj Mahal Palace

So, for the evening, chef had designed a special menu, which started off with an interesting amuse bouche. Indian Chaat Style. Interestingly, innovative! It took me to the street food heaven of Delhi!

Varq, Taj Mahal Palace

In the first course, we were served Varqi Khumb, mushrooms stir fried in Indian spices, layered between thin filo pastry sheets, topped with a morel. I didn’t care about the morel. I found this a bit heavy to start a meal with. Flavors were okay, though over spiced. I liked it’s idea and the presentation more than the taste.

Varq, Taj Mahal Palace

Second course, was something which I dream about even today. The Kebab platter, consisting of Haleem, Chicken Gandheri and Galaouti Kebab. Haleem was very well done, all the flavors of meat, grains and spices nicely blended into and perfectly spiced. Galaouti was excellent and so was Chicken Gandheri (chicken lollipop on a sugarcane stick). Chicken Gandheri was served with a sweet and sour mango chutney, which nicely paired the spicy chicken meat. I wiped through the bottom of shot glass, in which it was served!

Third course offered a Lobster Rassa or a Kale Chane Ka Cappuccino, and without giving any second thought, I asked for Lobster Rassa.  Goan curry inspired seafood broth served along with prawn crackers. It had all the fresh flavors from sea. Really wonderful. I sipped Kale Chane Ka Cappuccino from Sid’s cup, and I didn’t like it in the first sip itself. Boring and having no flavors at all, though it was a nice makeover!

Varq, Taj Mahal Palace

Then came the palate cleanser, a ginger and lime sorbet. Interesting flavors, but I did find it out of place. Ginger, too strong flavor to be a palate cleanser, rather the sharp flavor of Japanese ginger stayed in my mouth for quite sometime. Very overwhelming and sharp! But again, the presentation was nice and dramatic, served in a ceramic pot, with dry ice creating voodoo sort of thing at the bottom.

Next course offered Kali Mirch Mugh or Sea Bass on Spiced Potato Dauphinoise. I went for Kali Mirch Mugh. It was uninteresting in the very first bite. Nothing to be written home about, Ruchira, offered me some Sea Bass from her plate, which was pretty decent.

Varq, Taj Mahal Palace

Next served was Martbaan Ka Meat served along with Jaituni Naan. Again a disappointment, not by the presentation, but by the flavors. Nothing exciting, in fact mutton was average sort of, with no distinct flavors of pickling spices, as mentioned in the menu.

Varq, Taj Mahal Palace

Finally, an array of disappointing dishes came to an end (except for amuse bouche and Kebab Platter), with a fabulous dessert platter. It had a serving of Apple Kheer, a Jalebi standing on a Khoa (reduced milk) chunk, and Khas Malpua. All three were excellent. Right on spot! The dessert platter all made up for the lost experience.

Varq, Taj Mahal Palace

While all this food was being served throughout the evening, the attentive staff took care of us all very well. I guess, that is the best thing about properties like Taj, their unmatched hospitality and the warm welcome stands them out. It was an interesting journey through the beautiful and innovative creations of Chef Hemant Oberoi, though some of the dished lacked on flavors. Thank you Taj for having us over. Others who were present on the table were Sid, Charis, Sangeeta, Sushmita, Rekha, Mukta, Parul, Ruchira, Deeba & Nachiketa.

Filed Under: review Tagged With: blogger's table, food, India, new delhi, restaurant review, Taj Mahal Hotel, Varq

Blogger’s Table @ Thai Pavilion, Vivanta By Taj, Gurgaon

July 23, 2013 by TheWhiteRamekins

Thai Pavillion, Taj Vivanta Gurgaon

Chef Ananda Solomon picture courtesy, The Hindu

Few days back, young property of Vivanta By Taj in Gurgaon, hosted a Blogger’s Table at their recently launched Thai Pavilion. It was a dinner, the day Thai Pavilion was launched here. It was quite a memorable dinner, as we all got to meet legendary chef Ananda Solomon, who brought Thai Pavilion to Vivanta, Mumbai during early 90’s.

It started with a brief introduction to Thai cuisine, by the executive chef, explaining how important it is to get the balance of flavors right in Thai cuisine. According to chef, Thai cuisine has got more vegetarian options than non-vegetarians, perhaps a biggest myth buster about the south east Asian cuisine in particular.

The grub extravaganza kicked-off with amuse bouche, for which chef selected galangal flavored compressed watermelon, which was quite crisp and a tidy affair, as much like an amuse bouche is supposed to be.

Thai Pavillion, Taj Vivanta Gurgaon 1

And then came an array of appetizers, one by one. Young papaya salad with sweet & spicy sauce and lots of crushed peanuts was something quite unusual. If hadn’t been told earlier, I wouldn’t have been able to tell about the papaya.

Tempura prawns and marinated chicken morsels wrapped in pandan leaves were served next. Tempura prawns nice and soft from inside while crunchy on the outside, I almost found them addictive and asked for the second helping and gave chicken morsels a pass.

Mushroom parcels blended with thai herbs, which were served next, were a little unflavored, somewhere lacking a character, rather nothing exciting to write home about.

Thai Pavillion, Taj Vivanta Gurgaon 3

Corn cakes and Thai dim sum were some other appetizers, which I really didn’t care about. All because, the food came in pretty quick, so much so that I was concentrating on my prawn tempura and let other things pass.

Thai Pavillion, Taj Vivanta Gurgaon 4

Main course, included crispy fried fish with tangy sauce, grilled lamb with mint and cucumber, water chestnuts and cashew nuts with red chilli paste, Thai chicken red curry and Thai vegetable green curry with some jasmine rice. All of them were pretty awesome, scoring high above their appetizer counterparts. Each one of the dishes tasted pretty decent and there was nothing in main course, of which I felt dissatisfied at all. I enjoyed almost all of them equally.

Thai Pavillion, Taj Vivanta Gurgaon 5

I feel that there is enough wide gap between a south east Asian cuisine and their European or American counterparts, when it comes to dessert in most of the restaurants. But this dessert platter completely blew me off. I was super impressed, how gracefully chef Ananda Solomon has succeeded in making such a refreshing dessert out of tender coconut milk and tapioca coated diced water chestnut. I did finish it to last bits and I still dream about that sometimes.

Thai Pavillion, Taj Vivanta Gurgaon 2

I found the overall meal an average, all because some of the appetizers failed to impress me {I wish, the flavors had been given importance than the numbers}, while main course and the dessert saved the day {definitely, a winner}. Will I go back, yes for the grilled lamb and some other main course and of course the coconut milk dessert.

See, what others have to say about:

  • Parul @ The Shirazine
  • Ruchira @ The Great Cookaroo
  • Mukta @ Bake-a-mania
  • Sid @ Chef at Large
  • Rekha @ My Tasty Curry

Filed Under: review Tagged With: blogger's table, food, Gurgaon, restaurant review, Thai Pavilion, Vivanta by Taj

Blogger’s Table @ La Riviera, Pullman Gurgaon

July 18, 2013 by TheWhiteRamekins

La Riviera, Pullman Gurgaon

French cuisine to me has been all about those amazing pastries, desserts like Crepe Suzette, delectable Macarons, yummy and crumbly pastries, mille feuille  and everything that has got butter in it, loads and loads of butter. Probably, I have a strong affinity for the desserts and that is the reason, I wouldn’t go beyond classic French onion soup, Foie Gras and Salade Nicoise with a warm crusty baguette when it comes to ordering a main course and would rather save my appetite for the desserts. Because, I know desserts would never ever disappoint when it comes to French.

La Riviera, Pullman Gurgaon 3

Until very recently, a dinner I had one of the finest ones in recent times changed my mind, when I got to introduced to a Riviera cuisine, an all new and different take on the classic french cuisine, which I knew about. Blogger’s Table, once again gathered for a dinner at La Riviera restaurant of this newly built property of Pullman Hotels at Central Park Gurgaon.  Riviera cuisine, as introduced to us by Executive Chef Tanveer Kwatra, is basically a blend of  food from Nice, Marseillaise regions of France and has modern interpretations with emphasis on fresh seafood and prime cuts of meat. It more strongly resembles to northern Italian food. Fresh produce like local olive oil, goat’s cheese, herbes de Provence are more commonly used.

La Riviera, Pullman Gurgaon 5

It was quite refreshing as well as exciting to know about the Italian connect of the food, knowing that Italian is the cuisine I love the most. La Riviera at Pullman, tries to use as much as locally available fresh produce but imports most of it’s prime cuts and ribs from the coastal region in France. Chef also told us, that how creatively, natural organic and fresh ingredients have been of prime importance in the menu at the restaurant. It was interesting to know, that they have got techniques to extract colors from fruits and vegetables, such as chlorophyll from spinach for the green color.

These were some of the dishes which we were served that night.

La Riviera, Pullman Gurgaon 4

Ciabatta with olive oil butter. Wow! I just fell in love with the olive butter, when I got to know that it has got no butter, but it hold the shape because of natural emulsifying agents added to olive oil, I couldn’t resist slathering my bread with a generous spoon of this amazing olive oil. A nice kick of olives in very first bite.

La Riviera, Pullman Gurgaon 2

Then followed Smoked Tomato bruschetta with garlic chips. You could literally feel the smoky-ness in those freshly chopped tomatoes.

Second course had Seared scallops and prawns with pistachio puree and noilly prat fumet along with Pan fried ricotta gnocchi, with cauliflower puree and saffron vinaigrette. Gnocchi was to die for and so was the pistachio puree.

Then we were served a nice and vibrant macerated asparagus and ruby grapefruit salad with smoked curd. The mellowness of asparagus paired really well with the tangy smoked curd.

Porcini mushroom risotto, very well cooked with a proper chewy-ness of the rice and the creamy-ness of porcini mushrooms.

La Riviera, Pullman Gurgaon 6

In next course, we were served Goats cheese tortelini with eggplant caviar. Tortellini could have been slightly well done, which I felt because personally I like my pasta to be cooked well. I am not the kind of al dente. I know, that would sound aweful to most Italians. But the eggplant caviar, I just polished off within few seconds, with eggplant being one of my favorite vegetables.

After the fifth course, we had our palette cleanser which was an orange sorbet. Strong tones of orange, it had that nice well balanced kick at the palette. I wouldn’t mind eating that as a dessert too. Infact, I almost felt that that this could have been the dessert {knowing that my stomach was full}.

La Riviera, Pullman Gurgaon 7

So after the palette cleanser, came an array of three main course, which we all shared, as we all were full. We were served Twice cooked best end of lamb with textures of root vegetable, Roasted beef rib eye and braised cheek pithvier with onion soubise and Spinach pithivier with arrabiatta sauce. Lamb was perfectly done, and that is the only dish I remember from that course. Everything else was just over-powered by the tenderness and the juicy-ness of the lamb.

La Riviera, Pullman Gurgaon 1

By this sixth course, I had no room left for the dessert and was hoping that we don’t get our dessert served. But then, it came. And it created the magic. Manjari chocolate cremeaux, raspberry and champagne jelly and ivory chocolate milk, basically chocolate pot de creme served with raspberry jelly, in simple words. But, the magic was all about the chocolate that went into. World’s finest Valrohna. Oh My God! Now how could I’ve resisted. It was polished to the last bit. Every single bite took me to some dreamy world. Such soul satisfying dessert!

La Riviera, Pullman Gurgaon 8

It was a very nice and warm evening spent with all my foodie friends, with getting to know about the different take on classic French cuisine. La Riviera promises to serve some authentic coastal french cuisine and does this job remarkably well. Definitely, a place to visit when you want to spend a calm evening and enjoy the delicacies from the Riviera.

Other’s present on the table that night:

  • Parul from Shirazine
  • Mukta from Bake-a-mania
  • Sushmita from My unfinished life

Filed Under: review Tagged With: blog event, blogger's table, food, french, Gurgaon, new delhi, pullman hotels, restaurant, review, riviera cuisine

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Hi! I'm Himanshu - a home chef who loves to cook, bake, style and photo shoot... Read More…

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