Curry town - Savera - Kashmiri food festival

Curry town - Kashmiri food festival

 11th floor (Terrace), The Savera Hotel, 146, RK Salai, Mylapore, Chennai, 044 30853857

An exclusive invite to select bloggers to attend the Kashmiri food festival at Curry town

A line-up of the "asli" kashmiri khana from the renowned Chef Mujeeb-ur-Rehman. He has mastered the following cuisines – Kashmiri, Mughlai, Awadhi, Rampuri, Hyderabadi, Bengali & Persian (Irani) . He was courteous and very patient in pacing the dishes, making sure that we didn't spend too much time just clicking pictures and fielded all questions with zeal and panache. He has been invited shortly to Kabul to represent India to explore pakistani street foo. Good luck Chef!

Ambiance: The first impressions shifted me to a romantic mood and of the times of the mughals (jab chali tandi hawa.. jab uti kaali ghata, ey mere jaane wafa tum yaad aaye!). The selection of songs which were played elated my mood a notch higher. A romatic roof-top candle light/low lit dinner with your beloved and Shreya Goshal's unplugged version of "Sun raha hai na tu"... should I say more?
The interiors are artfully done and the plush sofa seating makes it comfortable seating. I loved the idea of mirrors on one side of the wall giving you the illusion of the space being extra wide when it isn't. The Rickshaw was so out of place.. it should have been an houseboat and would have seemed apt for a picture perfect shot from the Shammi Kapoor song "deewana hua badal" - Kashmir ki kali. Nevertheless, people did enjoy getting their pics clicked on it on their way down

Complimentary papad was served with three types of chutneys – Beetroot chutney for the sweetness, mint chutney was the usual sour and spicy, last came a bouncer yogurt chutney that was very spicy.

Mocktails: The cocktails/mocktails were offered outside of the festival menu. There were 5 types of mocktails that we tried
Cardinal Punch 195/-: Orange juice, Fresh lime juice & cranberry juice was what I ordered. It came with a strawberry on the brim of the glass which wore a dead look that reminded me of "murjhagayi tho phir na khiloongi, kabhi nahi" song
Spring Fever 195/-:  Orange juice, Fresh lime juice, Mango juice & Apple juice. The mango  has an over-powering effect and no wonder its called the king of fruits and was manageable
Strawberry Cooler 195/-:  Orange juice, Pineapple juice, Strawberry crush & Soda.  Anything strawberry is decent
Fruit Punch 195/-: a concoction of fruit juice. Guava can dominate any fruit mix and if you like guava go for it
Shirley Temple 195/-: Fresh lime juice, Grenadine, Lemonade. very diluted. Now I know why Shirley Temple (popular child actress of the 30's) disowned it

Veg starters: You would be familiar with all these dishes served except that they have named it in Kashmiri and prepared the way they do back there.
Rajmah Akhrot Kababa 425/-: Rajma and mashed potato with crushed walnut made into round disks and crumb fried deep. Any interesting new item that I tasted for the first ime
Tsaman Warimasala Tikka 425/-: Cottage cheese marinated in hot spices and cooked in clay oven. Soft panner was a definite winner
Wazwani Aluv Tukri 425/-: Chilli yogurt marinated spicy potato, dusted with dry mint. I personally feel this is better off untouched
Jhelum Khumb Masala 425/-: Button mushrooms in yoghurt and pickle based marinade. Cooked in a tandoor on skewers. It was juicy and mildly spicy

Non-Veg Starters:  A choice of mutton, chicken, fish and prawns is what they have on the menu and we tried the following
Kukur Dudhiya 575/-: Creamy, black pepper and nuts glazed chicken. Malai tikka with almond paste could have been better if made with tangdi than the breast
Kukur Lebabdar Tikka 575/-:  Succulent chicken tikka soaked in red masala. The traditional tikka was just as good
Maaz Seekh Kebab 600/-: Lamb sheek kebabs. Nothing extraordinary.
Tabakh Maaz 600/-:Lamb ribs marinated and cooked with turmeric, cinnamon and cardamom. A kashimiri special because of the quality of meat available in that region. The goats here are full of fat and while the ribs cook in it and turn out a foodie's-delight. Crispy outside with chat masala on top and inside tasted bland to me
Gadh Dhaniwal Pasanda 675/-: Seer fish fillet blocks marinated and cooked with yogurt, coriander and chilli. Was very mild in flavor and

 






Main course: I thought I was finished with the overload of starters but it was not to be. They gave us time enough to be ready for round 2 of the course
Dal Wazish 375/- : Pigeon pea tendered in milk and flavored tomato and coriander flavored dal. I expected it to be creamy and pale but it was the usual dal after all
Nadur Yakhni – Lotus stem in yogurt gravy flavored with cumin. If you have tasted lotus stem.. be mindful of the thin sticky strands while you bite into it you will feel like an arachnid :) But the gravy it is cooked in is delish
Rogvan Josh 600./-: They got this dish perfect, you will love it when you eat it.  a Must try of all the dishes  
Buzbatta 500/-: Vegetable pilaf made of basmati rice.Forget all your kashmiri pulavs that you ate all these years down south (no pineapple, apple and dry fruit bits business here).  If you are with kids, they would have a tough time sorting out all the whole spices (coriander seeds, star anise, ..) and picking out all the nuts
Kashmiri Naan 140/-: Kashmiri Naan is made with a lot of chopped nut. Was thick but soft and tasted good   

  

Desserts: Shufta 240/-: Cottage cheese and dry fruits halwa.you will love it for the mild sweetness and would be wondering all the while to figure out the ingredients till the last spoon. If you are used to eating pine nuts u will know
Chukandar E Afroz 240/- Beetroot halwa in milk khoa and nuts was mildly sweet as well. Was wondering how this sweet has gone pan India. Can't beet the taste when you eat!

 

Kahwa: If you still have space for anything more, it has to be for the Chai kashmiri style. I love cinnamon and this was the perfect finish to that super heavy festive dinner of the night. Must try!!!

Service: Got greeted at the entrance by a smiling stewardess who happily took my helmet to be stored safe. The staff were attentive and service prompt except for the long gap between starters and main course. Got carried away by hindi all around started speaking to the service guy in hindi and realize he is from namma chennai. Regain your native tongue and save the blushes!

Verdict:  After weighing out all the options and tasting most of the dishes, we concluded that it is definitely worth a visit to be trapped in the sky or you are on cloud 9. With those Kashmir delicacies  you realize that they are not fond of hot spices but keep it either mild sweet but aromatic. The chef is lucky to have the natives from these regions to cook and we get what the real meal-deal is from our cool state.

Enjoy it till the end of this month! @  Savera for those "Sunehra" moment which are cash-merrily Kashmiri

COAL BARBECUE - VELACHERY

COAL BARBECUE
II floor, 17 & 18, Rajalakshmi Nagar, 7th Cross Street, 100 Feet Bypass Road,Velachery,
Phone: 044 33011572

CFG blogger meet planned and invitations circulated.. A small group landed at the new hot and happening COAL Barbecue in Velachery. If you are on the 100 ft road towards the Vijayanagar junction,  cross the BP petrol bunk, this comes on your left and you cannot miss such a bright sign

 

Ambiance: I know that a lot of time and effort that has gone into the planning of the place, the interiors and furniture. Having run a restaurant myself, understand the nitty-gritties and challenges one faces with a big setup like this. A modernized brick wall look, the seating is comfortable and you will definitely spend a lot of time enjoying it. Even the entrance/reception downstairs has been done up so nicely. Coal score a cool 8/10 points with that.

You are welcomed and seated according to the numbers present and are served an apple based fizzy drink (Green apple fizz). The service staff explains you the buffet in detail and the order of food that would come to the table. You can also keep track of things with the standee menu on your table. The coal bbq pit is placed and the skewers with veg and non-veg items are laid on them

Menu:  The boards below lists out all that is available and served to you. The prices are
Lunch: Rs. 649/- nett (Mon-Fri) Rs. 749/- (Sat-Sun)
Dinner:  Rs. 699/- nett (Mon-Fri) Rs. 799/- (Sat-Sun)
Children (4-9yrs): Rs.350/- nett all days

 

Do not miss the Honey Drop Brazilian Pineapple that comes on a huge skewer and sliced and served on your plate. This serves like medicine for digestion and is a rich source of vitamin C

Word of caution: While you are busy bonding, facebooking, enjoying food, have an eye on the bbq and not let the skewers sit on the grill for too long. The fun is to keep them turning it time-to-time to cook to perfection and not char/burn it beyond a limit. They loose their moisture, taste and will go waste.   

Tepanyaki Grill station: You are spoilt for choices in meats like duck, quail, turkey, rabbit etc. You let the chef pick the meats in small bowls and tell him what sauce to use (Lemon garlic, chilli garlic, hot n spicy, schezwan, manchurian, and butter masala). If you are confused about what goes best with what? leave it to the chef. He will hand you over tokens for the respective meats picked and starts to work his spatula and come up with a preparation which you can watch live and come to your table once done.
The only problem is there are too many bones in rabbit and duck..

 

One new addition is the bigger bbq grill that comes to your table and serves gobi manchurian. Are you wondering why??? so was I

 
Loved the size of the leg pieces that were really huge and tender. I wish this had come a little earlier.
I wasn't quite impressed with the biryani, Andhra fish curry or crab masala that I picked up from the buffet counter.









Mocktail: The watermelon based mocktail was a burst of flavors and helped ease the heaviness of all that meat and matter that went in non-stop the previous few minutes. This is not part of the buffet but needs to be bought separately

Desserts: You definitely need to make some room for desserts and somehow your mind and tummy coordinate well to provide you that:The North Indian specialties were good and the pastries, shots  and cakes were yummy.

Service: Focused service,  a service boy is allotted to a table and he takes care of the course of the buffet and items coming to your plate. The food and drinks kept coming to the table non-stop till we literally had to ask to stop. The early day teething issues would certainly be a thing of past with the constant training and team huddles everyday.

A few suggestions to the management:  Improvise on this concept that has been done and dusted. Though this is a welcome entry in Velachery, I would have personally liked a few things happen

1. Having options for people who want to eat less/limited quantity - A particular day/separate section/timing where people can eat smaller portions at a lesser price range
2. Exclusive dessert buffet in 3 ranges S, M, L - with different pricing
3. Main course buffet as a separate option as your USP is barbecue. This comes form the concern that people are too full to even venture towards that area or waste food
4. Reward for zero - less wastage. That way we could all save a lot of food going waste 

When it comes to barbecue "Coal scores a Goal" in Velachery! Wishing it all the best to get Bigger-Busier-Quintessential in Chennai