Saturday, October 15, 2011

Foodies Ahoy!

Mumbai Food Bloggers Meet & Revie West View Bar & Grill




Culinary Muse always thought that there was something abnormal about her obsession with food. It is like hunger her only emotion, eating her meditation and food her life. But when she got invited for The Mumbai Food Bloggers Meet on October 1st hosted by Rushina Munshaw Ghildiyal of A Perfect Bite, it was an epiphany to see a so many others who shared her mantra! Not to mention how she felt a part of them already! More like a Food Bloggers Family!

It was quite an eventful soiree over Wine & Food and meeting people from different walks of life but with a common passion- Food. There was Harini Prakash – the Vegan Mom who loves taking pictures and colours co-ordinates her daughters clothes to the food pics J (now thats what I relate to!) Then there is Snigdha – the Pretty Tea Sommelier (gosh that sounds so beautiful), there was ‘That’ Nikhil – quite precisely the Non-Chalant Gourmand, Jyothika Purwar – the very enthusiastic cook, Kurush Dalal – a bon vivant Parsi food caterer who juggles food & Archaeology together, Rhea Mitra Dalal his dulcet wife, Reethika - the vegan who taught me that Vegan is more of a way of life that just a diet choice and ofcourse Rushina the doyen of food blogging!
The evening was all about tinkling of wine glasses, clicking of cameras, chomping of food and ofcourse lots of talk about it! What can you expect when a bunch of food fanatics come under one roof!
The food – well it had some yum moments & not so yum ones. What impressed Culinary Muse was the exotic and exhaustive spread. Here goes the details –
Pic Courtsey: Jyothika (http://followmyrecipe.blogspot.com/)
Pic Courtsey: Jyothika (http://followmyrecipe.blogspot.com/)


Soup & Bread - CM opted for the non veg soup which was Sweet Corn Soup with Beer infused Chicken (yup you read that right beer infused) – it had a suttle twang and a nice flavour to it. What came next was this light airy Focassia that could be paired with flavoured oils in testubes. Amroasial!
pic courtsey Reethika (http://veganontheprowl.blogspot.com/)

Salads – Amongst Salads, the Roast Potato Salad – baby potatoes tossed in chilly flakes and balsamic sauce was delectable. The Tuna & Cumcumber Salad was also quite refreshing , the cumcumber added the crunch and freshness to it. The Yogurt Scallion Tarts - Scallion and cream filled into tarts was light and delectable. What really stood out was the Black Rice with Sunkist Oranges – I have never of such rare combination but it actually was winner on taste, the rice had a kind a gluttony texture combined with the sweet and sour oranges made for a delicious combination. The Pan Cooked Basa and Pokchoy Salad was a disappointment however with no real distinguishing flavours

Pic Courtsey: Jyothika (http://followmyrecipe.blogspot.com/)

Main Course – For the maincourse there was a spread of exotic stuffed vegetables like Stuffed Pumpkin, Corn on the Cob, Potato Gnochi and meats– Arabian Sea Prawns (these were huge), Virtnamese Basa Fish,Himalayan Trout, Weiswurt German Sausages, Chicken Satay crusted with Oats, Porkloin etc etc. We had to choose our fare and then hand over our plates to the the ‘Girls on the Grill’ – Chef Padmaja & team. CM is really happy to see women chef because usually hospitality kitchens are dominated by men. So tasted the Viatnamese Basa & The Arabian Prawns both grilled – while the meat was cooked perfectly, both lacked seasoning which them bland. I was told that the Prawns were going to be cooked with some lemon and garlic sauce. I could hardly taste that. The Sage & Pumpkin Gnocchi & Oat Crusted Chicken Satay could be compared to Pankaj Kapur’s Mausam, looked very promising but was a disaster! The Chilli’s stuffed with apricot puree were even worst with a mish mash of bitter, sweet & spicy. The Himalayan Trout seem saved the day with it’s nice silky texture and subtle flavours.

Verdict:

Food: Exotic but Tastewise very average
Ambience: Nice
Service: Very Helpful (they actually what we were wearing to be able to serve us the right plate

A 5 course meal (cheese, soup, salad, grill & dessert) at West View Grill would cost Rs 2450 plus taxes.
Quicktip: If your a health freak, love your protein and have the money too, you can head to West View Grill for a healthy grilled spread. It would be best if you gave standing instructions on the seasoning and flavours etc.

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