Five Morsels of Love - A Review

Before we proceed into the post, here is a spoiler - I absolutely loved the book, Five Morsels of Love, from all perspectives - as a book lover, food blogger, food lover and a cooking enthusiast.  

I loved how brilliant the book feels in my hand - the weight, the texture of the paper, the fine details in the book's styling, everything is brilliant. This book feels like a true book-lover's dream come true. Really.  

Five Morsels of Love

Five Morsels of Love by Archana Pidathala

The fabric cover of the book sets the tone of the book. It makes you feel right at home with what the book is about. The words from the first page, with the photographs of the author, the subject and a few other family photos make you feel this is a book about family, and food.  

Rivaayat, a revival

That is the theme of the food festival running at Kanak, Trident Hotels, Hyderabad. This is a revival of traditional recipes and styles of cooking, intended to take you on a trip down the memory lane, to remind you of the food cooked in your family kitchen. That’s how I felt as I was sampling some dishes here.

 

One thing that I always notice at 5-star restaurants or food festivals is how vegetarian food is taken for granted. There are just one or two dishes in the menu for vegetarians, and almost of them are either corn or paneer based. One of the main reasons I stopped enjoying food in restaurants around Hyderabad is that I stopped finding stuff that interested me, stuff that I’d love to eat and lick my fingers after eating. Well, I had that experience here, at Kanak.

High-Tea at Vivanta by Taj, Hyderabad

Vivanta by Taj, Hyderabad has started a new high-tea buffet at The Grill, every evening. This menu boasts an array of dishes , some native to Hyderabad, and some staying true to the British High-Tea dishes.

The Irani chai here stays true to the Hyderabadi style of tea, milky and sweet. This goes along well with the spread of petite bites of sandwiches and éclairs. The restaurant also boasts of a wide spread in teas, for the tea-lovers.

Khasa Dastarkhwan at Kanak, Trident Hyderabad

A Mughlai Culinary Experience was what we got at Kanak, Trident Hyderabad, where myself and my friend, Arundati of Escapades fame had the opportunity to dine. We were there to taste the fare the restaurant presented for Khasa Dastarkhwan, which ended on Jan 28, 2015.

Worry not, am told most of the dishes that were made especially for this food festival are going to be on the menu, so there is hope for all of us to taste this awesome food again!

Sushi & Teppanyaki Festival at Syn Asian Grill & Bar

Syn Asian Grill & Bar at Taj Deccan, Hyderabad is hosting an exclusive Sushi & Teppanyaki festival. Yours truly and Arundati got an opportunity to taste some of the items on this menu. Here is a detailed account of what I had, and how my taste buds reacted as I was eating each of those :-)

It’s a known fact that am a vegetarian, so Sushi for a vegetarian is something many people don’t understand, with all fair reason. Authentic Sushi is supposed to be sea-food , but I’ve discovered a couple of years ago that some innovative Chefs have vegetarianized this wonderful dish. We still get to eat the hand-made sushi-styled rice roll, with a different filling , wasabi and soya sauce. And with all the different varieties of Sushi I’ve had the opportunity to eat, I can safely say that there are quite a lot of varieties for us to sample, and treat our taste buds to. The sheer no. of different sushis possible even with veggies is mind-boggling, and is a good exercise for those of us , enthusiastic home-chefs to try at our homes too.

Restaurant Review : Syn Asian Grill & Bar, Taj Deccan, Hyderabad

Before I even go into the details, let me just say one word about my entire Syn experience. It was sinfully awesome! I loved the food, the experience and our entire time there. It was an afternoon spent having pleasant conversation with my partners in crime – Arundati and Siri.

And now to the details…

Syn Asian Grill & Bar, Taj Deccan, Hyderabad
Cusine: Japanese, Thai, Vietnamese – Asian
Location: Taj Deccan, Road 1, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad.
Phone: 040 66663939 / 092 95 006969
Hours of Operation: Mon - Sun: 12:30 pm - 3:30 pm, 7:30 pm - 1:00 am
Website: Syn Asian Grill & Bar, Taj Hotels
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/synicious
Twitter: https://twitter.com/synicious
Recommendations: Veg Sushi Rolls, Amuse Bouche, Kake age maki, Yasai Salad, Vietnamese Vegetable Red Curry, Wasabi Chilli cocktail, Thai Fried Rice

Yes, that’s almost all the dishes we tried out there, going out to say that I loved everything that has been served.

 

[Pictures : Watermelon Mintini & Wasabi Chilli]

We started our meal with a pleasant cocktail made of Wasabi which not only pierced through our throats but also took us to a high land, literally. We were then served Amuse Bouche in a happy spoon. Amuse Bouche is a bed of fried noodles topped with a mixture of waterchestnut, raw mango in chilly plum and soya dressing. It was a perfect mix of all the flavours and worked well in waking up our taste buds.

Am a photographer, yay! :)

Couple of weeks ago, I shot some pics of a beautiful cake my friend baked. She is a master baker – The Dream Cakes, and is a professional and her cake was selected to be featured in Cake central Magazine. I shot these pics a little too late, and so we missed the deadline… it sure did feel bad, but her cake still got featured in the magazine, and the pics were shot by her friend. Here is another link from the magazine’s site.

For this shot, I planned , conceptualized and shot every pic, and the pics came out pretty good. Am super proud of these pics and have waited all this while to share them. [I couldn’t share the pics earlier because of some condition laid by the magazine guys]. And here are the pics… every part of this cake is edible, and I tried to highlight all the different aspects of this cake.

And there is more…

Mango!

Nothing says summer like the arrival of mangoes and watermelons to the markets. And of course, the sweet songs of the cuckoos in the mornings, the power cuts and the hot afternoons. 

A slightly longer, nostalgic post on my blog, The Green Tea Evenings - Here

After I am done sighing at the awesome smell of mangoes the minute I open my fridge, I have to plan a short vacation and also the endless work that has been piling up when I was busy doing... well, eating mangoes... :) and yeah, the home photo studio for my food photography experiments.

Tell me, how are your summers going? Lots of fun? Vacations? What other plans?