The awesome PICKALICIOUS contest

In the immortal words of Monty Python.. Now for something completely different. In the spirit of generosity and with a little help from my friends and since a lot of you are pretty active in the kitchen here is a contest for a fully loaded gift hamper courtesy of ADF Foods.

ADF foods, established in 1932 are the the owners of brands such as Ashoka, Camel, Aeroplane amongst others. ADF Soul, a brand for those with a love for food has been creating and marketing various chutneys, pickles, ready to eat (RTE) packs .

They are also very well known for their premium quality pickles made in Virgin Olive oil. Since pickles are what they excel at i get to host and judge the PICKALICIOUS contest !

How it works is you need to come up with a creative recipe using pickle and then upload it to the ADF Soul facebook page. One lucky winner chosen by me is going to get an ADF Soul foods hamper which consists of 7 ready to eat packs, 14 pickle bottles and 1 bottle of Mango chutney (pictured below)

So what you waiting for, go for it.



Please Note : I am not provided with any financial incentive for judging contest.

Komalas

Rest : Komalas
Meal : Lunch
Loc : Phoenix Mills, Lower Parel

The joy that is South Indian cuisine, i find myself grabbing a lot of southie chow on Sundays, somehow the two go well together. In Phoenix mills for a movie, the wife suggested we skip our regular haunt (Indigo Deli) and head to Komalas..

Komalas is very awkwardly located, near the exit to Phoenix Mills and can be a little hard to find. I reckon they pay a substantially lowered rent for such a weak location. That aside, they are part of a fairly large international chain and their menu is pretty expansive.

They offer a variety of regular Udipi fare as well as quite a few thali options. Second time i have been there and they have not had appams and stew. In fact, outside of two five star restaurants Dakshin & Konkan Cafe i havent found appams served anywhere.

The wife wanted appams and since they were not available, she chose a cheese tomato uttapams which was nice and fairly heavy, the best part was the red garlic chutney which pretty much rocked!!! i have the had gobs and gobs of it at the Breach Candy dosawala, truly elevates just about anything you chose.

I chose the full fledged thali they serve and boy was it fully loaded. On offer were  chapattis, rice, a gravy vegetable, two dry veggies, rasam, sambar, kheer, dahi, raita, pickle and a stupendously cold glass of masala chaas, which i proceeded to gulp down and order two more glasses of.

The chappatis, i personally didn't like, reminiscent of the roti canai, a little too oily for my taste. The potato veggie was yummy as was the cauliflower, though a little on the spicy side.

The rasam was brilliant as was the sambar. The kheer was not bad, though i am not a big fan.

Topped of with a glass of fliter coffee, which i really like, though the wife who is an even bigger fan didnt enjoy.

Overall, Komala's is a fairly large, comfy joint, the menu is expansive and most dishes are worth trying. More expensive than the average Udipi, they also have a friendly and fairly efficient staff that is eager to please.

While i appreciate the fact that they deal exclusively in disposable plates, glasses and utensils, it takes some getting used to. Especially having filter coffee out of a stryofoam cup can be a little strange. My last visit was here

Food : 8/10
Service : 8/10
Damage : 400 for 2.

Cafe Madras

Rest : Cafe Madras
Loc : Sion Circle
Meal : Sunday Breakfast

I get a call from my mate Happy over the weekend to grab breakfast at Cafe Madras (previous visit here), which is in my opinion a great way to start off a Sunday morning. Located bang on Sion circle Cafe Madras is an unassuming place serving South Indian and some Maharashtrian fare that harks back to the days when the area was a strong hold for their community.

The menu has more than half a dozen varieties of idlis and nearly two dozen dosa options besides the assorted snacks such as rasam vada, medu vada and a bunch of uttapams.


The Misal was pretty good, however i recommend the Madras Dahi Misal which is even better, a must have on the menu.

The butter idli is fairly decadent, you can also get the idli plain with a side of butter to control you butter to idli ratio.

Thums Up, accept no substitutes... for there are none.

The rasam vada was actually average, one would think it would be superlative too but no such luck. Probably better off getting the rasam in a glass which is an option.

The madras filter coffee is awesome, fun to drink and you should be able to go through at least a pair of em before you leave. For foreign readers, Madras filter coffee is a sweet, potent mixture and prepared differently from regular filter coffee abroad. Everything from the way it is prepared, poured and served is unique and its surely a must try, there are numerous options around Cafe Madras.

Overall, the place gets very, very busy, we got in at 10am and there must have been atleast 25 people waiting already, fortunately Happy had grabbed a table early and was guarding it.. the fact that he is buddies with the managers helped too. The sheer variety of the dishes means, its better go with a larger group and then share, pick the dishes you liked and order more. Will allow you to try some of the lesser known dosas.

The food is pretty good, familiar yet different from the regular Udipis one comes across in the city, a leaning towards the ethnic with minimal fuss in preparation and presentation. Simplicity is the key and they dont try to lean towards the tastes of any particular ethnic group.

Service is chaotic, our waiters changed twice, a few of the dishes did not show up until much later, some didnt show up at all and my Mysore sada turned into something else all together. However, i guess its all good, place was packed and i was just happy to not have waited.

Food : 8/10
Service : 6/10
Damage : 600 for 3.