Kerala Food Festival

The Olives restaurant in Hotel Deccan Plaza, Royapettah, Chennai is conducting a ‘The Kerala Food Festival, a feast of delicacies from the God’s own country.

Sarasvathi Viswanathan, the famous  Chef  who created a world record by cooking 108 dishes in one hour, is the Chef creating the food feast.

I am personally meeting her the first time even though had known her and had been chatting with her  for more than 3 years. she was very open and explained each and every dish's recipe, and also gave lots of tips. 

Video Link:

For food lovers, Chef Sarasvathi is presenting a complete onam sadhya (full meals) with the following menu items:


Starter: Mango Soup with Appalam Bajjii

Main Course:

kaalan 
Oolan 
Keerai aviyal
Erissery
Chene Puzhukku
Chakka Pacchadi
Neenthrankai Thoran
Payari Thoran
Chammeathi
Pulingari
Mango kichadi
Matta Rice
Pappudum
Rasam

Varieties of Pickles

Varieties of Chips (sarkara upperi, jackfruit chips, banana chips)

Dessert:
Mango Paallada Payasam
Chakka Rabdi
Chena Pradhaman

If you are veggie food lover, you should not miss this food treat for any reason. The festival will be till June 30th, and so try and make it on the weekend.

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Going for a Tea Trails Cafe

      On last Saturday, I went on a completely different trail – TeaTrails with my family. Tea Trails is Tea Lounge, bringing the rich world of Tea to Indian Community. A very different social experience with tea. We went to the newly opened Tea Trails at Anna Nagar Metro Station, just behind Kandaswamy College, Anna Nagar Second Main Road. The interiors and the ambiance is really great, giving a rich fine-dining experience.

              

                     

Tea and Chai

              

                  

What is the difference between tea and chai?  This is the first thing one learns at TeaTrails. Tea is always without milk and Chai is with milk. Even sugar is optional only. It is a real surprise for us South Indians who have conflated Tea with Chai. Second interesting fact you will come to know is that all the different types of tea – Red Tea, Green Tea, White Tea etc. come from the same Plant - Camellia sinensis only. The different types of Tea comes with the different types of processing steps such as withering, rolling, oxidizing etc. 

Tea as high culture :  

In Countries like China, Japan, England, Morocco etc. tea tasting is a very ritualized social affair. Tea is taken along with food during breakfast, lunch and dinner. You might have read about how today's modern world was hatched in Coffee shops across Europe, especially the French revolution which was brewed in coffee shops. If the commoners were going with coffee, it seems the royalty, especially the English went all over on tea. The tea habit of the English has had a big impact on India. They had formed large plantations of Tea in India only to counter the Chinese Tea imports to England. 

In TeaTrails, they serve the Tea in a specialized Transparent Glass Filter Jug. The tea is put on the top layer on the Jug with hot water in the main jug. They keep a Sand Clock which indicates how much time the tea has to brew. We have to pour the tea into our cups only after the specified time. 

Teas and Eats: Tea Trails-Pairings

The Uniqueness of Tea Trails is that they provide a great dish which goes well with the tea they serve, a combination their culinary team has come up with after long research. Here are some of the great Tea Trails Pairings we devoured:

a. Silver Needle (White Tea) paired with Bun Muska

          

b. Kashmiri Kahwa (Green Tea with almonds) with paired Burmese Tea Salad (Salad with Tea leaves added) and Veg Ham Bruschetta

                          

 

c. Lapang Souchong (Chinese Black Tea) paired with Smokey Paneer/Chicken Sandwich

   

d. Adrak Chai with Onion Pakoda

                    

e. Japanese Iced Matcha Shake paired with BBQ chicken or Paneer Pizza

f. Tisane Red Zen paired with fruity dessert like chocolate waffle.

Cold-Tea Drinks:

TeaTrails has some great Special Cool Shakes which are tea based cool drinks. We taste two unique Shakes worth mentioning

e. Litche Bubble Tea contains fruit bubbles which burst in the mouth. Kids would freak out on this drink. A not to miss drink for sure.

f. Better Wife is a mint, Japanese mocha and ice-cream mix. Really enjoyable Cool taste with a cool name too.

Affordability: Since the Tea they serve have four servings which can be shared by two-to-three people, each cup of tea would come to about 40 Rupees on the average which is quite competitive, given the experience factor and rich food varieties.

Tea Trails is not just for Tea. It is an ideal place for a great team-out, office and birthday parties. Since they also have different varieties ranging from Pizzas to VadaPavs, Pastas to burgers etc. you can visit anytime - breakfast, lunch, evening snack or dinner.

Tea Trails is a high recommended, must visit place for foodies.

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The Secret of Happiness is Taste - Fivestar Chicken

I went to Five Star Chicken Outlet at Besant Nagar near the Royal Enfield Showroom for a blogger meet. It was a great experience and food treat. We also good lot of insights about the Food industry from the FiveStar Chicken Team.  This blog's title is a quote I saw on their interiors.

 FiveStar Chicken - the idea

Who says Modern Chicken Fast Food should always taste American? FiveStar Chicken reinvents the modern fast food in Asian terms. They started with Thai Style as their group CP Foods is based in Thailand. Today they are one of the most popular brands with presence of 7000 outlets in 9 Asian countries including Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos, Malaysia, China, Bangladesh and now India. Their USP is Fresh Chicken straight from farm to table everyday instead of Frozen Chicken like other US brands. Five Star Chicken has strategically located their farm in Chittoor which is central to Karnataka, Tamilnadu and Chennai so that they can deliver fresh chicken everyday morning to all their outlets in South India. They also create most products with Asian and local flavors based on local spices and Indian garam masalas. They have also introduced hotdogs and Premium Mexican sausages for the first time from a Major Brand in India. They have positioned themselves as a neighborhood brand catering to Indian Upper Middle Class and Middle Class and provide 25% more value than competition. Since 2012, they have about 200+ outlets oveall. Since their outlets have no-frills approach, their prices are also 25-30% less than US brands.

Food Quality

FiveStar Chicken team assure that their chicken is raised in their own farms instead of outsourcing from others. Their farm is environmentally controlled with AC, Hatchery-Breeders have right ambiance and the feed provided is also produced by their own group. The chicken is not given any antibiotics other then than mandatory vaccinations which are stipulated by the industry standards. Since they are targeting Asian markets, the menu and standards are suited to local cultures. They have a R&D team which creates their new products. The team says their products are launched in the market only if they pass a "Blind Test" where a user should be able to distinguish their product even when eating blindfolded.

Menu and Specials

They have varied everyday menu and yesterday's special was

a. Crunchy Masala
Crunchy Masala is made out of authentic Indian flavors and Masalas to suit the local palates of Indians.

b. Thai Crispy, their Signature Product
Thai crispy has the secret recipe from Thailand with Lemon grass and Kaffir lime flavours in it.

c. Hot n' Smokey
Succulent Smokey falvoured fried chicken served with hot and spicy sprinkler.

d. Chilli Nuggets
The crunchy bite sized, crown - shaped, Chicken nuggets are made with juicy chicken and is mildly seasoned making it a great appetizer .

e. Spicy Fingers
Spicy fingers is the delicious treat of fresh , tender & Juicy chicken mixed with perfect blend of spices .

f. Chicken Popcorn
Five Star Chicken popcorn is made out of succulent whole chunks of chicken meat, blended with authentic spices and herbs to the perfection. The soft mouth melting chicken inside and crisp, golden brown coating from out. No one can just have it once!!!

g. Hungry Bird Burger
Five Star Chicken is all set to tantalize your taste buds with its new Hungry Bird Burger. Made from whole succulent chicken breasts and spiced up by dollops of Five Star Chicken's secret sauce. The scrumptious chicken fillet is served in toasted sesame bun slices and topped with fresh mixed veggies.

Special Drinks:

h. Green Apple

i. Nimbu Pani

The food varies widely in spiciness as they want to cater to wide range of customers. Their menu is also affordable and starts from Rs.39 for the 3 piece nuggets. The Spicy Fingers and Chicken Popcorn is targeted mainly at children. The Hungry Bird Burger has the right spiciness quotient that appeals to the South Indian Palette. Hot n' Smokey is really VERY HOT for those would want to spice up their chicken really high.

Fivestar Chicken outlets are also offering parties (birthdays and get-togethers) either at the outlet or at home itself. They are arranging a birthday party with a cake and food for about 10 people at the cost of Rs.1500 only.

Franchisee Opportunity

FiveStar Chicken wants to grow rapidly by involving Upper-Middle and Middle Class people as their franchisees. They are offering a outlet model called, "Grab and Go" model with 6-8 Lakh investment. They say their franchisees are able to breakeven within 2 to 2.5 year period if they are personally involved. They say their franchisees are ideally suited for IT guys, retired army staff and even youngsters who want a stable income business fetching about 35,00 to 40,000 rupees per month.

Some off-the-cuff remarks

FiveStar Chicken team says that even though people claim they are health conscious, the products which are spicy and tasty outsell those products which are developed for the health-conscious folks. Maybe their quote "The Secret of Happiness is Taste " is common knowledge and is not a secret at all!!

#ForTheLoveOfChicken #FiveStarChicken

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Andhikkadai - Restaurant Review

1. About:

Andhikkadai is a pure vegetarian hotel at Dhandeeswaram, Velachery, Chennai. Near Dhandeeswaram Latha Super Market.

2. Specialty:

Recently I saw a Vijay TV Neeya Naana Program on a debate between Hotel owners and Chennai Public. There was a unanimous comment that Chennai restaurants are purposely costly, not innovative with new dishes and out of the reach of the normal middle class family. If I have to show one exception to this Chennai hotel trend I will immediately suggest Andhikkadai.

3. Arrangements:

Andhikkadai has a very simple yet passionately made arrangements. Check out this excellent elephant painting. Also its very neat and clean.

4. Food / Menu:

Apart from traditional south Indian dishes like Idli, dosai, poori etc., they also provide several special dish of the day which are very innovative like Kozhukattai, ammini kozhukattai, Butter veechu parota etc.,

 

5. Special Note:

You should definitely try their pulippu mittai. They have bell which you can ring as a "LIKE" while leaving.

6. Parking:
You have to park on the road sides just after Latha store. But there is ample space.

7. How to reach?

Dandeeshwaram Main Rd,

Dhandeeswaram, Velachery,

Chennai, Tamil Nadu 600042

Landmark: Latha Super Market Road

http://www.andhikadai.com/

Email: andhikkadai@gmail.com

Phone: +91 98402 43591

Note: This is not a paid review.

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