Mexican Fiesta @ Hard Rock Cafe - A taste review

I love Mexican food. Always have. When Hard Rock Cafe invited some of us bloggers for a taste review of their Mexican Fiesta Menu, was I thrilled!! I've also always liked Hard Rock Cafe's, particularly their music and ambience. So, Alieana, Madhuri, Suma and I met there one afternoon. 

About the menu - had all the usual mexican fare of tacos, burritos, tostadas and the event being in Hard Rock, there was also a Burger with a Mexican twist. Add some very interesting cocktails to this and you have a winner of a menu. 

It was an afternoon to remember - good food & drinks, great company and nice music. We met there about 1pm, HRC keeps its music mellow till abt 4pm, and then pumps up the volume. When we left the volume was pumped! You get the picture!! 

We met with the Chef, who gave us a brief run down of the menu, understood that 3 out of the 4 bloggers were vegetarians and suggested appropriate menu options for us. And then the food came! And so did the drinks!

We started lunch with the Spicy American Corn & Danish Mozzarella Samosette. This was served with some salsa and a basil pesto dip. The dip alone is worth another visit! The samosette was very good. Little morsels of corn / mozzarella wrapped in phyllo and fried. 

Next, we tried the Tacos. They serve them with grilled chicken, beef chili or cottage cheese. We sampled the cottage cheese tacos. Crisp corn tortilla shells brushed with a tangy / zesty BBQ sauce and filled with your choice of filling (meat or paneer) and lettuce, tomatoes, olives, pinto beans & spring onions. I loved the lively flavor of the BBQ sauce. This was served with house-made guacamole, pico de gallo & sour cream. 

We then moved on to the Burritos. They have a chicken & a cottage cheese version of this as well. Basically a flour tortilla brushed with chili-garlic sauce and filled with lettuce, tomato rice, seasoned cottage cheese, spicy bean ragout, mixed cheese and some veggies. The chili-garlic sauce added a very nice flavor to this dish. The burritos come with a side of fries, guacamole & sour cream. 

After this the tostadas made their way to our table. They have a BBQ Chicken or a Beef Chili. Chef made the chicken for us vegetarians with paneer instead of chicken. It was good. So what is a tostada, you wonder. It is a Mexican Pizza. This was a thin crust base brushed with a chili sauce and topped with seasoned cottage cheese, red peppers, caramelized onions, mixed cheeses & jalapenos. 

By now we were all rather stuffed, but we still had to try the burger and the dessert. The burger was very good, I could just manage a bite! I'd an idea of what the dessert was, so I decided to save my appetite for it!  

While all this food was happening, we also sampled some of the special Tequila based cocktails created for this event - Chapala, Diablo, Ginger Fiasco & Payback. Of the lot I can still taste Diablo & Payback. The other two drinks were good, but they took the back seat! 

The Diablo - black currant infused, with hints of ginger & lime. The Chapala - watermelon based, was nice, but was completely dominated by the Diablo & Payback. 

The other two drinks we tried - Ginger Fiasco & Payback. Off these two again, Payback dominated with the sneaky jalapeno aftertaste and that nice burn. Loved it! The Ginger Fiasco was also good. 

The Payback - kiwi flavored with hints of jalapeno, a definite winner. 

Now came the dessert, chocolate pyramids in white & dark chocolate served with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream & a dash of chipotle sauce. The habanero peppers used in the sauce was a good compliment to the sweetness of the chocolate & vanilla ice-cream. 

Wrapping up, I'd say it was an enjoyable lunch and certainly worth a visit. I did feel that the veggies got an overdose of paneer, but that was because we tried all the dishes on the menu. If ordering just a main course, just a burrito would do! This is HRC, their portions are large and the drinks are mixed generously! 

They have valet parking. Check out their website for the promos for this event. The Mexican Fiesta ends on Sept 18th. So, what are you waiting for? Grab a bite @ Hard Rock Cafe, St. Marks Rd. Bangalore. 

Au Bon Pain

I first went to Au Bon Pain when I visited my sister in Pittsburgh. I got off the flight & was hungry, so she took me to the Au Bon Pain in the airport. I went wondering what I'd get there to eat. And hoping it would be healthy and not the usual American fare! I had my taste of broccoli & cheese that day. Now, here I must mention that I am not a fan of broccoli (read I never ever ever ate it before & thought of it as spoilt cauliflower!!!). However sis insisted it was great & since I was tired, I gave in, thinking the cheese would camouflage the broccoli. Was I surprised - the soup was delicious!! So, much that I insisted on taking some back for dinner! :) Since then I've always loved Au Bon Pain.

When I learnt that they were opening in Bangalore I was thrilled. I've been to their outlets in Mantri Mall, Eva Mall, Richards Park & Cunningham Rd. Au Bon Pain has recently opened a cafe in Koramangala at the Sony signal.

Parking there is going to be difficult, but for folks with offices around there, you just got a place to go to for healthy meals! Can you believe in this day & age, they actually do not serve any fried food in their restaurant. Yeah, you read right, no fried food at all!! Interesting isn't it?

We were invited for a preview lunch to the Koramangala cafe. We started off with the soups from the soup counter. They have a different soups every day - 2 veg & 2 non-veg. They provide small glasses, so you can try all the soups available & choose the one you like best. Here's a picture of the soup counter -

Au Bon Pain offers a variety of breads for sandwiches - farmers, focaccia, baguette, whole wheat among others. Veg & non-veg meals are prepared on different counters. Here's a view of the kitchen -

We tried the chicken pesto sandwich on the farmer's bread & a hummus & olives sandwich on a jalapeno bagel- both were good. P being a biryani fan tried the chicken biryani and wasn't very impressed. Considering this is a bakery cafe, biryani might not be the best item to choose from the menu. Au Bon Pain has a variety of salads, baked goods & assorted desserts. I loved the cinnamon roll from the bakery and the espresso mousse (- simply divine) from the dessert section.

Oh, how can I forget the coffee! Really good stuff! And at Rs.20/- very good VFM too! They also had a cold coffee and some iced teas. And all of them reasonably priced too. Well, all items are reasonably priced and made fresh. This is one place I'll be going back to often.

So, what are you waiting for? Go ahead, eat well & eat healthy! 

Chili Biscuits and a Food Blogger's Day at HyperCITY

Fellow food-bloggers Madhuri (Cook-curry Nook), Suma (Cakes & More), Bridget White Kumar (Anglo-Indian Recipes) were asked to come to HyperCITY for a Food Blogger's Day. They had also asked that we come prepared to make / bake something at the store, so I carried with me a batch of chili biscuit dough. Once, there I realized I could have gathered ingredients from the store & put together my recipe!

Now, about HyperCITY. I've been to both their stores in B'lore - Whitefield & Bannerghatta Road. First impression - wow! so much space & so like walking into an US super market. I loved it. They have a wide variety / range / selection of groceries, provisions, utensils, appliances, home-wares and electronics. Here, I must honestly confess I was all agog about the wide variety of vegetables, diary & groceries that I just just quickly peeked at the other sections only. There prices compare very favorably to other stores for speciality products like mascarpone cheese (this is one item I remember, because I am always looking for it!). 

So, we walked through the vegetable & groceries sections and picked up what we wanted to make our stuff, and returned to the demo area. After a few hitches this was all set up. Bridget made some no-cook trifles, Madhuri made an eggless 5-min microwave chocolate cake, Suma made a 2-min microwave brownie & I made the khara (chili) biscuits. We interacted with the customers and amongst ourselves and had a fun time! Thank you HyperCITY for having us over. I'll surely be a regular shopper here!! 

Oh... you want the recipe for the biscuits? Do try it, this is a simple recipe even for novice bakers. Chili or Khara biscuits as they are known in the local bakeries is a hot favorite at home. P loves eating them straight out of the oven. This is my mom's recipe with a few additions thrown in by yours truly! Well, I did say I never follow a recipe, didn't I? 

Ingredients 

Maida - 1 cup + 4a tbsps (see notes) + flour for dusting 

Butter - 3/4 cup 

Castor sugar - 2 tsp 

Salt - 1tsp 

Ginger pwdr - 3/4tsp 

B.pwdr - 1 tsp 

Yoghurt - 2 tbsp
Green chili - 4-6 

Mint - 10-12 leaves 

Curry Leaves - 10 leaves 

Onion - 1 med 

Preparation 

Sieve 1 cup maida, b.pwdr, salt, sugar, g.pwdr 
Chop onion finely 
Mince green chili, mint & curry leaves 

Cream butter till smooth 

Tip in yoghurt beat till blended 

Sprinkle 2 tbsps maida over the onions, mix well 
Toss dusted onion, curry leaves, mint, chilies & mix on low speed 

Add flour a little at a time & combine till all flour is added 

Transfer to a lightly floured surface & knead gently to bring together 

Roll out to 1/2 inch thickness 

Cut into biscuits
Bring the remaining dough together & repeat till all the dough is used up

Place on ungreased cookie sheet

Bake @ 200 deg cel for abt 10-12 mins or the sides turn golden brown 

Notes - 
Please note that depending on the oven, the bake time will vary. So, keep an eye on the cookies and pop them out of the oven when the sides turn golden brown. For every cup of onion you'll need 4 tbsps maida for dusting. 1 medium onion should be around 1/2 a cup. 

Mads, the pics are on the phone I shall post them in a couple of days! :)