Mash N Grill food festival at ITC Fortune Park BBD, Lucknow

On a balmy Thursday afternoon, just when Lucknow was getting into the grip of tropical noons, I was invited for a tasting menu at ITC Fortune Park BBD - Lucknow. Starting 4th May, the ORCHID restaurant, situated at the 1st floor at this boutique hotel, has begun the MASH N GRILL food festival (running till 13th May) that is worth a try if you are a fan of the Tex Mex cuisine. It is basically a fusion of American and Mexican cuisines, deriving from the culinary creations of the west, and is characterised by heavy use of meat, potatoes, grilled veggies and spices.

I attended the event with some fellow food bloggers from the city, and between mouthfuls of the delicious bites and conversation on the similarities of the Mexican & Indian food, we kept each other regaled with our stories on kitchen food innovations and sultry tales about our passion for food. And from there, I got an idea of collaborating with my friend and blogger - Azmaan Khan from Talking Tastebuds to share a review about the veg & non-veg dishes for you all (where only Azmaan tasted the non-veg food).

I know you've been missing the reviews about non-vegetarian food on this blog for past 10 months, and for once I'd like to give you what you ask for. Hence, below is a detailed description of the dishes we tasted and what we felt about them all. Scroll down to take a look..

VEGETARIAN DISHES

Grilled Polenta - These are grilled corn meal cakes served with pepper coulis and mescaline salad. One of my favorites from the menu because I am a corn freak. Beautifully grilled upside down and tasted best even with no salad.

Grilled Tofu Skewers - If you like a healthy substitute to cottage cheese, tofus are for you. This colorful dish consists of soya marinated tofu, bell pepper and mushroom skewers served with hot pineapple tomato salad. I love when you get to hold these stick dishes and keep munching on them one by one; it just feels fun to eat it, especially when it's spicy and grilled to perfection.

Cheese & Pimento Fajitas - Something super solid to hog on. If you're a fan of wraps, you'll definitely want to try this. Cheese & pimento rolled in tortilla bread, served with Mexican tomato salsa & sour cream. I enjoy tasting wraps and this was just one of those yummy dishes I can eat everyday. Tastefully grilled with soft and chewy texture.

Cajun Grilled Veggies - Well, not everyone might be a fan of boiled and grilled veggies, but I surely am. I feel good eating vegetables that aren't a part of my daily meals. At times, it's good to try some smokey grilled cherry tomatoes, zuccini, broccoli, marinated in cajun spices and served with bamboo stick. It is delectable and wholesome.

Mashed Potato - So when you talk of Mash N Grill, you basically get grilled food from the Mexican cuisine and mashed vegetable dishes from the American cuisine, which consists of potatoes as staples. This extremely plain potato dish tastes as simple as it's name. A blog of mashed potatoes on your plate to pair up with grilled non-veg dishes that you're going to read about below. I took a bite of it with some lettuce sauce and felt something just melted into my mouth as soon as I put it in.

NON-VEGETARIAN DISHES

Grilled Chicken : Deeply grilled chicken in barbecue sauce and rosemary confit. Easily palatable with a perfect blend of taste and texture. Definitely one of the best available in town and worth the money!

Grilled Salmon with Potato and Lettuce Sauce : These are marinated scotties salmon stake grilled, served with spinach & potatoes. The salmon was nicely grilled, though I'm not a huge fan of the dish, I tried a few bites. it was properly diced and grilled and had retained its flavour well. I enjoyed it with the sliced potatoes served with lemon butter sauce.

This was our first experience with the Tex Mex cuisine, and we personally liked the preparations. Even though our tastebuds urged for more spice, it was fun trying something out of the box in the city. It's a must try food festival and we recommend you to visit soon, since 13th May being the last day for it.  |  Address : 29/7, Rana Pratap Marg, Dainik Jagran Chauraha, Lucknow. 

If you liked reading this post, do let me know in the comments below. Also, for more food reviews and pictures, follow me on my new food page on instagram, and for rest on facebook and twitter.

Photographed by : Azmaan Khan

~xoxo~

Meals On Wheels with Street Kart Lucknow

Greetings everyone! Hope you are all doing good! So, most of you know that being a foodie (and a food blogger), I love exploring food everywhere; and with so many new cafes and restaurants booming up in Lucknow, I surely needed something unconventional to gaze upon and try! Well, in this post I'm going to tell you about a food truck, namely Street Kart, that I recently came across at the newly developed River Front in Gomti Nagar, which has become a street food sensation amongst all generations. 

Street food is hardly a novel concept for Indians. Devouring plates of freshly cooked meals and savouries, right from the corner shop that serves them up hot without an iota of shelter is part of our culinary fabric as a nation. The need to be disruptive of the monotony to stand out and stand a chance of surviving has spread its tentacles to the food industry and some young vendors have brought that sense of uniqueness back to the streets with two words – FOOD TRUCKS! 

Vibhor Khanna, an IHM graduate and ex Marriott employee, started up STREET KART for his passion for cooking. He did immense studies on the food truck concept and presented a layout to his family to convince them to help him achieve his own dreams rather him working for someone else to help them achieve theirs. He always believed in designing a truck that looks exclusive and stands out on the streets of Lucknow to cater people who are ready to adapt to new concepts in town. As per Vibhor, quality food should be available to all, regardless of where they lived. And, truly believing in the merit of affordable meals for all, he sources ingredients from local markets, and charge just enough to cover their costs. Street Kart is a blessing on wheels as you can devour a range of delectable dishes without it burning a hole in your pocket.

These meals on wheels may seem to be a concept strongly associated with the west, but the need for mobility in this day and age makes food trucks a great candidate for just about any bustling city in the world. Which is probably why the concept is showing so much potential over here, despite being such a nascent industry. With 5-6 other food trucks spotted in Lucknow city, I found Street Kart different from them in terms of the machinery and cooking equipment set up all inside the truck just like you'd find in any restaurant kitchen! Its good to know that the chefs are superbly trained and take proper care of hygiene.

With that, Street Kart is licensed by FSSAI, and serves a wide selection of close to 30 dishes on the menu and they like to keep things interesting by constantly evolving their offerings, and regularly introducing new items. I tried Veg Shawarma, Veg Biryani and Paneer Sandwiches from the menu and it tasted just as good as any high quality restaurant food!

Food Trucks date back to 1930’s in the U.S. and are extremely popular with people who want a good meal in casual setting and lighter on the pocket! The movie 'Chef' glorified the way Indians saw food trucks. India has had food stalls and eateries serving lip-smacking street food, but it has revamped in a fancy avatar with food trucks in cities like Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and I'm so glad the concept has been brought down to Lucknow as well! Today, these trucks are slowly popping up and needless to say, serve delicious spread like their American counterparts.

For all the people who haven’t chanced upon, or even experienced the joys of eating straight from a food truck, you definitely need to check out the pretty looking Street Kart that is set at River Front, Gomti Nagar to sway you, and do let me know your experience with it. Until next time, happy eating!

Photographed by : Jaya Agnihotri

~xoxo~

Hyderabadi Food Festival : Daawat-E-Nizaam at Sepia, by Renaissance Lucknow

Wait! Did we just read 'Hyderabadi food'? One of the most exciting cuisines in India, or should we boast like it and say around the world? Yes, the food and beverages team at Renaissance Lucknow Hotel has managed to bring down the authentic flavors from the city of Nizams to city of Nawabs to savour!

Hyderabad is hugely admired for its sophisticated, spicy and absolutely scrumptious cuisines. Like any other historical city, the food of Hyderabad blends royal zest with regional tang and delivers a mouth-watering potpourri of Andhra (now Telangana) specialities and Hyderabadi cuisines that is loaded with spices, ghee and dry fruits and displays the indigenous culinary tradition of the land. Since centuries, Hyderabadi food has attracted bon vivants with its delicate taste and aromatic flavor. The food platter of the city of Nizams not only boasts of local zest, but is also influenced by the culinary traditions of Persia, Arabia, Afghanistan and Turkish nations.

Upon my recent visit to the Sepia restaurant, situated on the third floor at Renaissance Hotel, I was treated with a smorgasbord of finger-licking delicacies straight from the aesthetically curated Hyderabadi menu by Chef Moshin Qureshi and his team, where they beckon its guests to come and experience a 'Shahi' fine dining event. From delectable kebabs to heavily spiced curries to highly aromatic biryani, the on-going HYDERABADI FOOD FESTIVAL at Sepia is a delightful haven for the foodies! Scroll down below to take a look at what all I tasted..

STARTERS

Of all the Muslim cuisines, Hyderabadi is the only cuisine in the sub-continent that can boast of a major vegetarian element. Well, I could sense that from the starters, and it continued till the main course. But first things first, I was served some delightful looking Paalak Anjeer Kebabs which were basically made of spinach + green chilly + coriander + lemon leaves + mint soaked all night and made into a paste, and binded into kebabs while filling them with anjeer (figs) and khoya, blended with spices that burst flavours in your mouth. And, similar was the case with the Veg Shikampuri Kebabs that melted in the mouth right as you feel the taste of cumin, cloves and cinnamon rolled into bengal gram lentil. Lastly I tried the Hariyali Paneer Tikka which was grilled perfectly on the sides, but became coarse on the centre, but were beautifully marinated in the green paste with subtle spices and tasted just yum!

Paalak Aur Anjeer Ke Kebab

Veg Shikampuri Kebab

Hariyali Paneer Tikka

MAIN COURSE

Hyderabadi cuisine contains a variety of ingredients that are commonly used, ranging from vegetables, spices, rice flavors, fruits etc., with tomato and tamarind being the most commonly used ingredients. So, among the widely displayed main course, I chose to taste some Bhaghare Baigan (a dish consisting of stuffed eggplant with grounded peanut-coconut mixture, cooked in a rich and creamy paste) with the other dishes including the very famous Mirch Ka Saalan, (gravy with bigger green chillies as the core ingredient) Khatti Daal (whole gram lentils boiled with tamarind and curried with tomato and other spices), and Paneer Khatta Pyaza (cottage cheese with pearl onions in a tomato based curry topped with mint). Each of the dishes were rich in taste and texture with mouth-watering aromas, and relished with breads that included Roghni Naan (a soft, fermented crisp bread with a tinch of sweet and salt), and Muraani Naan. Highly delectable, I must say. And to top it all, came the Subz Biryani (vegetable biryani cooked with the dum pukht technique) that tasted nothing less than what the non-vegetarian could substitute on a 10/10 scale! 

Bhaghare Baigan

Khatti Daal

Paneer Khatta Pyaaz

Mirch Ka Saalan

Roghni Naan

Muraani Naan

Subz Biryani

DESSERTS

There is literally no better way to end a royal meal than slurping off some derivative desserts from the city of Nizams, that included Khumani Ka Meetha (an apricot pudding, topped with almonds and cream) and Double Ka Meetha (Bread toast pudding, topped with dry fruits and cream). The apricot pudding being a fruit based was however a bit too sweet than the other one containing just the right amount of sugar to resolute with bliss!

Khumani Ka Meetha

Double Ka Meetha

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One thing that bowled me over this time at Sepia was the decoration at the entrance. The global icon of Hyderabad, the CHARMINAR stood tall on a cut-out surrounded by pots and buckets filled with pickles, chutneys and whole spices, displayed to give an authentic touch to the festival as running inside a dimly lit Awadhi restaurant with a sophisticated ambience that included LIVE music to add to a fine dining experience! 

The decoration at the entrance

The table I chose to sit at, diagonally opposite the musicians' dais.

Clicked while sipping some guava juice, waiting to hog on the main course.

I hope you enjoyed exploring this post, but must have missed reading about non vegetarian food, right? Well, for all you non-veg lovers, my friend Azman Khan reviewed it entirely for you in his LIVE video session on facebook. You can CLICK HERE to watch! PS :  The Hyderabadi Food Festival is up till 26th February, 2017 at sepia restaurant, so you can go and experience it yourself. Make your bookings HERE, and do share your experience with me! :)

 

Photographed by : Azman Khan


~xoxo~