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~

Sigdi food Festival at Sepia, by Renaissance Lucknow

Hello foodies, hope y'all are doing great! Firstly, thank you for making my last post a mega success, and you'll be glad to know it reached at the no.1 position on this blog beating others within a span of 5 days, and I cannot express how much your views and comments mean to me! So, I'm back with another yummy treat for you all in association with Renaissance Lucknow Hotel.

Some of you watched me dine out with my team at Sepia restaurant at Renaissance on my snapchat and instagram stories a few days back, and asked me to publish some details about the on-going SIGDI food festival there. So, as per your request, below is the full story for you to take a look and drool!

Renaissance Lucknow Hotel is well known for its unique food festivals that keep on taking place every month. With the start of winters this November, Sepia at Renaissance arranged a new concept of dining under the stars with their chefs preparing various Awadhi delicacies in the balcony area of the restaurant and serving everyone with love. The mix of cold, foggy weather in the evening with the barbeque setup looked ecstatic and I too tried roasting some paneer tikkas on the flames. With that, I along with my team tasted some scrumptious food from the chefs' set menu for the festival and we loved it like always (see all pictures below).

The SIGDI food festival is up till 4th December, so you can go and enjoy it yourself! 

LIVE Barbeque Counter

STARTERS

Mewe Maawe Ke Seekh Kebab

Tender kebabs with a melt-in-mouth tendency. Tastes sweet with a blend of rich flavors.

Musabbari-E-Aloo

Baby potatoes roasted perfectly to core and coated with spicy flavors all over.  

Faldaari Falon Ki Chaat

Barbequed fruit chaat bursting with juicy flavors including sweet, spicy, sour.

Aurangi Paneer Tikka

Paneer is one of my favorite food items and the variety of dishes that can be prepared are innumerable, and the chefs at Sepia never fail to serve me something new everytime! The aurangi paneer tikka that I tasted this time was wholesome, marinated and barbequed perfectly and tasted delicious. 

MAIN COURSE

Paneer Korma

Like I told you, paneer is something I've loved always and paneer korma is something that pampers my senses with its rich aroma every time. The soft, succulent paneer cubes in a onion-tinged tomato gravy with accents of cardamom and the abundance of fresh cream make this dish a true luxury. 

Sarson Saag

I've always savoured the authentic taste of sarson saag in winters. Its my staple food if I frankly tell you that's cooked at my home, but the unconventional taste that this saag contains at Sepia is winsome. It isn't too runny, nor too dry but contains the perfect texture and aroma with a hot spicy flavor! 

Bhuney Baigan aur Matar

I'm someone who doesn't experiment with food much, I like to eat something I've often tasted at a particular restaurant, and one dish I never forget to order at Sepia is a dry sabzi of roasted egg plant mixed with peas, tossed with onion & garlic that fills up your mouth with pungent flavours! (must try)

BREADS

Makke Ki Roti

That's a crisp corn flour roti, often eaten with sarson saag. Extremely palatable and tasteful.

Warqui Paratha

Favorite bread at Sepia, these warqui parathas are the most ordered on our table always. Once tasted you're never getting over it, mind you! 

DESSERTS

My favorite part of any meal are the desserts. I mostly tend to eat some before the main course and save the yummiest part of it for later. This time at Sepia, as I told you they had this new concept of welcoming the winter season with love, so they arranged a LIVE HALWA COUNTER for all their guests to experience something amazing. The huge variety of colorful ingredients ignited the sweet lover in me, and I along with my friends tasted various kinds of Halwa mixed with lot of dry fruits and other sweet toppings. #MustTry at the fest!

An array of Halwa ingredients at the counter

Three favorite desserts from the counter : Phirni, Malai Paan Pudding, Mix Halwa

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P.S. : I'm sure many of you must be missing the non vegetarian food menu in this food review. Well, I'd like to tell you all that from now onwards I will not be posting about non vegetarian food on this blog or on any of my social media platforms due to some reasons I strongly stand for! I've always been a vegetarian by choice and one of the greatest reasons I refuse eating non-veg food is because of the extensive animal killing. I am a blood shed hater and strongly oppose the act of animal slaughtering anywhere.  

So, if you're looking for non-veg food reviews on Picker At Pace, this place isn't for you anymore. But you can always enjoy all the vegetarian food reviews here! :)

If you liked this post, go ahead and share it with your family and friends. Also, I write something for everyone on my blog so if you wish to, do check out other categories other than Food on Picker At Pace that include Fashion, Beauty, Travel, Lifestyle and Poetry, and I'll be happy to read your comments on some posts that might excite you. Until next time, lots of love!

Photographed by : Saumya Kumar

~xoxo~

Pastaabilities at L-14, Renaissance Lucknow

Hey everyone, hope you all are doing good!

Its been a while since I treated you guys with a food post, and specially one from Renaissance, since I missed out on the previous month's fests! But, now that I'm back with my routine, I feel its my duty to take you along on my journey of PASTAABILITIES, the new ongoing dinner buffet which is an amalgamation of 'possibilities of pasta dishes' at L-14, Renaissance Lucknow Hotel. 

With my previous posts about the 14th floor restaurant at the hotel, I'm sure you don't need any further notes on how beautiful it looks and how warm the ambience is. Or if you've landed for the first time on my blog, let me just summarize the fact for you that L-14 is a fine-dine restaurant serving the best of breakfast, lunch and dinner daily, for foodies like me and has the most beautiful top view of the town! Now, lets get rolling to the session of pastaabilities..

Nothing says Italy like its food, and nothing says Italian food like pasta. It is an integrant part of Italy's food history, like wherever Italians immigrated they brought their pasta along, so much so today it can be considered a staple of international cuisine. Popular legend has it that Marco Polo introduced pasta to Italy following his exploration of the Far East in the late 13th century; however, we can trace pasta back as far as the fourth century B.C., where an Etruscan tomb showed a group of natives making what appears to be pasta.

Today pasta is everywhere and can be found in dried (pasta secca) and fresh (pasta fresca) varieties depending on what the recipes call for and it is the perfect foundation for a healthy, delicious and satisfying meal. At L-14, Renaissance I was amazed to see the different variety and shapes of pasta laid in front of me at the buffet counter! Not that I don't know of them from before but most of them were quite pretty as they appeared and looked super fresh. Distinguished on shapes they are named — penne, maccaroni, spaghetti, fettucini, fusilli, pacheri, mushroom pecorino panzotti and many more varieties that are filled with other ingredients like ravioli and tortellini.

I was invited to attend the dinner with my friend and photographer, Azman Khan and we made sure we did go since I missed being a part of the previous month's buffets so this was  a must! Now, while interacting with Chef Balwinder Singh, the man behind the inventory pasta dishes at this fest, I was told that I could pick my favorite type of pasta with my choice of vegetables and oil to add into my dish, and tbh it was a pleasant surprise when he himself came to my rescue and got special dishes prepared for me and my dear friend since I was uber tossed between the widespread of pasta types! 

WHAT WE TASTED

For starters, Chef Balwinder sent across a platter of Brushchetta - fresh garlic bread baked and topped with yummy vegetables and lots of cheese. And along with it, some vegetarian and non-vegetarian tomato soup with macaroni for our appetising taste buds, that tasted yum!

For the main course, we were served different pasta dishes. Named, Broccoli and Mascarpone Agnolotti (veg raviolli with broccoli and cheese filling, for me) and Prawn Aglio Olio (non-veg sphagetti with prawns and cheddar, for Azman). Each of the dishes tasted heavenly and the garnishing looked mesmerising as well! So much so that for an instance, I thought they served me some rose petals topped on my dish which were beetroot shaving in real :p

Brocolli and Mascarpone Agnolotti

Prawn Aglio Olio

While we were engrossed in eating as whatever served at our table, a few moments later we realised that it won't be fair if we didn't take a round of the buffet and I'm so glad we took the decision of leaving our comfortable chairs for a while because then we saw the display of innumerable other dishes at the counter waiting or us to grab 'em all. Well guys, below is the display for you to have a look at the entire dinner buffet presentation because the Pastaabilities food fest is still on and will run till 16th October, 2016. So, you can actually go and experience it yourself!

APPETISERS / SALADS

Crisp pita thins with cheese dips and hummus

Vegetarian Salads

Non Vegetarian Salads

MAIN COURSE (VEG)

Soba Noodles

Stir Fried Green Vegetables

Seekh Kebab Cottage Cheese and Kurkuri Tikki

MAIN COURSE (NON-VEG)

Pudina Kukked - Mint Flavored Char Grilled

Chilli Basil Fish

Mutton Rogan Josh (Curry Lamb Preparation)

Grill Fish in Dill Sauce

Char Pepper and Cheese Chicken Breast

Murgh Curry (Traditional Chicken Cooked with Onion & Tomato Sauces)

Black Bean Lamb

Gosht Biryani (Traditional Lamb Dilaf)

While casually strolling in between the desert counters with Chef Balwinder Singh, learning about the new recipes they've come up with, I met Chef Neeraj Jha who is as important a face behind the mouth watering pasta dishes at the fest. It was indeed a pleasure meeting him and getting clicked alongside felt like a privilege! *sigh*

Well, with my infinite LIVE Snapchat stories last week you already got a hint of the LIVE dessert making I witnessed during the buffet and tbh it was one of the most astonishing things I've ever seen in my entire life! Dressing the cold stone with colorful condiments and placing sweet lasange right on point and melting the cream cheese with a fire gun, it all looked so fascinating and toothsome by the chefs who were such fun and clapped at their own creation making the entire atmosphere joyous! I was sceptical that if I'd take a piece that big, would I be able to finish it but I did try a bite because I just couldn't resist and by all means I was delighted!!!

LIVE Dessert Making

L-R : Chef Abhishek, Chef Jitendra, Chef Neeraj, Chef Balwinder, Chef Binay, Chef Raj

OTHER DESSERTS

Pastries - Tiramisu, White Chocolate Raspberry

Tiramisu, Creme Caramel, Mahalabia

I took four rounds for Mahalabia and ate around 6 bowls. It's one of the best sugar free desserts I've ever tasted what makes me even more excited from now is, Chef Balwinder promised to make it for me from every time I'll visit them next. So, yayy!

This candy corner was a supreme surprise for sweet freaks like me. 

PS : If you're a kid or no, if you're at Renaissance, it doesn't really matter!

To end, both Azman and I enjoyed ourselves a lot. From the warmest welcome of all times with our favorite mocktails, to sharing information about the origin and making of the different types of pasta dishes, to the dessert making sessions and everything in all was absolutely fabulous! If you're a foodie and love exploring elite places to eat, L-14 is your stop and Pastaabilities is your event at the moment! MAKE RESERVATIONS NOW.

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It had been a while since I wore my LBD and hence thought of throwing it up at the Italian food fest this time. Looks good? Find full outfit details below! :)

dress : AND | heels : StreetStyleStore.com | bag : Parfois

choker : Auhna Creations | earcuff, ring : Myntra.com

If you liked reading this post, do share it across! I will be sharing another food story from Renaissance Lucknow in this month again, so stay tuned for that. Until then, lots of love and warm hugs!

 

Photographed by : Azman Khan

~xoxo~