This month, Firdaus, the fine dining Indian restaurant at Taj Krishna is hosting two very different yet, very interesting food promotion events.

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The first one is a Parsi food festival titled Uniquely Parsi, where the cuisine of this fun-loving and genteel community is on offer. Traditional dishes like Chicken Farcha, Patra ni Machchi, Sali Murgi, Sali Boti and Jardalu Chicken are yours for the tasting along with desserts like kulfi and lagan nu custard.

We sampled a fair bit of food, along with the dishes mentioned above. There were several vegetarian options like a Khatta Meetha Paneer, a stuffed brinjal dish and Dhansak which can be made with or without meat.

The chef, Manoj Vyas, who has flown down from the Taj palace Mumbai did full justice to the food. And why wouldn’t he, when his guests have included well known Parsis like Ratan Tata and his successor Cyrus Mistry. And with the Taj being the Taj, they went all the way and even sourced the Raspberry Pop and the Orange Soda that is a must at all Parsi celebrations.

The food was well made and delicately spiced. Must try dishes include the patra ni Machchi – pomfret steamed in a banana leaf after being marinated in a delicious green chutney; the Jardalu Chicken – a chicken dish cooked in an apricot gravy and the Chicken Farcha – a Parsi style starter. The paneer and the dhansak are tasty options for vegetarians.

And for those of you with a sweet tooth, leave room in your tummy for the Lagan nu Custard an egg based pudding. You won’t want to stop at one with this mouth-watering winner.

The Uniquely Parsi food festival is on till the 20^th of July.

For more information please call: 040662903306.

 Pour to Pair

 Another promotion being held at Firdaus again is the Royal Salute evenings. This promotion has Sandeep Arora, a whisky connoisseur and Director of Spiritual Luxury Living, South Asia’s premiere International Luxury Spirits & Whisky Management Company highlighting the finer aspects of Royal Salute whiskey with Hyderabadi food suitably paired by Executive Chef Nitin Mathur.

On till the end of July, the whisky will be served through each course of the three-course meal. Sandep will take the guests through the pairing and guide them through the experience of savouring the full bodied whisky with starters, then the mains and followed by dessert. Sandeep says, “The whisky has subtle flavours of lavender, gooseberry and the wood from the 21 years it has been matured. The person having this whisky will want to savour the taste and the dishes we have chosen will not overpower the taste of the whisky and nor will they kill the palate with spice. As you enjoy the meal, the whisky will grow on you and the food will enhance the flavours.”
Chef Nitin Mathur says he carefully chose dishes that were mildly hot. “Hyderabadi cuisine is rich in flavour and texture. We have tried to focus on those dishes which bring out these elements and are not just chilli hot.”

The menu includes dishes like the Shikampur Kebab, the Hyderabadi Tawa Fish, Rawa Batata Tikki and Haleem with Sheermal in starters. The mains include Nalli Gosht, Dum ka Murg, Dum ka Paneer, Hyderabadi Subz Dum ki Biryani and Khatti Dal to name a few. The Anjeer Halwa and the Rabdi Rasgulla are apt finishers to the meal.

This food and whisky pairing is ideal for those who enjoy their Scotch or those who want to entertain in quiet surroundings with good food and some great whisky.

For more information or reservations, please contact: 040 6629 3306

Hip and happening California Pizza Kitchen is a great place to go out with friends for a quick lunch or a small gettogether at work. Shruti Sudhakaran checks out the restaurant.

It is a sizzling Sunday afternoon when I enter the California Pizza Kitchen. The music is mellow (although I have a strong yearning to listen to the Eagles’ hit number Hotel California), the air-conditioning is on full blast, and everything about the place spells Mexico, including the wait staff who are dressed up in colourful sombreros. It’s like you boarded the flight to California but instead ended up at Mexico. Then we are briefed by the manager, that the restaurant is celebrating Mexican food the whole of June (too bad if you missed it). They even intend to add the most ordered Mexican fare to their main menu.

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A smiling chef tests our knowledge of Mexican food and after rating us not bad, arranges for us to be seated while he sends his signature platters to surprise us. A few giggles later, we choose a cosy spot in a corner that also gives us a sweeping view of the entire restaurant, just in case we want to observe the crowd (Stalker alert!). The decor is quite rustic. Love the unpainted brick walls! The crowd is mostly expats.

We flip through the menu and decide toorder their Famous pizzas. We don’t look

at the price section and just let the food do justice to our time (perks of working in a leading magazine!) Our waiter seems quite intimidated by us as he brings in glasses of chilled margaritas.

There are also a whole lot of appetisers on our table including crispy nachos complete with cheese sauce, tomatoes and jalapenos apart from the tapas platter of bite-size tortillas. We enjoy the liberty to choose what goes into our tortillas. (More olives please!)

What follows is easily what the fashion industry would call a showstopper. Clayoven-fresh handmade thin crust pizzas with exquisite toppings arrive at our table. We had opted for Tijuana chicken pizza and Fiamma from the meat options while Southwestern pizza and California veggie pizza were our vegetarian choices. One bite and we are stunned. It is simply fabulous.

At that minute, I regret all those millions of 30-minutes or free pizza orders I had made in my life. The pizza here is succulent, yummy, spicy and completely fresh, right from the dough to the toppings. Thoroughly satisfied, we happily chomp through the pizza. Chef also sends out a CPK specialty Baja fishcooked in banana leaf. Though not a seafood fan, I enjoy the little portion I eat.  It is now time for dessert – a coconut tres leches cake and the standard fare, tiramisu. The latter, though usually a tiresome cliche, is excellent and has just the right dash of coffee to tempt your senses. The coconut lime cake is a good option if you’re a coconut fan and are in a mood to experiment. Though relatively new, California Pizza Kitchen offers a very good choice of menu in terms of pizzas, sandwiches, salads and many more. Visit the place with your gang of friends right away, we say!

California Pizza Kitchen

Upper Ground floor, Phoenix Market City,

Velachery Main Road, Velachery, Chennai.

Call + 91 73050 80227 (Reservation recommended)