Valentine’s Specials

Heart Pizza at Serafina. Here are some we found interesting!

No plans yet for Valentine’s Day? Don’t stress, we have it sorted for you! Here’s our pick of the most interesting options for V-Day!

1. Serafina: Serafina has a special Valentine’s menu from 10th February to 16th February that includes a heart shaped pizza, a dessert platter, 2 glasses of wine and more! How cool would it be to share a piece of the pizza heart! Price: Rs.2,000 plus tax per couple

2. 

   Chocolate Mousse at Le Cafe

   Hakkasan: A special menucreated by Chef Chong Chee Loong, the perfect romantic setting and a gourmet experience makesHakkasan a good option for

   

   Twilight Bowling at Smaaash

   those who are looking to

   dine in luxury. Price: Rs.3,500 plux tax per person

3. Le Cafe:  If she loves wine and he loves beer, Le Cafe solves the problem by serving both. This bright, casual dining space has a glamorous fixed menu put together especially for Valentine’sDay. You can check out their menu here. Price: Rs.1,950 plus tax per couple
   
4. Smaaash: Smaaash blends romance with fun! A Lovebird’s menu,agame of Twilight Bowling and bumper prizes to win including a trip to Dubai is on the V-Day agenda at Smaaash! Price: Rs.1,500 per couple
5. Otto Infinito: The beautiful alfresco dining at Otto Infinito calls out to all the love birds who like to be out in the open! Wine, dine and enjoy the Mediterranean delicacies with your sweetheart. Price: Rs.2,500 per couple

Gig by the sea

Before Saturday night sets in, pre-game with free music by the sea. At 6 pm tomorrow, Mackichan Hall Chowpatty will open doors for Puma’s annual music gig, PUMA Loves Vinyl (last year, it took place at Mehboob Studios).

This one’s for the fans of drum’n bass and desi electronica. The opening act is Delhi Sultanate’s solo project BASSFoundation Roots (6.30 pm) followed by hip-hop mixer DJ Uri (7.30 pm) and Madhav Shorey’s newish EDM project Kohra (8.30 pm). We’re particularly excited about Midival Punditz’s spirited, pacey electronic set. B-boys and hip-hop dancers will add to the entertainment.

The gig also marks the launch of Puma’s music CD featuring the above artists. 

Delhi beat: Gaurav Raina and Tapan Raj of Midival Punditz

– by guest blogger Diti Shah

Hot out of Punjab!

Punjabi food is exciting if you have an uncompromised appetite. There is no denying that it is one of the heavier cuisines – rich, flavourful and spicy and most of us love it that way. We’ve savored good Punjabi food – sarso da saag, choley puri and daal makhani at many many restaurants in Mumbai. And yet there comes a time when one meal takes your breath away. Without exaggeration, that happened to us when we dined at The Square – Novotel at their Punjabi food festival ‘Zaika Punjab Da’.

What separates good food from excellent food is an abstract concept. Like Po’s father said in Kung Fu Panda, “The secret of my secret ingredient soup is – nothing.” We met a gifted chef who shared the same philosophy. Many years ago Chef Ranveer Brar, executive chef of Novotel Mumbai discovered Sweety Singh, a simple self-taught cook in Punjab, and decided that his food deserved more takers. Singh has been travelling the world ever since, cooking for top hotels and doing personalized menus for celebrities. He sure must be something, we imagined.

Singh conceptualized the menu for Zaika Punjab Da but more importantly, shared his secret recipes with Novotel. “I have no problem sharing my recipes. It is no secret. Even if I gave you the exact recipe you wouldn’t be able to reproduce my food,” he said with inadvertent pride, “that’s because the masalas are specially made in Punjab and you wouldn’t find them here.”

bhatti da murg

We could hardly wait to try the Punjabi food cooked in desi ghee. The buffet was split into two sections, multi-cuisine global fare and pure Punjabi fare. We obviously saved our hunger for the latter. Singh piled our plates with bhatti da murg, chikkad choley, maa ki daal, baingan bharta and mutton curry. Piping hot rotis arrived at the table. The murg and mutton were cooked to melt in the mouth, the choley had a sharp zing without being overly spicy and the rich creamy daal filled our tummies yet kept us asking for more. “But there is no cream, no cashewnut paste in my gravies. What you taste is pure Punjabi food,” he said. We took several helpings of the baingan bharta…doused in a layer of desi ghee, cooked without onion and garlic and yet so full of flavour. “Leave room for dessert,” he said, and served a traditional sweet dish of gaund (edible gum) and jaggery. We forgot its name – but the meal was unforgettable.

By guest blogger Diti Shah

Zaika Punjab Da was on from 13^th to 28^th April at The Square, Hotel Novotel, Juhu, Mumbai. 

"You Know Who I Am?"

Mumbai, they say the city is extremely safe at any time of the day. I believed so, until last night when a couple of my friends, on their way back from Malad, almost got shot.

“On June 24, 12.40 AM, when five of us were driving through Link Road, a maroon Skoda Superb suddenly overtook our car sharply and aggravated one of us to show Mr. Schumacher the finger. Guess it hit the ego of the other, he blocked us by parking right in front of our car outside Lotus Petrol Pump, Andheri and asked us to get out of the car immediately. Knowing we were not at fault, we got out and were ready to face the consequence. On stepping out of our car, we got the shock of our lives when the guy removed a pistol from his pocket and pointed it at us and uttered the clichéd dialogue, “You know who I am? Do you know what this is?” No, this isn’t a scene out of some random Bollywood movie, it DID happen to us. We were dumbstruck for the first five seconds and thought apologizing and getting away would be the safest. We weren’t wrong, we didn’t overtake them, we didn’t do anything, but we had to apologize. And why, cause we have no political influence guarding us, we could’ve been killed and the guy would still come out clean and no, we didn’t want to repeat history.” As narrated it by Piyush Khanna (name changed on request).

The least we can do is share this story with our fellow Mumbaikars, trying to change the system is far from impossible. This happened with my friends, it could happen with you or me too. And remember, everyone is not as lucky to get out of it alive, it would simply take them a microsecond to press the trigger and take someones life.