Healthy Eating at Pumpkin Tales, Alwarpet

Pumpkin is a dish that is seldom given the importance that it deserves. Most restaurants in Chennai do not even have one dish that champions Pumpkin. Being a very versatile ingredient, it can be used in a multitude of dishes ranging from soups to mains to desserts. But if you are that hardcore Pumpkin Lover, Chennai has a restaurant dedicated to Pumpkin amongst others. 

Aptly called 'Pumpkin Tales', this elegant restaurant in Alwarpet is truly a pumpkin lovers paradise. Every course on the menu has at least one dish that uses pumpkin as the core ingredient. To name a few, at Pumpkin Tales you can experience dishes such as P.E.L.T (their take on the well-known BELT sandwiches), Pumpkin Taco and Pumpkin Mutton bowl amongst others. 

We started our evening with some 'Pumpkin soup' and 'Carribean Chicken soup'. Having pumpkin as their hero ingredient, the pumpkin soup was fabulous with a perfect balance of earthiness and creaminess. The chicken soup too was nice in its own ways albeit being a little on the hotter side. We served with some in-house baked sourdough bread accompanied with butter to pair up with the soups.

(Pumpkin Soup)

(Carribean Chicken Soup)

For starters, we tried out the 'Grilled Tempeh' along with some 'Harissa Chicken Wings'. I was personally keen on savoring the tempeh as I've never tried it before. Tempeh is basically fermented soy cakes that are made in-house at Pumpkin Tales. The tempeh was grilled with some chili and cumin and had a crunch in every bite. It was definitely unique and a good alternative to those who are bored with soy. The chicken wings were the usual fare excepting here it was oven roasted rather than deep fried.

(Sourdough Bread)

(Grilled Tempeh)

As for the mains, we decided to try a couple of crowd favorites. First up was the 'Grilled Prawn Taco'. I was expecting a hard taco on the table but apparently, the dish is a soft taco dish. With a sumptuous quantity of prawns on each taco, this dish was refreshing definitely a great health eat. The taco was followed by a 'Mexican Chicken Bowl', just to continue with the cuisine. The bowl was loaded with rice, refried beans, vegetables, and salsa. However, I felt the dish could have been a little more generous on the cheddar and avocado as it definitely highlights the cuisine at hand. Post the Mexican fare, we went Mediterranean and ordered the Mediterranean Lamb Plate. We had a good quantity of lamb that was roasted served with some lemon butter potato, greek salad and a bread. The last main on the table was ordered based on the request from a fellow diner whose favorite it was. It was the famous Korean dish 'Bibimpap' and the variant that we ordered was the Tofu version. The Bibimpap was very close to the authentic one and is definitely one of the best in the city.

(Bibimpap)

(Mains)

With the mains done, it was now time to treat ourselves with some great desserts. We ordered a Mango Sorbet, Tiramisu Gelato, Pumpkin Pie and a regular Tiramisu. Trust me, the desserts were all out of the park and were amazing in their own ways. The Tiramisu can rightly be placed among the top 5 in Chennai. The Mango sorbet was as close to nature as it can get.

(Tiramisu)

(Mango Sorbet)

Overall, Pumpkin Tales is a great place if you want to enjoy soulful organic food. Adding to it, if you are Vegan, then this is the place you need to be frequenting as they have a huge number of dishes that can be prepared Vegan.

Pumpkin Tales is located at Bava Salai, Alwarpet and a 3-course meal for two would cost you about Rs. 1500.

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Falafel Salad with Hummus & Tzatziki @ Wrapsody, ECR

Yummy Score - 7.5/10

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Waffles @ ITC Grand Chola

#waffles & #caramel #icecream at #itcgrandchola

One of the #best in #chennai

#Review - 5/5

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Tulu Nadu in Tamil Nadu - Madras Pavillion, ITC Grand Chola

Every restaurant keeps coming up with some sort of festivals on a monthly basis and often end up not doing justice to the festivals as a result of poor research. However, a handful of them ensure all efforts are taken to recreate the classics. I’ve known of Chef’s who had brought down experts from the relevant cuisines, brought specialised cooking tools, ingredients and so on.

One such restaurant that takes their food festivals seriously is ‘Madras Pavilion’ at ‘ITC Grand Chola’. Being the finest of luxury hotels in Chennai, any festival from their restaurants have a huge expectation. Having taken a break from attending festivals for a long time because of the lack of originality, I made my mind to check out the Tulu Nadu festival this time around.

The land of Tulu is not something new to me as I’ve a couple of friends from this region of South India. Tulu is in fact an ancient language that has been around for a few centuries with majority of the Tulu speaking population concentrated around the Western coast of Karnataka including regions such as Mangalore, Udipi and also extending into Northern Kerala encompassing the district of Kasaragod. The food here is supposed to be typically home style with a strong emphasis on simplicity and flavour.

(Bana Baraida)

The meal begun with a ‘Bana Baraida’, which was basically a drink made by blending tender coconut and well ripped bananas. To complement this, we were also provided with a traditional ‘Alai’ which is a blend of buttermilk with ginger, chilli and mint. I personally preferred the Alai more as I knew I could keep having it side by side along the courses of meals that were coming since it felt very comforting on the palette. 

(Natia Kori)

(Sajja ke Tairai Roti)

Next up was the Saaru aka Soup. Saaru in Tulu as well in Tamil typically refers to the juice that is extracted from lentils and tamarind. The saaru here was a ‘Bele Saaru’ which was made up with lentils and spiced with Cumin and Pepper. The best of the evening was the ‘Natia Kori’, succulent morsels of chicken cooked in ghee and chilli paste. I just couldn’t get over with this, as I kept asking for more and more as it made a perfect accompaniment to both the ‘Sajja ke Taarai Roti’ as well as the ‘Mamsam Biryani’. To add further to our mains, we had a fantastic pineapple based gravy known as the ‘Pineapple Gojju’, some famous ‘Kori Gassi’ that already had the roti soaked in it. The sukka made using shrimps was another highlight of the evening. Both the Pineapple Gojju and Yetti Sukka were paired perfectly with the ‘Neer Dosa’. A special word of mention for the Mamsam Biryani as it was unique yet amazingly flavour. The lamb was so tender that it fell from the bone with the least effort required. 

(The Full Course)

To bring the delightful experience of Tulu Nadu, we were served with a ‘Bele Payasam’ which was almost similar to our Paruppu Payasam and a ‘Ragi Manni’ which was more like a fudge made using Ragi & Jaggery.

(Desserts)

Like I’ve mentioned in the beginning, ITC Chefs take special care when they create a festival and an extensive research is made before the festival launches. This is evident from the fact that I felt completely light at the end of the meal albeit being fasting the entire day which ensured that I needed to provide my system with a sufficient amount of food. 

The Tulu Nadu festival is on till the 25th of June, 2017 and is available as part of the Buffet at Madras Pavilion located at ITC Grand Chola, Guindy, Chennai.

To be updated on my latest reviews, do subscribe to the feed by leaving your email address in the subscribe section on the top right hand side of this post. If this article interested you, please share it so others may be interested and benefited too!!! For quick reviews, ratings and yummylicious images, follow me on Instagram at @FoodInChennai. Request you to also visit our Facebook page Food In Chennai - Facebook and share the page with a Like amongst your friends and also follow us on our twitter handle at @FoodInChennai. You can also follow us on Google Plus at Food in Chennai-GooglePlus. Please also feel free to g+1 this post so others may be benefited too. 

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Back on a Sweet Note

It has been quite a while since I've been active here. Several new assignments really kept me hanging for time and wasn't really able to devote dedicated time to write here. But realised that I was missing writing about things that I love the most, something that really kept my stress levels down. So here I'm back again.

So to give a twist, my return post is about my recent holiday in London. Albeit being a family holiday, I managed to take some time out to explore a few must have desserts in London. Out of them, two were standouts.

On a usual gloomy rainy afternoon, I was nearby Oxford Circus and felt the need for a dessert to forget the weather. I remember reading about a small restaurant hidden in one of the alleys of SOHO called Spuntino and how one dish over there was highly talked about. What was intriguing was the fact that the dessert sounded very primitive so was curious to know what was so special in it. Called the 'Peanut Butter & Jelly' sandwich. A sandwich for dessert, guess your thinking the same thing that went through my mind too. 

But when the dish arrived, I knew what was in the making. A gorgeous looking dish on a rustic plate appeared in front of me. There was no bread for starters. What was indeed in front of me was two perfectly sliced sections of Peanut Butter ice cream stacked in between with a Berry Compote. First bite and it dawned upon me as to why this dessert was talked about so much. There was a perfect balance between the ice cream, compote and the crunchies that was sprinkled on top. Each bite brought back a distinct memory of the PB&J yet in a more refreshing way.

(Peanut Butter & Jelly Sandwich)

If you happen to be in London, ensure you visit Spuntino. It is located at Rupert Street, Soho and is hardly a 10 minute walk from the Oxford Circus Underground.

The second dessert shop was based on a close friend's recommendation. She constantly kept buzzing me to check if I did visit the place. After having a cold dessert on a rainy day, I sure wanted something to make me feel warm. And this dessert shop also being in SOHO, didn't want to give it a miss. Said was a small chocolate cafe that looked very teeny weeny from the outside. When I entered, I saw the place was full and had to wait for a table. A glance over the counter and I realised the reason it was full. Everything on the menu had a chocolate element and was drop dead gorgeous.

Since my friend had already told me what I should not miss ordering, decided to order that first lest I fill my palate. The order was for a 'Regular-Milk-Hot Chocolate'. Wondering what would be very special here, my eyes popped the moment my order was being prepared. The drink cup was first dripped early with all three forms of melted chocolate, Dark, White & Milk. Thinking this was to provide it with a complexity what followed was more intriguing. Since I had ordered for a Milk chocolate variant, the same melted chocolate that was used to drip the cup was poured into the cup. Yes, the hot chocolate at Said is a more of a melted chocolate drink.

(Hot Chocolate)

The drink was definitely sinful and has taken the top most position in my list of hot chocolates. And I reckon its definitely going to be there for a long long time.

Said is located at Lexington Street in Soho and is a 5 minute walk from Oxford Circus Underground.

To be updated on my latest reviews, do subscribe to the feed by leaving your email address in the subscribe section on the top right hand side of this post. If this article interested you, please share it so others may be interested and benefited too!!! For quick reviews, ratings and yummylicious images, follow me on Instagram at @FoodInChennai. Request you to also visit our Facebook page Food In Chennai - Facebook and share the page with a Like amongst your friends and also follow us on our twitter handle at @FoodInChennai. You can also follow us on Google Plus at Food in Chennai-GooglePlus. Please also feel free to g+1 this post so others may be benefited too. 

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