Hazards of being a foodie

Sigh, it’s difficult being a foodie, I say. Firstly, there’s just so much waiting there beckoning to you saying “eat me” and secondly, you’re always fighting a losing battle with the weighing scales. I have completely lost mine, especially since I realized (much to my dismay, might I add) that I will never come close to looking like Ms Natalie Gleb-drop-everything-dead-Gova, the current Miss Universe and decided to go ahead and just enjoy being a food junkie instead.

And I simply hate sitting at the table and counting calories when I am eating a good meal and working up a massive guilt complex as I have seen quite a few people do. It annoys the living daylights out of me. What is the point of all the guilt when you are eating. Might as well enjoy your meal, get over with it and then die of guilt later. That way, at least you’ll get some enjoyment out of the whole thing before dying!.

Anyway, getting back to my story, it’s been a while since I ate Bengali food, so when Deki raved about the fare at 6 Ballygunge Place in Indiranagar, I was waiting for an opportunity to try it out.

The two other Bengali restaurants I’ve tried in Bangalore are Bangaliyana (Koramangala) and 36 Chowringee Lane (Wilson Garden). The food is decent and worth trying though someone had rather bad reports about the kitchen conditions of the former.

Last evening, I got a chance to try out Ballygunge Place along with a few friends. The place is quite nicely lit and well done-up. There are 3 seating areas in all and each area is a little different in terms of the colour scheme. The interiors are quite warm and pleasing to the eye.

We started with a preparation of crispy fried fish (small fish called chital), which was really very yummy (and which you only get in the ponds in West Bengal), mangsho (mutton, though some of us got tough pieces), and gravy that was rather good; a delicious yellow dal, potato fry and baigan fry (in small round size pieces). We had this with the typical Bengali preparation called loochi (a bit like phulkas), which is also a specialty back home in Assam.

For the main course, we had Bhapa Elish (a nice preparation in mustard), Rohu in an onion gravy and fish dumplings curry with generous portions of rice. Each dish had a nice distinctive taste and to get the most out of the dishes, it’s a good idea to try them one at a time and not mix them when eating with rice.

If you’re a foodie, fishitarian, or/and don’t mind trying other cuisine, I’d recommend this place. The waiters are also very helpful, in case you need help with what to eat and the quantities you need to order if you’re in a group. A meal for two would cost around 600 bucks, with dessert, which I think is value for money for the kind of food they serve. The restaurant is situated on 12th main in Indiranagar, above Café Coffee Day.

We ended the meal with dessert (rosogollas). The sandesh is also supposed to be quite good, though everyone was too full to try it. And so we walked out of the restaurant, a satisfied lot and definitely quite a few kilos heavier.

Since we’re talking about food, let me take you on a little gastronomical adventure of some recent interesting food that I tasted / ate / gorged on during my recent trip! Warning: Please view only on full tummy, else might cause hunger pangs 🙂

Jag, Sunrayz and I spent a pleasant afternoon at Oriental City in a London suburb. I have never seen so much food in one place, I must admit. There must have been 50 odd stalls with all kinds of Oriental cuisine : Malaysian, Indonesian, Burmese, Thai etc. – and it took us a good 20 minutes to decide what to eat. Finally, I went with Malaysian and couldn’t resist ordering some chicken dumplings on the side. Jag decided to go for Japanese food and whatever he ate looked pretty good from where I was sitting!

The night I arrived in Barcelona at Romain and Emma’s place, Romain cooked up these delicious stuffed peppers. I had no idea what he put inside, but they were absolutely delicious. Romain is one of the rare breed of men who can cook while Emma enjoys herself 🙂

I couldn’t leave town without tasting the traditional Spanish paella. So we made our way to a place called Frague, off the Las Ramblas for a meal. The Bangladeshi waiter claimed they served the best sangria in town. We weren’t sure about that claim, but the paella (seafood for me and veggie for Romain and Emma) was certainly a treat to olfactory and thegustatory senses.

This is at Café Vaudois in Lausanne, where I so was famished, I could eat anything! We’d just done some shopping and the cold weather had increased my appetite. With two foodies for company, life couldn’t have been better. I had this really yummy dish (and of course, I have no clue what it was called) with Vrinda and Steph for company. And of course, some nice red wine to go with it.

At a Swiss restaurant affording a gorgeous view of the Lake Léman, Steph, Vrinda and I ate a delicious meal. What I have on my place are mushrooms in a delicious sauce and bread buns. It was as yummy as it looks and made me feel like a stuffed potato by the end of the meal. Especially, since we’d had a really late lunch.

The Swiss and the French eat cheese like it’s going out of business. Steph, for example, eats cheese at every meal (and not just one type of cheese!). I tried tasting several of them and realised you need a strong constitution to digest so much cheese. But some of it was truly tasty and I would have probably developed a taste for them with time (which would have been pretty bad news for my scales).

At the Sunday market in Lausanne city centre, these beautiful bell peppers and tomatoes made for a colourful sight.

After having many sandwiches on the move in Paris, on my last night I got a chance to sit on the pavement and enjoy a meal! Bumping into Shruti, Param and Mahesh was a blessing in disguise as we found a typical French restaurant and decided to eat outside, sip wine and champagne and basically feel really decadent! The pasta I had was horrible, there was so much cheese, I couldn’t taste the pasta. But the nice spirits made up for it. Photo courtesy: Mahesh.