Lazy weekend breakfast? Head to Ants Cafe..

There a few popular breakfast places in Bangalore and I plan to tick all of them in my list someday and I started off with the one nearest to my place - Ants cafe.

Was meeting a friend who was visiting India after completing her MS and this was a great place to have some great breakfast and some catching up on whats been happening in the past year and a half.

Seating is upstairs and there are some tables on the balcony with plenty of sunshine around, so it wakes you up.

They have some breakfast platters and I ordered the Ham basket, while my friend ordered a masala omelet. We also ordered a chicken wings too.

The Ham basket is essentially mushroom and onions sauteed and poured into a small basket made by Ham strips. An egg is dropped into this basket and the whole thing once baked for a couple of mins, sets the egg and binds the whole thing together. It was a nice sight and tasted amazing too. You also get toast, jam,butter and some basked beans. Juice/tea/coffee to wash it down..

The omelet was big, fluffy and stuffed with goodies. Came with toast too.

The chicken wings - they were to lovely.
Juicy with a crisp outer covering and tossed in some beautiful hot and sour sauce, served with a little salad.

This was too much food for the two of us. But we managed to get through most of it over an hour.

They have an interesting menu and can be tried for any other meal of the day.

The meal cost us ~800/-

Head there for a breakfast and forget lunch for the day. :-)

Chianti - Gourmet Italian food, anyone?

Chianti is the name of the wine valley in Italy and this is also the name of the new restaurant that we visited one chilly evening in December.

We visited the one in Koramangala. It has a nice cosy setting with lot of woodwork - warm and inviting.

For starters we ordered a creamy mushroom soup and a very interesting starter!














They very fine eggplant rolls stuffed with goat cheese, sundried tomatoes and sage leaves. Beautiful creamy stuffing rolled in finely cut slices of eggplant and baked. With a lettuce salad on the side.

 Here's a close-up of the goat cheese stuffing :-)










They were heavenly and the soup was very comforting. They also serve some freshly baked warm bread with a herb butter to go along.















For the mains we ordered a wood fired pizza with roasted chicken, onion and mushroom. This was very good too - thin base, fresh toppings and just the right amount of cheese. Enjoyed having it.




There was a decent choice of wines too but we did not try them that day.

They also have a large selection of pastas, risottos and pizzas, so a visit could be both pleasant and fulfilling.


The meal cost us ~1200/- which was slightly on the expensive side. They have valet parking too in case you are having trouble finding a parking spot on the busy 5th Main road of Koramangala.

Fatty Bao - Asian Gastro bar!

Its my wife's birthday and I cannot "stay calm"!

This is stretching the British 'stay calm' nonsense too far but all the same - it meant a special celebration with a nice dinner.

She loves asian food and 'Fatty Bao' had been on our radar for sometime. So, we headed out for a 7:30pm reservation. Requested for a table on the terrace and got one close to the bar. Its nice and pleasant but there are a couple of places on the terrace out in the open which would be wonderful if the night is a clear one.

We ordered a chicken teriyaki bao and the pork belly.

Pork belly is something I have been longing to try and trust me it did not disappoint. The pieces are slow braised and then flash seared to give a crisp outer covering.

The Bao was amazing also. Juicy and succulent chunks of chicken with some veggies in a soft bao.

For the main course we tried the mushroom ramen. It was basically a variety of mushrooms in a very flavorful broth with ramen(noodles). The broth as is claimed had been slow cooked for hours to give that deep flavor and was very hearty and comforting.

We washed the food with some fresh orange juice and a sparking lime.

I loved the food and the general ambiance.

The meal with taxes cost ~1700/-

There is valet parking available and booking a table would be a good idea since it tends to get pretty crowded.

Cafe Thulp - Now in Indiranagar!

Before I had known about the fame of this place, I had accidentally walked into it in its original location in a small bylane in Koramangala 1st block back in 2011. I remember thoroughly enjoying the hamburger that I had.

Had not been able to visit it ever since. Until they opened up a branch in Indiranagar at 80ft road and 6th Main. Headed for dinner tonight.

The place seemed pretty busy but we had a choice of three tables and we chose a corner one. The decor is quirky with action comics images on the walls and so is the menu card - all dishes have interesting names and descriptions.

I decided on the hamburger with cheese and Bacon. It comes with french fires, coleslaw and a pickled chilli.
The burger was great - nice and juicy patty, crisp bacon and crunchy veggies.

Nikita ordered an Italian grilled subway - mushrooms, mozzarella and sun-dried tomatoes and basil inside a brown bread. It was very good too - grilled to perfection - flavors complimenting each other with the nice side of roasted potatoes and coleslaw.

We also had a drink of the homemade lemonade which was refreshing.

Only complaint about the place was the seating. The sofas are too low for the tables to be able to eat comfortably and the tables are too wide across to have a decent discussion without having to speak loudly.

There is no added tax or charge whatsoever. You pay what is in the menu.
Our meal came up to 550/- which is pretty decent for the quantity and quality of food served.

That's one more place added to our list of favorites and we hope to visit it often to try out all the different dishes it has to offer. They have pizzas, pastas, salads and a good collection of entrees apart from their burger offerings. They also serve beer!!

World Cup Trivia !

Below is a compilation of some of the trivia about world cup 2014 and world cups in general.

This list is not for experts, but more for enthusiasts like me..

1. First goal of WC 2014 was surprisingly an own goal by Marcelo of Brazil. No brazilian had ever scored an own goal in 84 years of the cup history. Brazil went on to win the match 3-1.
2. Spain - defending champions loses to Netherlands in what was a replay of the finals of 2010 and how? Spain1-Netherlands5. Spain had conceded 5 goals in their entire 2010 WC campaign, and they conceded the same margin in a single match.
3. The last time Spain had lost with this margin was 51 years ago in 1963 when it lost 6-2.
4. Brazil has won the cup the maximum 5 times, followed by Italy 4 times and then Germany 3 times. Argentina and Uruguay have won it 2 times each. France, England and Spain have won it once each.
5. Netherlands has been to the finals thrice but never managed to win it. 

The below is a list of records that were set only from a single game - the semi-final match between Germany and Brazil!

RECORDS BROKEN DURING THIS HISTORIC MATCH

·         Miroslav Klose broke the record for the most goals scored at the finals with 16, overtaking Brazil's Ronaldo.  

·         it was the first time 5 goals were scored in a 29-minute period of play.

·         it was the fastest four goals scored in World Cup history as Germany scored 4 in the space of six minutes (from 23 to 29).

·         it was Brazil's worst ever home defeat.

·         it was Brazil's worst ever defeat, tied with the 1920 loss to Uruguay with 6–0.

·         Germany became the goal scorer leader at the World Cup finals with 223, passing Brazil's 221 total.

·         it was the most goals scored against the host nation of the World Cup, with Austria beating Switzerland 7–5 in 1954; the next highest was Brazil who won 5–2 against hosts Sweden in 1958

·         Brazil had never before allowed 7 goals playing at home

·         the defeat broke Brazil's 62-match home unbeaten streak in competitive matches that went back since 1975 loss to Peru 1–3.

·         worst World Cup semi-final defeat.

·         it was first time since 1938 that Brazil have lost a World Cup semi-final, as they had progressed in their previous six.

·         it was the first time that Brazil had conceded more than five World Cup goals since 1938.

·         Brazil have conceded more than seven goals in a game only during a 8–4 friendly defeat to Yugoslavia on 3 June 1934.

·         Brazil is only the second host team to let in seven goals in a World Cup match.

·         it was Germany's highest half-time lead in a World Cup game, with their previous best being 4–0 against Saudi Arabia at the 2002 (their greatest win with 8–0).

·         only three teams have previously trailed by five goals at half-time: Zaire (1974), Haiti (1974) and Brazil (1938).

·         no other team has ever scored seven goals in the semi-finals of the World Cup.

·         Thomas Müller scored Germany's 2,000th goal in the history of their national team.

·         Müller became the third player in history to score five or more goals in two different World Cups (after Cubillas and Klose).

·         Toni Kroos' first-half double was the fastest brace in World Cup history, as he scored twice in just 69 seconds.

MTR - Mavalli Tiffin Room!

Well let me face it - this place is an all vegetarian South Indian affair, but I love it!
Why - They have loads of Ghee in all dishes and their ingredients are of the high quality and service is good.

They have a short menu but they know their dishes well and stick to the tried and tested ones.

The original place is near Lalbagh and I have never been to that place because of the long wait times. But when they opened a place at Indiranagar, we have started visiting that place quite a few times.

My favorite is the Masala Dosa which they serve with a tiny bowl of Ghee, so you can slather it over your crisp dosa which is already covered with ghee from the roasting. Well no one is complaining!

Last visit we had the full meals which is an interesting experience and at 220/- is decently priced for all the food that you get.





















You start off with some grape juice and then the Thali arrives which basically has unlimited mini-masala-dosas and puris along with the different types of veggies and chutneys.
Then comes the Dahi vada, followed by Bisi-bele bath.
Next is rice-sambar followed by rice-rasam and curd rice.

Oh there are also two types of sweets - payasam and a milk peda.

To top it all off finally, is a sweet-gulkand paan!


It is a nice place to have a wholesome, pleasing and authentic south indian dinner.

Cafe Pascucci

Wifey wanted to have a light dinner of some salad and sandwich. Among the places we found on Zomato, Cafe Pascucci looked inviting from the menu and we had anyways always meant to visit it.

It is a small place on 6th Main Indiranagar. The interiors are nicely done and they have free wi-fi which the waiter helps in connecting.

We ordered a Mediterranean grilled vegetable sandwich which was a nice and light sandwich. Served with a little coleslaw and an interesting sauce in which to dip your sandwich.






















Next was an antipasti of arctichoke bulb, olives, cherry tomato, mozarella cheese with pesto served with a couple of slices of garlic bread. There was also a small lettuce salad with a vinegar dressing.

Enjoyed the dinner and the bill amounted to a decent 400/-.

Plan to visit it next time to check out the other offerings this place has - especially the wood-fired pizzas and the iced coffees.