Thursday, June 21, 2012

South Indian food festival at Blooms, managed by Hilton...hurry it's till Sunday only...



You enter to a pleasant whiff of southern spices, and a few people walking around in traditional southern attire. Then you realise they are the servers. Yes, I was not expecting the servers wearing this attire :-)

Most of the decor is conducive to evoke hunger and the live counters make it all exciting...the food from the live counters was all awesome. Wait till I introduce that to you.

Sid Kullar, Rekha kakkar, Charis, Sushmita Sarkar, Ruchira Philip, Prateek Rungta and Sumit were all a part of this Delhi bloggers meet up at Blooms this month. Did I tell you we enjoy getting together with great food on the platter?

You are welcomed by a glass of Mor. The spiced buttermilk... Refreshing for the summer months and preparing you for the treat ahead. No other drinks are required when this is served. 

And it was awesome. Highly recommended, ask for repeated servings. For us, the taste kept getting better serving after serving. I must have had at least 4 glasses or Mor.


Starters are fried Vadams, Murukkus, Banana chips and the works. I liked a thickly sliced Banana fried and coated with jaggery, almost like shakkarparey. Not in the picture, hidden by the Poppadams.


Then came the batter fried assorted vegetables accompanied with a chutney ...this was from the Live counters.


And fish , batter fried prawns and chicken, marinated Black Pomfret and a leaf wrapped fish . All these were really good. A must try. As spicy, as soft or crunchy each of these should be...keep hovering around the Live counter I say ;-)

Don't miss them...

See how they look on the counter...


And how they look at your table...


Some more assorted fish and prawns on the starter platter....from the Live counter...


 Kottu paratha was explained by the Chef. It is a dish made by leftover Malabar parathas crumbled and mixed with mutton curry, eggs and seasonings. It is scrambled on the griddle with a lot of drama and noise. The taste is good. Although I was apprehensive. I would like to have it more often, may be I'll do it at home with my leftovers some time...


 Another delight from the live counters was this Egg sunny side Appam. There were vegetables and chicken stews to go with it, here you see the husband's plate with chicken stew. He liked it.

I tried the vegetable stew, it was great. The appam could have been better. There was Idiappam also, but I was not in a mood to stuff myself up. It looked quite good.


 I would strongly recommend the Aleppy Prawn curry and Thattaipayaru Kolambu (Black beans in a gravy), though I suspect it was black beans. It was certainly good. Well rounded flavors, really well done. Not at all influenced by the Northern flavors. The curries I have had in my South Indian friends' homes were reminded.

The desserts included a nice Mysore paak, Rawa kesri, and Boondi laddoo (not the motichoor ka laddo, this was robust boondi). I liked the Mysore paak although it was not as good as I have had at Chennai, but worth taking a generous bite.

Very intriguing was this dessert served in a green coconut shell called Ellini payasam. It was a thin milk and coconut cream concoction, really light and a few fried cashews and raisins making it interestingly rich. I found the Green cardamom flavor a little bit overpowering but it can be my personal quibble. It was a nice and light dessert in fact.


There was something even more nicer, probably not for a dessert but definitely enjoyable as a breakfast. The lovely baker blogger Ruchira taught us how to mix this up and eat with fingers and I really liked the taste.

Another recipe which is going to be tried in my own kitchen really soon.


Few happily sated souls walked out of the hotel, welcomed by hot air even past 10 PM. I ended up thinking, the menu was suitable for a summer of North, light and yet packed with many flavors.

Looking at the pictures, I want to steam a puttu as soon as possible.

Do not miss to have this spread and head to Bloom restaurant at Eros, managed by Hilton at Nehru place. The South Indian festival is on only till Sunday. It is a buffet and you would see some more of the Kulambus and the works to choose from.

Sid khullar had brought two books for us, Dad's The Word by Soumya Bhattacharya and Sky Train by Canyon Sam. I am intrigued about Sky Train as it is about the Tibetan women and their lives during and after the turmoil in the country. I hope I catch on my reading now ...

2 comments:

  1. It was fun and a pleasure eating out here!!

    http://sushmita-smile.blogspot.in/

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  2. Thank you for the compliment Sangeeta, you're just too nice! Very nicely done!

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