An Idli Afternoon @ Balaji Idli Express, Andheri, Mumbai

Mumbai Food Diaries- An Idli afternoon@Balaji Idli Express, Andheri, Mumbai  

Gastronomic funda:  Veg Food trek – Balaji Idli Express

Address: Andheri-Kurla Road, Chakala, Mumbai, (Click for Google map Coordinates)

Gastronomers: Irish Pereira, Swati Thakarda, Sagar Narkhade, Ganesh Pabale, Vinayak Shenoy, Akshay Bhoir, Nishant Chaudhary, Manisha Rajput, Rajesh Sathe.

Damages: Rs. 3120

Ambience: 3 /5

Food: 3 /5

Service: 3 /5

Prologue: It was a cheerful Friday as well hectic afternoon as our team was about to leave for Exhibitions and busy preparing for the same.... At 12:30 we pack of 9 hoggers set out in search of our game .... Till the main gate there was dilemma as to where should our hungry planes crash-land on .....but we we're sure to avoid our regular friday lunch menus..namely Chicken Nukkad biryani and pizza's Smokin Joe... 

We had two rough options in mind though.. "Subway"  or "Idli Express". On approaching main gate, the balance had tilted with majority vote in favour of 'Idli Express' near Chakala Signal Andheri. Sagar the ardent chicken lover of the pack was not ready for so called "veg lunch". However outvoted Sagar was literally dragged by Ganesh to the venue just like shouting opposition bencher's are marshaled out of Lok Sabha. He had made his mind for non veg chicken burger in Subway. He kept on whining all the way.

Balaji Idli Express as it is named is a small cafe sans coffee type of setup with only 12 - 13 sitting chairs. However the place is known for its long list of varied Idli menus. We reached there to find it partially occupied. Till then we placed our orders and stay put till table are empty. Within next 5 minutes we found ourselves resting our bottoms on seats around the table.

Before our orders came the soft drinks.Then in couple of minutes came our orders. 

First menu was masala coloured 'Peri Peri Idli'. It was fried idlis sates seasoned with masala. Along came the Mayonnaise dip. Together it was a menu to reckon with.

Then was the number of Neer Dosa's. We had ordered for two varieties of Neer dosa- one with veg kurma and other with Chettinadu Veg Masala. Neer Dosa's were soft, however the accompanying vegetables were just ok types. We intermittently washed our food pipes with pepsi.

Neer dosa- one with veg kurma

Neer dosa - Chettinadu Veg Masala

Accompanied came the Idli Spicy Lasooni Cheesy Tosado. It was basically a toasted idli topped by garlic and coated by cheese overcoat. It is idli version of typical garlic bread and was yummy.

Idli Spicy Lasooni Cheesy Tosado

Then came the Idli Indian Spicy Pizza. It appeared like regular thin crust Pizza; however it had the Idli bottom. It was just like regular pizza. 

Idli Indian Spicy Pizza

Then came the Cheese Mayo Idli fries. It consist of 5 small circular fried idlis tucked by a stick purged in thick Cheesy Mayo gravy. It as a dish to reckon with which was repeated on majority demand.

Cheese Mayo Idli 

It was followed by Paneer and Cheese Grilled Idli Sandwich. It consisted of  bread layered with Idli and paneer and cheese making the inner layer. This menu was also ok types category.

Paneer and Cheese Grilled Idli Sandwich

Then came Butter Garlic Idli. It consisted of hexagonal idlis fried in butter with grated garlic. However it was garlic overdose which made it more pungent.

Butter Garlic Idli

We repeated the soft drinks to cool our burning throats.

Myself with that yummy Mayonnaise dip..

Then the Mayo Cheesse Idli was repeated.

And then came the desert part - couple of dishes of Desi KitKat Waffle... It was 'Dish of the Day'. Crusty idli bottom topped with hot chocolate made it a treat to ones taste buds. So much so that we would have repeated it hands down; however given out short lunch time we dropped the repeat.

Desi KitKat Waffle

The Menu Card:

Menu Card

Epilogue:
It was a wonderful afternoon spend tasting variety of 'Idli and south Indian dishes' with cheerful group. However when bill arrived we were left surprised. The bill was more than our regular non veg bills. Then we can hear Sagar still whining in background,....

".... didn't i told u guys, eating veg is more costlier than Non-veg".

And then joyfully pulling his legs we made it our office to get lost in our work.

Disclaimer: The above restaurant in review was personally visited by Irish Pereira wherein he has paid for the full bill & does not believe in featured / sponsored reviews. The reviewer believes in anonymously visiting a hotel to present an honest account of all the factors to you.

Happy Eating, Keep Exploring!!!!

Mumbai Food Diaries- A Porky Evening @ Hotel IMBISS, Bandra

Mumbai Food Diaries- A Porky Evening @ Hotel IMBISS, Bandra

Mumbai Food Diaries - A Porky Evening @ Hotel IMBISS, Bandra

Gastronomic funda:  Pork meat trek to IMBISS and Sweet meats trek to Sweet Bengal

Address: Hill Road, Bandra West, Mumbai, (Click for Google mapCoordinates)

Gastronomers: Irish Pereira, Garry Lobo, Ronald Dmello and Samson Dmello.

Damages: Rs. 2000 

Prologue: It was a happy Friday morning and with shear coincidence I happened to meet my 2 gastro accomplices in train. There in the train was a plan hatched; for a evening gastro trip to carnivore food joint named 'IMBISS' in the downtown suburbs of Bandra followed by Sweet meats at 'Sweet Bengal' nearby. 'IMBISS' the hard core meating restaurant was on our foodie list since very long and this unexpected opportunity crossed our way.

As per plan we 4 gastronomers after our office hours were to meet at Bandra railway station at around 7 Pm. However later plan was changed as 2 of my brother's were to see their hospitalized friend in Lilavati Hospital and had decided to walk down from there to join directly at the venue.

We 2 after analyzing the traffic situation on Google maps decided trek down from Bandra station along the congested Bandra lanes to reach the venue.

This small restaurant is based in ground floor of a residential building; it has seating area of only 16 people downstairs and 6 seats upstairs on mezzanine floor. There is no big banner or glamour nor are any bright displays ...only its food offerings its main attraction.  Alcoholic drinks are not served here. 

IMBISS - Meating Joint

Being German themed restaurant, our agenda for the evening was 'Pork' Pork and only Pork. Having done our homework online, we placed an comprehensive order of the 4 menus and fixed its order of servings.

To begin with we started with Cold meats platter as a starter. With the platter came 4 sets of forks and knives. Platter included cuts of salami, luncheon along with mayonnaise and salad. 2-3 slices of garlic bread also made their way into the dish. Thanking the Almighty for the food we began our gastric hour.  The platter being first to face the wrath of our hunger, was gulped down in our empty bellies within seconds. The cold cuts were regular ones and could have been better if it included pork ham with rind. (Rating:3/5)

Cold Meats Platter

Second line was a Kassler. It comprised of a medium sized boneless pork rib along with fatty rind all drenched in a tangy sauce. Along with it was mayonnaise salad dressing and mashed potato. The meat was tender and juicy and the sauce added to its overall texture. (Rating 4/5)

Kassler

Gastronomers - Together we create memories

Third in line was the Pork Tenderlion. It comprised of a grilled pork tenderloin drenched in a gravy along with fried veggies and mashed potato. Unlike Kassler, the Pork tenderloin was supported by a grilled sausage and a fried bacon. The meat grilled to   perfection along with spicy gravy won our eclectic gluttony hearts. (Rating 4/5)

Pork Tenderloin

By now our half of our gastric spaces were full. Our food pipes were intermittently washed down with flavored soda "Glinter' and non alcoholic fruit beer named 'Bavaria'.

Bavaria and Glinter

Then came the 'Dish of the Day' the Honey glazed baby back pork ribs. Oh my God! On it's first glimpse we all could not take our eyes of it. Sizzling hot pork grilled pork ribs glazed with honey and spices. The dish was 'Porkilatiously Delicious'. (Rating 5/5)

Baby Back Pork Ribs

Forks and knives at work...

The serving’s size was so large that it got us over. We thought to finish such large portion of meat, we will full and eventually have to drop our plan to Sweet Bengal. Finally fork and knives had their way to route the soft, juicy, choicest pork meats into our carnivore bellies. It was a dish to reckon with. By now we were almost full and had to push overselves to finish the final pieces of meat. We ordered for separate mash potato to top the last fatty rind pieces. As a principle we make sure none food stuff is wasted. 

There after we bid adieu to Imbiss for we had knowingly reserved few inches of gastric space for sweet meats. All of us have got a sweet tooth. So we walked down for 10 minutes along by now the silent lanes towards Sweet Bengal sweet outlet situated just opposite to Lilavati Hospital. 

Sweet Bengal

There we tried Gurer Malai Chomchom, Ice cream Sondesh, Malai sandwich and  Gurer Rosogollar Payesh. The Chomchom and Payesh were sweets to reckon with. Malai sandwich was kind of tough instead of juicy and soft.

Epilogue: So here as after exhausting all our gastric spaces we hopped into a reluctant Rick toward Bandra station. There onward in train towards to our sweet homes in Virar.

To sum up it was an evening dedicated to pork; wherein we 4 gastronomers judiciously and heartily tried to make that pig's life more meaningful.

Disclaimer: The above restaurant in review was personally visited by Irish Pereira wherein he has paid for the full bill & does not believe in featured / sponsored reviews. The reviewer believes in anonymously visiting a hotel to present an honest account of all the factors to you.

Happy Eating, Keep Exploring!!!!

Kataldhar Waterfall Rapelling @ Lonavala, Maharashtra

Kataldhar Waterfall Rapelling @ Lonavala, Maharashtra

Activity: Waterfall rappelling
Location: Kataldhar waterfall near Rajmachi
Coordinators: Range Adventures, Pune
Base village: Phanasrai near Lonavala Maharashtra
Height: 450 feet
Participants: 11
Route: Map Coordinates to Kataldhar Waterfall

Epilogue: It was one of the lazy July Sunday and a rainy trek was on the cards. Probable locations were one day trekking to Rajmachi near Lonavala. It was a trekking of choice i had not visited the place and also as it offers a wonderful view of Kataldhar waterfall in the valley below. The waterfall can be ideally seen from Srivardhan fort of Rajmachi.  However I was confused to choose between trekking and waterfall rappelling. And mind you I choose both.

Instead of viewing the Kataldhar waterfall from Rajmachi, I chose to go the other way around. I.e. to see the Srivardhan fort from Kataldhar waterfall. Meaning I had enrolled for the waterfall rappelling at Kataldhar waterfall itself.

After boarding Indrayani express from Mumbai, i had managed to reach Lonavala by 8:15 Am. There the trek lead Siddharth was waiting with a bus in a tow. Along with 3 participants from Pune, we were 11 participants in all, managed by 4 coordinators.

It was a rainy morning to begin with. Our compact tempo traveler was negotiating the muddy and crater filled roads. The road conditions worsened after Della adventures. After around 45 minutes we reached the Phanasrai village. 

Heavy Rains at Rajmachi point

At that point there is a stream flowing which later forms one of the feeder streams for Kataldhar waterfall. It is a open plateau with few shacks run by local villagers serving snacks and tea. There were quite a amount of trekkers at the point. Some adventurous bikers were also there with their mean machines. ...read Royal Enfield's.

The shack

The stream at Rajmachi point

Bikers and trekkers

We had our breakfast at one of the shacks. By the time our breakfast was ready, we were observing the bikers who were trying to get their bikes past the stream. It was more than a knee deep stream to begin with. But bikers with the dose of jingoism we were hell bent to pass through the stream, even if their beasts refused to do so. So their fellow bikers have to pull the bikes (white elephant as I would like to call them) out along with their saddle. The funny part was that this 2 legged mechanical beasts like 4 legged live beast seemed to be uncontrollable. See the video below.

We after gulping down our breakfast, headed towards the rappelling point; which was 15 minutes steep descend of around 400 feet from the point. We had to cross one stream enroute.




Then when we reached the rappelling point besides the stream, our trek leads were already busy fixing up ropes and setup. The heavy rains were still on and prevented us from capturing the view from that point. The valley was very deep and clouds covered the valley most of the time hampering visibility.

Trek leads fixing the ropes

We could occasionally see the Rajmachi fort peeping out of the clouds. It was one of scenic points, but rains and winds prevented us from capturing the view in our mobiles. We had only one GO pro with one of the participants that too has very limited battery. There each on was handed a helmet, harness along with descender and carabineer and gloves.

All geared up for the activity

So around 10:30, the setup was fixed.  There 2 ropes fixed of which red which white was a mainline and other one red was belay rope. The setup was well calibrated and validated before one of the trek leads Sameer descended on it. Siddharth the trek lead was manning the top activity point; the trek leads were equipped with walky talky to coordinate the activity. 

The setup - White mainline and Red belay line

Sameer who descended first had one walky talky and updated of every move of the rapeller to the Siddharth at top who was manning the belay rope. So each participant during activity is under close watch by the trek leads. 

There then 3 other participants including Ankit descended one after another taking around 25 mins each. It took around 15 mins to descend and 10 mins to pull the ropes up for next participants to begin with the activity. On average for experienced rappelling participants it should not take more than 20 mins each. But we had more amateur rapellers as usual.

Ankit rappelling down

Every time one looks down from that height at the valley with stream flowing, with wind blowing at such a pace that it makes ones heart miss a stroke. But that's the fun and thrill part of it. Then around 12 pm it was my turn to rappel down. There the trek leads aligned me with the ropes and harness and I was ready to go.

One has to feed the mainline rope through the descender to move downwards keeping body straight inclined in an angle towards the rock wall. The more you feed the rope upwards through the descender, the more you move downwards. This is the basic mechanism of rappelling. There is another rope for belaying which is controlled and manned by the trek lead on top for safety. If in case the mainline trips, the person still hangs by the belay. So it is a 2 pronged safety setup.

The rope seemed very heavy to lift to begin with. The first 20 feet stretch was kind of muddy, then started the rocky part. By now the rope was kind of lighter to feed. It was one on the wonderful moments where one is hanging on a rocky wall at a height of around 450 feet in the foggy  and windy valley with besides gallons of water gushing down at a lightning speed. There is no human contact at that moment. You tend to feel cut from rest of the civilization. At that moment there is only you and nature. The noise of gushing water hitting the rocks beneath was so loud, that no human voice can be heard even if one shouts with his lungs out.  Words can hardly describe those goose bumps in the belly. It is straight fall of 400 feet. If you want to feel the same, refer pic below of my fellow rapeller Kishor.

Kishor on the rock wall with his GO PRO

 There i was descending down when that moment arrived when the streams of waterfall were blowed by winds to cover me in entirely in cloud of white gushing water. What a rapturous moment worth every penny spent for it.

There on one of ledges where I could foothold myself enroute, I took a short break to enjoy the view. Moreover till then right arm was aching in process of lifting and feeding the rope. There looking at the wonderful creation of nature, a thought crossed my mind.  We humans however intelligent we may be, we are tiny and just helpless before the nature. How beautiful mighty, unbridled and limitless is the nature. This thought took me to the creator of this nature. One can only imagine boundaries of his knowledge and intelligence. Whatever he has made, all things are beautiful in its design. There I thanked Almighty for the opportunity of this scene and continued rappelling down the rocky wall.

After around 150 feet from ground there is a overhang. Now overhang is a point where the rocky wall caves inside. Meaning there is no place to rest you feet at overhang and you just hang at this point. There one has to only slide down feeding the rope hanging in the air without foothold. This part was one of the easiest part of the activity. By now the rope was easily being fed.

Myself at the overhang

There at the overhang again winds made their way into the water streams covering me entirely into milky white clouds of gushing water. I waited hanging till the winds to subside and then continued sliding down. There is when I saw Sameer who was waiting for me beneath to pull me towards the foothold in the rocks. He loosened the mainline and guided me towards the cave. The rocks beneath were full of moss and hence very slippery. The flow of the waterfall was dreadful. The continuous rainfall has swelled the waterfall limits.

There at the cave were around 50 odd trekkers who had come trekking their way from other end of the mountain. There on the rocks near cave we waited for all other participants to rappel down.

View from inside end of the cave

The rains were still on and now there we had started feeling the chill in the air. There at cave we had snacks.  Some of the participants took around 30-40 mins to rappel down adding to our impatience. The last participants rappelled down at around 4 pm. Till then we were observing the cloud covered Rajmachi from the cave.

Rajmachi Fort - Drapped in clouds

Then the trek leads at top pulled up the ropes and we set on our route back to top at 4:15 pm. We had to descend on the muddy slippery route in the valley below. The return route circumvented the entire hill to join the motorable road 2 and ahead of our starting point.

Our way back was a steep climb of gaining around 1200 feet passing through 3-4 small streams. Finally around 5:40 pm we reached the motorable road. We expected our bus to be waiting for us. However to our dismay, the trek did not expected us to return back so early and had waited at the starting point.

Then 2 of us had to reach the starting point to get our bus to end of the trek point. The main reason for the hurry was to reach Lonavala railway station before 7 pm to target a specific Vasai bound train. Then after a gulping down hot tea at local shack, we started of towards station to reach station around 6:55pm.

However we were scheduled to have lunch at a restaurant in Lonavala. There our trek leads and few trekkers from Pune departed to have lunch/snacks.
However for me and 2 other trekkers, in order to reach station in time we had to skip our lunch.  Reaching home safe and in time is always a priority after any trek or adventure activity. There we boarded the Pune- Indore express at Lonavala to reach Vasai at around 10:10 pm. From there we bid adieu to trek mates.

To sum up it was a wonderful and thrilling experience consisting of both waterfall rappelling and trekking.

Few point of advice to trekkers planning for this trek.

•          Prior rappelling experience is must for this activity. (Amateur please avoid)
•          People having height phobia please avoid.

For more trek and travel you can check my blog. https://irishpereiraonthego.blogspot.in/

Happy Trekking, Keep Exploring!!!!

Gastronomic trek @ Mohammed Ali road

Gastronomic trek @ Mohammed Ali road

Gastronomic funda:  Non - veg Food trek Mohammed Ali road during Ramzan 

Address: Mohammed Ali Road, Bhendi Bazaar, Mumbai (Click for Google map Coordinates)

Gastronomers: Irish Pereira, Sahil Dodti, Febian Corriea, Avinash Crasto and Frazer.
Damages: Rs. 1500 

Prologue: Gastronomic trek @ Mohammed Ali road

Epilogue: It was as usual a busy Friday to begin with. While on punching in a mail to one of our customers, I received a whatsapp message at 6 pm from one my glutton accomplices...of the plan; a plan for 'Gluttony' as I would like to call it...to Mohammed Ali Road in Bhendi Bazaar .... and as usual i could not resist joining.

Every during Ramzan there are non veg food stall raised especially at the Mohammad Ali Road in South Mumbai. This place is a heaven for meat lovers ...and also sweets. One visit to Mohammed Ali Road during Ramzan month has become a regular practice for us gastronomers as I would like call us...over  past 6 years. Now due to past years experiences, we know the intricacies of this place. 

To begin with were group of 5 all weather meat lovers on this annual food trek. However this year unlike all past years we had a clear cut agenda ...no surti handi's, no paya soup or no kheema...or gravies....but to optimally fill our gastric spaces with only BBQ and just BBQ beef and BBQ Quails (Tittar)... And when one say BBQ, one name just pops out leaving others... i.e Haji Tikka. A makeshift shack just in lane of Saifee Ambulance. It has been one of its kind and known for its BBQ dishes. Unlike other stall who offer gravies along with BBQ, this stall specializes only in BBQ..and that's what makes it a prime attraction for grilled meat lovers. Also we find it to be lot more hygienic compared to its peer stalls.

Once we reached there this year, we found that this stall has reduced its capacity, i.e. number of grills has reduced to 2 from 4 every year. Also it was more crowdy than  last year. May be due to its recall has increased among meat lovers. We also decided to super specific and limit ourselves to only beef.... So Beef kofta, Beef  boti kabab, Beef kheeri...were all on our list. We ordered 3 skewers of each to begin with.

'Chacha Beef me kya kya menu hai'

... ChaCha muttered 4-5 menus....

'......sabke 3 - 3 sheekh lagao....'

Here tasting red hot spicy grilled koftas was a delight to taste buds. You can find their dishes in below pics.

Beef Kofta

Beef Kheeri

Sheekh Kababs

Also the dish of the day was Kheeri grill..(now Kheeri is the soft meat extracted from Udders ...or milk bags.) Its soft grilled upper crust and juicy inner texture makes it steal the show any day. Our gastronomers were so pleased with kheeri, we repeated it hands down. It was perfectly spiced. Spicy, piping hot and most importantly its live status makes it a unique combination. This grill morsels were intermittently topped with judicious sips of coke to cool our burning taste buds.

Our Gastro team 

After this grill-o-session our next stop over was for BBQ Quails and sweets...and sweets to be specific "Mawa Jalebi, Phirni and Malpua's". We started towards towards Minara Masjid for these stuffs. There we found a over crowded stall in corner. It appeared some thing new ice cream minus milk shake was served there. Named 'Pappu Juice Wala' where they actually extract coconut cream, grate it in mixer to make creamy ice cream stuff topped with cashews ...which is served in the empty coconut shell itself. 

Dilwale...... 

Seeing the process it seemed  unhygienic to me and was trying to avoid such a thing. However there was lots of crowd around it to taste this so called 'Novelty'. So my buddies also could not resist trying one. So we ordered two such flavors out of which one was called 'Dilwale'... i thought, what a romantic name, but mind you ...it has no iota of food romance in it. But to my vindication, it turned out to be 'Over hyped inconsistent cream'.

This is was a unpredicted diversion in our planned agenda. So we started towards Minara Masjid through by lanes parallel to Mohammed Ali flyover. There passing through one of such lanes, we passed through series of Attar shops (perfume shops) ... wherein our nasal olfactory receptors were aroused to strong typical Rose Attar. We took few pics there and the attar shop owners obliged. They were like.....

"....Kounse channel pe dikhaoge....."

....on which winked while moving ahead. 

Attar Shops..

Jovial Attar wala

Finally when we reached Minara Masjid lane only to find that it was too crowded out of last weekend of Ramazan. We could hardly walk through the lanes. We saw BBQ Quails but could not make a way to reach them. Moreover the stalls there were over packed. As we were literally full BBQ earlier and also seeing the mad rush, we decided to drop BBQ Quail menu and moved towards Burhanpur Jalebiwala, famous for its 'Mawa Jalebis'. This jelebi appears dark and  are ugly to look at, but once you take a bite...it is rapturous to your taste buds....

Burhanpur Jalebiwala

Mawa Jalebi's

It's cruchy outside crust is overpacked with juicy mava composition inside. Here tasting hot Jalebis', we all almost exhausted our gastric spaces and decided to take few in parcel.

Then we made way towards 'Suleman Usmaan Mithaiwala', the shop just parallel to Flyover and which is famous for its Phirni and Malpua's. 

Suleman Usman Mithaiwala

Phirni

X-tra large Malpua's

Man with a sweet parcel

Here we took Phirni and Malpua parcel as we were already full. Suleman's Phirni is famous and one of my buddies, took not less than 20 Phirni bowls as parcel along with Malpua's; so much for his love for sweets. Then after we were done at Suleman's, we bid adieu to the place and made our way towards Churchgate station.

Prelogue: There at Churchgate Railway station our gastric trek was declared as 'officially completed'.

.....Phir milenge ..yehi par ...yehi samay...agle saal .

Promised to return again the next year ....same place....same time of the year..... And boarded the Virar fast local from Churchgate.

Disclaimer: The above food stalls in review was personally visited by Irish Pereira wherein he has paid for the full bill & does not believe in featured / sponsored reviews. The reviewer believes in anonymously visiting a hotel to present an honest account of all the factors to you.

Happy Eating, Keep Exploring!!!!