The new year kick-started with a huge writer’s block and some memorable food experiences right at home! My trip to Cochin was errr…ummm… fattening. My mother-in-law loves pampering us with food, while I tuck in without a care. This time she taught me how to make TANG the right way. She whipped the juice in the mixer ensuring that the TANG, water and sugar indeed mix well. And as a refreshing twist, she added finely chopped apples and crushed mint before refrigerating the orange juice.
I think it was one of the best tasting juices I had in a long time. Do try it. Serve the orange juice in tall glasses, so you can see the cheery green mint and the cutesy tiny chopped apples floating on the surface. Gorgeous!
I also indulged my weakness for the ‘karela’ or bitter gourd. She deep fried them in oil and tossed it into a curry make of thick coconut base flavored with jeera, shallots, chillies and salt. If you love bitter gourd, you can’t stop eating this Karela-Kerala style! Shall post the recipe shortly!
Meanwhile, back in Bangalore, I hardly ventured beyond mall food courts in terms of eating out. So when I saw this picture of Café Mondo with an inviting sunny yellow exterior, I was tempted to pay them a visit. I dragged a reluctant husband and a food-happy baby to Café Mondo that is nestled on one of the nicer roads of Basavangudi.
The place is nice, with an old-world café charm that you usually associate with cafes abroad. No fluorescent, plasticky chairs nor an over dose of orange and green interiors. Muted colors, some interesting knick-knacks, trivia on coffee and cafes that you could read while waiting for your order and comfortable seating that puts you at ease – I liked it until now. We dropped in at lunch time, so we skipped the caffeine and tackled food instead. The menu is completely vegetarian, so I was more than happy to have the whole menu to pick from, not some measly 1/8th of a menu that you miss with the blink of an eye.
I ordered a pizza that had aubergine (brinjal), olives, zucchini, peppers and cheese sprinkled generously on it. The crust was crisp and thin and the pizza enjoyable, though I really thought the brinjal was quite the odd man in the mélange of veggies. Shinu chose a vegetable burger that was served with fries and salad. It would have been a nice and hearty burger, except that it was stone cold. Samit’s kiddie cheese sandwich was nice, extremely cheesy, and served with potato wafers. He seemed to enjoy it as well as the pizza I was eating.
We rounded off with a brandy flourless cake for dessert. It was nice, but would have tasted way better with ice cream (you can order it separately, but I like restaurants who give a small scoop of it by default without charging more---like Casa Piccola does). The meal was nice; I would definitely visit again to try the coffee. But for the prices, the portions are really small. In terms of portions, give me Casa Piccola any day!
