Tea Talk

Couple of fridays ago (yes festival, family food and fun came in between of blog posting) Splenda organized a tea tasting session at Infintea and FBAI invited few bloggers to attend the event. So on a a rainy friday afternoon i trekked across the other end of town (Cunnigham road) to attend this event. I am personally not a huge tea drinker myself but  family is huge fan and my mom is diabietic and takes sugar supplement with her tea, so this event made sense for me to go and check out despite the crazy rain.

First about the place, the event was  held at Infinitea a quiet tea room thankfully situated on the main road in Vasanth nagar. Spread over 2 floor (ground and mezzanine) the place is all wooden and has bit of old world feel to it.

The event was obviously held to promote the newly launched Splenda , a sugar substitute in India. The makers claim that Splenda is made from sucrose and closely mimics the real sugar and hence a better substitute to sugar and perfect for all (even pregnant women).

Splenda - a new sugar substitute

Gaurav - Owner of Infinitea took us through a journey of tea of how tea plant is grown and the complete harvesting and drying and brewing process. Given his family background of Tea plantation, his knowledge is excellent and guides you really well on the type of tea to suit your palate. We were served five varities of tea starting with the palest and mildest White tea to the full body Assam gold black and ofcorse the good old indian masala chai.

Beautiful color of herbal tea

Tea testing menu - we were served all five

Interior @Infinitea

Gaurav was also joined by Dr Prema HS a well known nutristionist in bangalore, who briefed the group about basic dietary needs and importance of a balanced and nutritious diet. She also clarified various questions regarding tea drinking habit popular across the country.

Tea sommelier Gaurav Saria (owner of Infinitea) and Dr. Prema HS (nutritionist) 

I tasted Splenda and have tasted various sugar substitute commonly available in market and while i am not sure about the health claims but the definite good part was that there was no chemical / bitter after taste in my mouth after using Splenda which is common with other brands available.

A fun an entertaining afternoon, where i got to meet few fellow blogger from across the city and had some good tea and good food, oh what fun !

Chicken Kebab, loved the serving style - totally stealing it in my next party

Yummy fried prawns

Packing to ensure complete freshness of tea

Tea

Tea

And more tea

Restaurant Review - Thai Pavilion (Mumbai)

The issue with first love it  never lives up to image when you meet later in life. I was in a similar predicament when I was visiting thai pavilion again this time almost after five years . This is the place where my love for Thai food started and I still remember every morsel of  dinner I had. 

5 years later and countless Thai meals including multiple times in Bangkok I was sceptic that l would be disappointed . So  we went and ordered the exact same thing prawn  & chicken soup , Chicken wrapped in Pandan Leaf and green chicken curry.......and ah bliss again, same amazing flavour bursting through the mouth,every bite brought back the flush of first love. 

It's a must visit place if you love Thai food and even if you dont, try it,  you just might start a new love affair ! 

Saturday dinner out - 'Shiro'

One of  best part of moving to new city is exploring new resturants. So far we have been to very few places, 'Umerkot' and 'Via Milano' being regular favorite.

So this saturday after having a rather long drinking and jabbering session, we had a quick stop over for dinner  at 'Shiro' in UB City. Now this not a detailed restaurant review coz we spent less than half and hour there and had  just 3 dishes, but enough  to have an opinion.

First thing first , you are asked whether or not you have a reservation, which ofcorse we didn't , so they were extremely reluctant to let us in.  After husband assured repeatedly that  we'll not take long, we were given seats by the door. Once you are in , the decor is impressive - there is huge buddha head in the center  and has an imposing presence, red baubles curtain and high ceiling ...all in all if you are seating at right spot (and there are plenty as i could see from the door seat)  there is lot to enjoy visually. There is also a bar on the side with floor to top glass windows, i am assuming city view from there would be spectacular.

Now to the food, we had chicken dumplings (one plate as only 3 pieces, which is kind of disappointing) , green thai curry and steamed rice. Food wise it was just about average, dumpling had sort of floury aftertaste and was served with a sweet sour sauce - personally prefer something slightly with a spicy kick. Green curry was definitely out of packet sauce  seriously lacked the freshness with of a typically curry. You could taste, some lemon grass and kafir leaves and basil but somehow didn't taste fresh, the color also lacked punch, very creamy  almost white looking gravy

And now the worst part - service, every one floor has attitude. I understand, we didn't have reservation or probably not  fancily dressed as rest of the crowd but  common, we are paying for food and service and deserved to be treated same way as rest of the what seemed like mostly expat crowd. found the patronizing attitude extermly annoying.

So would i visit it again ? Hmmmm Not sure  - actually no. for the price you are paying you want everything to be perfect, decor  food and service. While the first is undoubtedly awesome there is some serious need to improve on remaining two points.