Flambe at Ambrosia

Food is not my cup of tea. Nevertheless, this one time I had to make an exception as the food involved alcohol. Ambrosia, on 100 ft road, Kormangala is an international cuisine restaurant and is celebrating a 2-week flambé festival. If you have not heard the Ambrosia’s jingle on the radio yet, Flambé, is a French style of cooking where along with great culinary skills, there is certain importance given to the visual delights of cooking as well. Food is half-cooked in the kitchen and the final touches are given tableside on movable cooking stations. Generous amounts of alcohol, mostly wine or brandy are dashed out to set your food on fire along with delectable sauces, selected cheeses and an assortment of spices.


Winter chill in the air, a festive mood around, the flames from Chef Vinod’s working station near the neighboring table and I knew I had a perfect evening in the making. A menu created especially for Ambrosia’s Flambe festival with an impressive lineup of options made the choice difficult. Zeroing in on Beef Burgundy for the main course I left the choice of starters to the chef, to serve their best. And as we devoured the Bruchetta, Chicken Wings, Mutton Sheekh & Prawns Gamboroni, I couldn’t stop wondering how the kitchen at this restaurant was bringing forth different cuisines to such perfection. Known for its international cuisine the menu is the dream of any food lover with delicacies from France, Jamiaca, Spain and more countries across the globe. There is a lot of Indian in there as well. The small little country flags on the menu help you know where the food is from. The starters made me determined to go back for more over the next few weeks.

And finally came the part I was waiting for most, I could feel the juices flowing as the trolley was pushed next to my table. I watched Chef Vinod adding in the flavors and flambéing my beef with red wine. Only liquors and liqueurs with a high alcohol content can be used to flame foods, and those with a higher proof will ignite more readily. Beer, champagne, and most table wines will not work. Spirits with 40% alcohol are considered the best choices for flambé. If the spirit is pre heated a little before adding to the food, it works really well. Ambrosia uses brandy and dark rum for some dishes apart from using red or white wines in some dishes.



I knew why preparing food was an art when I saw my beef on fire. I think apart from the flavor flambe technique adds to your meal, the process also works on building your appetite, atleast it worked wonders on mine. Served with Herb rice the meat was tender, the flavor right and the aroma inviting. White wine is suggested with white meat and red wine with Red meat. Big Banyan has done well with pairing their wines for the flambé festival. A glass of wine is complimentary with the flambé menu.



As I did justice to the entire helping on my plate I planned to skip the dessert until my partner read to me about the Drunken Banana – a Jamaican desert. Cinnamon flavored strips of banana tossed with butter and brown sugar, flambed with dark rum. Caribbean to the core. Back was the trolley at our table, this time to churn up a rich in calories, but irresistible serving of this very unique dessert which makes you want to forget the damage it may cause to your waistline. Vowing a stricter workout session at the gym the next day, I pushed guilt aside to commit the sin.



Food for two during the festival or otherwise is priced very reasonably and is not likely to set you back by more 1000 to 1200 including a glass of wine.

Bacardi Martini Grand Prix

The much awaited bartending competition of the town is here. Continuing their tradition of hunting down the best barmen & maids, locking them up in a fine hotel and putting them up against each other, Bacardi this year hosts the South India rounds today at Zaman Bar at Ista, Bangalore.




Participants are bartenders of various bars from Bangalore, Pune, Chennai & Cochin. They compete all through the day in two categories - Flair & Mixology. Winners from here join the India finals at Delhi, end of September 2009. Two winners from there will be flown to Italy for the international finals. Now that is a great platform for Indian bartenders - atleast a great experience. Last year Indian finalists ranked 4th and 9th in the international mixology & flair finals.


As always, Mr Y Lama of the famous Cocktails & Dreams bartending school from Delhi is one of the panel judges for the event. I will be covering more about the event at myBangalore very soon. Also hope to get an interview with Mr Lama, India`s first celebrity bartender!!.


In the meantime, I would urge you all to show up at 7.30 pm to see the grand finals of the South India event at Zaman, Ista (Mg Road) tonite. Nauhed Cyrusi is supposed to add glamour to the event!!

More info at
http://www.bmgpindia.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Bacardi-Martini-Grand-Prix-India-2009/111381997150#/pages/Bacardi-Martini-Grand-Prix-India-2009/111381997150?v=wall&viewas=1485035840

Canned!!

Your Whiskey Soda & Vodka Tonic just got canned. Sensing that people might be getting lazy mixing their own drinks or that they might not find time & space to mix when they are in a rush and yet want to gulp something down (may be at outside a train station or a bus stand ) or people get tired waiting for their drinks by a busy bar, someone thought of brining the pre-mixes concept to India finally.


Blue Water Alcobev Pvt., ltd, aMumbai-based distillery, has launched two of its ready-to-drink alcoholic pre-mixed drinks in Bangalore : "TOSS" a vodka premix, a blend of premium quality triple distilled grain based vodka with tonic water and CZZLE, a whisky premix, also a blend of Indian-grain-based whiskyand eight-year-old scotch mixed with soda, will be available in cans in the city. The 250 ml aluminium slim can, containing about 46 ml of alcohol, priced at Rs 69 cannot be spiked.The brands would also be launched in other parts ofthe state including in Mysore and Mangalore shortly.



Toss & Czzle have been available in Mumbai & Goa since August last year and now in Bangalore. A lesser alcohol content version Toss Mild is available in Mumbai, but not yet introduced in Bangalore. The product seems to have achieved considerable success in Mumbai, Pune,Goa, Daman.


Premixes are new to India but they have been prelavant very widely outside. These are popularly called as alcopops abroad. They are generally bottled or canned fizzy drinks mixed with mostly with rum or vodka. I personally know some of the popular premixes to be "Jack & coke" (Jack Daniels) and "Red & cola" (Johnny Walker Red Label) & "Johnny be good" (JW Blck & Coke).


Alcopops are generally priced at a very basic price level and like elsewhere, we can expect it to be a hot cake with college student community. Although without knowing what whiskey or vodka is being used, the success or failure of Toss & Czzle will much depend upon the acceptance of their taste. This apart their success at bars & pubs also remains to be seen as bar owners might be reluctant to sell premixes when they can sell alcohol & a mixer separately and make more money.


Anyways, next time wether you are tired or lazy or just want that drink to carry on a bus ride, there is something you can think of. May be you can consider them for your home party as well, spares you some trouble . Would you consider an alcopop? Let me know your views.

Alconomics

If you have read Freakonomics, you will understand what is Alconomics. Freakonomics is a collection of articles by Levit & Dubner published as a book. The stories apply economic theories to diverse subjects not usually covered by traditional economists. (Courtesy - Wiki).For example in one of the articles, the authors state that the reason for rise in crime rate in US was not the liberal gun licensing policy as all assumed. The real reason was the rise in teenage pregnancies. Teen moms were abandoning their new borns. These babies were growing up in not so good neighbourhoods and eventually took up crime in life. The authors in fact establish their theory with statistics of correlation.



I read this book about 4 years back but a random TOI blog that I read a few days back on prohibition in Gujarat lead me to think of the concept of Alconomics. Gujarat has been a prohibition state for last 50 years. The statesmen have given the following reason for not lifting the ban in the state:

"The Gandhians in Gujarat however oppose lifting of prohibition tooth and nail. Many others think that there are no "other crimes" in Gujarat because the police is happy from the income generated from prohibition. Moreover criminals can also earn enough from this business: so there is no need for them to indulge in other, deadlier crimes. There are some who think that the streets of Gujarat are immune from the sort of crime seen in other places because of prohibition. Lifting prohibition will be akin to opening the gates of a dam, they argue. "



Very alconomics - ain't it? Read the complete post here!!

Bangalore`s Oldest Bar

Some one told me that there are apparently 2800 licquor licenses in this town and you will wonder how many of them are the new age pubs and lounge bars. Good friend Atul`s tweet took me to this article. In these times, in India`s fast-rising high-tech capital - Bangalore, whose abundance of bars and clubs have earned it the moniker Pub City, still hanging to its heritage and glory is Dewars, a bar in older parts of the town.

Click HERE to read on about this place.

The day of the Gay

The biggest victory for gay rights in India has arrived at our doorstep with Delhi High Court’s landmark decision of decriminalizing homosexuality today. A 149-year-old law has been muddled to achieve a major milestone in the country’s social evolution. Whether this ruling will hold good outside Delhi, we have to wait and watch, but a giant step has been taken.

Elsewhere - In the United States of America, THIS is how a few bars joined the fight for equality for gays recently. Hence the arrival of EQUALITINI. While there will be quite a few interpretations for this cocktail, I will be trying my own version tonite at Take 5.


Here is the recipe:
30 ml Chivas Regal Scotch
30 ml Grey Goose Vodka
30 ml ginger and honey syrup
Dash of bitters, lime juice and splash of orange juice

Stir all ingredients together in shaker with lots of ice and fine strain into a chilled martini glass. Serve along with a chaser shot of Cosmo.

If you are around, do ask for it and show your support to the gay community, for the law might have freed the gays, but the society still has to.

While we are at the foothills of the gay rights mountain, one of the best ways to take the temperature of the community is to see what they are drinking. Before the arrival of Cosmo, gays were surly getting drunk but they rarely held allegiance to any one drink, un aware that just beyond the horizon a new sunset beckoned. And in `97, Carrie Bradshaw and Stanford Blatch in the famous TV series “Sex & The City”, popularized the Cosmopolitan into mainstream drinking. Much to the colour of cranberry juice, the gay world immediately took delight in sipping Cosmos all the time. Eventually, every one you knew drank Cosmos & the gay world started hunting for the next cosmo.

Has the gay world found it ? No drink could ever hope to be the true heir of the mighty Cosmo, but the Mojito came pretty damn close in the early 00-03. But mojito suffered the same fate as the Cosmo. Even James Bond was drinking it in Die Another Day. For a brief shining moment, the Pomegranate Martini restored order and harmony.

After enough pursuit and tired of choosing allegiance to a specific drink, Margaritas, Old-Fashioneds and Juleps; the classic drinks, are being rediscovered by a new generation. I have guests who ask me specifically not to make drinks that are bold in colour like pink, blue or green. My guess is they are scared of being perceived as gays. On another hand a very close friend of mine who I know is super straight (right now J, pun intended), does enjoy his Melon Martini very much despite its pink color and sweet taste. Bottom line , people are now ordering based on their own personal preference, meaning that perhaps the days of the gay solidarity cocktail are at long last, numbered. What do you think?