CITYBUZZ - Bengaluru, January 07, 2011 foodpath 18

5 MINUTE

Lemongrass CHEF
ALOO PATTIES

on the rooftop
JP Nagar’s turn to taste authentic Thai food. INGREDIENTS:
6 Potatoes medum sized
SHRINIDHI RAI was quite insipid. Not that it 3 tps corn flour
stopped us from attacking the burnt 2 tps garlic paste

F
orgotten by the biggies in the
hospitality business for long,
this suburb now boasts of a
true blue Thai restaurant, nestled
amidst lush greenery. Aroy, mean-
ing 'delightful' in Thai, opened a few
months back and has managed to
elicit a similar response from resi-
dents of JP Nagar and the surround-
ing areas.
Situated on a rooftop next to the
Sarakki mini forest, it's the perfect
ambience for a leisurely meal (espe-
cially if you are adventurous parents
with a pint sized brat in tow). The
breeze swishing through the trees
drowns out the din of the traffic
below as you indulge in some
wholesome and delicious South
East Asian cuisine under the open
sky.
There is also an indoor seating
arrangement if al-fresco isn't your
cup of tea (or, if like us, you are
caught unawares by a sudden down-
pour. The banana blossom cakes
came with a lot of recommendation
from others and did meet expecta-
tions. With its crisp crust and a soft
inside of shredded banana flower,
THE THAI WAY: Aroy is the latest addition to the JP Nagar foodscape
served with pickled cucumber, the
cakes built us a nice appetite. The
hot and sour tom yum soup gets a
thumbs up too. Bursting with tangy
flavours of lemongrass, in harmony
with fresh galangal and aromatic fish
sauce, this hearty soup is just what
the doctor ordered to beat the win-
ter blues. The kaffir lime leaves
added a distinctive zing to the stock.
The fish soup with prawn head
paste did not disappoint either - del-
icate chunks of fish in a pungent
broth, good for the nasal passages!
The twice cooked chicken wings
were full of greasy goodness and
best eaten hot. The prawn satay
could have been better though; it
garlic chicken noodles with gusto.
The shitake mushrooms and pok-
choy gave a nice bite and the smoky
flavour of the dish was given good
company by the chicken krapow
(Thai basil chicken stir-fried with
long beans and red chillies).
And now for my favourite part
of the meal - dessert! Do not give
the lemongrass ice-cream a miss
even if you are bursting out of your
pants after the meal (very likely - did
I mention that the portions are very
generous?). I fell in love with the
nuances of citrusy taste that came
through, while the zesty flavour of
lemongrass made my taste buds tin-
gle in hallelujah.
Actually, I am a sucker for any-
thing citrusy so if you aren't, please
ignore my exalted outpouring and
try something else - water chestnuts
in coconut milk maybe? Which, by
the way, is good too. Crunchy, cold
and sweet.
Aroy, 74, 15th Main,
3rd Phase JP Nagar,
Bangalore 560078
Phone: 080 4093 9311
Meal for 2: Rs1600
2 tps coconut bhurra
half cup peeled Pomegranates
10 pieces of kismiss (optional)
10 cashwenuts
1 tps salt
oil to fry
Method:
Boil the potatoes and peel of the
skin.
After cooling mash it and add
corn flour and prepare it like a
dough. Pls dnt add any water.
To make a balls of aloo dough ,
take dough in hand and in midlle
put a little garlic paste, coconut
burra, pomegranates and one
cashew and roll it insidetightly.
Heat oil in pan and deep fry the
pattis till light brown colour.
Serve it hot with green chutney
TIFFIN
BOX
Make economical lunch
If you’re strapped for time but want
to give your kids
the best and
healthiest nutri-

It's rush hour at Avarekai Mela tion you can,

here are some
great ideas for
you.Many of these lunchbox ideas
Imagine a food festival where extra police had to be deployed to control the make economical (and time-saving)
use of leftovers and all of them are
crowd - that's just what happened at the ongoing Avarekai Mela fast, easy, and delicious!In lidded
S GUBBI containers with crackers alongside:
and skinned, from the farmers of they were not about leave until they
Kids love little containers of things.
Magadi taluk. had tasted every one of the dishes Make your own healthy ones.

T
here are many in Bengaluru
who wait for winter just for a
taste of their favourite sea-
sonal bean: avarekai (Hyacinth or
broad beans). No wonder then that
the Avarekai Mela on the busy
bylanes of VV Puram is drawing in a
large crowd, which cannot help but
be surprised by the virtually endless
variety of preparations based on this
single ingredient.
Come winter, Sri Vasavi
Condiments near Sajjan Rao plays
host to this 10-day fair centred
around the avarekai and the many
mouth-watering delicacies made
from this bean. Unlike the famous
Kadlekai Parishe (the farmer’s mar-
ket devoted to groundnuts), the
yearly Avarekai Mela is confined to
just this one crowded shop and a
few pavement sellers.
The fair which began on
December 30 has more than 50 vari-
eties of avarekai dishes on offer, and
has left few culinary possibilities of
broad beans unexplored. Not only
can you feast on the tempting array
of avarekai dishes, here you can also
buy the best quality avarekai, shelled
Commonly prepared dishes like
avarekai saaru, upittu, akki rotti are
as popular as ever, but the store also
features some rather exotic prepara-
tions like avarekai jamun, avarekai
payasa, jelabis and obattu. Savouries
such as avarekai dosa, masala vada,
avarekai usali and avarekai kodbale
and nipattu are also hot favourites
this year.
When City Buzz visited VV
Puram's Food Street on a breezy
afternoon to check out the bean
menu, we were startled to find near-
ly a 1000 people at the venue. The
crowd had gotten so large that the
organisers had to request the servic-
es of extra policemen to be put on
special duty at the location.
Avarekai devotees queued up at
different counters, and looked as if
available on the menu. On one side
there were chefs churning out dosas,
akki and ragi rotis on large tavas,
while on the other there were effi-
cient hands rolling out delicious
obbatuts.
The scrumptious hitkavarekai
saru accompanied the dosas clearly
had an edge on the competition, so
did masala vadas. The avarekai mix-
tures in different flavours like garlic,
pudina and masala also seemed to
be in great demand. Sri Vasavi
Condiments employs around 200
extra workers during the mela, and
15 farmers were felicitated on the
inaugural day.
The mela is on till January 9
between 11 am and 10 pm at Sri
Vasavi Condiments at Sajjan Rao
Circle in VV Puram.
Cottage cheese topped with toast-
ed walnuts or pumpkin seeds.
Apple slices with peanut, cashew,
or almond butter. Cheese cubes
with tiny cherry tomatoes. Salads of
all kinds make great school lunches.
Our favorites are Corn Salad (with
bell peppers olive oil and lemon)
and Quinoa Salad (with olive oil and
chopped grilled veggies).
Send in your recipes!
Send your own
5-minute-quick
recipe ideas and
lunch box
concepts to
citybuzzdesk
@gmail.com