Sangeet and Wedding Festivities

It was my first time attending a sangeet, which basically is a celebration that occurs a few days before the wedding ceremony. Sangeet literally means “music” in Sanskrit, and there was plenty of it at my friend’s sangeet. First a live band and singers played and sang Gujarati music while guests trickled in, then the bride, groom, relatives and close friends performed many choreographed dances to popular Bollywood songs, and finally the dance floor opened up for everyone to dance to whatever the live band and singers performed. The Gujarati music at the sangeet consisted of slower beats (slower than typical Bollywood music), where guests danced in circles.

The sangeet took place in a banquet hall in an otherwise empty mall:

The buffet was available all night in the back of the room so that guests could serve themselves whenever they wanted. The pure veg Jain food was really delicious, so I ate a few plates worth of food. A friend told me that their secret to making food tasty is to add a lot of ghee (Indian clarified butter) to everything. One of the items called panki was cooked between banana leaves:

According to the Internet, panki is usually made with rice flour batter. It was tart and very aromatic (pictured on the left below):

From the top left counterclockwise: blueberry delight, panki, paneer bhurjee (stir-fried mashed Indian cheese with spices), zucchini tornado, focaccia sandwich, and roomali roti (literally means “handkerchief bread” because it is folded like a handkerchief). The blueberry delight tasted like a good pie without a crust, and it had other ingredients in it so that the flavor of blueberry was not prominent. The paneer bhurjee was spicy and yummy, different from the usual egg bhurjee I get in school. I scooped up the paneer bhurjee with the roomali roti.  I liked the fried zucchini enough to get seconds, and the focaccia sandwich had a good texture (no idea what was in it).

Below was my second plate:

From the left counterclockwise: kobi bhaji (Maharashtrian style cabbage stir fry with spices), dal makhani (whole black lentils and red kidney beans with butter), zucchini tornado, foot-long sandwich (obviously not a foot long here), panini grill, and misal (literally means “mixture”, a very popular roadside snack). The dal makhani was very creamy and smooth, the sandwich and panini were good although I don’t know what were in them, and the misal was ear-burning spicy. Later I had several rounds of pani puri (click here for my description of pani puri), which were very cold and refreshing.

After the dance performances, I helped myself to the dessert station:

From the top clockwise: cantaloupe sorbet in a slice of cantaloupe, lime sorbet in a hollowed-out lime, and guava sorbet in guava with chili powder sprinkled on top. I liked them all, so I also got a watermelon sorbet in a slice of watermelon (not pictured).

The food was excellent and the dancing was tons of fun; overall I had a great evening.

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I was able to witness my first Jain ceremony, and it was very interesting. The ceremony took place on a Friday morning and afternoon. I was informed that a matchmaker determines which date (and even time) is auspicious for a couple to get married, which is why it is possible to have a ceremony conducted at 2 in the morning on a weekday. I was also informed that Jains do not eat after sunset; I don’t know if this applies only to big events or on an everyday basis.

The bride and groom sat on the stage in ornate chairs, while a guru chanted in Hindi and dripped ghee onto a fire. Relatives of the bride sat on cushions on one side of the stage, while relatives of the groom sat on cushions on the other side. Later, the bride and groom walked around the fire while relatives and friends threw rose petals on them, and people yelled at each other in Hindi. This process was repeated several times. When I asked another guest for a translation, she informed me that the tradition is for the sisters of the bride to insist that the marriage is not complete unless the groom gives them money, because they are giving their sister (the bride) away. The guests would then barter with the groom on how much money should be given for the bride. Priam said that traditionally the groom’s shoes are stolen and not returned until money is given, although I did not see this happen.

The buffet during the wedding ceremony had different options from the buffet at the sangeet. It consisted of a Mexican counter, an Italian counter, a namkeen (savory snacks) counter, a South Indian counter, and an Indian counter. Since the number of guests crowding the counters looked overwhelming, one of my friends suggested splitting up; she’ll get the Indian food, I’ll get the Italian food, and another friend will get the Mexican food.

My plate looked like this:

One of my friends gave me pureed mango halfway through my meal (not pictured here), and it was very tasty and refreshing. All the fried food on the left is from the namkeen counter. They were salty and doughy. At the top left is a quesadilla look-alike item from the Mexican counter, although it tasted Indian due to the spices. The nacho chips were thick in texture and the cheese very mildly flavored. The pizza slices were good and Indianized (Indian spices on a thin crust); I shared some with my friends.

On a different note, a week ago when ordering pizza, a friend asked me what topping I wanted (I said pepperoni). Pepperoni was not available, and this friend concluded that pepperonis on pizzas must be an American thing.

The dress code for this wedding is Indian formal, so I had a teacher help drape me in a sari. When I was tying my petticoat, she told me to tie it as tightly as I can or else the sari would not stay in place. I think I may have tied it too tightly because after eating from the plate pictured above, I had no appetite to eat seconds. As a result I did not try the Indian food, which my friend said was very good. I didn’t want to take any chances loosening my petticoat, so I just concluded my meal with two ice cream scoops:

I actually didn’t want the chocolate, but my English was lost in translation and the server gave it to me anyway. It tasted decent with the jam and crushed nuts sprinkled on top. I really liked the white scoop, which tasted similar to kesar pista (saffron pistachio).

Afterwards we took a bunch of pictures with the bride and groom. It was a fun afternoon, and after everything was done, the bride told me, “We are now one” (no one else in our group is married yet).

Note: If any of my knowledge about Indian culture are incorrect, please let me know. It is possible for me to misunderstand what people say.

A Gujarati Pre-wedding Brunch

I attended a friend’s pre-wedding brunch this past Sunday. It was my first time going to a Gujarati pre-wedding function, and I had a great time. Since the brunch followed Jain traditions (an Indian religion), it was dry and pure vegetarian. I was curious about the food because Jains do not eat root vegetables like potatoes, onions, and garlic, which are very common in the Indian food I have eaten so far in India.

The event itself was at a fancy place called Trilogy (located in the Sea Princess Hotel in Juhu):

Bollywood remixes were played while the colored lights above kept moving; we were basically clubbing during the daytime. At one point, the groom-to-be danced two numbers for his bride-to-be with 20+ guests dancing behind him like backup dancers Bollywood style.

The first hors d’oeuvres we had were fried dough with sweet red sauce:

There were more fried dough on the plate, but they were snatched up pretty fast by the guests. The second hors d’oeuvres we had were spicy paneer (Indian cheese) with bell peppers and tomato slices:

The flavor of the paneer was good, pretty standard among upscale Indian restaurants.

The third hors d’oeuvres my friends and I shared were corn and some mystery ingredients (the waiter told us that the food was made from corn when we asked):

The corn blocks were spicy, sweet, and chewy. I liked the spicy and sweet translucent green dip that came with this plate.

The fourth hors d’oeuvres were some kind of vegetable mix that looked like small flattened falafels but did not taste like falafels:

In my experience in India, it is quite common to dip already spicy food items in spicy sauce.

After maybe two hours or so of dancing, the brunch buffet in a different room was served:

I didn’t have good lighting, so I used flash:

Going from top left counterclockwise: dal tadka (“tempered lentils” in Hindi), naan, mutter paneer (“peas and Indian cheese” in Hindi), vegetarian Thai green curry, vegetarian bowl Manchurian sauce, and Chinese vegetarian stir fry. I eat dal tadka and mutter paneer very often in the schools (not made in the same manner, but I think that they are popular dishes).

Finally, I filled up my last plate with desserts:

Both the blueberry cake and the chocolate cake were eggless; these cakes had the texture of cream. The brown ball was gulab jamun (a popular Indian dessert of deep-fried milk solids soaked in sugar syrup).

Overall, the finger foods went well with the clubbing atmosphere, and the brunch buffet was filling. The sangeet (Sanskrit word for “music”) and wedding is coming up later this week, so I’ll write about those events soon.

Trilogy – Hotel Sea Princess

Address: Plot No. 969, Juhu Tara Road, Near Juhu Beach, Santacruz West, Mumbai, Maharashtra 400049

Phone: 022 2646 9500

A New Twist on Mumbai Favorites, Healthy Eating, and Breakfast Recipes

There were two weekday holidays last week, so I had more time to visit restaurants and make breakfast. I had been unsuccessful walking in at 9 pm to SpiceKlub before, so this time Priam and I arrived at this restaurant right when it opened at 6:30 pm (on a side note, booking a table is also an option). SpiceKlub is a vegetarian Indian restaurant that serves food highlighting molecular gastronomy. We ordered three appetizers and one dessert, and afterwards we were comfortably full. The first appetizer served to us was naanza (the menu described naanza as “mini naans stuffed with spice cottage cheese served the Italian way gratinated”):

They looked like little slices of pizza to me, but they did not taste like pizza. The toppings were really delicious, the cottage cheese was very creamy and spicy, and the naan had the perfect soft texture. This naanza was my most favorite dish out of everything we ordered.

After we finished the naanza, the waiter gave us our pav bhaji fondue (tomato-based fondue with cheese, onions, and possibly other vegetables):

A Mumbai street food favorite, this particular pav bhaji was all gussied up complete with fancy fondue forks. This version was creamier than the pav bhaji I have had in the schools. The flavors were good, albeit not mind-blowing.

The third appetizer we ordered was pani puri:

This was the first time I’ve seen the chili liquid in test tubes on dry ice and the sweet liquid in a syringe (click here for my description of pani puri). I had a fun time assembling my pani puri together. While the presentation was unique and eye-catching, in my opinion the taste isn’t any different from the pani puri available on the streets.

For dessert, we had the bubbling kulfi (Indian ice cream traditionally made with condensed milk):

This kulfi came in little pieces on a flask filled with liquid nitrogen. The five sauces (from top left to bottom right counterclockwise) are rose tapioca pearls, malai (Indian sweet cream), caramel, blueberry, and chocolate. They all went really well with the kulfi (I tried them each separately with the kulfi and then combined some), with my favorites being the rose and the caramel. The combination of rose tapioca pearls, malai, and kulfi tasted like a falooda (Indian cold sweet drink traditionally made with rose syrup, basil seeds, jelly pieces, tapioca pearls, vermicelli, and ice cream). Priam was at first wondering why the kulfi was in little pieces, and then he came to the conclusion that the kulfi would be too difficult to break apart if it were in one large piece. This presentation was also unique and fun, with liquid nitrogen smoking out of the spout and flower petals strewn around the sauces.

Overall, I really liked the presentation of the dishes and their flavors, although you can get the same flavors of pani puri for much cheaper on the streets. SpiceKlub is the most innovative restaurant that I’ve ever been to, and I would like to visit again to try their other dishes.

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Yesterday I went to The Yoga House, not to do yoga but rather to eat. I had eaten here over a year ago and liked their food, so when I used Google maps to find this place, I was surprised to see that The Yoga House relocated to a much bigger house than the one it was in before:

The Yoga House had an upgrade, as there are now more rooms and seats available. I really like the ambience of this new house because the colors and decor make it look very serene and peaceful:

The Entrance

The First Flight of Stairs

The Second Flight of Stairs

The Third Flight of Stairs

Where I Eventually Decided to Eat (I painted my bedroom in Boston in this same shade of blue)

My View as I Ate Lunch

I ordered The Yoga House’s signature quinoa burger and signature smoothie (the menu listed the following ingredients: banana, milk, almonds, cashew nuts, raisins, grated coconut, puffed rice, beaten rice, sesame seeds, dates, figs, poppy seeds, ginger powder, and cinnamon):

Both my beverage and food tasted very healthy and organic. There were extra hummus and greens on the side, which I slathered onto my burger. Unlike most restaurants I’ve been to in Mumbai, this quinoa burger tasted like no chili was added. The water was in a copper cup, which I have heard gives health benefits. I really did not like the metallic taste of the cup though, so I avoided the water.

For dessert, I ordered masala chai and three homemade ladoos (ball-shaped Indian sweets):

For some reason I can’t really put my finger on, holding this particular cup of masala chai (top left) felt really soothing to my hands. Initially I did not know what was in the metal bowl in the top right (looked similar to Indian pickled mango to me), so I tried it and found it delicious. I asked the waiter what it was, and he told me that it is organic jaggery to be used as a sugar substitute for the masala chai. According to Wikipedia, jaggery is concentrated date, cane juice, or palm sap.

The ladoos tasted healthy, yummy, and not too sweet. I could see pistachios in the ladoos, and I think the crunchy texture was due to puffed rice, though I’m not sure. I had no problem finishing off these three ladoos.

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Last Tuesday morning, I decided to make breakfast consisting of caramelized onions, spinach, and eggs:

I followed the recipe online (click here for the recipe) with the following modifications:

1. I used ghee (Indian clarified butter) instead of butter. Ghee smells really nice when it is used for cooking, and a small amount is sufficient. I had gone to the supermarket last week and decided for the first time to purchase ghee instead of butter. This was the first time that I had cooked with ghee, and my kitchen smelled great for many hours afterward.

2. I used Spanish cheese that was given by Priam’s brother’s friends from Spain instead of Parmesan cheese. This cheese is hard, so I think it’ll last for a while.

3. I microwaved the dish in the end instead of putting it in an oven because I don’t own an oven.

Overall I thought my dish was good, although the spinach for some reason had a slightly bitter taste. I think that this dish would have tasted better if I had an oven to put it in.

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This morning, I decided to make French toast. I had made French toast several times in the past, and each time I had not been satisfied. This time I decided to do more research (click here and here for tips). These were the changes I made based on the recommendations:

1. In the past I had used multigrain bread, so this time I bought brioche. The brioche was indeed perfect for soaking up the custard. Additionally, the multigrain bread I used before were pre-sliced too thinly, so this time I cut the brioche myself into 1-inch thick slices.

3. One online article advised not to add too much sugar to the custard, while another article advised two tablespoons of sugar per cup of milk. Since my previous French toasts had been very bland, I opted to add two tablespoons of sugar.

4. I added three eggs per cup of milk instead of two (I had previously looked at a different recipe calling for only two eggs).

5. I blended my custard in a blender to avoid egg whites forming on my French toast. The articles above did not specifically mention using blenders, but one recipe did so I decided to try it out.

Generally I followed a recipe I found online (click here for the recipe) with the following modifications:

1. I added three eggs while the recipe didn’t require any.

2. I used slim milk instead of coconut milk because that’s all I had.

3. I omitted the nutmeg and cornstarch because I didn’t have any.

4. I did not serve with maple syrup because I had added two tablespoons of brown sugar to the custard beforehand (I don’t have white sugar).

5. I did not have any bananas that Americans eat (long and big), so I used two Indian bananas instead (short and small but more flavorful).

I think that the articles are great because my French toast tasted much better today than they ever did before. They were sweet enough that no extra syrup was needed. This was the first time that I used coconut oil, and it imparted a very nice flavor and aroma. One improvement I can think of is if I had half-and-half or whole milk instead of slim milk, since skim milk wouldn’t produce as rich a flavor. Still, it was the first time that I felt satisfied with my French toast.

My ingredients:

Some of my French toast after eating several slices:

I cooked six slices and two end pieces, and Priam and I became pretty full after that. Since I still had a fair amount of custard left and I did not want it to go to waste, I decided to add about 1/3 cup of flour to it. This amount was enough to make the resulting batter suitable for making crepes, which I did:

Since the crepes were very thin and light, I was able to eat them despite being relatively full from the French toast. I liked them even more than my French toast because the crepes were less dense. I had pinned quite a few breakfast recipes on Pinterest, so I will be making them on future lazy mornings.