26 December 2008

bangalore kaati zone bombay hanglas wraps&rolls frankie barbecue nation delhi khan chachas aap ki khatir

A long overdue post on my India trip. I fell sick as soon as I landed in Delhi. Wheezing, sinus, the works. But after some anti-biotics, rest and mooli parathas, I was on the plane to Bangalore. Kartik and I checked out Kaati Zone. Looks like they are doing pretty well in Bangalore with about 7 branches. Everything is cooked in the central kitchen and then heated in ovens in store. There are 3 varieties of parathas- original, lite and diet. The rolls were pretty average. Not that fresh and not that tasty. Too much masala I thought. The packaging was great though. Really easy to tear cardboard. Some pictures from Kaati Zone: Kartik looks pretty happy with that diet roll!



From Bangalore I took the flight to Bombay. Spent many fun hours with Arati and Neilesh checking out roll places and talking about Mooli's. It boils down to process. And some more process. I am hoping we can do a 2 week test kitchen in Bombay or Delhi soon. I dragged Vivek to many places and he was only too happy to check out the veg rolls for me. On my last night in Bombay, we ended up having coffee at 12.30am in Bandra with Sevantika and Ashish. After coffee, we walked along the sea talking about chicken, rotis, phones, life, and future tasting sessions. I took an auto home at 2.30am and was amazed that the auto driver didn't haggle. I can stil hear the auto driver in Bangalore say 'double meter'. This is Bombay for you.



Tried to make it to Lucknow on the way to Delhi but there wasn't enough time. Jimmy uncle (one of the Nawabs of Lucknow) said I can learn his family's Kakori kebab recipe so I'm looking forward to making a trip in the new year to do that.

One last day in Delhi, one last mooli paratha and I was on flight VS3001 back to London.