Lets face it, Sid eats butter chicken at least once a week (the guys at Calcuttawala expect our call every Sunday and have memorized our order), so its no surprise Zoya loves her naan bread and saagwala too.
We also love Trendy Indian for their lunch special and their high chair. They do a mean fenugreek chicken, that hospobaby can eat.
Hospobaby turned into a true curry muncher when we were in India. After a welcome home party in Mumbai where Hospobaby was not allowed to eat anything because everyone thought everything would make her sick, we headed to our hometown Pune. Hospobaby's first adventure was to Ramakrishna, an upmarket Udipi, south-indian eating house. To be honest, south indian food is my least favorite, I never let Sid take me to the popular Saffron for their $10 all you can eat, South Indian buffet. However, south Indian food is the safest for little munchkins.
Idlis are made of fermented rice flour that has been steamed and are served with Sambar, a lentil soup and coconut chutney. So if you exclude the Sambar with its spices the meal is quite bland, a delight for young palates. I have a niece who used to call idlis- Moons, because they look like little moons. Hospobaby loved eating her little idli moons. My mum kept taking her back to Ramakrishna again and again. I do suspect though that it also had something to do with their free valet parking and location in the heart of the city.
India is the land of the buffet. They can turn any and everything into a buffet. After getting back on my feet post op (I had all four wisdom teeth pulled and its worse than labour) my friends were excited to take me to this new concept restaurant called BBQ Nation. Having a barbecue is a new fad in India. I love bbqs especially once summer hits NZ and one of our X'mas traditions is to have a BBQ on Christmas day. But in India they take their BBQ a little too seriously for my liking.
Barbecue nation has individual grills fitted into each table. The waitstaff bring out skewers of meat/veg and you grill and baste away.
After you are done with the BBQ you have a big indian buffet full of curries. I think they forgot that the concept of a BBQ has been in India forever its called a Tandoor! I would eat Tandoori food anyway over a BBQ.
Zoya fortunately missed BBQ nation, indians eat really late! But she couldn't evade the ever popular buffet. We had relatives stay at the local Holiday Inn and visited them for lunch. After the guards checked our cars and patted us down we ventured into the brand spanking new hotel and were told that only one of the restaurants was open- their 24 hr cafe. Guess what you could do a la carte there or a buffet for lunch all for the same price. Hospobaby could share my buffet. So I caved in to the buffet brigade.
It definitely is value for money at $10 a head plus taxes we could eat every cuisine under the sun. There were momos, dumplings from East India, noodles, pizza, baked polenta cakes, soup, curries, biryanis, tandoori fare, nachos, deli meats and cheese. Dessert had its own one foot table laden with pannacottas, mousse, pastries, cakes and ice creams. Hospobaby encounter her first high chair and was delighted with the familiarity of it.
Then she devoured a bowl of baked polenta, momos and then dessert.
The only travesty is that they throw all the food that is left over at the end of each buffet and there is a lot of it. Such a shame when there are poor people starving right outside the door.
Besides her staple idlis, Hospobaby also liked Upma, which is made out of semolina and is great for lunch at home for infants from 6months on. Hospobaby came across Chikoos in India. Chikoo is known as Sapota elsewhere in the world, but I have never come across it in NZ. Its got a soft brown flesh that is sweet and chocolatey while the skin is thin and leathery. Zoya shovels them before you can peel them.
Hospobaby's last notable adventure in India was at Great Punjab where we went for dinner. Hospobaby quickly adapted to eating dinner at 9.30 pm like her hosts. She thoroughly enjoyed the chicken malai kebabs and lamb rara (minced lamb) curry with rice.
As I was down, knocked out by the heavy pain killers for most of our time in India and Zoya was in the care of my over-cautious mom, we both avoided the infamous delhi bellies. We almost thought we had avoided all travel bugs when they decided to combine forces and attacked Hospobaby two nights before we flew home. The doctors prescribed a cocktail of antibiotics, anti histamines and pain killers. We got onto the plane and Zoya had a fever of 39.6. With cold towels and pamol I brought a very sick hospobaby back to Auckland. We missed another week of daycare and paid a visit to the kind doctors at Starship who advised us that Zoya has brought home multiple viral infections with her and had to just ride through it all.
I brought home a baby who doesn't like sitting in high chairs or sleeping in her cot. A pampered bubba who now thinks she can have it all her way. We love India but we won't be going back there in a hurry!
We also love Trendy Indian for their lunch special and their high chair. They do a mean fenugreek chicken, that hospobaby can eat.
Hospobaby turned into a true curry muncher when we were in India. After a welcome home party in Mumbai where Hospobaby was not allowed to eat anything because everyone thought everything would make her sick, we headed to our hometown Pune. Hospobaby's first adventure was to Ramakrishna, an upmarket Udipi, south-indian eating house. To be honest, south indian food is my least favorite, I never let Sid take me to the popular Saffron for their $10 all you can eat, South Indian buffet. However, south Indian food is the safest for little munchkins.
 |
| Idli, idli that what Zoya wants to eat. |
Idlis are made of fermented rice flour that has been steamed and are served with Sambar, a lentil soup and coconut chutney. So if you exclude the Sambar with its spices the meal is quite bland, a delight for young palates. I have a niece who used to call idlis- Moons, because they look like little moons. Hospobaby loved eating her little idli moons. My mum kept taking her back to Ramakrishna again and again. I do suspect though that it also had something to do with their free valet parking and location in the heart of the city.
India is the land of the buffet. They can turn any and everything into a buffet. After getting back on my feet post op (I had all four wisdom teeth pulled and its worse than labour) my friends were excited to take me to this new concept restaurant called BBQ Nation. Having a barbecue is a new fad in India. I love bbqs especially once summer hits NZ and one of our X'mas traditions is to have a BBQ on Christmas day. But in India they take their BBQ a little too seriously for my liking.
Barbecue nation has individual grills fitted into each table. The waitstaff bring out skewers of meat/veg and you grill and baste away.
After you are done with the BBQ you have a big indian buffet full of curries. I think they forgot that the concept of a BBQ has been in India forever its called a Tandoor! I would eat Tandoori food anyway over a BBQ.
Zoya fortunately missed BBQ nation, indians eat really late! But she couldn't evade the ever popular buffet. We had relatives stay at the local Holiday Inn and visited them for lunch. After the guards checked our cars and patted us down we ventured into the brand spanking new hotel and were told that only one of the restaurants was open- their 24 hr cafe. Guess what you could do a la carte there or a buffet for lunch all for the same price. Hospobaby could share my buffet. So I caved in to the buffet brigade.
It definitely is value for money at $10 a head plus taxes we could eat every cuisine under the sun. There were momos, dumplings from East India, noodles, pizza, baked polenta cakes, soup, curries, biryanis, tandoori fare, nachos, deli meats and cheese. Dessert had its own one foot table laden with pannacottas, mousse, pastries, cakes and ice creams. Hospobaby encounter her first high chair and was delighted with the familiarity of it.
 |
| Hospobaby checks out the Holiday Inn |
Then she devoured a bowl of baked polenta, momos and then dessert.
The only travesty is that they throw all the food that is left over at the end of each buffet and there is a lot of it. Such a shame when there are poor people starving right outside the door.
Besides her staple idlis, Hospobaby also liked Upma, which is made out of semolina and is great for lunch at home for infants from 6months on. Hospobaby came across Chikoos in India. Chikoo is known as Sapota elsewhere in the world, but I have never come across it in NZ. Its got a soft brown flesh that is sweet and chocolatey while the skin is thin and leathery. Zoya shovels them before you can peel them.
 |
| Chikoo fruit |
 |
| Hospobaby with her bag of Chikoos |
Hospobaby's last notable adventure in India was at Great Punjab where we went for dinner. Hospobaby quickly adapted to eating dinner at 9.30 pm like her hosts. She thoroughly enjoyed the chicken malai kebabs and lamb rara (minced lamb) curry with rice.
As I was down, knocked out by the heavy pain killers for most of our time in India and Zoya was in the care of my over-cautious mom, we both avoided the infamous delhi bellies. We almost thought we had avoided all travel bugs when they decided to combine forces and attacked Hospobaby two nights before we flew home. The doctors prescribed a cocktail of antibiotics, anti histamines and pain killers. We got onto the plane and Zoya had a fever of 39.6. With cold towels and pamol I brought a very sick hospobaby back to Auckland. We missed another week of daycare and paid a visit to the kind doctors at Starship who advised us that Zoya has brought home multiple viral infections with her and had to just ride through it all.
I brought home a baby who doesn't like sitting in high chairs or sleeping in her cot. A pampered bubba who now thinks she can have it all her way. We love India but we won't be going back there in a hurry!
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