INDULGENCE

If you do not have a sliced finger or burned knuckles, you are not cooking right. 
Everything is better with butter.
Cooking cliches crop up unexpectedly in conversations and elicit a quick laugh before moving on to other topics. Another one springs to mind - chocolate makes everything nice.
Okay - that is completely made up. But then it is the truth. There is no mood, no occasion, no celebration that chocolate cannot ingratiate itself into and make it all the more better. And chocolate cake - oh sweet heaven in my mouth and currently the only food that has given an almost out-of-the-plane experience.
I should rephrase that - the dark chocolate cake at Hard Rock Cafe is currently responsible for that almost out-of-the-plane experience.

Remember the cards that they hand you for feedback and the categories they contain - HRC gets a check of excellent in all of them. Ambiance[the muted browns with paneled floors and mahogany finishes studded with rockstar paraphernalia], Acoustics[the music echoes and harmonizes with conversations around the room], Service[personable attendants who go over the menu choices with you] and the food[the tastes just swirl around your mouth and linger for long afterwards]. They have a variety of food choices that are prepared and served well. The signature 10oz burger that takes dedication to finish, the potato skins that are pure sin, the rich mac and cheese and the very indulgent creme brulee.
But the chocolate cake they serve is - well at that time we had no words. We just kept eating in mutual delight and discovery. Right now when I am writing this post I still remember the textures and flavors - the double layer cake with a layer of chocolate cream in between and covered with melting chocolate ganache. It is served with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream with a dash of chocolate sauce. In a phrase, this is chocolate heaven.

The cake is soft and warm - the feel of that warmth with the cold ice-cream ricochets in your mouth sending your taste buds into overdrive. The chocolate ganache is smooth and rich bringing an additional layer of chocolate into the mix and simply making you want more.  And I will stop before I go into spasms of cliched praises and do great injustice to the cake. I shall end with this-
The music, the conversation, the rain outside - they all slide around you as you and the cake form a bubble between yourself and the world which only faded away when the last forkful is finished.

Location: Hard Rock Cafe, GVK Mall, Banjara Hills
Food to die for: The chocolate cake, The Jumbo combo platter, Creme brulee, The signature 10oz. Burger
Rating: 4/5

The consummate hostess's favorite snack

This particular post is a tribute to a very close friend of mine who introduced me to the delights of Poha - Tulika Bathija. Poha is a Maharasthrian dish that can be eaten for breakfast or an afternoon snack and always served with chai. There were times in my early postgraduate days when on Sundays we would wake up to smells of tempered mustard, onions and chillies, the sound of kettle buzzing, the tinkle of spoons as they stirred sugar in the cups of tea[they were pink cups as I recall]. It was like the piper's call, one by one all of us would end up in her room and be handed heaping plates of almost golden, lemon-scented goodness.

Now that she has left the building and gone back home, it seems like a good enough time to write this post and remember those memories.
The dish is made with puffed rice as the main ingredient and finished with a dash of lemon. The base tempering is made with onions, chillies and turmeric and you really can't go wrong with them. Poha combines the ease of cooking with the concentration of the right taste so that it is the perfect food on the go.

Ingredients:
500 gm poha
1tbsp mustard seeds
3 medium onions sliced
4 green chillies slitted
2tbsp turmeric
1tbsp red chilli powder
salt to taste
1 tbsp lemon juice
a bunch of coriander leaves chopped
2tbsp vegetable oil

Method:
Wash the poha and keep it aside.
Heat oil and splutter mustard seeds. Add the the chopped onions and chillies. Cook till the onions are softened. That will be for about 10 minutes.
Add turmeric, red chilli powder.
Fold in the poha and then season it with salt.
Finally when ready to serve add in the lemon juice and coriander leaves on it. Serve with hot cups of strong chai.