The Urban Dhaba, Adliya, Kingdom of Bahrain (Our dinner at...)

Last night after running errands, we popped over Urban Dhaba in Adliya, Kingdom of Bahrain. After months of drooling and browsing through this restaurant's Facebook page. We randomly decided to have a small dinner there. 

Urban Dhaba is a small, colorful and interesting little place located in Adliya behind Costa Coffee. The restaurant has closely placed seating, and the tables are rather interesting and can keep you and your gang quite busy. As we waited for our order, we played board games. The dice is placed in a small bowl placed inside a 'dafli' (tambourine)!

After we placed our order, the waitress brought us a plate of papads served with chutney. I really liked the chutney, which had the right amount of spice and salt.

For starters we ordered Gobi Manchurian. The two of us couldn't finish the generous portion of crunchy, indo-chinesy appetizer. There wasn't any excess oil to be found nor were the cauliflower florets soggy because of the sauce. they were just right.

(Veg Starter: Gobi Manchurian)

(Main Course: Bhuna Ghosht and Butter Naan)

For our Main course we ordered, Bhuna Ghosht (pan fried meat in spices) with naan. The essence of a Bhuna Ghosht is the blending and frying of the spices; this needs to be done really well, there is absolutely nothing more beautiful that slow-cooked meat in its own juices and aromatic spices. For me the single and most important criteria for any mutton dish would be how the meat melts in my mouth. Very few places give cooking meat the time it needs. Urban Dhaba's Bhuna Ghosht did not quite make the cut for me and Mr. D found the salt a bit low in this dish. 

I guess next time, we need to stick to their tandoori/ tikka items. We are defintely headed to Urban Dhaba for a second time-just to try out their tandoori/ tikka items and their lassi (the whole idea of serving it in a chota matka part fascinated me)

Since Mr. D was craving some sugar last night, he ordered the Gaajar Ka Halwa. The second the waitress placed it before us on our table, I could smell that majestic aroma of saffron. The halwa was warm and yum, it definitely put me in my happy place after a couple of spoons.

The bill for just the two of us came to BHD4.500. Apart from all the food, we ordered a small water bottle and a Coke.

(Dessert: Gaajar (Carrot) Ka Halwa)

Are we going there again?
YES. And this time eyes on the kababs, tikkas, tandoori items and lassi for sure!

We went there again!!…and here is my blog post detailing our second visit.

If you have visited this quirky new place, share your experience in the message area.

Please Note: This not a sponsored blog post. 

Dinner at Panasia Bahrain (Asian Cuisine)

Last week we celebrated my Dad's birthday by going for dinner to Panasia Restaurant and Tea Lounge.

Panasia is a aesthetically decorated Restaurant situated in Um Al Hassam, certainly away from the hustle bustle of the popular restaurant road in Um Al Hassam.  The restaurant offers a good range of Chinese, Thai and Indian delicacies.

Unfortunately I do not have snaps of the main course, but I do have photographs of the Starters that we ordered as well as of the Dessert.

It didn't take them long to bring our starters, but as we waited, they gave us two plates loaded with Spicy Pappadoms and Prawn Crackers with their special sauces (I call them the traffic signal sauces-you ask why?-well because of their colors). 

Here are photographs and descriptions of the Starters we chose,

Chicken Lollypops with Oriental Sauce....sorry about the blurry photo, can't help it when you have good food in front of you ;)

Chicken Siu Mai- minced chicken, water chestnut, mushrooms served with their '3 G dip/sauce'-which I found very YUM and for some odd reason reminded me of Beef Pickle that a Keralite friend had brought from her house to our hostel in Mangalore. That is one pickle I ate daily, religiously.

Once we were done with the starters, we were given some breathing time and more importantly time to get back to those yum PRAWN CRACKERS.

In a few minutes, our Main Course was laid before us on the table, and the waiter served us all. 

Like I mentioned earlier we had the Brocolli Beef (thinly sliced beef stir fried with brocolli in oyster sauce) and the Kung Pao Chicken, again, stir fried diced chicken pieces with scallions and cashew nuts as garnish.

Sorry no photos of our main.

Considering how much we ordered for the five of us and it being dinner time (light food time) and us having a three course meal..I expected us to have no room for dessert or being unable to walk to the car but the food was astonishingly light and we didnt' have to take a doggy-bag as there were no leftovers. NONE AT ALL!

Moving on to our dessert.....here is what he shared like a good family ;) 

PanAsia's Signature Dessert- two scoops of Vanilla ice-cream, deep-fried and the outcome, a warm crispy outer shell that hold cold vanilla flavored ice-cream inside it. PURE MAGIC!

(This is TMI, but I had to mention, while trying to sleep my sister and I YouTube-d the recipe for Fried Ice cream)

Warm Chocolate Brownie topped with a scoop of Vanilla Ice-cream, cashew nuts and Chocolate Fudge sauce on the side (this doubled as Dad's birthday cake)

I do not have the break down of the bill but the total as per my memory came to BD21.300 for 5pax.

Please Note: This not a sponsored blog post. 

Lunch at Spice Nice Restaurant, Bahrain

On one of our quiet Friday late afternoon, after a good amount of rest, we (Mr D and I ) decided to head out to Spice Nice located in Adliya behind Gulf Hotel, next to Cafe La Ventana. This lunch was supposed to be a light one just to satiate a craving that I had for Chicken Dumplings.

I had been to Spice Nice twice before, but I always missed documenting it. This time I made it a point to cover this cozy, affordable and lovely place. This restaurant specializes in Chinese, Goan and (other) Indian food. Both the times I've dined here, I've only had their Chinese food, because this is what I've heard they are very good at, the Spring Chicken in particular!

After we placed our order for drinks and food, the waiter brought us a basket (basket that is refilled, whenever found empty) filled with Prawn Crackers (yum), that are hard to stop munching on, once you've begun. It is rather surprising how soon two people can empty a basket of these delicious-deep-fried prawn goodness, even without the sauces. 

Mr D, allowed me to order for him, after we picked our choice of beverage. 

I ordered the Fried Kingfish in Recheado masala. This 'masale-daar' fried fish  was accompanied by a salad comprising of cabbage, carrots, onions. The 'Recheado' masala is of Goan origin and is basically a spicy red paste usually slathered on to the fish or stuffed inside the fish.

Next to arrive was my 'crave', Steamed Chicken Dumplings, 8 beautiful juicy dumplings, and all of them for me :D Notice the artsy way the sauce has been plated...yes that is Mr D's work.

             

No snaps of the beverages we ordered ,thanks to this scorching heat we guzzled down our drinks, but I would like to make a mention of the Lemon and Mint Drink that was an absolute thirst quencher. Presentation would have been better if the drink was strained, but the mint infused drink really soothed my afternoon.

Please Note: This not a sponsored blog post. 

Our bill breakdown is as follows:

Kingfish Recheado BD3.5

Steamed Chicken Dumplings BD2.1

Corona Beer BD1

Lemon and Mint Drink BD0.800

Service Charge BD0.400

Total Bill: BD9.600

Quick and Easy: Egg Fried Rice (20mins)

Quick and Easy Egg Fried Rice (Indo Chinese)

Time taken 20 minutes not more

Ingredients:

2 eggs

1 tbsp milk

A few green peas

A few finely chopped carrots

One small onion –finely chopped

1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste

3 cups cooked rice (you may use leftover rice too)

3 tbsp soy sauce

Salt and pepper to taste

Oil for frying

Steps:

1.       Take a bowl break the eggs into it, drizzle over it one tablespoon milk and season with salt and pepper. Whisk well till frothy.

2.       Take a pan, place it over medium flame- pour a little oil or butter on to it and pour in the egg mixture when it begins to coagulate- keep stirring into it till there is no liquid egg and only solid lumps are there. Turn the stove off and dish out on to a plate and keep aside.

3.       In the same deep-pan pour some more oil and fry chopped onions in it- add ginger-garlic paste-fry for about 2 minutes on medium flame.

4.       Add those chopped carrots and green peas (you can use frozen vegetables too)

5.       Pour the soy sauce and stir.

6.       Add the cooked rice to it and mix well till you have no white chunks of rice.

7.       Season with salt and pepper.

8.       Turn the flame to the highest and fry the rice- continuously stirring.

9.       Throw in some more pepper.

10.   And turn the flame off- serve and enjoy!

This is probably is the quickest it gets with a one time meal- works for a bachelor or bachelorette or a college students.

 Enjoy!

bpV

Roti Jallas (lacey net breads)

I got to know this recipe a couple of months back while watching one of India’s Master Chef episodes, where the chefs shared a recipe sent in from a viewer from Singapore.

I liked the name of this dish and it probably got stuck in my head and I also liked the way it was prepared on the show.

So I looked up the recipe, and I found two comprehensive recipes for Roti Jallas (www.Rasamalaysia.com and www.singaporelocalfavourites.com ). A little digging around, led me to learn that ‘Roti Jallas’ are famous in Singapore and Malaysia, they go really well with coco-nutty curries and sambals (spicy curry).

They remind me of ‘neer dosas (in Kannada)/ paan-polays (in Konkani)’ served in the Karnataka (India) with a variety of gravies and chutneys. They lacy and look like someone crocheted them.

However Roti Jallas (roti-bread, jallas- net) are more on the yellow side, because of the turmeric used in preparing the batter, and taste lightly like coconut milk, which again is an important ingredient in this delicacy. You of course do not crochet them though; you just use a ‘roti- jalla cup’ to get that crochet effect.

Here is what a roti jalla cup looks like,

Picture Source: WWW.fussfreecooking.com

I tried to follow the recipe as closely as I could but I had to play with the quantities a little.

Ingredients:

(Makes 30 rotis- Preparation time: 10 minutes Frying time: 60 to 90 minutes)

•  3 and half cups of flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• 2 cups water
• 1 and half cup coconut milk
• 2 tsp salt

Cooking tools needed:

• Roti Jalla Cup or a bottle closed tightly and a hole made on its cap or a squeezy ketchup bottle.

Steps:

1. Mix all the ingredients together to form a thick batter. The batter should have no lumps you could both strain and remove lumps or you could use an electric beater and get a thick lump-less batter.

2. If you have a roti jalla cup use that. Or else, take a dry and clean empty bottle, make a hole on its cap (or use an empty ketchup squeezy bottle), enough for the batter to pass through in like thin straw. Pour the first round of batter in the bottle. And closely tightly.

3. Take a tava as used in the Nutty Tava Fried Prawns recipe on this blog or a non stick pan; heat it up on medium flame.

4. In a small bowl, pour some EVOO/ cooking oil and stick a quarter of an onion in a fork and dip the onion in the oil and rub it onto frying pan/ tava. Do this before every roti jalla is to be fried.

5. Pour the batter from the bottle on to the tava/ pan and create three big circles, and continue making many more circles within those. Try and make sure that most of the circles are linked with each other.

6. Let them fry for about 30-40 seconds. Once they are fried, they will start peeling off the pan like the below picture.

7. This is a good indicator that, it is time to fold the roti into quarters and take it off the pan. You do not have to fry the other side.

8. Repeat the steps for the rest of the rotis.

*Serve warm with a nice gravy/curry/sambal

I served these with Coconut Chicken Curry.

Enjoy!

-bpV