Restaurant Review - The Fat Chef

What???
Italian, American, Mexican, sandwiches, burgers
Where???
5/2 Jagriti, Ramagondahalli, Varthur Road, Whitefield, India 560066
Contact :(080) 41119768/(080) 40992981/(080) 40992982/9844932817

Having read excellent reviews of the restaurant, we decided to go to The Fat Chef for dinner tonight. The restaurant is situated right next to the entrance to Renaissance Jagriti, on Varthur Road, Whitefield.
Now, let's talk about what I liked about the restaurant.
The ambiance is fantastic. Spacious, with plenty of out door and indoor seating, this is one restaurant that anybody will like at first sight. Having called ahead to make a reservation, we were able to avoid waiting outside, and were shown to our table almost immediately on arrival. The restaurant has no printed menu......the day's menu is put up on boards at the entrance and we have to go, look at it and then place our order.
We ordered Baby corn fingers for starters, pasta alfredo for the main course, and french fries for the LG. We also ordered Pepsi and fresh watermelon juice. The water melon juice was served promptly, but the Pepsi never came, despite reminding a waiter once. After that, we just told the waiter to cancel the order for the Pepsi. The baby corn fingers and the dip served with it had a strange sour taste. We didn't like it much.
The spaghetti in alfredo sauce was excellent. It had just the right blend of flavours, and was perfectly seasoned. The garlic bread was really good too.
What I didn't like:
The waiter put a bowl of steaming pasta and a basket of bread in front of us, but forgot to give us plates. We waited for a while, but there was still no sign of plates. We finally had to call another waiter and ask him to get us plates.
Our water glasses were never refilled. Despite several waiters walking around from table to table, not one of them came around with a jug of water to refill our empty glasses.
We had to wait for an inordinately long time to get our bill. Again, we had to ask for the bill twice......I don't know why the first person we asked never got around to getting us the bill.
Will I go there again???
Even though the starter was nothing to write home about, I really enjoyed the rest of our meal. The service, however, was terrible. I might go back another time for the food, but if the service isn't better next time, I am sure I will never go back again.

Bangalore Iyengar bakery Kara biscuit - Indian Cooking Challenge

When Valli announced the Indian Cooking Challenge for this month, I was thrilled. I had already seen this recipe at Champa's and written a mental note to myself to try it out. One of the things I like most about living in Bangalore is the abundance of Iyengar bakeries and the small eats that they serve. Kara biscuits are the husband's favourite, while I am partial to the potato buns.

What you need:
Maida/all purpose flour - 2 cups
Butter(at room temperature) - 1/3 cup
Salt - 1 tsp
Sugar - 4 tsp
Green chillies - 4
Coriander - a fistful, chopped fine
Curry leaves - a fistful, chopped fine
Curd/yogurt - 7 tbsp

Mix the flour and salt together in a bowl. Cream the butter and sugar well. Add the curd and continue beating. Add in all the other ingredients and gently continue mixing. The original recipe only calls for 2 or at the most 3 tbsp of curd. However, this gave me a very, very crumbly mixture which could not be rolled out. So I kept adding curd, 1 tbsp at a time and trying to roll out the dough. This could be done only after adding 7 tbsp of curd.
Roll out the dough into a 1/4 inch thick circle.
Cut it into desired shape using a cookie cutter. I shaped some into diamonds and some into hearts.
Bake at 150 degrees for 20 - 25 minutes or until the biscuits start to brown at the bottom.
What I think of the biscuits:
Everyone else who has tried this for the ICC is singing praises of these biscuits. So I am sure I must have done something wrong, though I can't figure out what it is. Maybe it is all that extra curd or all that extra baking time.
While I have a really nice tasting biscuit, I could never serve it to anybody and tell them that it is supposed to be a biscuit because it just doesn't have the crispness or the texture that you associate with a biscuit. It was kind of soft when I took it out of the oven and even after cooling, baking for another five minutes and then heating in microwave mode for 2 minutes, the inside remained chewy and soft, though the outside turned brown. As far as the taste and the aroma goes, though, this one scores big. I just wish I could have got the right texture.