Merci, Côte Rôtie!

I’ve woken up many days with the wishful thinking that I can pack my bags and take a spontaneous flight to Paris - I get such feelings from time to time as I’ve mentioned before in one of my blogs: Je t’aime, mon Cafe Rolle.

(somebody take me there already, jeez!)

It’s only a matter of seconds before I peak outside my bedroom door and find my mother not exactly pardoning her french at somebody on the phone. So much for dreaming about Champs-Élysées on a beautiful Sunday morning, really. 

Even though spring has been uber kind to us this year by sticking around since December (winter whah, winter who?), we like to celebrate it in March - just ‘coz. 

My only fix to this specific day was to try out the new french cafe in town: Côte Rôtie. I had a super tough time trying to pronounce that name so I googled it and the first search that showed was How To Pronounce French Wine # Côte Rôtie.

I ended up spraying it, not saying it so I might stick to calling it “that new restaurant in Alliance Francaise”.

Anyhow, so a bunch of us walked in to a pleasant looking bistro, located exactly where the old Cafe Flo used to be. The weather was quite nice and well, the inside was completely packed, so we sat outside and a very welcoming server was immediately available to assist us. We received our brunch menu along with the regular one and within five mins, the server convinced us to order their Grilled Kale & Beetroot Salad.

I’m getting married in a few months and the first thing I order at any restaurant nowadays is a salad, just so I can feel all “healthy” and “fit”. Forget what follows, please. 

To accompany this nourishing starter, we also asked for Truffled Eggs & Gruyere (tee-he-he).

These two arrived on the table pretty soon and after many years, I understood the “art of plating”. Every time my chef brother visits us from Houston, he’s always complaining about the lack of culinary training most of the restauranteurs in this city have. However, as soon as our appetizers arrived, I knew this place was led by a chef and not just a ‘good cook’ or a businessman.

Kale & Beetroot Salad

As beautiful as it looked, the salad was absolutely delectable! There was some char-grilled sort of taste in those Kale leaves which blended in perfectly with the Beetroot, bits of Ricotta cheese and fresh figs. I could do this for a healthy meal, err day!

Don’t even get me started on the Truffled Eggs because i don’t have words to describe my happiness about having this meal in Karachi let alone trying to explain how I felt eating this wonderful variation of eggs. OMG, it was SO DAMN GOOD! Starting from breaking into it with my fork, the perfectly runny yolks that made their way through every layer of fine Gruyere cheese and rye toast, to the truffle sauce that topped this chunk of heaven was definitely love at first bite.

Truffled Eggs & Gruyere

Next up was their super fresh bread basket that totally ended my no-carb game because it was so fresh and so soft!! Nevertheless, I was consistent with my health regime and sipped on the very refreshing ABC juice (Apple Beetroot Carrot - if ya already didn’t know). Loved how well balanced the natural flavors were.

The french music that was playing in the background added to the already soothing ambience, reminded me of a french song I loved while I was in college - Les Champs-Elysées by Joe Dassin. Such a jazzy feel.

The mains arrived and again, the food was an absolute pleasure to look at. It was the kind of presentation that made you want to imagine every flavor you are about to experience.

Croque Madam

Croque Madam - definitely topping my list. I’m so glad that Côte Rôtie actually went out of the box to bring something unique to the table. Typically served with ham, this variation of Croque Monsieur was substituted with turkey and surprises you with a mustard-meets-wasabi kind of flavor in every bite. Loved the melted, quality shredded cheese over the fresh butter bread. Since I’m more into savory than sweet, the cherry in “with a cherry on top” has always been an egg for me, so this was a winner for sure! The flavors that burst through every layer was nothing less than a treat!

French Omlette with Gruyere Cheese

I bit into the French Omelette with Gruyere Cheese and wondered why and how everybody else in the city promotes their eggs when they taste nothing like this one! It was so simple, and you could tell that the chef focused on nothing but the essence of every flavor that made up the dish. A treat for the eyes and tastebuds - a rare encounter nowadays.

Scrambled Eggs with Salmon

Another item on the table was the Scrambled eggs with Salmon & Cream Cheese on toast and was definitely as good as it looked! I haven’t yet acquired the taste for salmon so I only took a bite of those rich, fluffy eggs and since scrambled eggs are my weakness, that was a party in my mouth!

Even though all of us had slipped into major food coma, after that eggs-tremely heavy meal we couldn’t have gone without a healthy dessert. You see how I always sandwich my diet in the middle somewhere?

Nora’s Got Sweet Tooth granola with homemade strawberry jam & vanilla yogurt was such a nice blend of sweet flavors. You can easily tell the top quality of all the ingredients used and it also gave me the energy I needed to get up to go home! This Nora lady has really good granola, by the way!

Nora's Got Sweet Tooth granola with vanilla yogurt and homemade jam

I wish I could say that this was the end so I could conclude this in another over dramatic paragraph, BUT, it was just so good that I had to go back next Sunday! 

Since my father has an extremely fine taste palette and knows his food as much he knows his kids, I really wanted to take him there. 

We sat inside this time and the ambience inside was even more beautiful than the last. The community table is a concept very new to Karachi so it was great to see it enter the scene. I knew there was a trained chef behind the scenes, and you could see the owner completely involved in the kitchen and also peaking out the little window to see his customers from time to time! Very cute!

Besides reordering some of the stuff from my last visit, we gave the Bresaola - Mozzarella - Pickled Chili sandwich a shot and boy oh boy, I couldn’t believe (again) that I was sitting within the boundaries of a bistro in Karachi having such good quality air dried meat. The discussion on the table for the longest time was if this meat could even be from here - it was delicious.

Bresaola - Mozzarella - Pickled Chili Sandwich

 

Like always, my dad always asks the management to suggest their best pick and his recommendation was the French Burger. Pretty risky to suggest a burger to us because we are always on a mission, any where around the world, to find the best burger in every city. This was some fine quality meat, marinated in a splendid manner, cooked to Medium perfection and served between a high-quality bun. The next time I crave a burger in this city, I’m heading straight to Côte Rôtie to satisfy my burger brain! Melt-in-the-mouth would be an understatement… to say the least.

French Burger

We ended with their Chocolate Tart and for the first time in months, I couldn’t care less about the calories I was about to consume because that pure block of chocolate with an oreo crust only promised real cocoa flavors. I gobbled down the strawberry it came with, because it’s fruit - you know… healthy and all!

Chocolate Tart

As you can tell, I had a pret-tay awesome experience at Côte Rôtie. You can feel the appreciation and passion for food in the air of that little place and I would go out of my way to acknowledge the rare places that offer top quality cuisine. 

Merci, Côte Rôtie. You made my day(s)!

Dubai Diaries : Day 1 - A taste of the Arabian sea

Spring just got a whole lot better when my dad suggested a spontaneous trip to our second home – Dubai. I didn’t inherit wanderlust from my family and usually just appreciate travel with a motive, but after 4 topsy-turvy months a break was much due.

Emirates decided to serve us black lamb cubes with a dodgy looking curry (contrary to the exotic descriptions in their menu) during our flight from Karachi to Dubai but hey, I’m not complaining because at least now I know why those vomit bags are necessary. Brrr.

Dubai never fails to amuse me. It’s the only brown-dominated city with high-rise buildings, high ways, Tim Horton’s, legit metros and the largest mall in the world – to say the least.

We hit the infamous Jumeirah Beach Residence (JBR) for a pleasant evening out on our first day. More commonly known as “The Walk”, this strip gives home to diverse eateries spread out in abundance. The entire layout is quite pleasing actually – the glitzy view of the beach, pavements covered with the hustle bustle of all restaurant customers and a few unique, high end shops that are not found at the malls.

We fleet through the entire road till our growling stomachs were driven to Aprons & Hammers – our choice for the evening.

I’m not too big on seafood, except shrimps, but my Dubai-settled uncle convinced me that I had no idea what I was on about until I ate there. We were too hangry (hungry + angry, incase you missed my genius, unoriginal collaboration of words in the blog name) to argue and settled for the claws I would have had to struggle with.The concise menu made it easy for us to weigh our options and the very courteous server suggested the right amounts for our party of six!

The complimentary breadbasket was so fresh that we attacked the poor thing like biryani served at a Valima (I couldn’t even take a picture of the whole thing as served)… and we had to sheepishly ask for another one after a stretched seven minutes.

We were given our own aprons, allowing us to be as messy as we wanted and the server showed us disposable plastic gloves that we could use.  The Shrimp Cocktail was the first to arrive as a starter, and I honestly don’t have another clichéd word other than DELICIOUS.

The portion of shrimps was quite generous and unlike many other places, the dish was as simple as shrimps served with sauce so one could cover the shrimp as desired. It wasn’t layered with too many greens, nor were they pre-mixed in their in-house creation of the cocktail sauce. The Shrimp Cocktail was pretty much perfect.

Prawn Cocktail

Up next were our lavish platters and buckets. We ordered a Grilled Lobster Platter with Pepper Cream Sauce, a Mussels Bucket with Lemon Butter Sauce, and a Shrimp Bucket with and Olive Oil mix of Garlic and Lemon.

The shell-covered shrimps were rather flavorsome, and the sauces were well blended to the insides of the little guys. I especially enjoyed the mild hit of garlic that was felt at the end of every shrimp. These fellas topped my list.

Grilled Shrimps Bucket

Though not a fan of the creature, I tried the Lobsters and was relatively surprised that I enjoyed it!! The sauce actually was brilliant – a very zestful combination of flavors and the creamy texture really hit the nail. Again, I personally am not too keen on eating lobsters and hence wasn’t too comfortable struggling to dig out its meat from the shell, however, the others at the table guzzled down the entire platter. Special mention of the sauce again, I kept dunking my fingers in to have more.

Grilled Lobster Bucket

Mussels

It was my first time with Mussels and my feelings switched from disgust to devour. My dad forced me to spoon out just one to taste, and see below a portion of my plate to gauge how that story ended! They were divine. Period.

Trick:

1. Break the upper shell from where it joins the one which carries the meat
2. Scoop the mussel meat with the empty shell as a spoon
3. Drink the leftover sauce from the shell directly
4. Cry out of happiness.

After our Desi appetites had been fulfilled, we were given a bowl of lukewarm water with lemon & mint to wash our hands with. I felt royal.

For dessert we opted for the Cheesecake 101 with Strawberry Sauce and the Sensational Chocolate Fondant.

The cheesecake was nothing to write home about but the chocolate fondant was as sensational as its name suggested, still not the best one I’ve had though.

Aprons & Hammers was an enjoyable experience and I definitely don’t mind going there again. Even though it’s a little steep on the pocket, I’d say the servings make up for it.

I’m proud of myself. First, walking The Walk and then the Mussels.

#highlifeDubai?

A-mews-ing Day!

After an extremely unpredictable winter and a humid March, this city finally showed some signs of spring today. My garden looked extra colorful in the morning and the calm, cloudy weather filled the air with a rainy sort of smell. That, by the way, has a name- “Petrichor” meaning the scent of rain. Pretty, isn’t it?

I reminisced my two years of college in London and though I moved back by choice, living there did have it’s own aura of pleasure. The old-school buildings, cozy restaurants, being able to walk anywhere, sigh!

A banging knock on my car window totally interrupted my thoughts by someone dressed up like Mimi from The Drew Carey Show who promised me a bunch of prayers for a couple of bucks! 

My father, cousin, her munchkin of a baby and I headed to the now famous “E Street” in Clifton to grab a good lunch after Friday prayers.

Mews… mews, mews, mews, mews, MEWS! It’s a pleasure returning to this thoughtfully set up restaurant. It gives the feel of walking into one of those little cafes set up in the insides of St Christopher’s Place behind Bond Street, London. 

Rumor has it, Feeha Jamshed is opening an outlet right next to it - can’t wait!

My 16-month-old niece seemed to be famous and a regular there as a server popped up right as we got seated with the menus and a board listing the specials of the day.  Little child even won us a complimentary, fresh bread basket!

My stomach, heart and brain had a nerve-wrenching debate over whether I should order their No Fuss Burger or the Korean Beef Bowl. I could live my life off burgers. Really, if I had to choose between lifelong love and burgers – it would be the latter (medium rare with extra cheese… just incase my fiancé decides to use this as an opportunity).

Since I’m being adventurous nowadays and having tried their top-class burger before, I opted for the beef bowl which arrived along with the others’ club sandwiches and hot & spicy flatbread.

The flatbread was so hot and fresh, so easy on the tummy. My cousin, previously a fan of a similar pizza at Xander’s said that she didn’t even go there since Mews blessed us with its existence. I loved the gigantic platter it was served on.

According to my father, a publicly acclaimed foodie, the cold cuts in the sandwich gave it more of a generic club sandwich taste than a signature Mews' standard one. I tried it too, and agreed that maybe it isn’t not the best one in town.

He has yet to eat a good club sandwich in this city – until now, his own tops our list.

I seem to be having a fantastic culinary week, and the spicy Korean bowl did not disturb my pattern. So full of flavors and a very authentic, oriental taste indeed – I thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing with a perfect egg, sunny-side-up.

Paired with the mint lemonade (Sparkling Mint, I think) and the birthday milkshake our food was a pleasure on the taste buds.

Mews is the pandora’s box of goods in Karachi’s food scene. From the ambience, to the food, and contrary to popular belief – the service was pretty good too.

PS: Don’t be buzzkilled when you exit the London zone and instead of a tube station, you collide with an eager beaver valet guy arguing with a Sindhi security guard in Pashto! 

Aakhir, Karachi toh phir Karachi hai hee…..