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)!

Je t'aime, mon Café Rolle

Sometimes you just want to be able to be in a completely different setting or place than the one you are in, for a short period. I know that I wake up many mornings and say, “I want to go to Timbuktu!” (Side note: If this city gained one penny for every time it was mentioned in a random reference, it would’ve been led by a Sheikh), or “I want to be in Madagascar”.

This particular day I woke up feeling a little classy and raised my eyebrow to “I need to go to Paris”. I’ve always had a dramatic vision of the city and loved the idea of it in my head, but unfortunately never had the chance to actually go visit; maybe on my honeymoon – eligible bachelor, wherever you are, are you listening? Hello?

Anyhow, the weather was so lovely that evening, and we decided to head out to Sacramento for a good meal. Through her research, my sister had found a small French café that was mentioned in Yelp’s Top 100 Places to Eat in the U.S, located in East Sacramento.

We arrived at Café Rolle without any difficulties and noticed that it was, indeed, quite a small yet, cozy café.  As you walk in, there’s the sweetest chorus of “Bonjour!” and you are led to your table.

The café is decorated with bright walls that are covered with frames, pictures and paintings. I absolutely enjoyed the open kitchen with an open window, where the chef flashes an adorable smile every so often! 

Click here to get a feel of the restaurant.

Chef William Rolle sneaking me a smile! :D

This restaurant is owned by Chef William Rolle who is there to bring his family recipes that date back to his father in Lyon, France, right to our palates. You can feel the homeliness in the friendly, family-oriented atmosphere.

This restaurant actually featured in Diner’s, Dine-ins & Dives with Guy Fieri. Click here to see (05:36 onwards).

Some of Chef William Rolle’s recipes can be found at foodnetwork.com too.

Coming back, this ‘sandwicherie’ has a super to-the-point menu that consists of small plates, salads and sandwiches! A crazy sandwich galore indeed!

Our server came to brief us up with the bestsellers and honestly, between us, I think his voice was one of the hot sellers! He goes by the name of Nico Chandler, very assistive and friendly and oh God when he spoke, my sister had to ask him if he sang!! Turns out he was a singer, an opera singer if I’m not mistaken. Really appreciated his highly ambitious attitude towards life.

Anyway, for starters we ordered their Chilled Salmon served with fresh dill and crème fraiche, Chilled Foie Gras, and Chicken Breast Pate Plate.

As told to us by Nico, their salmon was voted best in Sacramento since 13 years! I’m not a salmon eater, at all, and I’ve declared myself as psychologically allergic to it but this fresh slab of fish did NOT get me gagging! Really flavorful and definitely the best-looking salmon I’ve ever seen. Also, it’s the chef’s special family recipe and we all know that everything world-class is always found in a home kitchen!
I like pates. They’re tricky to get right, and clearly Café Rolle figured the trick out. I loved it here.

Left: Chicken Breast Pate Right: Chilled Salmon with creme faiche

It was my first time having Foie Gras, and am certainly glad I spent the special moment here. If I were to not get into its technicalities, it was really just a God-sent piece from heaven that had the ability to melt in your mouth and tear your eyes up out of sheer gratitude for the man who created it. Basically.

Chilled Foie Gras

These were just starters, by the way, the “small plates”. Our main course consisted of Croque Lamb Monsieur, Hot Prawns Sandwich, and the Croque Chicken Monsieur.

After the arrival of my Hot Prawns Sandwich, Chef William Rolle himself brought the other two sandwiches and with his sweet, contagious smile prompted us to “bon appetit”.

Croque Lamb Monsieur takes meat sandwiches to a whole different level. It’s not your average “roast lamb” sort of sandwich. You can taste the high quality meat with its fresh, moist taste surrounded with a generous touch of fat – remarkable!

The dressing on their Spring Mixed Salad served on the side was fantastic, by the way! They seem to nail everything.

Croque Lamb Monsieur

The Croque Chicken Monsieur was investigated thoroughly by each of us because there was no way a chicken breast fillet could be that moist and tender. But what can we say? It was just that beautifully cooked! There’s a hint of pesto that tickles the taste buds and definitely makes you pray for the sandwich to not end. Ever. (Chicken sandwiches aren’t something I usually crave since they’re always available everywhere in clichéd forms but this – I, damn well, crave right now!)

Croque Chicken Monsieur

Saved this one for the last because HOLY COW IT RAISED MY SANDWICH STANDARD TO A COMPLETELY UNREACHABLE LEVEL!

The Hot Prawns Sandwich is like nothing I’ve ever had in my entire life. I’ve forgotten to mention that their breads are absolutely fantastic and the temperature that they serve their hot sandwiches at is solely perfection.

Every devoured bite experiences layers of flavors.

You chew into a hot quality bread, feel a piece of a perfectly cooked tiger prawn make its way through followed by oozing Gruyere cheese, and this entire episode of a bite is constantly splashed with flavors of pesto that does not overpower any other flavor. If that doesn’t sound good, what in the world does? Totally worth the long, descriptive sentence.

I could go on about this sandwich but I suggest you head to Café Rolle to discover the feeling.

Hot Prawns Sandwich

We concluded the meal with the best Toffee Crème Brulee, rather one of the best Crème Brulee’s I have ever had. This one you can judge for yourself below!

Toffee Creme Brulee

I hope this video loads for you. If not, CLICK HERE to get to my instagram account

(Psst, if you listen close enough you will hear Nico's voice saying "you're welcome" right at the end... sigh)

After a beautiful meal, I had no other option but to go compliment the chef through his adorable window and ask for his name to remember this experience forever.

To my pleasant surprise, this friendly chef not only gave me a virtual autograph on my Samsung Galaxy Note 4, but also allowed me to come into the kitchen and take a picture with the Café Rolle crew, AND I got to have a selfie with him too!!!!

Team Cafe Rolle 

Selfie with Chef William Rolle <3 <3

The day & age of virtual signatures!

Thank you Mr. William Rolle, for one of the best experiences I’ve ever had and for being one of the most humble chefs ever!

Houston Diairies : Down House - The memorable restaurant!

Between my last blog and this, I’ve had a roller coaster of life-changing events. I’m not whom I started out to write as, which is a good thing because now I can be adventurous and dramatic like the way I had wanted to be.

Let’s just say, “it’s not that my standards are too high, it’s just that my father has set an amazing example for how a man should treat me”.

Fast-forwarding the mind boggling fiasco, my aunt and elder brother called me straight down to Texas for some change of air! The landing announcement to Houston after 14-something hours was as soothing as hugging my mom after four months, but I’m not going to lie – Qatar Airways made my journey absolutely wonderful!

Besides the limitless pampering by the entire family, I was treated to the finest of restaurants and cuisines. Grateful for being a part of a line of food-lovers, and I’m even luckier to have a chef brother!

On my second night in town, we decided to have dinner at Down House, a restaurant that my brother works in as a line cook. I obviously chose the day he was on duty, so I could take the customer advantage of sending sarcastic compliments to my darling chef. Hah!

Situated on Yale Street, Houston, Down House has a very casual and comfortable feel to it. We walked into a softly lit pub decorated with vintage, yet classy furniture and were greeted by an extremely welcoming staff member. The weather was absolutely beautiful so we chose to sit outside.

The menus were already placed on the table, which our friendly server skimmed through with us. While we contemplated over what to order, I requested the server to inform “Chef Fahd” inside, of my arrival. Everything in the restaurant’s concise menu sounded particularly simple and appetizing and it actually became hard to choose!

 For starters, we ordered the Mushroom on Toast and Lettuce Wraps.

I bit into the Mushroom on Toast with a burst of flavors filling my mouth from goat cheese to egg to the salty kick of soy sauce. What a well-blended display of mushrooms, I tell you. I don’t know if we were exceptionally hungry or what it was, because we gobbled down the generous serving within the first two minutes.

Mushroom on Toast

The lettuce wraps were DIY that were served with lettuce, grilled chicken, fried onions, cilantro and a Down House made sweet chili sauce. I smiled when the lettuce wraps came to our table because the first thing that caught my eye were the fried onions. Used in almost all Eastern dishes, freshly fried onions aka “tali hui pyaz” is a daily feature in every Pakistani home kitchen. I successfully assembled a non-breaking wrap for myself and thoroughly enjoyed the different flavors that were enclosed in a crisp leaf of lettuce.

Lettuce Wrap

 Majority of the reviews about Down House raved about the Kimchi Burger, which is exactly what my uncle and I decided to order for ourselves.

I’ve often pondered over what I would do if I ever reached a point where I would have to choose between burgers or a life partner. This Kimchi Burger has given me my answer. A burger topped with an egg is already a treat; now imagine world-class kimchi layered between that and the melted slice of cheese. Boy, that was one heck of a party in my mouth I tell you. Every ingredient found its way to tickle my palette and the perfectly cooked patty made this brilliantly executed dish simply marvelous! Full points!

Kimchi Burger

 My sister-in-law, the chef’s other half, ordered the Bistro Steak which came with a complementing sauce of Cilantro Raita! Hurray, more eastern variety!

Raita, FYI:

 I absolutely loved this fusion surprise. Typically, the idea of steak is very sophisticated and is normally served with peppercorn or mushroom sauce, but this cilantro raita made it minty cool and totally fantastic to the tongue! Also, the medium steak was cooked perfectly.

Bistro Steak

My aunt went for the Chicken Fried Portobello. Sometimes you really don’t need meat, interestingly cooked vegetables can be just as tasteful and filling. Non-greasy, fresh, hot, crisp and delicious batter, with creamy and melt-in-the-mouth mashed potatoes on the side. Great choice.

Chicken Fried Portobello

Everything was served in pretty decent portions and I was so stuffed that I was expecting to see Homer Simpson opposite me if I stood in front of the mirror.

But what a meal it was, enjoyed every bit of it. I even sat there and expressed my dream to live in Houston so I could out here and hang out every single day! I get overexcited about things, okay?

Bummed that my brother was too busy in the kitchen and couldn’t come out to even say hello, I declined the dessert offer. Whad’ya know, the door opened and my sweetheart of a brother walked out with a plate of a beautiful brownie dessert topped with a candle. An early birthday surprise!!!!! Eek, I was shrieking like a little girl when everyone sang to me including Chef Fahd – I felt so special. I could tell he was a fidgeting to get back inside to work but there was no way I would let the chef get away without a selfie!

Chef Fahd - My bro <3

We devoured in the moist and unbelievably tasty, and hot brownie. So glad we got to have a dessert, I would have definitely missed out on it! Perfect way to conclude our meals.

Super sweet servers wished me a very happy birthday and we headed out home. Down House has to be one of my favorite restaurant experiences. Great food, wonderful ambience, efficient service and ofcourse awesome chefs ;)

Here’s a secret note that I asked to be delivered to Chef Fahd:

Thank you, God for all the amazing food and reminding me that love is all around me!

PS: Instagram @hangrywords