Foccacia at Cafe Brio in 'Crosswords' and fruit cocktail at 'Madhuban'

I happened to go to 'Crosswords' bookstore at Sohrab hall along with a friend.

'Crosswords' was my favourite bookstore till 'Landmark' opened their shop in Pune

The Crosswords bookstore has a nice cafe inside the store called "Cafe Brio".
In my opinion, it's on the expensive side for the portions they serve.

I was feeling very hungry and ordered an oven roasted herbed Foccacia costing Rs 90.
This came with green/red peppers roasted in olive oil. The oven warmed Foccacia tasted absolutely wonderful. Infact the whole combination was excellent. I liberally also used the mustard paste they provided. Loved it

After that I did some shopping at Pune central and walked around Dhole Patil road. Had a fruit cocktail at 'Madhuban'. It is very good and actually very filling!. (contains juice of papaya, apple, grapes etc. Unique combination)

'Rioja' wines

'Rioja' that very name brings back images of Spain.

I visted Spain, Portugal and Morocco in Yr 2005. I would describe the tour details some other time.

But the first time I heard the name 'Rioja' was actually much later. 'Rioja' is region in Spain where the world famous Spanish wines made from Tempranillo grape come from.

Recently when waiting on Istanbul airport, I came across a counter selling Bodegas Faustino VII red wine from the Rioja region with a DOC label (similar to French AOC)

I was supposed to carry back the bottle but opened it and had a sip of the wine

It was absolutely amazing. Incredibly smooth...sublime feeling...
I have become a fan of 'Rioja' since then! Hard to find this wine in Pune.
But I am always on the lookout. If anyone of you can come across this thing of beauty, please get back to me!

I hope this explains the reason behind my profile name (Rioja) and also my blog

Diwali special meal + 'Underberg'

Had a wonderful and a very typical Maharashtrian dinner yesterday
Batata bhaji (Potato vegetable), bharli wangi (Stuffed eggplant), Kakdi koshimbir (Cucumber salad), Suralichi wadi (Wafer thin rolls made up of gram flour), Basundi (sweet thickened Milk with lots of fat and mixed with dryfruits), masale bhat (Rice with lots of spices), mattha (Buttermilk flavoured with coriander, ginger), Papads etc

Some of the readers will need to excuse me for my English description. Its just meant to be a quick summary.

After such a heavy meal, I was feeling stuffed and decided to take few sips of that wonderful natural digestif 'Underberg'. This digestif is made up from close to 50 different plant extracts from equal number of countries. It has a strong anise flavour. I haven't figured out whether digestif helps! But I like the drink. Few sips over ice and you feel good! I bought couple of boxes of 'Underberg' when waiting on Istanbul aiport to catch my return flight back to Mumbai

Here is a link to the Underberg company website
http://www.underberg.de/index/en/flash/Intro-Flash.html

'Diwali' show time

It's the first day of Diwali today. The firecrackers are already bursting around and everywhere it is a festive season.

But there is strong attempt to curb the firecracker noise pollution and there are many communities actively encouraging people to avoid buying very noisy firecrackers

The morning breakfast was the very traditional "Diwali faral" consisting of 'ladoos' (sweets), chivdas (spiced up thin rice puffs) , 'chaklis' etc

Yesterday evening I dropped into Pune Central mall on Ganeshkhind road and was pleasantly surprised to see a shop on the last floor called "The liquid hut".

This is an exclusive wine and beer shop. Bought myself a 375 ml bottle of N.D wines "Cabernet Syrah". Interesting that they use the word 'Syrah' while on their single varietal they use the word 'Shiraz'. Both mean the same thing but it's just another marketing gimmick. (unless someone can explain). Syrah is how the French term it while Shiraz is made popular by Australians.

The Pune central mall on Ganeshkhind road has a decent food court. Was tempted to packup some nice sandwiches but eventually ended up eating at 'Rangoli' (South Indian restaurant on Law College road). I like 'Rangoli' although it dosen't match up to Vaishali & Rupali. The reason I like it is because I always get a place to sit! Their sambar is sweet catering to the sweet tastes of Puneris!

The other thing which caught my attention was the restaurant Little Italy's La Pizzeria restaurant on Ganeshkhind road. Vow! this place is famous for vegeterian Italian food and the first restaurant is Koregoan park area. Restaurant on Ganeshkhind road makes it convinient for me.

Greek odyssey , Turkish splendour and finally Greek restaurant in Pune

Recently I vacationed in Turkey and Greece.

Istanbul, that wonderful city in Turkey bridging Asia and Europe mesmerized me. The pace of the city is wonderful. The city scape of mosques, minars and very trendy Turkish women dressed in European attire just creates a magnetic and pulsating place.

Cruise on the Bosphorous strait, Aiya Sofia, The Blue Mosque creates a postcard friendly city. This is the place which stayed forever in my mind after I watched Sean Connery's "From Russia with Love". Yes it's shot in Istanbul. This is the city that I have always wanted to visit for a long time. The mornings are especially wonderful in Istanbul. People getting ready to goto their workplaces, stopping by in cafes to enjoy Turkish coffee, Turkish breads.
Even the guy who was selling roasted hazelnuts was impeccably dressed



In Greece, the ionic islands, the Plaka district in Athens, the wonderful Roman influence city of Naphlio, the amazing greek food (dolmathes (grapevine leaves stuffings, Horiatiki (greek salad), Spanakopita (spinach wrapped in phyllo pastry, Yemista (hollowed vegetables like tomatoes filled with a stuffing of lemony herbed rice and lots of olive oil), Greek breads made my trip memorable

Here's one of my favourite sites on Greek cuisine
http://www.greecefoods.com/

Ouzo, the greek aperitif made up of anise/liquorice was drunk neat! I was sitting on the deck of the cruise heading to the island of Hydra and the winds were very strong and chilly. The warm sip of ouzo was just what I needed. Its normally mixed with water and had as an aperitif.

In Pune, if you happen to go to the pricey but very romantic Greek restaurant (The Greek Taverna) located at Four Seasons Apartment hotel in Aundh, you will be able to enjoy Ouzo there. Authentic Ouzo needs to be mixed with little water and it should turn cloudy!

"The Greek Taverna" does serve some very fine cuisine and the ambience is incredible. It's expensive (Rs 1000 per person roughly) but then it is a great experience.

Chateau d'Ori

Since I stay in India and am a wine enthusiast, naturally I am following the exciting wine market in India very closely. There are hundreds of wine makers appearing in the market but unfortunately very few good ones. But I have a strange feeling that in roughly 10 years, India will dominate the lower end wines in the world. Whether that happens or not is something which dosen't concern.
I have truly started enjoying Indian wines

One of the most impressive wines that I have recently tasted is Chateau d'Ori Merlot. I have a bottle with me right now and after I complete blogging for the day, I am going to go and get some nice food and drink it with this lovely wine

I find this wine less fruity actually than typical Merlots. But it is soft and has an warm aroma.

The taste of the wine really came bursting through when I had it with very soft bread and slices of Austrian mozarella cheese. I can't get over that incredible feeling!

Chateau d'Ori have a very impressive website too!
http://www.chateaudori.com/

I haven't tried their Cabernet Syrah yet. I am told it's very expensive. But neverthless for a wine enthusiast, that is secondary!.

I don't believe at this stage that pairing this wine with spicy Indian food is going to go necessarily well. But I am going to try. An nice egg curry, bread and a glass of Chateau d'Ori Merlot! Way to go!

Closing the blog for the day

Indian wines

I started my journey in experiencing the world of food, drinks and travel when I completed my engineering and started working. My work took me to United States and I worked their for few years. It's just is a fabulous country to experience world cuisine. But tastes do mature with time and true to my nature, I have always had a drive to seek authenticity in food and drinks.

Goulash in Hungary, Pizza in Italy, Indian food in India! That's really my approach!

So apart from work, I have remained an avid traveller and have been travelling to many parts of the world experiencing local customs, local food and ofcourse drinks!

Over the years I have seen my hometown changing...Greek food in Pune was never heard of but it's there today and it rocks!

The more I travel and the more I experience different cuisines, the more it makes me proud of being an Indian! Because the diversity of India in culture, language, customs and food is almost hard to believe!

So this blog is going to be about world cuisine, drinks, travel but always keeping an Indian connection somewhere. Wines from India, Italian restaurants in Pune, Swiss food in Pune, Udipi food in Pune... beer in Czech republic...

Hi,
I live in the beautiful city of Pune, in India. I am a food, drinks, travel enthusiast and would like to share my experiences with people from different parts of the world (especially India). This is really my first attempt at creating a blog.