The official PoshVine blog. PoshVine is a community marketplace to offer, discover and book unique experiences. Live a richer life.
At PoshVine, we get the privilege of dining out often and sample the best a restaurant has to offer. Such dine-outs often capture a varied tapestry of moods and how good food immediately infuses many emotions. We are putting up a few pics as an attempt to marry the food we eat to the expressions and moods.
Summer is the time for light, fresh flavors, leisurely lunches and the first al fresco dinner parties. For a beverage that suits the mood, play mixologist for a day with the season’s ripe fruit, showcased in the recipes below. With unusual combinations and exotic ingredients, these drinks are simple to mix and sure to impress.
Minted Hibiscus and Raspberry
Iced tea takes gets a new attitude in this recipe with a hefty splash of tequila. Fresh raspberries, chopped mint and Grand Marnier add fresh flavor boosts to the finished product, which is perfect for making ahead and serving a group.
Spring White Sangria
This refreshing spin on traditional sangria combines white wine and passion fruit juice with grapes, litchis and winter’s last pears. Serve it at a luncheon as an alternative to basic white or rosé wine.
Orange Blossom Gin Fizz
This lively cocktail calls for yuzu, whose flavor is similar to grapefruit and mandarin. Don’t be discouraged by the exotic ingredient, though — you can substitute any citrus fruit here to complement the gin.
Over the last few weeks, some of you who had been following us, would have noticed our experiments with the blog. I want to take this opportunity to explain our approach, take a peek into our plans and our mission and also to revive this blog, which many of you have enjoyed in the past.
PoshVine was started with the mission to help people discover and enjoy awesome experiences. We decided to focus on dining experiences because that’s what was closest to our hearts. We decided that we will become the personal dining concierge for you, and offer you insider access to a set of handpicked and curated restaurants in the city. We focused on only premium restaurants, restaurants where we would love to dine out. As a startup, we faced usual teething problems with processes, trust, manpower and resources, but I am proud to say that the few individuals that have been with us from Day 1 have been able to create an awesome user experience, an amazing technological backbone for providing this service and a relentless drive to get the best dining experiences listed on the website.
Along the way, we introduced a section called SELECTS - which offers limited-time gourmet safaris, culinary adventures and access to unlisted events. We’ve organized innovative workshops and private dining experiences and buoyed by its success, we also introduced an Annual Subscription.
Coming back to our core mission, today, we are at the crossroads of taking the next big leap while staying true to our commitment of helping people discover great experiences through community. At the same time, we remain focused on proving amazing content to you on a regular basis.
Going forward, we will continue to invest more on getting your favorite restaurants on board. Aggressively.Faster. Easier. Today, you can easily book your tables through your mobile and just arrive at the restaurant and enjoy a discreet discount. You can not only search by Cuisine and Neighbourhood, but you can also search by Ambience to figure out the perfect dining destination for you. Moreover, as your concierge, you can always give us a call to help you plan any occasion that you may want to celebrate.
We have huge plans for our SELECTS vertical. I will not be able to share more details at this stage, but we believe through our redefined SELECTS platform,PoshVine will bring to you undiscovered local experiences like never before. In the process, we will contribute to the community, to entrepreneurship and to enriching lives. Stay tuned for more updates on this front!
At the very core of PoshVine, is our ability to provide efficient yield management solutions for premium restaurants. Very soon, you will be able to easily book your tables the way you want it, from anywhere you want, at your own watch, on your own terms. At PoshVine, we believe that we can offer you personalized, better, more premium experiences (not just discounts) when you reserve your tables either through your phone or online, and we remain committed to helping you do so.
Along the way, we hope to enrich a few lives, including ours!
Happy grubbing, and don’t forget to reserve your tables every time you dine out. Complain to us, if you think anything’s amiss. Tell us you want this restaurant to be featured. Tell us if we are doing a shoddy job.
Foodies are kind of taking over the world. This can be good (ask anyone to watch Highway on My Plate or Nigella’s Kitchen with you, and they will probably be into it) and bad (how many different types of salt are there?). You may not know what a sous vide machine is, but the girl from work who is pretty and funny sure does, so what do you do?
Some people are super passionate about what they eat and that will play a major role in who they date. So if you make plans with a cute guy or girl at the bar who has indicated he or she is a foodie, you’ll need to be prepared just as you would if that person was a music nerd, book worm, or political junkie. Here are some strategies.
1. Maybe Don’t Use the Word “Foodie”
“Oh, so you’re a foodie?” has weirdly become a slight insult. Try “Do you like to cook?” instead, if the person has mentioned a serious interest in eating.
2. Ask Questions
This is what I do when it comes to sports. Did I know a single thing about what was happening during the Super Bowl? Heck, no. But in the weeks leading up, I started with “Who are you rooting for?” and began to pick up some names and opinions. I didn’t pretend like I knew about those players or had those opinions, but I used them to ask more questions. Start with “What’s your favorite food?” or “What restaurants do you like to go to?” and go from there. Be sure to remember the answers. It will at least show that you’re interested and it will take the pressure off you to do the talking about something you don’t have an expertise in. Classic negotiation tactic.
3. Don’t Fake It
There’s nothing more annoying than someone who pretends to know or thinks he knows something that he is clearly clueless about. It’s not that your opinion doesn’t matter — it definitely should if your date is worth your time — but let her have her thing if it’s important to her and just be honest. This is especially true when it comes to choosing wines to go with your dish. In Bangalore, check out Paparazzi at the royal Orchid Hotel, Rogue Elephant Terrace Bistro, Casa Raviera and Fujiyama - all at Koramangala, each boasting a great collection of wines with specific advice on wine pairing, all at 25% savings off your entire bill.
4. Don’t Even Think About Going to a Chain Restaurant
This sounds basic, but don’t even joke about it. You will be cut so fast, you won’t have time to blink. But a foodie will definitely have that knowledge.There is one exception, however. Most foodies will have one special chain restaurant that they allow themselves as a guilty pleasure. It very likely has some significant sentimental value, like his family always went to Starkes’ when he was a kid. Save that knowledge for when you’re a bit closer and can surprise him with a Big Daddy Burger when he’s sick (but shh, don’t tell anyone).
5. Appeal to His/Her Sense of Adventure
There are many reasons why your date might consider herself a foodie. Maybe she just likes to go out a lot, or maybe she loves to stay in and cook (Does she have a blog? Read that asap!). Maybe she loves to read the glossy gourmet magazines, or maybe she has a crush on the irreverent Anthony Bourdain or closer home, Manu Chandra. So the way to impress a foodie is definitely not always “Take her to a fancy, chef-driven restaurant.” Since your date is immersed in her hobby, try an under-the-radar ethnic spot or pop-up restaurant in an effort to expose her to something new. You don’t have to kill yourself over it, but do a little Internet research or ask around — everyone knows somebody who is a foodie. And of such restaurants, options abound on PoshVine - your personal dining concierge.
Having grown up listening to the mushy Cuppy Cake number by Amy J, the very image of a rich indulgent cake would personify the ones I adore and if you are reading this with a crooked lip smile, you sure share your love of cakes with me and with million others who melt at the very mention of scrumptious cakes and luscious icings.
Baking is a rare art with very few masters having perfected it, but having said that, no cake is worth mentioning unless it is immersed in dollops of whipped cream, a rich flavourful sauce, fistful of nuts or coloured candies to add the Midas touch to it. From the very clichéd cream frosting to its more evolutionary counterparts, icings are what differentiate a good cake from a great cake. To a layman, icing merely means a creamy rich layer with a topping or two to make the cake look aesthetically and visually appealing, but a connoisseur alone knows how an innovative icing can become the Wow factor for it.
If you have a penchant for baking and haven’t dirtied your hands along the realm of cake icings yet, here are a few basic icing procedures for those aureate and mellow cakes, and of course you can tweak them to gratify your creative instincts or satiate your sweet cravings.
Buttercream Icing/Mock Icing
An indulgent combination of butter and sugar, whipped till it forms soft white peaks. Fats like margarine are also used in variation to prepare this icing; one can add flavour and colour to suit their preference.
Fondant Icing
The adorable and dainty cake structures with patterns and designs are primarily made using this frosting. Prepared by mixing water sugar, lemon, gelatine and flavour, this tends to gain a creamy consistency and gradually thickens like dough on mixing.
A delectable and drool worthy mixture of dark chocolate and white chocolate is used to make ganache. Owing to its brilliant matte texture this can also be used for cake decoration by filling it in the pipe. A word of caution however is to pair this icing form with only heavy cakes so as to ensure it does not overwhelm the cake’s flavour or texture.
Royal Icing
The edible cake decorations like flowers, dolls and other cuddly toys are formed using royal icing. It combines together the white of eggs, icing sugar and a few drops of acetic acid, to form a hard rock like structure on whipping.
Glaze icing
At PoshVine, we all believe in the mantra “Work Hard, party harder.” And when we do party, we’re somehow almost always disappointed with the gourmet fare at many places. At most night clubs in Bangalore, when we’re having a good time, we’re almost always disappointed by the grub served. Chicken wings, nachos, potato skins, apparently serve up as a hearty meal. We beg to differ. That most certainly does NOT qualify as a great dinner for us.
The Chicken Ham wrapped Chicken Breast which is which is in a cognac cream sauce and served with micro greens and paprika mash definitely keeps you coming back. And if you feel sinful, we suggest the Excess Chocolate for dessert (melted chocolate over a brownie with ice cream) – ONLY if you are feeling sinful. Before transforming into a dance floor for Salsa groovers on a Sunday night, Casa del Sol plays host to an exuberant fun fair brunch on Sunday mornings. The brunch begins at 11 a.m. and has many events that will keep you entertained – tarot card reading, mehendi area, pottery station, children’s painting area – all of this in an open ambience with the Sunday breeze and easily the best weekend brunch in Bangalore. They have’ Make your own Pasta’ station, which enables you to choose your sauce, type of pasta, choice of meats and vegetables. And, the best part, they offer unlimited beer and vodka based cocktails with the brunch! A great deal, trust us. J
The best Shish kabab in town according to uscan be found in Sufi, Koramanagala, where they serve a plethora of kababs andPersian delicacies, but the Shish kabab is a clear winner for us.
Doner Kabab
If you’re wondering what that meant, its’ just ‘Happy Onam’ in Malayalam! :-)
We, at PoshVine, love to celebrate all Indian festivals with great aplomb. While we do like to commemorate special religious occasions, our main reason is honestly the yummy dishes that are associated with these festivals (yes, we are THAT shameless when it comes to food) :-)
And since the festival season has begun, one of our favourite festivals Onam, is here and we couldn’t resist not writing about it. Well, who doesn’t love Onam, especially the traditional Mallu food bit (considering that’s all the bit we love) – Aviyal, Kootucurry, Payasam. Mmmm.
Confused? Let PoshVine help you out.
Onam is the largest festival in the Indian state of Kerala. It falls during the first month of the Malayalam calendar which is Chingam (August–September) and marks the homecoming of the legendary King Mahabali. The festival lasts for ten days and is linked to many elements of Kerala’s culture and tradition. Kerala’s rice harvest festival and the festival of rain flowers which fell on the Malayalam month of Chingam celebrated the annual visit from pathalam[Hell] of the very noble Demon King Mahabali. Onam is unique since king Mahabali is revered by people of Kerala from prehistory. Intricate flower carpets, elaborate banquet lunch, snake boat races, Puli Kali, and the Kaikottikkali dance all play a part in the festival.
Now, the important part: food.
Onam is always associated with the delicious, endless Sadya. What is Sadya, you ask?Sadya is a big feast associated with special occasions like wedding,childbirth or birthday. Sadya is traditionally a vegetarian meal served on a banana leaf. People are seated cross-legged on the floor on a mat. All the dishes are served on the leaf and the food is eaten with the hands without using any cutlery. The fingers are cupped to form a ladle.
A Sadya can have about 24-28 dishes served as a single course. The reason for including so many dishes in the Sadya is to ensure that the diners will like at least two or three dishes. The dishes are served on specific places on the banana leaf in specific order. For example, the pickles are served on the top left corner and the banana on the bottom left corner, which helps the waiters to easily identify and decide on offering additional servings. To make you happy, we’ve given you recipes on 6 quintessential dishes for Onam Sadya:.
1. Avial:
The dish which every Mallu swears by! While there is also a rock band by the same name, we’ll stick to writing about the dish. It is mainly a semi-dry preparation which is a mixture of popular Kerala vegetables in curd and spices.
Ingredients:
4 cups mixed vegetables (ash gourd, raw banana, yam, cluster beans, snake gourd, drumsticks, potato, cucumber, pumpkin and carrots)
½ cup sliced green mango (optional)
½ tsp turmeric powder
1 cup fresh grated coconut
1 tsp cumin seeds
7-10 green chilies
Salt to taste
1 cup sour curds
5 tsp coconut oil
1 sprig of curry leaves
Method:
Boil 2 cups water in a pan. Add the vegetables and turmeric
Simmer till the vegetables are tender. Mix well.
Grind the coconut, cumin seeds and green chilies to a fine paste. Add salt.
Add the paste to the vegetables and mix well.
Simmer the mixture for 10 minutes.
Stir in the curds and cook for 2 min.
Add the coconut oil (uncooked) and curry leaves.
Serve with rice.
2. Sambar:
The preferred dish in Kerala cuisine consisting of lentil and a variety of vegetables like brinjal, drum-stick, carrots, ladies finger etc. Sambar is a traditional South Indian dish without which the Sadya is incomplete, and serves as the ‘main course’ gravy for rice.
Ingredients:
Diced Vegetables (carrots, beans, brinjals, green plantain, drumstick, okra, pumpkin, yam, ash gourd) – 4 cups
Sambar Parippu (Toor Dal / Lentils) - 1 Cup
Chuvannulli (Shallots) – 4
Green chillies - 2 (Chopped)
Tomato - 1 Small (Chopped )
Puli (Tamarind) - one small ball
Coriander leaves (Cilantro Leaves) - A few
Kaayam (Asafoetida) - a pinch
Mustard Seeds - 1 tsp
Dry Red chillies - 3 (Cut into small pieces)
Curry Leaves - 1 sprig
Salt - As Required
Oil - 4 Tbsp
Sambar Masala Powder - 2 Tbsp
Method:
Thoroughly wash and cook the Toor Dal (Parippu) in a pressure cooker, adding enough water, salt, half teaspoon of oil and turmeric powder for upto 3 whistles.
Soak tamarind in 1/2 cup of warm water and then squeeze and take the extract from it.
When the dal is done, remove the lid and add the cut vegetables, chopped tomatoes, green chillies, tamarind extract, asafoetida, Sambar Powder and stir well.
Cook (without pressure) until the vegetables and dal are well cooked adding water if needed.
Check for salt and add if needed.
Add chopped coriander leaves and simmer for 2 more minutes then remove from flame and keep aside.
Seasoning:
Heat oil in a pan and splutter the mustard seeds
Add the chopped shallots, red chillies and curry leaves and saute for 2 minutes.
Add this to the sambar and mix well.
3. Kalan
A preparation of buttermilk with thick gravy and the must on the menu for Onam.
Ingredients:
1 Raw banana (the kerala nendran banana is the best if available)
6 cups Beaten, thick sour curds
200 gms Chena (jameen kand/karunaikizhangu/suvarne gadde)
1 cup Coconut
2 tsp Turmeric powder
1 tbsp Pepper powder
Salt to taste
2-3 Red chillies
2-3 Green chillies
1 tbsp Mustard seeds
1 tsp Methi seeds
Few Curry leaves
Coconut oil
Method:
Wash and cut the vegetables into 2” square pieces. They should be thick
Grind the coconut and cumin to a smooth paste without adding water. Keep it aside.
Fry the methi seeds to a golden brown in a drop of oil and grind to a fine powder and keep this aside also..
In 1/2cup of water dissolve the pepper powder and strain it through a clean cloth. Cook the vegetables in this water with turmeric powder and salt.. When the water dries, add 1tsp ghee
Add the beaten sour curds to the cooked vegetables and boil, stirring occasionally, until the gravy is thickened.
Add the grinded coconut mixture and fenugreek powder into it and bring the gravy to boil stirring continuously.
Remove the gravy from flame.
Heat oil in a pan. When it smokes add the mustard seeds. When the mustard splutters, add the red chillies broken into halves and curry leaves and season the gravy with it.
Enjoy it with rice.
4. Parippucurry:
Quintessential Kerala version of dal served with steaming rice. The Parippucurry has many variations, including using coconut milk or paste for the curry.
Ingredients:
Lentils (green gram dal) - 1cup
Water - 3cups
Turmeric powder - /2tsp
Salt to taste
Ghee - 2tsp
Method:
Lightly fry the lentils in a pan.
Boil 3 cups water and add the washed lentils and turmeric powder. When it boils, simmer the flame.
When the lentil is cooked well, add salt to taste and ghee. Mix well and remove from fire.
5. Parippu Payasam:
The all-time favourite desert of Mallus.You can’t stop with just 1 serving.
Ingredients:
Cherupayar Parippu – 200gm
Jaggery -400gm
Thick coconut milk – 1 1/2 cups
Medium thick coconut milk – 4 cups
Light coconut milk – 4 cups
Ghee – 3 tablespoon
Cashenut & Coconut pieces – 50 gm each
Method:
Fry the parippu without oil for 5-6 minutes. Wash it well & cook with boiled water. Melt the jaggery by adding 1 cup water. Add the melted jaggery to well cooked parippu & stir well. Add 2 tablespoon ghee to this & mix well. Add light coconut milk & when it starts boiling add medium thick coconut milk. When this mix evaporates and becomes half add the thick coconut milk. Stir well for 5 minutes & remove from gas.
Fry the cashewnuts & coconut pieces in rest of the ghee & add to payasam. Serve hot.
6. Ada Pradhaman
In ‘Ada pradhaman’, rice flour mixed with molasses is formed into a paste, cut into small pieces and boiled in water. To these, coconut milk and molasses are added in proportion. It is then flavoured with ghee.
Ingredients:
1/2 Cup ada (rice flour)
4 Green cardamoms
1 tbsp Sugar
1/4 Cup pure ghee
12 Cashewnuts
2 tbsp Kishmish
1-1/2 Cups coconut (scraped)
1 Cup palm jaggery
Method:
Heat 2 tbsp ghee and fry ada.
Grind cardamoms and sugar together to a fine powder, and place aside.
Heat 2 tbsp ghee and saute the cashewnuts and kishmish until light brown.
Immerse coconut in one cup hot water, grind and extract thick milk.
Repeat the process, make a second extract and set aside.
Crush jaggery to a fine powder, keep it aside.
Bring ada to a boil in one cup water and the second extract of coconut milk.
Ada should remain smooth but hold its shape.
Add jaggery with it and continue cooking until it thickens.
Heat the remaining ghee and add this to the pradhaman.
Mix the first extract of coconut milk and the fried dry fruits with it, stir well and heat thoroughly.
Sprinkle with the cardamom powder.
While you try these yummy recipes at home, we do request you to give us your feedback on how they turned out.
ഓണസദ്യ!!!
At PoshVine, we love eating food, discussing food and always discovering places to eat. And our favourite ‘food – attack’ locality is Indiranagar. While we have tried and tested all of the upscale and premium restaurants in the area, we do favour one restaurant that is cosy, casual and comfy and makes us feel right at home – at Road Trip.
Chocolate. One word that makes every woman happy. That makes every child grin away to glory. That turns every depressed day to a better one. Ah, chocolate. Yes, it works for us at PoshVine too. Hence this blog. The sweet, sugary and smooth chocolate can really make anyone’s day, and this picture below might just make yours (make sure your keyboard is covered to avoid drool stains)
So what is chocolate? By ‘definition’, chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America, with its earliest documented use around 1100 BC. The seeds of the cacao tree have an intense bitter taste, and must be fermented to develop the flavour.
And we want to educate you on the chocolate making process (we just want to enlighten you with this heavenly mysterious process actually). So yes, where were we? Yes, the lovely chocolate making process.
After fermentation, the beans are dried, then cleaned, and then roasted, and the shell is removed to produce cacao nibs. The nibs are then ground to cocoa mass, pure chocolate in rough form. Because this cocoa mass usually is liquefied then moulded with or without other ingredients, it is called chocolate liquor. The liquor also may be processed into two components: cocoa solids and cocoa butter. Unsweetened baking chocolate (bitter chocolate) contains primarily cocoa solids and cocoa butter in varying proportions. Much of the chocolate consumed today is in the form of sweet chocolate, combining cocoa solids, cocoa butter or other fat, and sugar. Milk chocolate is sweet chocolate that additionally contains milk powder or condensed milk. White chocolate contains cocoa butter, sugar, and milk but no cocoa solids.
And to continue this healthy streak, we are giving you a yummy low-fat chocolate cake recipe. Yes. Low-fat; and chocolate; in the same sentence J
Ingredients:
Method:
Points to be noted:
Try this yummy and healthy chocolate cake at home. Swoon in this delightful chocolate experience and leave us comments on any other healthy chocolate recipes you’d like to share J
Notes