Sakura. but not for sushi this time.

Many a times, we have heard about Sakura and how great the food is, how wonderful the ambiance is, and how expensive your check will be. Well its true. Its all true, but have we ever thought, every good thing has a price and my visit tonight, i feel everything above is justified.

I have often observed people discuss sushi and Sakura together. Sakura, the very well set Japanese cuisine restaurant located inside the Pearl Continental hotel Karachi offers great food, good ambiance and excellent service. Booked a table for 3, me, wife and our son (4 years). Our reservation was for 8PM and we arrived around 830. We were given a good table next to a window with a beautiful view of the city of lights. Chic purple interior, neat clean tables, well set, chairs with arm rests i think i just wanted to be seated quickly.

We have been regular visitors of Sakura for almost 8 years now but this time our order was different. We wanted to avoid sushi and thought why not try something different today.

Our order Crispy California rolls, Prawn Tempura, Beef Teriyaki, Garlic rice and Prawn Teppanyaki.

We were instantly served with warm green tea.

Excited to wait for our order, i noticed the restaurant was not too crowded and provided a great enviornment for a peaceful dinner. Minutes later the California rolls arrived. Topped with teriyaki sauce, crispy batter, these soft rice rolls are heaven. An ideal combination for your palate in every bite. All the textures in one place. The crispy batter, combined with the sauce and the soft rice it really felt great. Top it up with the chilli sauce and wasabi paste and there you go. I can have it all night and still feel light on the digestion. After every roll, clear your palate with the pink baby ginger pickles in vinegar and a bit of sweetness and take the other bite of another roll. Just Delectable !

The prawn tempura is an all time favorite. It comes with a special soy sauce, not too salty and balanced on the flavor over all. Crispy batter outside, soft prawn inside, cooked to perfection every bite of this treat was just exquisitely excellent.

The beef Teriyaki oh how much i love this and to top my expectations, it was perfectly cooked. The right amount of sauce, and the right portions of beef, cut marinated and cooked in teriyaki sauce. Mouthwatering and very well complemented with the garlic rice we had ordered. I, however did not like the plating too much. It had a slice of tomato and a cucumber, with that cheap shredded cauliflower topped with mayonnaise.

I was not very impressed with the Prawn Teppanyaki. Just lacked flavour. Its Wok fried with vegetables, and it was too oily for me. skimmed the prawns out of it. This was the best i could manage.

The total bill was Rs.8000 which i believe was not bad for 2 and half people. For an experience like this i would pay this price anytime.

Conclusion, yet another night at Sakura that just gave us many reasons to come back. They know how to treat you well, the service is excellent. They wont come to you every 4th bite and ask how your food is. They would not buzz near your table to see all the time if you are done with your food, yet some how, they would clear the table and your mess without you knowing that they were watching. I loved the privacy you get when you know that people around you are just minding their own business in their soft spoken languages.

Thank you Sakura. See you Soon !

Golden Dragon – A Review

Saturday nights are usually lazy for me and tonight was no different. After the days work, and conquering traffic reached home around 8. Family wanted to go out and i wanted to stay in and order a home delivery. We all agreed on Chinese and the options were limitless. Ended up ordering Golden Dragon from the website http://www.eatoye.pk

The ordering was easy, 3 easy steps and i was all done. The time given to me for delivery was 90mins and the order arrived on time.

I was not too impressed with the packaging. Very ordinary, thermocol boxes with rubber bands, food packed into plastic bags. So ordinary.

Ordered

Beef with garlic and chillies, tasting as good as i had crispy beef at TAO some time back. Generous serving. The beef however was i think slightly coated with corn flour to give it a chewy texture and mouth feel. All flavors were balanced and i was happy with my selection of the main dish. The good part was i did not feel the MSG over powering the taste and it felt good.

Egg fried rice were regular. Nothing special about them. However i was not happy with the size of the rice. It was very small. The positive was the rice made the vegetables were quite visible and the over all look of the plate was nice. Tasted quite good and will order again.

Corn soup had too much pepper in it. But i was glad it was not one of those MSG filled ones. This one had a better and different taste. It had a lot of egg and chicken and was medium thick, but i could not find a lot of corn there. Well, almost scarce on the corn there.

Prawn in green coconut curry-Thai was a NO for me. It lacked the original Thai flavor. It had too much oil and the coconut curry was not as tasty as i expected. Shrimps, Mushroom, baby corn slices. I don’t think these guys know how the green Thai curry is made.

Over all i had a good time considering the food was enough for 4 people and in just Rs.1700 this was a bargain. It is a must try but stick to Chinese. Don’t go for Thai unless you hear improvement in that area in their kitchen.

A few more shots.

Nu-Deli by Haris Shek

I have been directly involved with the food industry since my birth. I was born in the AHMED family, yes the famous AHMED FOODS. My Grandfather was the founder of Ahmed mithai and later on the Ahmed chutneys and pickles and list just went on with years to pass. Naurus, the red syrup company was then a part of Ahmed foods In 1996, Ahmed and Naurus split up. The well known brother’s split. My dad started taking care of Naurus Private Ltd and developed a brand called SUNDiP in the food items category which had items like ketchup, pickles, chutneys, squashes etc. I had officially joined Naurus in 2007 and since then have developed a lot of new products and brands like Chatkhaar. So for a long time i had been thinking of how to share my passion for exotic, exciting food that is not made commercially in Pakistan. I thought well, there is no designer label in the food category, why not  start one. Nu-Deli by Haris Shek was born. The idea behind the brand is simple. Make products from preferably Pakistani produce that have not been made commercially in the Pakistan market by any supplier. Introduce similar products that are imported into Pakistan just to prove we are not behind anyone else in the Food Market. My first product is the sun dried tomatoes in extra virgin olive oil for which i had posted the recipe earlier. Here i reveal the picture of the final product. I have had a tremendous response to the product. A few futures orders for just the sun dried tomatoes too. Well that is the next treat i will be offering to food enthusiasts who understand and feel what i was feeling when i thought of this brand. A few more to to come are 100% Natural Almond Oil, 100% Onion Seed Oil, Cashew Butter and the list will go on. Please support by commenting, liking and sharing with friends and family.

EAT – KARACHIEAT 2015

First of all, read my title like you are JAMES BOND introducing yourself to the audience.

That’s right, the hero of the day is #KARACHIEAT2015 and it will save the day. 3 days actually. Held from 23rd-25th January 2015 at the Frere Hall in Karachi

I missed day 1 for which i really feel bad about. Now that i have attended a few hours in day 2.

Entered from the Road that is accross Marriott hotel, the main entry gate was at the back and with traffic coming in from both sides, its took about half an hour till we reached the valet parking station. Relieved, we instantly bought the tickets since it was not too crowded at the time we arrived around 3pm. I was accompanied by my wife and 4 year old son. We were the taste trio entering the heaven for foodies.

Tickets @ Rs.200 per person and entry valid for family only It was worth the price and wait.

Here it is, about 1000 people, roaming around food stalls like bees buzzing a healthy field of flowers, all willing to give them a taste of their best nectar. Like fish in a coral reef, finding their preferred place to eat and stick around. Every minute was just extraordinary, every scene was full of colors, every stall had a Que of at least 5 and every blow of breeze was a different aroma of what awaited us. Italian, Desi, Western, Mexican & much more complimenting with dessert options like, Donuts, Churros, Cakes, Brownies. I can go on writing about the variety, but you must come in the 3rd day and see it for yourself.

We started off with The Deli

http://thedelipakistan.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/TheDeliPakistan/

The Florentine Ravioli, creamy, saucy, loaded with herbs, soft, very delicate. well served in a disposable plastic cup with lid, 4 pcs for Rs.200 first i thought it was expensive. Well it was, but the price justified the satisfaction i gained from what i ate. Its beautiful texture, the moist ravioli just melted in the mouth and the sauce would complement the after bite feeling. It made us want more. Sorry no pictures. I got dragged away in the taste hence ate all of it before i realized, a picture would have helped me more in explaining how good it was.

Right Next to The Deli we figured out was a crowded counter serving some sort of small, grilled chicken burgers. Rs.250 each, not sure i enjoyed it so much, wont write about it. No picture either.

I have been reading about The Chepli Kebab House (12 C, 32nd Street and 25th Street corner Tauheed commercial DHA 5, Karachi.) on the social media for about 2 years now. Everyone seems to love it. The Food & the service. I have always wanted to try it and i never got a chance. I have lived half of my life in KPK and survived on Chepli Kebabs when our boarding school mess menu was Tinday and Loki.

One Beef Chapli Kebab, Sitting on a fresh Nan for Rs.150 was our next order. I must say, it was one of the best choices i had made in the last half hour. Hahaha, it tasted original, it was well oiled up and it had the right amount of fat, the anaar daana, the chilli and the beef ofcourse. All it lacked was the Red tomato circle on top of it. Great food, worthy of the price charged. Squeeze that lemon and munched on.

Time to get all the food down, and make more space. Rs.10 Pakola, in the legendary glass bottle was an option we could not refuse. Not ideally chilled, but it brought back memories when Pakola was the drink of the nation, the drink all kids could have be it winters or summers, day or night. It was the well approved drink of the parents for their kids for any time of the day. The temperature however had to be check before giving to the kid.

Now that we had settled in the habitat, we started looking at everyone and their choices. An obvious one was Nano‘s Courtyard. Our select was the Bun Kebabs, Dahi Bara & Cheese Samosay. BunKebab @ Rs.60, i would want to eat again, yes it was good, small, full of flavour & small. The right small size when your on an eating spree and you have 100+ options. Dahi baray @ Rs.60, were not so impressive. The green Chutney served with the Bun Kebab was very fresh and blew us away with the chilli and taste. Cheese Samosay @ Rs.10 each over priced but tasted good.

The sun is setting now, and so were we. Getting lazy by the minute and so much left to taste we agreed we would come again tomorrow too. Found a place to sit down for a while, rested and back on our feet after 10 mins because the crowd was just increasing. I do not like long ques.

Our next stop was Pantry.

http://www.pantry.com.pk/

Just bought Fries for our boy. He really wanted fries. @ Rs.150, the serving was small. very small. Maybe half of what was worth the money charged. they were good quality fries i would give this to them.

Moving on, and our mood slowly drifting away form eating and towards, looking about, we saw so much happiness in the air, so much fun, everyone so care free.

Time for dessert. Our choice was Churros & Choc

http://www.churrosandchoc.com/

Crispy Fried sticks of something, topped with brown sugar and cinnamon, served with melted choclate topped with choclate flakes. A good treat, must be eaten while crispy. A slight negative to the choc syrup there. Too thin and serving size small. Worth the Rs.250 spent and i want to assure you, this was not the only cheat meal of the day.

Here is your newest cheat and mind you, this is not an ordinary one.

What ever A Fudge is, i want to have it more and more. Imagine eating a piece of chocolate and just as it touches your tongue, it instantly melts in your whole mouth, trying to coat all your inner cheek walls with a flavor that would demand your brain to go for again and again.That is how good it is. Its worth a try. Maybe a couple of tries. Ok fine. Eat it as a meal and you are one satisfied customer. I personally liked the Peanut butter Fudge. Beautifully packed in brown paper, sealed with red wax and a window that would give you a peak of whats next to come on your palate, this is surely worth taking home. @ Rs.250 for a small bag sitting in the right corner of the picture.

Fika was our last stop. Stall No. 50

https://www.facebook.com/FikaCafeKarachi

Ordered the Fika Style Chicken Cacciatore. Served on a bed of fettuccine, Grilled chicken, topped with cream sauce, pan fried olives and sun dried tomatoes, a combination i would say was the highlight of my day. so much flavor in there. such depth of taste, such heavy elements each having its own unique texture. the Pasta, moist, soft, slippery. The chicken, hard, spicy. The sun dried tomatoes, juicy, sour, pulpy. The Olives with their top notch aroma and taste. This was a winning combination. Priced @ Rs.200, this was a treat if i had started my day with, i would have ended my day on it too.

No more space to eat, so much left to try and running short on time, we decided to call it quits for the day with the ambition of ” Kel phir say aana hai” which in the English language means ” gotta come here again tomorrow”

It was a carnival with nothing but sweet smiling people, taking pictures, eating food, shopping, drinking just roaming around and taking selfies. So happy to see a change of mood, something different happening in the city of lights and now upgraded to the city of food and lights.

Closing our day, i counted Rs.2650 for two people including tickets and food. For a brilliant day full of variety and fun i would come here again and again and yet again.

Well done Eventions. We cant wait to see more happening from you. You have a done a job that will force the public wait for Karachi Eat 2016. Cheers to you ! http://www.eventions.com.pk