authentic

An Old Favourite

Blog, Food and Drink

Treat Restaurant in Indiranagar has been serving delicious North Indian food for 25 years! Its quality has remained the same throughout.

I wrote this piece on May 2, 2018.

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Last afternoon, we went to Treat, an old favourite, for lunch. I started going to this restaurant 10 years ago when I first moved to Bangalore. Treat was just a lazy stroll from my office. Since then, I have kept going back to it – perhaps twice a year – even though I don’t work in that area.

Every time I go there, I find the food same and different at the same time, if you get what I mean. This is one of the hallmarks of a great eatery: that the food has the zing of freshness every single time, even while the ingredients and cooking style remain unchanged. It is a tough job to make the familiar seem fresh each time to customers, but Treat has managed to do it for so long.

In the pictures are paneer makhanwala khaas, jeerewalaey aloo, masala anda (chopped tomatoes and onions drizzled on slices of boiled eggs), a basket of small-sized assorted rotis (naans, lachcha parathas, methi roti, plain rotis and kulchas) and a tray containing those essential accompaniments of any North Indian meal – pudina chutney, diced raw onions and pickle.

NOT in the pictures are our groaning tummies and smiling faces. 🙂

In speaking to the owner Mr. Pramod Chaudhry, I learnt that his family hails from Peshawar, migrating to India during Partition. He is an old hand in the hospitality industry, having worked abroad for a while and with Taj Mansingh in Delhi. At the Taj, he learnt from master-chefs who hailed from Lucknow and other places in the North. How well he learnt from them is evident from the rich, authentic flavours of the food served at Treat.

Masalas hand-ground on a mortar and pestle, paneer that is flown down from Delhi twice a week, recipes created by Mr. Chaudhry himself and warm service are just some of the small touches that add up to the Treat experience, overall.

Definitely a case of the sum of the parts being greater than the whole.

Sidelights: 1) Framed posters of Hindi films, photos of Ravi Shankar and Mohammad Rafi and a recreation of ‘the Indian life’ on one of the walls accentuate the Indianness of the restaurant subtly.

2) Check out the framed menu card hung on the wall. This is the very first menu the restaurant offered, when it opened in 1993: a priceless nugget from the past. Interestingly, the restaurant offered pizzas and sandwiches for a while, before setting cozily in its niche of authentic North Indian food.

P.S. We paid for the food ourselves, though we were given a 25% discount (because Treat turns 25), since I am a member of an online group of food-lovers. I have written this review of my own volition.

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Travel Diaries with Chef Ritwik – a brief review of a food pop-up

Travel and Places

One of the things I cherish when I travel is the local food I find there. Many of you may do the same. This is one of the reasons we are increasingly seeking out homestays and smaller guest houses, preferring to give the regular hotels a miss.

Chef Ritwik Sarkar did just that sometime back, when he travelled all over Kerala and Coorg. Which is why he is a man after my heart. During those trips, he learnt a lot of recipes from the regional cuisines and took copious notes. ‘Many Malayalis and Coorgis allowed me to enter their kitchens and learn how to cook their traditional dishes. That was a great feeling.’ says Ritwik.

All those lessons have translated into a very interesting, limited-edition menu at Café Felix. ‘Chef Ritwik’s Travel Diaries’ is a food pop-up being dished out until April 15.

The pop-up menu has cocktails, soups, appetisers, entrees and desserts. Every offering on the menu draws its inspiration from Keralan and Coorgi cuisine, but has a global touch added to it. For instance, the chakka curry (jackfruit curry) is made Malabar-style, but tossed with homemade fettuccine and shitake mushrooms. What sounds like an unlikely combination is actually a delight when it lands on the palate.

Inspite of adding a twist to every dish, Chef Ritwik has managed to keep the taste authentic and close to the native version. And that, to my mind, is his true triumph.

This is what I had:

Southern Somras – dark rum, orange liqueur, curry leaves, jaggery, apple juice and tamarind water.

Alleppey Apple – whiskey, apple juice, green apple juice, spiced maple syrup, Assam tea, fresh apple chunks, cloves and cinnamon.

The effect of the spiced maple syrup is an utter delight.

Jackfruit cutlets – I love jackfruit in any form, and totally loved these cutlets, which were fried just right and served with raw mango & jaggery chutney.

Sweet potato & green pepper gnocchi – pumpkin erissery with baby spinach and picked radish.

Chakka curry with homemade fettuccine – as described earlier.

Vegetable ishtu – ‘Ishtu’ is how any Malayali worth his coconut oil pronounces ‘stew’.

While it is usually had with appams, Ritwik servers it with a nutty pilaf. I didn’t realise how good this combination would taste until I spooned myself the first mouthful of ishtu and the rice. The caramelised onions add a nice crunch to the pilaf.

Kerala Sundae – And towards the end of my meal, Ritwik delivers his knock-out punch. Three balls of vanilla ice cream arrive in a plate. I take a spoonful from each and realise that one has been stuffed with coconut, another with jaggery and the third, with banana.

Bits of waffle, banana chips and strips of jackfruit complete this dessert bomb.

The acronym ‘OMG’ is reserved for experiences like this one.

Now, quickly look at the photos below, call your foodie buddies or family and head over to Cafe Felix at 1 MG Mall. The pop-up is on only till April 15,2018.