Some Relish with Roast Lamb?
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27 WINE & DINE SATURDAY, JULY 3, 2010 A TOAST TO TASTE Boil it, bake it, fry it, poach it... No matter what you do to an egg, it tastes delicious. So it’s small wonder that restaurants across the country are dedicating entire menus to the sunny spheroid. TOI-Crest picks three popular egg-speciality joints YELLOW FEVER JOE LOUIS D’ANTO UMA KADAM MAHAFREED IRANI fascinated me since I was a kid. I can served with baked beans) for the weight & PRIYA BALA still recall the aroma of butter fried eggs conscious and a Ghaas Phoos sandwich TIMES NEWS NETWORK at a local egg cart in Agra, where I was for vegetarians too. “We didn’t want the brought up.” vegetarian friends of egg devotees to go EGGSUNDAY On an average, over 700 eggs are hungry,” says Deshpande, a student of An open kitchen flanked by signboards of consumed by Eggsunday customers business administration. A favourite with sprightly fried eggs, Eggsunday is located everyday. And the menu is constantly regulars is the White Eggwich, an egg in a buzzing food court off the Mumbai- being improvised with suggestions from mayo sandwich. One of the brains behind Pune Expressway. Inside, a team of young customers. For instance, Sweetlet the menu is chef Akshay Puranik, who men demonstrate their skills on a hot (an omelette sweetened with sugar) worked in in-flight kitchens for 35 years plate. They elegantly beat, flip, boil, fry and Fundo Bread (French toast) have before he joined Yolkshire. And he wants and hammer eggs as customers perch on replaced Unda Masala Papad (a crunchy to start serving egg-smoothies soon. the counter watching the drama unfold. rice papad topped with veggies and a Most of the curious onlookers enquire boiled egg) and Unday Ka Parantha about the metal rings the cooks wield to (parantha stuffed with egg). mould jiggling eggs into a perfect circle. Apart from the predictable serving of The eggs used at Pune’s Yolkshire The fastest-selling dish on the menu omelettes, egg sandwiches, egg biryani of the only outlet of Eggsunday, which and egg curry, the eatery has some unusu- are rich in Omega 3; they’re launched in November 2009, is the al offerings. Like Spiceggsunday, a dish produced by hens that are fed flax Bomblette pav. The sassy name for a concocted by Saigal that has cold boiled BEAT IT: At and canola seeds Eggsunday, basic omelette filled with the owner’s eggs, cut open length-wise and topped eggs are secret masala is perhaps the reason for with hot sautéed vegetables. With support UMA KADAM poured into its raging popularity. “The 150-year-old from the National Egg Coordination ring-shaped secret masala is couriered from Agra,” Committee (NECC), Saigal is set to open tion with eggs. “Coming from a non- Mark’s Road, Bangalore (080-4211-0041) moulds to says owner Rohit Saigal, a television franchises in Pune, Thane, Gujarat and meat eating community, eggs were my make round omelettes producer by profession. “Eggs have Navi Mumbai. “We want to promote it as a introduction to eating non-vegetarian YOLKSHIRE food,” says Mokashi, a Kannadiga Brah- In their free time Sahil Khan (21) and min. “And during my travels I saw how Varad Deshpande (19) hang out at Yolk- versatile eggs could be and the idea of an shire, Pune’s newly-opened egg-speciality “Eggs have fascinated me eggs-only restaurant took shape.” Mokas- restaurant. The duo watch customers since I was a kid. I can hi was also confident it would work beca- trickle in, order fried, poached, boiled, use eggs, he says, are in the grey area scrambled, stuffed and sandwiched eggs, still recall the aroma of between vegetarian and non-vegetarian. creep up to them just before they’re eggs fried in butter at the The restaurant has adopted a funky, leaving and ask: “We’re beta testing. local egg cart in Agra, industrial décor in keeping with its title. Can you give us feedback?” That’s geek The menu, printed in several languages, for testing how pleasing the dishes are. where I was brought up” offers various preparations of eggs, from This unlikely founder-and-CEO pair plain scrambled and Parsi akoori to wants to make sure each of the 26 egg- omelettes and frittatas. There’s also delicacies on the menu is a hit. On healthy breakfast option and bust myths kothu parota (shredded parota stir-fried the menu are continental and Indian that say eggs should be avoided in sum- with eggs and spices), Manipal-style bun meals like the Hungarian omelette mer because they are high in calories.” omelette, fajitas and even pastas with egg stuffed with ground pepper, the classic Eggsunday, Foodhub, Mumbai-Pune such as the penne with egg and mush- eggs Florentine, which has eggs on a Expressway, towards Pune. For more room ragout. Other hot-sellers include base of spinach topped with white sauce details, call the office on 022-6423-1500 the Mexican dish huevos rancheros and and a Spanish potato stuffed egg tortilla French toast with maple syrup, which is with bell pepper and celery. The eggs To attract egg lovers, Yolkshire’s YOLK ART: THE EGG FACTORY a popular order with the breakfast crowd. used are rich in Omega 3 fatty acids; tech-savvy owners have been actively Poached eggs, The Egg Factory, on St Mark’s Road in The Egg Factory opens at 8 am. they’re produced by hens that are fed promoting the eatery online by running raisin pancakes and the downtown Bangalore, aroused plenty of At under Rs 400 for a meal for two, flax and canola seeds. “The idea is to an “egg awareness” campaign. How do Eggwich at curiosity when it opened a couple of years prices are reasonable. It’s cheap, it’s enlighten people used to eating poha or you check the freshness of an egg with- Yolkshire (top ago. The idea of a restaurant devoted cheerful and given the universal appeal dosa for breakfast about the protein out touching it? You’ll have to visit Yolk- left) Egg entirely to eggs was certainly a novelty. of eggs, this factory is making foodies power of an egg,” says Khan. shire’s Facebook page to find out. Factory’s Owner Yogesh Mokashi says he hatch- sunny indeed. There’s Simmered Eggs (poached eggs Huevos Yolkshire, Karishma Society, off Karve Rancheros ed the idea because of his own fascina- The Egg Factory, The White House, St garnished with finely cubed tomatoes Road, Kothrud, Pune (020-4130-8801) UMA KADAM FOODIE FILES Elizabeth David chronicles Britain’s fascination with pepper and pickles Some relish with roast lamb? DILEEP PADGAONKAR the land and sea spice routes and involved, at different culinary influence of the Raj back ‘home’. stages of history, middle-men from near and far: Phoeni- David’s interest in spices did not extend to Indian food. mong the leading lights of culinary literature in the cians, Romans, the Arab conquerors of Spain, Norman cru- This is odd not least because in 1946 she had spent a few last century, few shone as brightly as Elizabeth saders, the merchants of Venice and Genoa, religious orders, months in India, especially in Delhi, where her husband, an A David. With nine books under her belt and an enor- Portuguese explorers, Dutch empire builders, and finally, army officer, had been posted the previous year in the GHQ. mous amount of journalism, she achieved a most remark- the East India Company. In Spices, Herbs and Aromatics in the English Kitchen able feat: she brought into English homes, which still reeled Up to a point, the spices commonly used by the English you find just about six pages on the subject. And even these under the burden of war-time rationing when she started — ginger, pepper, mace, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg — pages are devoted to the works of Colonel Kenney-Herbert, appearing in print, the flavour of the “sun and sea and olive were meant to mask half-decayed food or to add zing to the who wrote on Anglo-Indian cookery under the pen-name trees.” Thanks to her exertions, her compatriots discovered tedious fare of salted meat and boiled fish. However, as Wyvern, at the end of the 19th century. The essay does the charms of the food of the European countries around not reveal much about her views on the cooking traditions the Mediterranean, notably France and Italy, and began to of the sub-continent. introduce in their daily cooking a host of herbs and spices. Perhaps the clue to this lacuna lies in her distressing I bought my first Elizabeth David book, Mediterranean Long before anyone else, Elizabeth experiences in India. In her letters to family and friends back Food, in the mid-1960s and instantly became an addict. She David chronicled English cookery’s home, quoted in two biographies, she minced no words in was no mere compiler of recipes or just a reviewer of restau- flirtatious relationship with spices, expressing her loathing for the country. It was not just the rants. She offered readers chunks of culinary history, anec- heat and the dust or the chaos of India that riled her. She dotes about obscure chefs and gourmets and vivid descrip- which has endured for more than rubbished the “triumphantly imperialistic architecture of tions of open-air markets and visits to farms and vineyards two thousand years Lutyens and Baker”, damned the shops in Connaught Place in search of rare cheeses, wines and cold cuts. I devoured for their “sterility and hideousness”, reviled the upper crust everything she published, but missing from my collection David emphasises, the English palate relished them for their of the Raj for its pomposity and, above all, tore her hair when was Spices, Salt and Aromatics in the English Kitchen even own sake.