Bubsterr's - Finally!

I had been itching to give this restaurant a try. Until now no food delivery portal delivered food from this restaurant to the area at which i reside. I was browsing a delivery portal app and what do i sudden see.... B U B S T E R R ' S!

Finally!! 😁

I wasted no time and quickly ordered the Pork Relish Dog, 2 Bubsterr's Honey Pepper Chicken Pizzas and 2 Bubsterr's Bacon Bonanza Pizzas. Luckily, Uber Eats, the delivery portal, had a 50% deal going for Bubsterr's. Balle-balle! 😁

The Bubsterr's Honey Pepper Chicken Pizza was nice. The sweetness from the added honey wasn't overpowering-ly sweet but with regard to pepper, I would have preferred a sharper hit. The chicken pieces and cheese was adequate. And yes, I did remove the olives before biting into the pizza. 🙈



Bubsterr's Bacon Bonanza was truly a bonanza. Loads of bacon paired with beautiful caramelized onions and a perfect thin and crisp base, as requested. Here, I must add, the base for the Honey Pepper Chicken Pizza was equally good.



The bread roll for the Pork Relish Dog was soft and fresh. The mayo added was just the right quantity. (Some restaurants suffocate the dogs/burgers with mayo) The pork sausage was also very nice but, what elevated this dog from a stray to a champion breed was the lavishly smeared chicken relish. When I bit into the (hot)dog all the elements came together in total harmony. Undoubtedly, this moreish 'woof' was the winner of the day!



Bubsterr's serve their pizza as a large slice. I wasn't sure of the quantity hence ordered 2 of each. These are large slices and I have two leftover slices in fridge because we couldn't eat it all.



All boxes came perfectly labelled with instructions (do not microwave). As i mentioned above, I got a fabulous 50% off deal via @ubereats (the delivery of which was nearly on time). 

I must add that though this was a 50% off deal, Bubsterr's was not at all stingy with the toppings and cheese. I paid a total of INR 671.50 + tip. This was an excellent VFM dinner for the family. I cannot wait to try more stuff from their menu.

Rava Fry Fish

These days, I always want to cook something that doesn’t take up an entire day. I had made simple Mora Dar Chawal also known as Dhandar (read: Dal Chawal made the Parsi way) and as I’d ordered Surmai steaks, I decided to rava fry them. I can describe the combination of dal, rice, fried fish and pickle in two words: Soul Food!

Ingredients:

500 grams Surmai steaks, wash and pat dry with kitchen paper towels

4 heaped teaspoons Red Chili Powder + ½ teaspoon more

1 teaspoon Turmeric Powder

Salt to taste + ½ teaspoon more

2 teaspoon Garlic Paste

½ teaspoon Pepper Powder

½ teaspoon Dhania-Jeera Powder

1 tablespoon Malt Vinegar or to taste

½ to ¾ cup regular rava (semolina)

Oil 

Method:

1. Mix all the dry spices, then add the malt vinegar. Add water to make a thick(ish) paste.
2. Apply the spice marinade to the fish steaks and keep for an hour or two in the fridge.



3. In a flat plate empty out the rava/semolina; add ½ teaspoon chilli powder and ½ teaspoon salt and mix well.
4. Coat each fish steak evenly in the semolina mix; dust off the excess semolina from the fish pieces.



5. Heat oil in a non-stick pan.



6. Fry the fish slices on one side, flip after a couple of minutes and fry the second side till done.
7. Drain on kitchen paper towels. Serve with onion rings and lemon wedges.



Chef’s Notes:

1. You can marinate the fish for up to 6 to 8 hours in the fridge – you can also marinate merely for 10-15 minutes if you are short on time. I marinated the steaks overnight.
2. The cooking/frying time will depend on the thickness of the fish steaks. Approximately 2 minutes on the first side and 1-1.5 minutes on the flipped side should suffice.
3. If the steaks are thinner than the ones seen in the photograph you may have to reduce cooking time by a few seconds. I prefer the texture of the fish to be flaky hence prefer not to overcook the fish. If you want a firmer texture continue cooking for at least a minute more.
4. You can also use lime juice, tamarind pulp or kokum pulp or regular white or brown vinegar instead of malt vinegar – any souring agent will work just fine.
5. Please feel free to increase or decrease the spices as suited to your palate.
6. You may, of course, use any fish available but do adjust the frying time depending on the fish used.
7. You may share the direct blog-link of the recipe/s but do NOT publish my recipes and my photographs on any blog-site or website without my explicit consent or attempt to pass off my recipe/s as your own. You will be held accountable for plagiarism.

Shanghai Spice and Sizzlers - No Sizzle There!

Mum and I were off to a movie at Cinepolis and we hadn't eaten lunch which is why we stepped into Shanghai Spice and Sizzlers at Seasons Mall.



The decor is dark and typical done up in a deep red hue; quite like old Chinese restaurants. Mum and I only had 30 minutes in hand hence we scanned the menu and quickly opted for Butter Garlic Prawns (medium gravy) and Seafood Fried Rice. Simple dishes; quick to stir up for people in a rush.



Seafood Fried Rice: The quality of long grain rice was good and that was the only thing good about the dish. The rice was bland, it barely had any seasoning. The prawns in the rice had been fried in advanced and tossed in. Also, they had been fried to a rubbery-crisp. It barely takes two to three minutes to cook prawns and they could've been added to the wok before adding the rice, veggies, egg, etc. Why opt for a short cut and toss in pre-fried prawns when you are cooking with an ingredient that cooks in a jiffy? Nope, not a good fried rice at all.



Prawns Butter Garlic: The gravy was flavourful and buttery but, once again the chef massacred the prawns. They were chewy and rubbery. Regardless of how good that gravy was, in the end, the main ingredient wasn't cooked right and resultantly the entire dish was a let-down. Chomping on overcooked prawns is not my idea of a good meal. 

For two dishes we paid INR 971 (inclusive of GST). Very over-priced for the quality of food served. Unless, I'm dying of hunger with no options on hand, i don't see myself walking in to try more food at this restaurant.