Wednesday, October 15, 2008

My second restaurant Spice X-ing


Thanks to all our guests at Passage to India whose support and continued patronage has encouraged me to open a second restaurant "SpiceXing" in the Rockville Town Square, Rockville, Maryland. I have with me in this project a very close friend, Harry Sanotra who brings 30 years of association with the hospitality industry. We are in the process of renovating the existing space and working on the menu. The offerings will be a selection of various kebabs, curries and lots of small tasting plates. This will be an upscale, family dining place with a full bar and will offer an exciting Executive Lunch Buffet. I will be posting more about this place as time goes by and I have more to share with everybody.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Some great Chinese !!

Last week was gorging on Chinese food at the Grace Garden restaurant in Fort Meade. Much has been written about the place on a lot of local food boards. Anything I might add will be superfluous, but the fact remains that this is THE BEST Chinese food I have had since 1986 when I lived in China for 3 months. Using the local, freshest ingredients the Chef is turning out some of the tastiest dishes. after having had the thin wonton skins in this country I was glad to dig into some real country style doughy wontons. The steamed sea bass just melted in the mouth and the scallions/ginger juliennes provided the perfect spice to the dish, in fact highlighting the flavor of the fish. We ordered way too much food for five people and as usual most of it landed on my plate. I was a happy diner. The highlite of the repast was the shell-on Salt & Pepper Shrimp. Unlike my companions who spent valuable time peeling the critters, I ate them shell and all (thanks to my time spent in China).
It is a bare bones place, BYOB and the neighborhood is not much. The best way is to order from the Chinese menu and not the dumbed down Americanized Chinese menu. I have learnt to go for more steamed items as it does not fill you up and one can taste a lot more items. Also try going in a large group for the same reason.

Monday, July 07, 2008

Cooking for a cause at Wagshal's


Bill and Aaron Fuchs, a father and son team from WAGSHAL'S STORE on Mass. Ave. DC have organized a DC grill masters series for cooking demos, the proceeds of which go towards a noble cause. Click link below for a preview. I was honored to be a part of this charitable event.

You can click the link below for the recipes from my Recipe Blog

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Another Demo - for TasteDC group

Another cooking demo, this time for TasteDC group. This was a fun group and I quite enjoyed cooking for them. We would be doing the four regions of India and we started with the Western region. I did the demo for the following items and Charlie Adler, President of TasteDC had brought his flat panel TV with camera to project the entire demo for better viewing. The food was later served to all with saffron rice and freshly baked Naan bread.
West Indian Cuisine
Salli Boti Jardaloo - Parsi style lamb stew with apricots and straw potatoes
Chutney Ni Murgi - Another Parsi delicacy: chicken cooked in a spicy cilantro sauce
Aloo Bhopli Mirchi -Bell peppers and potatoes with caramelized gram flour
Shreekhand - Saffron and mace flavored sweetened yogurt

Cooking demo for DC dining society

I had a great time doing cooking demos in the last two weeks. An excerpt from the DC dining society's page. Will post some photos at a later date.

"On Monday, May 12, at 6:30 PM we will meet at Passage To India at 4931 Cordell Avenue in Bethesda.
We are very happy to add Owner/Chef Sudhir Seth's wonderful food to our rotation. Passage to India is rated by Washingtonian Magazine as the best Indian restaurant in the area and the 23 best restaurant overall. Chef Seth explores the varied styles of cuisines from the sub-continent in an elegant setting and will help us to learn more about the complexities of the food. Standard price event.
Our cooking demo by Chef Seth will be:
Chicken Malai Kabab - chicken breasts marinated and char grilled
Panchphorner Parmal Shaak - baby gourds tempered with five seeds
Zeera Pulao - Basmati rice cooked with cumin flavor
Dal Kalonji - lentils with nigella seeds
Assorted breads - will show Naan (in tandoor), poories (fried) and chapati (cooked on griddle)
And our dinner will include the above plus a broad variety of dishes to enjoy from the restaurant's repertoire.

Visit to Peru



















Some photos of the local market, food, Machu Pichu and other ruins.
Once again a long delay in posting, these seem inevitable. Everytime I promise myself but again
fall back due to a multitude of reasons.
Had an extremely enjoyable trip to PERU for ten days. It had been my dream to visit the Machu Pichu and learn more about them. Some great Peruvian food and a flight over the Nazca lines were other highlights of the trip. The ceviche was great as was the Pisco sour (local brandy, suagr, lime juice, angostura and eggwhites whisked to a froth) - real cooling on a hot day. The Incas though much behind the rest of the civilized world technologically, have left a perplexing legacy in stone built monuments. With rudimentary tools they created an empire with massive stone structures but perished against the Spanish conquistadors and guns. This trip left me wondering as to the meaning of Civilization as we percieve it in the present day world and context. These long gone societies lived much more close to nature and thrived with all other species in total harmony, unlike the present where war seems to be omnipresent.



Friday, February 29, 2008

Greek food

One of my friends (also a Chef) from 1977 who I had not met for 20 years stopped by over the weekend enroute to Australia and joined wife and I for some Greek food at the CAVA restaurant in MoCo. The place was packed and noisy, the service varied from attentive to rushed. Well as much as I liked the taste of the food the tapas concept gets me unsettled as there is no rhythm to the meal. Perhaps I am too old fashioned and want my three courses interspersed with liquor and time to talk. The hummus was not as good as last time, salad with goat cheese was good, taramasalata (fish roe) mediocre. The grilled lamb chops were perfectly cooked and the piece de resistance was roasted fish which made my evening. My only complaint is the excessive salt which has been there consistently on all of my visits. Our waiter was good and before I forget the Argentinian malbec went very well with the food and for Espresso aficianados - you must finish the evening with a dessert and order espresso. All in all an average evening finishing on a high note.
Cheers