BIRTHDAY CAKES TO LIVE OR DIE FOR… we are recommending both plain and blueberry baked cheese cakes from Christobel and Sunil Shrivastava’s ‘Carasid’ cake shop at Miramar! And then they are the rich truffle chocolate cakes which the five star hotels turn out with exquisite drama and melodrama! Cake can be kept in the freezer for extended treats over a week - if not completely polished up the same evening!
By Tara Narayan
BIRTHDAYS come and go. Usually I cook some, buy some but this time around I said if we cannot go Marriott, let Marriott kitchen come home! Wonderful and I didn’t cook anything despite playing with the idea of making a mixed veggie tomato soup for a rainy day. No time and no help so I guess it’s okay to order home some food once in a year, and since I know the Marriott and the Taj Vivanta folk, who do the most eco-friendly packing and delivery, I asked Marriott F&B manager Shubham Basrur for some ideas.
Also, I had some Marriott vouchers which had not expired because of the covid lockdowns and it was time to use them up for discounted rates. Food & Beverage Manager Shubham promptly sent me a menu for about ten guests and suggested some old favourites, for example “mini cocktail samosa, kesari paneer tikka, murgh malai tikka, fish fingers, dahi bhalla, Greek salad, dal bukhara, malai kofta, veg au gratin, Thai green curry chicken, Awadhi mutton korma, steamed rice, veg biryani, mashed potato, rasmalai, fruit custard”…damages? About Rs7K something. I made a few readjustments and said, fine, send by 9 pm please, for in Goa we like to drink and eat late; whether anybody is ready or not I like to put food on the table latest by 9pm and even that is too late for me! I find most of the women want to eat early too.
As usual a few friends pleaded too much rain and flooding downtown Panaji and called it off. It is nice to party at home with a few friends…in the past I’ve had faithful maids who will stay till past midnight to help wash and clear up kitchen mess but not this time. They get to take whatever food is left of course and in the old days when I had a car and driver at my disposal I would insist they be dropped home…but good times, bad times, I have taken to crossing my bridges when I come to them and not in advance. That’s too stressful.
(sigh) I CAN be very extravagant on a rainy monsoon day. The food arrived in large white boxes with smaller containers inside, too early at 8pm though. Food gets cold but Marriot’s Felix with an apology said, “It’s been raining so hard…” All is forgiven and I’m grateful there’s more than enough food to spend the rest of the night drinking and eating if we wanted to! Whoever made it I will say the food was all very good and a friend raved about the Thai chicken curry with steamed rice and murgh malai chicken. Since some friends couldn’t make it there was too much food left over and maybe I over-ordered; it was a mistake to have ordered so much of dairy cream and curd stuff like dahiada and kesari malai paneer! Dairy recipes rot faster naturally.
All I could do was tell our friends to take some of the food home – so the non-vegetarian took the non-vegetarian and the Greek salad and the vegetarian took the vegetarian, packed back in the big white Marriott boxes! Some stuff I crammed my little fridge with and some remained outside on my kitchen platform…the next morning a friend who hadn’t come said, “Bring it all over to me and both me and my maid’s family will eat it!” Well, the au gratin had gone off a bit as also the mashed potato and I chucked a few things, mercifully the dal bukhari and Thai chicken curry was good and fit for giving.
The hubby scolded, why didn’t you give it to the watchman’s family…but which watchman is going to be around nearing midnight to take food home and anyway he is on duty! So it goes, my friends, as home birthdays go, this was one more evening to remember. Remind me to tell my friend Shubham Basrur that labelling of food should be done clearly after the scotch tape is used to secure the food containers, and also on the outer big box.
It was madness to check out what food was in which box and containers inside because in many of the cases the scotch tape got obliterated in the opening with scissors and knife and Marlene and Lydia helped … …and soon we were wondering with a spoon which was veg and non-veg! So Shubham, labelling after scotch taping please and how about using brown paper scotch tape instead of transparent plastic versions no matter how strong. If you’re being eco-friendly in big ways, then be eco-friendly in small ways too!
THIS is to say so another birthday has come and gone and so what it what if it was not mine. May there be more birthdays as long as the synergies of mind and body, heart and soul are alive and kicking! We ended up with gifts of some nice liquor and since I don’t drink alone I wonder which of my friends will come drink with me for a few more rainy evenings before the monsoon is gone.
Final piece of advice for those who’re entertaining: Monsoon time it’s best to say no to dairy or cold recipes like dahivada or au gratin or kofta curries or kesar ras malai or fruit custard – stay with Thai green and red curries or the quintessential Goan recheido masala or cafreal curries redolent of tomato gravy and various herbs! I’d say Thai chicken curry and dal Bukhara with steamed rice are a perfect combo and top them with lemon juice, chopped green coriander-mint, if you wish for a homely touch. Cheers for the odd ache din evenings of life!
NOTE: Cake? The five-stars all do good cakes of course but superlative is Christabel and Sunil Shrivastava’s Carasid baked blueberry cheesecake. Ten on ten!