Tim Tai - Tim’d in for Tai’s delights.

The place stood out on the 5th block of Koramangala main road, this was a very easy place to find due to that fact. This place has a very beautiful vibe, with its wonderful interior and exterior. The place is colourful but yet the same was a not imitating towards the ambience, it would be a colourful yet a delicious experience to one and all. The open kitchen was a very good concept as the “Gurus at work” place of magic was visible to all, yet interiors would not make the gurus lose their magic in the food. The fountain and the tree is the best concept of this place for me, the fountain area was still not open for service but the pleasure of eating under a tree was. The selection of songs been played is very good, the volume in which it was played is just right to enjoy the music and it would not interfere in the conversation also. This place has the integration of Tim and Tai. The only drawback that I found in this place was that do not serve liquor, I would prefer that they serve at least wine and beer because wine would go very well with the food and beer as few people would not prefer wine. This place is not a place for hard liquor as it would over power the taste of the food.

Veg Soup

Chicken Tom Kha soup

A veg and non veg soup was served. I did not taste the veg soup but I heard it was a well prepared clear soup. 

The veg soup looked tempting but I want to eager to try the cream Chicken Tom Kha soup. My Chicken Tom Kha soup was served and I would get the fresh herds smell. The soup was rich, the chicken and mushroom was a very good blend. The rich soup was just good to start up my appetite. Due to this I had two servings of the same and totally forgot the try the veg soup.

Raw Mango Salad

Raw Mango Salad

We served Raw Mango Salad after the soup, the salad was really good due to the fried onions and peanuts. The selected raw mangoes for the dish was a well thought, this mango did not over power anything on the plate but it enriched it. The best part of this was the after taste, it was a good feeling in my mouth as the last bite went down my throat as I could still have the flavours in my mouth.

Green Tomato Salad with grilled prawns

We were later served with the Green Tomato Salad with grilled prawns, the raw tomatoes was a bit too hard but believe me, the mouth was filled with wonderful flavours as the I chewed the tomatoes. The prawns were well cook in the first serving but the same was slightly over done in the second serving. I love sea food to that extent that even a slight change in taste is noticeable. The best part of the both the salad was the flavours, the fresh herbs and ingredients really made these dish a delicious one.

corn and spinach dim sum

bamboo shoot

Now it was the time for the priced dishes “Dim Sums”. We were all served steamed ones but I wanted to try the crab dim sum in the fired category, hopefully I have the same the next time. Due to the variety of the dim sums, you could end up eating theses as your full mean. I meant it when I said that because all of them were delicious. We were served two veg and four non veg dim sums with three dips.

Let me start off with the veg ones. I did not have the pleasure of having the Bamboo shoot but the expression on the people's face was enough to say that they enjoyed it. They said that it was steamed to tasty perfection. The corn and spinach dim sum was the veg dim sum that I did not miss. Corn and spinach is always a good combination, this good combination in properly steamed dim sum is a wonderful delight to me. The chill dip was a good dip, that went exceptional well with this. I liked the way that the dip blended with the dim sum and provided a blast in my mouth.

Before I start with the non veg dim sums I wanted to say that the combination of all the three dips together was the wonderful taste that enriched the taste of the dim sum and brought the eight wonder in my mouth. In the words of Tim : “ Traditional dim sum literally means ‘to touch your heart’” and in the words of Tia : ”The modern Dim sum will ‘touch your palate, your stomach and then your soul’”. This was what I felt while eating the Dim sum.

 In the non veg dim sum we served chicken, lamb and prawn. I personally loved the way the prawn dim sum was made, it was soft and had a very nice juicy flavor. The chicken and lamb were also very good and I had two servings of all the non veg dim sum as it was that tasty.

Prawn skewers was the next thing on my plate, might I say that being a sea food eater and when you get well cooked prawns then its like the best. After a well cooked dim sums, the prawn skewer did have place in my tummy.

For the main course, I had some Thai Chilli Basil Noodles which was among the best that I have had, some lamb with black bean sauce and bambo shoots with fried rice. The lamb was perfectly made and it went very well with the spices, the blend was very authentic. The sauce which was mild  but was a nice combination with the noodles. The main course looked very good but due to stuffing of the dim sums and starters I could not have it properly. The veg main course also looked very tempting, which was enjoyed and cherish by the fellow veg bloggers.

For dessert (even thou we were full till our throat) we have loads of stuff. Initially we were severed three different in house (you heard it right) ice cream, those were green tea, lemon grass and chilly chocolate. I personally liked the green tea and chilly chocolate ice cream. As the ice creams were in house it taste very nice and the texture of the ice cream was very good. To our surprise we were served fired ice cream green tea flavor , it was amazing as it was my first time having fried ice cream but I would have preferred that the flavor to be chilly chocolate than green tea. Then I devoured Coconut Panna Cotta with Berry Compote, this was my favorite  Out of all the dessert treats, I loved this one even thou blue berry jam was very sweet but when you have a proper spoon, then you will surely enjoy as the strong blue berry jam blended with the rest just enough to soften the sweetness to perfection. Last but not the least was the Water chestnuts rubies with coconut milk  I personally did not like this due to the coconut taste but this is the highlight dessert for a lot of the bloggers.

Lemon grass

green tea

Chilly Chocolate 

Coconut Panna Cotta with Berry Compote

Water chestnuts rubies with coconut milk

Fried Ice Cream

The best thing was that they provides you with miniature pan, we were just speaking about having a pan as we go out. This miniature mint pan was just what my tummy required after the beautiful meal.

I would recommend this place for cherishing the dim sums and desserts. You could come for the second time to try out the main course. This is the place where tradition means modern in respect of food and feel of the place. I would recommend that you come as a couple for a filling meal, with friends to have a fun time, with family to memorable time and others for a exciting time.

Oktoberfest at Barleyz

Oktoberfest is the world’s largest beer festival, it is annually held in Muich, Germany. It is a 16 days of celebration with beer which starts of in late September to the first weekend in October, a staggering 6 million people from around the world attend this fest every year. Now the Oktoberfest has been adopted across the cities of India. Did you know that The Guinness world record for beer chugging is held by Steven Petrosino of Pennsylvania, who chugged 1 lt of beer in 1.3 seconds, this record was made in 1977 and even after 37 years his record holds good. Did you know that beer is the world’s oldest prepared beverage i.e. 9500 BC. Do make sure that you have degree in zythology i.e. the study of beer and beer making, yes u read correct zythology is the scientific name given to study of beer and beer making. If you are among one of those people who is afraid of an empty glass then I sorry to be bearer of bad news but you have cenosillicaphobia, which is the fear of an empty glass. There are various number of beer facts that make you want beer more than ever.

Barleyz are among the few that have the pleasure to have their own brewery. Their brewery master Mr Mallieswaran gave us a walk through of their brewery system, he is in this field for the last 25 years. They have a two micro brewery which has a capacity of 500 lts, the first container is where the initial crushing take place and then it is transferred to the second contained for mixing and filtration happen. Once the second container has finished its job, then the batch is again transferred to the first container where it undergoes the heating process. This entire process takes about 8 hours to complete. These completed batches are then sent to the final 1000 lt containers for the end process. Two batches at the micro brewery will fill up one container. This is the process that makes sure that we get proper tasty beer. Here the final removal of yeast, fermentation, etc takes place and the average time for a batch of 1000 lts of beer takes about two weeks to be severed. Barleyz have 10 1000 lts beer containers, this tells you that Barleyz will never send you sober because they will always have beer for you. My experience in Barleyz was as good as Valhalla, Old Vikings heaven. The old Vikings believed that there is a giant goat whose udders provided unlimited supply of beer to them in Valhalla.

Mr Mallieswaran between the Crusher/Mixer unit (right) and Filtration Unit (left)

Crusher and Mixer unit

Filtration Unit

Storage unit

Cleansing process of a beer batch

Storage unit

5 of the 10 storage units

Inside the storage unit

Burrp had prepared a small contest on the Oktoberfest and due to which I learnt a few things more about the fest. My fellow blogger Prateek and Janvi won the contest. The best thing that I learnt during the contest is that, when a contest during Oktoberfest make sure you do anything to win.

(From left ) barleyz special, wheat and sprout

(From left) Sprout, legar, wheat and barleyz special

Barleyz have four different kinds of beers that is severed, those are wheat, barleyz special, sprout and lager.  The wheat and the lager was the mild beer and the barleyz special and sprout is on the strong. The wheat beer was not heavy but it has an abundant taste of wheat and it is the perfect beer for me to start off with. The lager is not my favourite beer but this beer had a distinct taste that enabled me to enjoy it to an extent of more than a taste. The sprout has a strong aroma to the beer but the after taste was an enjoyable dark roasted chocolate, which made me like this beer. The barleyz special was a joy to my mouth with its different and unique taste that made me have two mugs of it. I would rate the wheat beer 7, the lager beer 6, the sprout 8 and the barleyz special a perfect 10 on a scale of 10. The reason I am giving the barleyz special a perfect score is due to the unique taste, the taste is new and very good.

Chicken wings

Pork Ribs

Fish

Spring rolls

Now it time for the starters. The starters were on the sweeter side due to which I could have more. The dish that stood out as a starter for me was the pork, the pork was also sweet but after a bite or two the taste of a perfectly cooked pork makes a lot of difference to me and this exceptionally went well with the wheat beer. The second dish that I loved was the chilli chicken, this was my first time that I had a chilli chicken that was sweet in the beginning but that left an after taste of the chillies in my mouth and this went well with the Barleyz special. The dish that went well with the sprout was the paneer, the paneer was well cooked but not well blended with the dish but due to this the paneer enriched the after chocolate taste after each sip.

The nalli pepper soup was excellent , it reminded me of the home cooked soup with a slightly different taste. The taste made the difference in the soup, it helped me to sober a bit and make some room for the main course. I had the aloo mutter, fish tikka with some biryani, this was after a long time that I actually drank more but ate less. The spread for buffet was vast from soups and salads to main course and deserts, I saw a lot of things but I could eat much. I hope you come twice, once to fill your self with beer and the second time for the food.

Barleyz has a unique touch which enables one to enjoy the beer, music, the company and the food all at the same time. Do visit Barleyz during the Oktoberfest to enjoy Valhalla like a Viking. The roof top was closed due to the rain but it looked liked “the place” to enjoy the beers with a couple of friends and just enjoy the movement.

I thank Burrp who enable me to visit Valhalla in Bangalore.