Afraa Lounge & Restaurant- Taste of Tuscany

Us with GM Diksha Pande, Debamita Banerjee and Chef Arnab

Afraa Lounge & Restaurant at City Center Salt Lake, a fine dining restaurant with exceptionally breath taking view of the city's skyline, showcasing a blend of multi themed interiors and decor that encompasses a taste from traditional classic to a more contemporary outlook, all in one, armed with machineries to roll out global cuisines, geared up to give the city a taste of pure Tuscany.

Region of Tuscany in Italy, (Picture Credit: Wikipedia)

As Amrita and I, representing Kolkata Food Bloggers, had the oppurtunity to dine along with GM Diksha Pande, we got to know more about the food of Tuscany, 
Tuscany is a region in central Italy known for its landscapes, traditions, history, artistic legacy and its influence on high culture. 

Tuscany cuisine, known to have a very simplistic outlook, is power packed with the richness of the olive oils, cheese, fresh green vegetables and a lot of protein. 

Tuscany also produces some of the best wines in the world. 

The Tuscany Festival at Afraa was a great treat to relish. Most of the element in almost all the dishes were imported all the way from Italy and the artistic chef Arnab, who has gone through extensive training in this particular cuisine, displayed very intricate gastronomical skills. 

  

Our evening started off with Olive oil tasting sessions where we were served 3 kinds of Olive oil shots by chef Arnab himself. He educated us about the texture and use of each kind. For Amrita and me, it was a rather unusual experience gulping down shots of olive oil.

Antipasti Platter

Armed with a glass of a beautiful crisp white wine, we headed to the table where we were served a mixture of veg and non-veg Antipasti platter. Imported straight from Italy, the cold cuts were a treat to our olive oil dunked tongues. The Mortadella, Salami, Chorizo, pickled fish were far beyond excellent and a wonderful way to start our tryst with Tuscany food. The excellent quality of the food on the platter made us forget to pair it with any of the numerous dips and pestos it came along with.  

Herb crusted Bekti

For mains, we were served Erbe in crosta di barramundi Indiano- herb crusted Betki with caramelized onions and melanzana involtini. The fish coated with Panko crumbs, as told to us by Chef Arnab, was first cooked in the pan and then in the oven. The dish came with lovely accompaniments like a dollop of Risotto, grilled aubergines and a garlic based sauce. 

Lamb shank with egg sauce

Next came in a big portion of Agnello brodellato- lamb shank with egg sauce. The lamb, flavour with thyme and rosemary herbs, was a perfect accompaniment to the full bodied Italian red wine.   

Affogato

The desserts kickstarted with the very traditional Affogato which had a beautiful surprise of a blend of sweetness in vanilla ice cream, a welcomed bitterness in coffee espresso and a perfect neutralizer in Bailey's liqueur. Together they formed a mesmerizing combination that was a pure treat to our palate.

Mango Zabaglione

The Mango Zabaglione came is as another beautiful dessert which had layers of fresh mango and a light airy custard. 

Its amazing to see how everything come together in making a dining experience as fine as the one we have had at Afraa. The Tuscany Festival will be on till 31st of August and you can relish the best produce of Italy right at the very heart of the City Center. 

Vishal & Amrita Tupper

Restaurant Review - Fire and Ice, Kolkata

Along with the blogger group of Kolkata Food Bloggers and CaL Bloggers Table, we found ourselves at the much talked after 'the authentic' Italian cuisine restaurant  'Fire and Ice' located in Middleton Street, Kolkata.

At the outset I must make it ample clear that my ideology of Italian cuisine is as cloudy as the smoky reaction that you might get by mixing fire with ice. It is very reminiscent to the illustration I heard that pizzas are the only 'round shaped' dish in the world that comes in 'square boxes' and cut into 'triangles' to be eaten. Alternatively it was far easier for me to categorize noodle as noodle, the Chinese way, and not know the difference between Fettuccine, Fusilli, Macaroni or Penne etc. I have never come across but have always wondered what would an Italian-Chinese spouse call their 'Noodle-Pasta' dish and what if a Japanese says that they invented the ramen which the Italians have pirated and called it vermicelli. However, here I was sitting at the upmarket niche Italian Restaurant trying to make sense of the menu in the offering. Thankfully, to my relief, I had with me our amazing Kolkata Food Bloggers Team and the CaL Bloggers Group who took the ordeal of choosing dishes on their hands, more as their empathy on me I reckon, after I took almost twenty minutes to decide which drink I would like to have to start off with.

The optimism I could take with myself in the Italian indulgence is that I was going there to venture into a new cuisine as a layman having little idea the difference between authentic Italian and Domino's thirty minutes home delivery 'nahi toh free' pizzas. I must admit I was looking forward to it.

I played it safe on the drinks part. After going through the elaborate wine catalog I settled for a 'mint cooler'. It took me twenty minutes to decide that and at least three 'please-give-me-five-more-minutes' sent-offs to the waiter. I am to believe that he probably mistook it as a gentle indication to do me away with it altogether because even after my fourth recall he pretended not to have heard me and, more shockingly, see me opt for the mint drink after an extensive wine browse.      

Farcita was the first entree to be served. Italian round bread stuffed with Mozeralla cheese and fresh tomatoes. I think they added the tomatoes as an after-thought because it couldn't have been baked with it to remain fresh. Maybe they forgot it in the prep and tried to cover up by inserting it after the bake to make it look like a part of it. None the less, I found it to be low in flavour for my liking. I enjoyed the fresh tomatoes anyway.

The next entree was Spidini Alla Griglia or grilled boneless chicken with coloured bell peppers. It is, sort of, the Italian version of the chicken tikka kebabs. The Italians might have borrowed the idea from the Nawab of Kebabuddin when he visited Italy on his horseback back in 1487 AD or something. Jokes apart, I think the stand out was the dip (or the sauce) as it really elaborated the flavours to a new palate synergized with the grilled chicken. The chicken was soft and tender and grilled to perfection.

Randelle di Patate Fritte was the next entree. These were slices of crunchy potato fried lightly and served with tomato and pesto sauce. The potatoes were too think for my liking and exuberantly over priced at Rs 300/- per plate.   

The first main course was Bolognese which is choice of pasta with meat sauce. Although the pasta was under flaoured, it was perfectly cooked. The meat sauce was that of minced lamb. I loved the flavours and the idea of having a minced meat sauce with pasta. I wished if they were more lenient on the quantity of the meat sauce.

By far the standout dish of the day was the half and half  'Fire and Ice' and 'Pepperoni' pizza. Fire and Ice had tomato sauce, mozzarella, fried potatoes, oregano and rosemary. Pepperoni had tomato sauce, mozarella, imported pepperoni and jalapeno.  It was unanimously loved by everyone. It was very special and different to the usual Indian flavoured pizza. The pizza had a very soft, light yet a formed and slightly crunchy base with fried potatoes and cheese toppings. It had a subtle and balanced flavours of rosemary and tomato sauce toppings. The dish was truly a winner and I would order it again and again.

The Lasagna Tradizionale was not bad but very much similar to the Bolognese dish we had with a slightly more pronounced cheese touch to it. The sauce was the same minced meat one that was served with the pasta earlier. Look wise the dish was 'drab' as Inspector Jack Clouseau of the Pink Panther would call it. However, Garfield would have enjoyed it I am sure; not the Bengali Garfield unless you smudge a hint of fish in it.

In the dessert section we decided to go for Chocolate Mousse without ice cream. The idea behind going for mousse without ice cream was to appreciate the mousse singularly. It tasted average and we wished we had  ordered the ice cream along with it.

Having learned from the mousse experience, we ensured to go for the ice cream with the apple pie as our second dessert option. The ice cream gave a very pleasing look to the dish. However, neither the ice cream nor did the apple pie either compensate or compliment each other for the lack in flavours. The ice cream was a little bland and the apple pie was very strong in cinnamon to appreciate the other ingredients that was overshadowed by it.

If the 'lack of flavours' is the general authenticity that the Italian cuisine displays then I do admit I need to develop taste for the same.

As a group it was a great dining experience together. I certainly look forward to knowing more about what the Italian cuisine has to offer.

To sum it my overall rating on 'Fire & Ice', considering the price which roughly works out to almost Rs 1500/- (for two) and the value one gets form it, would be an under exaggerated reaction of Zinedine Zidane's head butt to Italy's Materazzi in World Cup 2006 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAjWi663kXc. I wish if it could be reversed. 

Happy Italiating

Vishal

To read more reviews on Fire & Ice please refer the following blogs:

Kamalika Chakrabarty

Sarani Tarafder

Megha Jhunjhunwala

Poorna Banerjee

Sanoli Ghosh