As is typical of teenagers growing up in the ninety’s in India they didn’t have an option but to go for engineering courses. And after becoming successful IT Professionals four college friends decided to join hands do something on their own. They didn’t have to look far for an idea for their maiden entrepreneurial venture – their common passion for Food decided that. “None of us are from the Food and Beverages background but when we decided to do something on our own, we knew it has to be something related to food as we love eating out and wanted to make a difference, says Kapil Saxena, one of the proud co-founders of Paprika Park – The Imperial & The Majestic.

Little over a year ago they came up with Paprika Park, The Majestic – the first and only park themed restaurant in NCR. The fine dining restaurant is conveniently located in the sprawling Indirapuram Habitat Centre Complex. For the last one year it has been serving some of the most sumptuous Indian, Mughlai and Chinese cuisines.

Apart from having a relaxing and beautiful decor, the theme of the restaurant has a philosophical undertone – “India is the spiritual guru of the world”. To bring that to life 7 different sections have been created to depict seven different countries of the world. This concept along with the meditational music and the sound of birds chirping makes the patrons feel absolutely relaxed while enjoying the best gastronomic experience.

Now time to talk about the most significant aspect of a restaurant – food. To start with there is a wide variety of vegetarian and Non-veg sizzlers. Apart from the theme, this has been the USP of the restaurant over the last one year.

 “That aroma of the burning coal and butter, while dishes get served at their tables have proved to be the most intriguing factor for our customers, and we have gathered accolades from our customers of all age groups for this,” Kapil adds.

A sizzling brownie dessert called the Hot Spot has also turned out to be a big hit across all age groups. The live on-table tadka of Tur daal and Peshawari Raan are other two things patrons have showered praise on.

Encouraged by the response the friends decided it was time to raise the bar. After winning the hearts of Indirapuram, Noida and nearby residents, they decided to go niche with The Imperial – a buffet restaurant and a banquet hall. The Imperial’s mouth-watering six-course buffet along with its imperial décor, are already a big hit with both families and corporates alike.

With emphasis on best in class service, and a constant endeavor to re-invent itself, the Paprika Park restaurants have certainly emerged as one of the most sought after eating joints in NCR. 

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It’s always a tough job for the restaurateurs to pull out new tricks to tempt patrons to keep coming back. Kalpak, a restaurant in sector 50, Noida seems to have mastered this art wooing its customers with innovative recipes. The latest on their menu is Bamboo Biryani  – a first of a kind in this part of the country. Also new on the menu is the Malabar curry served in green coconuts, best had with Malabari parathas. Absolutely melt in your mouth kind of good. Almost divine kind of good.

It was a dear friend’s birthday recently and I had a lunch invite to Kalpak,  one of my favourite haunts. Now I have been to this place quite a few times and had already decided on ordering my favourite dishes.

Turn your Passion for Food to Start up a Restaurant | Kalpak Restaurant 

My love affair with that little ball of fire and ice

You know the feeling when you are in your comfort zone. It’s like when you see a repeat run of your favourite movie; or you hear the opening bars of a music composition and you know the song or if you are a cricket fan, you know the ball by ball fall of wickets and how India won the 1983 World Cup. Just the comfort of knowing what you want and knowing what you are getting.

Imagine my surprise when the main course was served. The friendly waiter came and placed a foot-long bamboo, sealed with banana leaf, roasted to a beautiful brown.  The other dish served on the table was a roasted green coconut sealed with flour dough. It made a pretty sight indeed and my mind was filled with curiosity… now what’s this? The dish scored full marks on presentation and the surprise factor.

The waiter then proceeded to serve us. I have to admit that the act of serving also kept us hooked in anticipation. He carefully removed the seal, broke open the bamboo log followed by rhythmic banging of the spoon against the log to release the chicken/vegetables marinated with choicest aromatic Indian spices, dum cooked with long grain basmati rice, with hints of desi ghee and mint onto my plate. The fragrance of the biryani was appetizing and I couldn’t wait to eat. And the taste…have not had anything nicer in a long time.

After the sumptuous lunch I spoke with the chef to find out what goes on to prepare this masterpiece. The rice is half cooked and stuffed into the bamboo log, the ends of which are stuffed with fresh banana leaf. This helps to lock in the aromas of the herbs, spices and juices of the chicken/vegetable while ensuring that the biryani is dum cooked.

The infusion of the biryani with the aroma of the bamboo trunk and banana leaf lifts it above the ordinary. Definitely must try in your next visit. Kalpak offers both vegetarian and non-vegetarian options.

Just a couple of months back, my son’s schedule, had turned completely upside down as he was appearing for class XII exams. He would sleep through the day and study at night. He would rummage through kitchen cupboards and end up either making Maggi or eating cookies/toasted bread-butter.

Guess what,I have stumbled upon a solution for him and many owls like him, who study up late night and people in general who stay up late. Hungry Ullu & Hungry Chow (HU&HC) is the perfect joint to satisfy your late night hunger cravings for people in Noida.

Wood fired Pizza & more

Hungry Ullu & Hungry Chow provides home step delivery of your favourite fast food – Italian & Chinese cuisine in the middle of the night.

All of us have gorged and then gotten sick of the greasy paranthas, the most commonly available food for late nighters. Now you can order freshly cooked sandwiches, burgers, pizzas and Chowmein, all with the freshness that comes from home kitchen without sacrificing either the authenticity or the flavors.

HU&HC is run by brothers Vaibhav Bhatt and Sameer Bhatt, who hit upon the idea in their student days, when they realized there was a lack of food options for them when they were studying or partying late night.

Also Watch:Turn your Passion for Food to Start up a Restaurant

Also Read:My love affair with that little ball of fire and ice

This coupled with their love for food pushed them towards setting up Hungry Ullu, a name apt and self-explanatory for its offering. They started from their home kitchen last year supplying to their family and friends and have now moved into a bigger place where all Noidaiites can order and enjoy the food in the comfort of their homes. They have expanded their enterprise to include Chinese food too now.

I tried the thin crust Farm Fresh Pizza topped with lots of veggies. Prepared in wood fired oven, the base was crispy, the veggies were garden-fresh and the cheese just melted in the mouth. All of their pizzas can be customised according to your choice – thin crust or thick crust, more veggies or more cheese. And the best part is you get piping hot pizza home delivered, that too in the middle of the night.

To tell you a secret, I would be happy to order from HU&HC even during the day (if only they were open during the day) because I found their stuff better than even the branded pizzas available in every other neighbourhood.

Do try the summer cooler Mojito from the HU&HC bar, it is a sure winner –refreshing and energising. You could order Cold Coffee, along with Oreo and Ferrero Rocher shakes.

So next time if you are having a weekend late night party with friends at home, HU&HC is an interesting option to go for.

Order today…oops tonight. You can thank me later!

I have known Sujith Reddy for almost a decade now. A close family friend, he was CFO of an IT company till a few years back, when he quit his job to follow his entrepreneurial dream. Two things stand out about Sujith – his knowledge about all things Tech and his passion for food. 

Of food and friends

Dinner at his house is always an event in itself; something to always look forward to for he is a hands-on cook who dishes out the most amazing dishes and desserts. I have been witness to his love for food and the pains he takes to make sure to get genuine ingredients and the appropriate equipment (utensils), which always make it an awesome experience to enjoy his hospitality.

So if its biryani that he is serving, he would source the Handi and the spices from Old Delhi, and if it is a Thai themed dinner, he would go all the way to INA market or even to the other end of the town-Gurgaon  to get the kaffir limes, galangal and lemongrass etc. The result would be a Thai Red Curry with the most authentic taste and we his friends getting to taste the real Thai food without having to make that trip to Bangkok. 

Also Read: My love affair with that little ball of fire and ice

So we were thrilled when he invited us to dinner last evening but a tad disappointed when told that the venue was not his home. He would be taking us out to a restaurant. Which one, we asked? It’s a surprise, he said and asked us to reach Sector 50, Noida. Imagine our surprise when he took us to Kalpak, a yet to be opened restaurant, and we came to know that it is a place which he himself is setting up.

Kalpak restaurant serving a perfect blend of Indian and Oriental cuisine

The scene at Kalpak was something like this – A balmy September evening, pleasant breeze blowing at the second floor terrace, warm lighting, well laid out canopied tables amid big size lush green palms.  And topping it all – a virtual cornucopia of good food.

The starter drink – lemonade but it’s not your usual lime soda; it has a kala khatta flavour that adds to the refreshing quotient of the drink.

We were served some very innovative kababs – I especially liked the Ganderi kabab, served on a sugarcane stick and the Money balls, which is basically vegetables & nuts wrapped in the thinnest and crunchiest crust, fried to perfection, a definite yay. While red and green chutney is the standard accompaniment for snacks across restaurants, what caught my eye was the fresh beetroot chutney along with the usual suspects.  The taste was a thumbs-up too. The stuffed mushroom tikka was also an unusual dish, what with the yummy nuts filling inside. 

Biryani in the main course was one of the best I’ve had in years. And it is also served in the typical earthern Handi in which it is cooked, with the dough sealing the mouth of the handi and all. If it is Sujith’s venture, I can vouch that the taste is going to be authentic. And last but not the least, the steamed pomfret is definitely to die for, soft and flavourful in each and every bite.

A fitting end to the meal was a Paan, no not the traditional one, but all the flavors of Paan combined into a single Shot – A Paan shot! Interesting, isn’t it?

Winter is on its way. Now I know where I will go to enjoy delicious food basking in the warmth of the winter sun….I’m going to head to Kalpak.

By Kaamna Jain

Ambala is a small, sleepy city in Haryana, adjoining the border with Punjab.  On the industrial map, it has a flourishing scientific goods industry.  It also has a well-developed cantonment area. Other than that it doesn’t have much claim to fame. But this article is not about that.

It is about the other treasure that Ambala has to offer, which somehow has not caught the imagination of the people. What Ambala has to offer to the world is a gastronomical delight – the Golgappe with its six-seven types of spicy water.

Golgappe is one of my favourite Indian snacks – mostly sold by road side vendors. Called by different names – Panipuri in Maharashtra, Gupchup in Orissa or Puchka in West Bengal (or is it just Bengal now?); it is basically a crisp fried hollow ball of Sooji ( Semolina) or Atta (wheat flour), filled with boiled and mashed potatoes , topped with onion, and then dipped in spicy water and served in individual helpings. As I read somewhere it is the explosion of sweet, sour, spicy water mixed with potatoes and the crisp in your mouth that makes it an absolutely awesome experience. 

Golgappe – one of India’s most loved snacks

A ubiquitous sight in India is four five people surrounding a golgappe wala with their hand outstretched, holding a bowl in which the vendor methodically prepares and carefully places a single golgappa turn by turn. Every customer gets one golgappa in each round.  You can easily gauge the popularity of the vendor by the number of people he serves in each round. I have eaten at places where there are 12-15 in a single round and still more waiting for their turn.

Also Read: Choosing that Cup of Tea over the big promotion

So coming back to the Ambala, it is a real treat for the taste buds. A typical round start with jeera water, followed by hing water, then there is pudina water and then there are stuffed golgappe with Dahi or Sweet Imli chutney. New flavours are also being continuously added…in my recent trip to Ambala, I tried Guava spicy water… ummm the sweetness and the tang just blew my mind. Of course I wasn’t content with one round and just had to have two rounds. 

Golgappe V Panipuri V Gupchup V Puchka

While in North India the focus is on the sweet spicy water with medium filling, in the Eastern side the gupchup is really nicely stuffed with the potato filling. Also the crispy fried balls are made of Atta and not sooji .  All those who belong to or have eaten the gupchup in Orissa or Puchka in West Bengal will vouch for the taste. Infact one of my friends who goes to Orissa for work will sometimes have only Gupchup for lunch. I especially recommend the Gupchup wala who stands outside the National Science Museum in Bhubaneswar and the Jain (Gupchup  without sprinkling of onion) at Choudhury Bazaar in Cuttack.

It is easy to believe that you just cannot go wrong with this snack provided the hygiene standards are maintained. But believe me the worst ones I had were in the posh GK market of New Delhi – tasteless and full of chillies. My friend and I had to have lime soda after that to soothen out taste buds and we both agreed that they were the saddest ones we had ever had.

It will be interesting to know your recommendations. Do let me know your favourite panipuriwala in your city.  Happy Dunking!

Varun Dhawan attends Iftar party at Persian Durbar in Mumbai’s Mohammed Ali Road. This is part of the promotion campaign for Varun’s upcoming dil Dishoom. 

You are going out partying or visiting a friend’s place for dinner and most importantly you are a vegetarian. So what are the delicacies you are most likely to be served? Did we hear ‘Paneer’…well that’s what we thought and found out as well. So why only Paneer? Is Paneer really vegetarian’s Non veg. Is Chicken v Paneer an equal match – we tried to find out.

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