Review: Sushi Bar at Cinnamon Lakeside

 

The Sushi Bar at Cinnamon Lakeside (135, Chitt. Gardiner Mawatha) is so modestly and unpretentiously announced, you may miss it all together, if you’ve weren’t really looking for it. That would be a pity: a competitively priced, extensive selection of beautifully plated sushi – of above average quality awaits you at the Sushi Bar.

            We opted, as you should, for the Chef’s assorted Sushi platter, which promised 5 fish offerings for the Nigiri (Tuna, Modha, Salmon, Cuttlefish, and Prawn) and three for the maki rolls (Tuna, Salmon & Cumber)– quite a good deal for Rs. 800. This with tea, makes a great lunch. But we added a separate potion Smoked Salmon Nigiri (Rs. 580), was well as two made to order pure vegetarian options – the Spring rolls and the California Rolls (Rs. 400).

            The star turn was the assorted platter; the tuna always the variable in different places, had great fatty flavor, and wasn’t sour. The Modha was good as well, the cuttle fish was buttery, the prawn, marinated sweet sour, was a lovely change, the Salmon was soft, fatty and rich. The tuna, it must be said approached Nihonbashi quality, at a lower price point, and the presentation was really pretty. The smoked salmon was also marvelous, with the added melt in your mouth cold bacon flavor, that comes with that delicacy. In general, you really can’t go wrong with Salmon, which is air freighted from Norway – with Tuna and Modha, quality will vary—depending on the catch of the day, and the nearness to the belly of the cut, but Lakeside did well.

            The vegetarian options though outstandingly plated, didn’t have enough flavor – these maki rolls are really built around crab sticks, and if you do leave them out – a really intensely flavored cumber or radish must take its place, I feel. To be fair, these pure vegetarian options are not on the menu, and were created for us – perhaps they need more work for vegetarian sushi lovers.

            Our dessert was the green tea ice-cream, which was creamer than what we expected, and sweeter – some scoops had an amazing after taste of tea, but that was a little uneven. But the cold Sake (Rs. 800 for 150 ml) , and the hot green tea (Rs. 220) we had with the meal were great.

            The service was amazing, with Sunil Perera (lounge manager) and Nadiyah Akram (marketing) making us feel like we were king and queens of the castle. If you’d like to take a visitor out to lunch, you really can’t go wrong at the Sushi Bar at the Cinnamon Lakeside.

In the Sunday Times

Thanks to the wonderful interest and sensitivity of Smriti Daniel, I had the pleasure of one of the coolest interviews I've ever given; what's more the article in the Sunday Times is succinct, deft and makes me look a lot better than I am.

Thank you Smrithi

Published in Print : Lentil Soup

Published in Spectrum, vol1(4), April, 2009, in my regular Achcharu column; based on a previous blog post.

Kithul Creams: Published in Print!

The March issue of Spectrum: A Review of the Social Landscape is out; and another achcharu column is in print! This time, it is Kithul Creams, which I blogged about, a while back...

Malinda Seneviratne edits Spectrum

Achcharu in Spectrum

Spectrum is a new magazine, published by Nexus Research, and edited by Malinda Seneviratne. It has a range of opinions on social and political questions.

But also, a food column -- Achcharu --with my fuision recipies.

It will be launched today, 4 pm, at the SLFI, Colombo.
Check it out!

Lentil Soup, with Red Pepper & Ginger

I like having parripu from time to time. Its very smooth and soothing, really, if its made right. Typically, I don't like the traditional Sri Lankan way of doing dhal; I like a garlic sauteed dhal with added butter.
But recently I wanted some thing soupier, so I turned my mind to lentil soup. After a couple of attempts this is what I came up with -- and it was very very good!



To fix this -- for one person -- boil 1/4 cup of mysoor dhal in a cup of water, with a large, chopped, red pepper added, and three cloves of cleaned chopped garlic, a pinch of tumaric for colour and some salt. The dhal should be cooked in 20 mins or so, and then I add about half the amount of home made chicken stock, and reduce it down a little. (If you want this totally vegitarian, consider some celery/cabage stock.) Anyway, then grate in an inch of ginger into it, and puree the whole thing. Right at the end, fold in two large spoons of coconut milk power, for a nice creamy texure.
Or fresh cream, if you have it, and prefer that.
Garnish with red pepper slivers, and have it hot!

Ginger hightlights and a red pepper after taste, sandwiches the comforting taste of coconut creamed dhal, that we all grew up with.

And this time, with a difference!

Update: This recipe was published in print, in Spectrum vol1(4), April 2009.

Stolen! (A follow up)

First off, thanks to every one who commented and commiserated, some anonymously on my stolen photograph. Much good advice and help was also offered so let me update those of you who stopped by:
FASTAds emailed to me, given the intervention of a helpful fellow blogger and told me, that they got the photograph from another website, and didn't know it was mine, and that they are sorry. Okay, good on them to do that much.
Now I hope FASTAds got a release from www.srilankaexpeditions.com to use my photograph -- if they didn't, they still do violate the principle involved and if they did -- then however did Sri Lanka Expeditions use a photograph of mine with out permission or even citation. Yes, but its up there -- and I haven't heard any thing from the owners of that site. (I have now, and its been cited. See the apology below in the comments section)

Then, making it all the amazing was a post this morning from N -- showing me that yet another tourism website (goofy foot holidays) was using my picture, with out acknowledgement of course! How many more are out there? I can not even track this! Jeez.

Okay guys, its time to acknowledge the source of the photograph.

Kithul Creams

These little dishes are based on what's called 'small pots of cream' in French cooking, except of course, I used kithul treacle instead of sugar, and grated kithul jaggery as a topping, with a dollop of sweetened whipped cream to set it all off.
(recipe note: 1 cup of milk, 3 yolks, no whites, 1/3 cup of treacle, 6 mins@ 360)

its was quite good, but I'm still working on this variation.

Update: This recipe and photograph was published in print, in Spectrum: A Review of the Social Landscape, (March 2009).

Strawberries & Curd

I’m back, after a break – for field work in the east, and other random office stuff.
But lots of new dishes are being planned, made and tasted, even as you read this, by the little and not so little critters who live on, and near the bar-counter top, in the Elibank Road apartment.

Today, I had fun with Strawberries.

Well Strawberries and Cream is a well known favorite, right – so I thought to try it with fresh buffalo curd, instead.

I diced 1 cup of strawberries, added ¾ cup of vodka, a pinch of salt and reduced it, until it was thick, adding about 2 table-spoons of sugar, and a few drops of white vinegar while it bubbled. I poured this into the bottom of the wine glasses, then liquidized the curd in a blender, adding that over the strawberry reduction, which was pulpy, since it was not strained, by not googy, and then let it cool in the fridge. After lunch, I topped it off with thinly sliced fresh strawberries dipped in the reduction.
The curd turns out well formed, and divides up the differently textured strawberries with its slightly sour, creamy froth. Yummy poo!

Update: Published in Spectrum, Feb., 2009:

Mango Panna Cotta & Liquor.

This is really similar to the Pineapple Coconut Panna Cotta I did a couple of weeks ago; except I used cream (Kotmale), instead of thick coconut milk, so it is more traditional as it were.
The mango substituted for pineapple, and I reduced it in white wine, pureed one half, adding cream and dissolved gelatin to this half, and a little vodka and sugar to the other half.
That’s what I call the liquor, and this goes in the bottom of the shot glass, with some small, dainty pieces of mango, from the reduction. If you don't have little pieces sticking up a tiny bit out of the surface of the liquor, you will have trouble keeping the two layers separate.
That's physics.
You can add a few more bits of mango, if you like – and then pour the creamed puree over it. Let it sit over night in the fridge, and then garnish with more slivers of mango.

Eat it when its cool, and savor the creamy mango layer, before swooping down with a eager spoon into the sweet, thick, mango-vodka nectar down bellow.
If only I had a longer tongue...!

And an update: Published in Zero77, Oct., 2007.

Pizza, in Sri Lanka

When I was a kid growing up in Colombo and Galle, there wasn't the option of pizza delivery. Pizza itsself wasn’t that well known; in the early 80s, there was a place called Gillo’s, and they had it, as I recall. But all the other places, where you got finger food – Fountain café, Green Cabin and of course Zellers– didn’t have pizza.
So I first really encountered it, as some thing I could have on whim, when I was living in Cambridge, Mass, in the then run down part of that great town, Central Square. Hi-Fi pizza, which still exited when I visited in 2004, in a considerably spruced up environment, was our main stay, because they sold slices, and were open past mid night. And in those now memorable days of youth, every one in my MIT dormitory would be up, arguing about nothing at all, letting the time go by, punting as used to say, until big Bill Houston would stand, and announce he was making a pizza run.
Hi-Fi pizza slices were cheesy and soft on the inside, crisp at the edges, and really super with pepperoni, cos it’s the meat had bite. I loved those late night slices, but even more, after sprinkling miris kalli, on them. I think any Sri Lankan, who likes pizza, likes loads of red chillie pieces sprinkled on their share.

And of course, when you order some from Dominos or Pizza hut, as you can these days, they do send the packets along.
But isn’t that kind of second hand?
Why not redo Pizza, our way?
That’s what I did the other day, and I loved how it tasted.

Okay, here goes.
I used ‘large’ pizza bread from 7 stars, which I got at Laughs. Its only 135.00 for about six or seven 12” ish pieces, which is cheap as bread, isn’t it? Cool. Then I got a whole fat thing of Kotmale Mozzarella, which is available frozen at the same place, and I dare say all over. It was okay Motze, and well not as expensive as the shredded imported from Australia stuff.

Method, as it were:
Score the pizza bread in even lines, and smooth a thin layer of olive oil on it. (This will make the bread really nice.) Add another light layer of Chillie Sauce (I used MD, since I’m old fashioned), and then nice two or three heaped spoons of chillie pieces. Not power now, it’ll burn. Add a layer of chopped cheese, right over all that. Then a sprinkling on salt, just lightly, with two fingers.
I had heated up my grill/oven to max, which is about 480F I think. Or 280C. Then warm an oven proof pan on the stove, adding a tiny bit of olive oil on that also, and let the loaded pizza bread heat on that, pan toasting the bottom, before transferring it the oven after two mins. After 10 mins in oven, take out that nicely melted and browning pizza, and resisting any desire to pick at it, add a sliced Bombay onion, some sliced deli meat, if you like that, (I tried it with 70g of Food City beef salami, and it was super), and more grated cheese. If you want to grate Kotmale Motze, it has to be frozen (or else it’s too soft)– so keep a bit frozen. Grated cheese right on top, will melt more smoothly for a nice finish. So add this second layer, a little more olive oil, just a tiny bit now, a tad more chillie pieces, and then put it in for another 5 mins.

And when you eat it, the chillie cheese flavor is almost right in the bread, which has baked in light flavor of salted (olive) oil, making up a savory taste we all know, but perhaps can’t name.
Simple and great.

PS: I thought this recent piece in the New York Times, about the gourmet pizza place, Mozza, fascinating. They use very high heat, and custom made dough.



Update: this recipe and a photograph was published in Zero77, issue 2.

Published!

In The Morning Leader's Depict (issue) 7
Originally uploaded by pradeep jeganathan.

These photographs were published in Depict, the digital photography supplement of the Morning Leader, on the 26th April.
Flickrite Asoka Moragoda edits, Depict.

I was pretty thrilled to see my work in print :)