Indori Zayka in association with Vidorra, organized a food bloggers meet for some of the active reviewers and I was invited for the same.

Located on Palasia Chouraha, Vidorra is one of the most happening places in Indore. The location is scenic with great sky line view of the city and the busy MG Road across it. Inside, a special U- shaped seating arrangement was done for us wherein we sat and started the gastronomic journey.

To start with I would first like to congratulate the restaurant & Indori Zayka for hosting such a great meet. As the participants are budding food bloggers of the city, both restaurant owners and team Indori Zayka took great care & ensured that service is top notch and served us with various highly exotic dishes.

Amidst the wide array of delicacies, we were presented with about 28+ dishes comprising of national as well as international cuisines. Soups, Salads, Veg and non veg snacks, Main course with veg and non veg options, Rice, desserts, mock tails, shots etc.. You name it and it was right on the table!

To start with we were explained some basics of food terminology and a small excerpt about the dishes and today’s meet. The anchor of the event was none other than Chef Vicky, owner of Paratha on Wheels cafe, Indore, who’s a very experienced and renowned chef. He enlightened us with some interesting facts about cuisines and best ways to enjoy a food. During the discussion, a thing that I could connect with my childhood, “Always smell a feed before you have it. Try to give the 6 senses its flavour before you take the first bite”, said the Chef. Well, it is something which I have been doing since my childhood. My mom says it’s against table manners but whoa! who cares as long as the flavourful smell entices you to gobble it?

Soup:

To start it, we were first served with Chicken Coriander Thick Soup. Well, soups are majorly of two types: Thick soups and Clear Soups. I am personally moved more by the former one. So here it was! Perfectly minced chicken pieces, sliced perfectly such that the muscles thread could be easily pulled off. Rich and thick broth, coriander and white egg made a perfect combination and soup turned out to be a real hit!

Salads:

Next were 4 different types of Salads. Salads can be served hot or cold and can be taken accordingly. Amongst the servings here, I truly enjoyed Cottage Cheese and Pineapple Salad which was served Chilled. So, how do you feel when you see a chilled juicy Pineapple sliced in small cubes & mixed in lot of cream and Cheese pieces? Yes, mouth watery! The taste reminded me of Pineapple Cheese canopy that I recently had in Stars and Sky, Infinity, but this was different and far more delicious. Taste was majorly dominated by either pineapple or Cheese piece and balanced by rich cream. Heavenly!

After having some chilled salad, we then moved to munch some hot Chicken Pate Salad. Well more than the taste, it was the presentation that took my breadth. Pieces of chicken well emulsified in veggies. Nice and something different. But my personal favourite was Pineapple salads as one can easily prepare it in home too, just beware of the countless calories it gives.

Snacks:

After kick starting with the salads, we then moved towards their Veg and Non Veg snacks section. Amongst their long list of servings I loved Hara Pyaaz ka Paneer Tikka which is a Haryanvi dish. One can relate much about this item from just the name. So this Hara Pyaaz ka Paneer tikka had soft paneer perfectly sliced from the centre and tossed lightly in green gravy. One could feel panner with gentle flavour of green chilli, spring onion tossed in spicy tandoor masala. Light and tasty!

Non Veg Snacks:

Sultani Sumandar ka Tikka (Goan Cuisine)– As filmy as the name sounds, trust me the dish is far more better. So, we were served with Indian Bassa Fish that was deliciously prepared and served beautifully. Soft, appt in taste, juicy and truly scrumptious. Don’t forget to add this dish’s name in your Goa checklist in the next visit.

Mutton ka Panja- Ever had Dhue wala Keema? If yes, you can very well relate to this exotic dish. In order to add some strong aura in a dish, chefs often keeps some small smoky coal in the centre of a dish (may be in a separate bowl so that coal pieces do not get mixed in food) & cover the dish. The same is implemented here in Mutton ka Panja. Dish was properly prepared and served. Tasted well too but somehow I didn’t loved it much. May be as we were overdone with snacks : )

Main Course:

Moving towards the main course, the dishes comprised majorly of Thai, Cantonese, Bengali, Keralian, Indonesian and more. My favourite was Mutton Bhutti ka Neelgiri (Bengali Cuisine). Bengal, the region known for its delicious non vegetarian delights, colourful festivals and natural beauty. Don’t know how well a dish can deeply remind you of particular region. Prepared with soft mutton pieces, the dish is cooked with mustard seeds and spinach gravy and so is greenish in colour. The stew was thick and has a dominating flavour of Indian spices. We had it with Garlic Naan and plain naan, but it tasted delicious with garlic naan. A must have from my side!

Rice:

Nasi Goreng Istimewa (Indonesian cuisine): Dominated majorly with flavour of coconut, this yellow coloured rice was a real delight after the heavy items that we had. The presentation was really eye catchy and so was the flavour. Low oil, good balance of light masalas & a fresh smell of coconut in every bite took us away for a while. Truly delicious!

Desserts:

A wise man told, “Meetha apni jagah khud banal leta hai”, I finally believed how true the words are. After trying about 25 different types of dishes, we were served with Coconut Pan Cake & Hot Chocolate roll with Vanilla ice cream. Both the desserts were lip smacking and delectable. So far I felt Chopstick City in Sayaji serves the best Chocolate rolls, but the spell got broke here when I tried these. Truly amazing! Coconut Pan Cake was good too, cooked with coconut and sugar syrup, it tasted great but, on a personal note I give extra points to the rolls.

Mocktails: So, while we were about to finish with the meet, Mocktails arrived as a surprise from the organisers. About 6-7 different kinds of drinks were served such as: Creamy Pie, Express Coffee Fuller, Margarita, Purple drink and many more. My favourite here was Creamy Pie that was made with dry fruit ice cream properly emulsified with milk, cream and served in beautiful Martini glasses. It was fresh and thick giving the real dry fruit flavour. Although heavy, but I could complete it effortlessly. Thanks to my sweet tooth and it’s enriching taste.

Lastly, as a thank you note we were presented with Pan Shots. Unlike Sankalp, where we get solid pans stuffed with coconut to munch, we were here given small Pan Shot. Real mouth freshening and fulfilling. After sipping this pan shot we actually felt that no effort was left from the organisers and no stone was unturned to make the meet a real success!

A first of its type in Indore, we all loved and appreciated the professional way in which the meet was held. It not only gave us a platform to showcase our skills but motivated us more towards our passion of food and writing.

Looking forward for such more meets in Indore!