Grand Hyatt Mumbai Eats

I was lucky to stay at the beautiful Grand Hyatt Mumbai for a week, which gave me lots of opportunities to gorge on their awesome buffet.

breakfast!

Like this spread I had at breakfast.  Everything was tasty, but I loved the flat pancake thing on the top, a dal pancake (made with lentils).  I liked the green chutney quite a bit too, it was a bit spicy and went well with the pancake.

brunch!

And then there was more food for brunch.  Green rice with various butter chicken, curries, and breads.  OMG, the roti was soooo good at the there.  Crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.  So flavorful that there was no need to eat anything with it.  The plate on the left contained bunch of random Thai/Chinese noodles.  And the small bowls on top were chutneys and  raita.

desserts

Then I ate my way thru Indian desserts.  Indian sweets are very very sweet.  They are mostly almond paste, condensed milk, or coconut milk based.  Super tasty, but you really don't need a full plate to feel satisfied.

more dessert!

And you definitely don't need a bowl of yogurt-y saffron-y dessert on top of the plate.  But you should.

more!

More stuff!  I really like the lentil soup in the little bowl and the aloo paneer on the top left.  Love Indian cheese!

random spinach

Then I ate this random spinach salad thing.  It was actually really good.  The spinach was mixed with chopped nuts and came with a cherry sauce.  Sweet and salty, my fav combo.  The only weird thing was that the spinach was shaped into little hockey pucks.  Who knew hockey pucks can be so tasty.

Dim Sum in Hong Kong

I love dim sum.  Probably because I love anything wrapped in dough (dumplings, pierogies, raviolis, empanadas, etc) and dim sum has a lot of stuff wrapped in dough.  So I was super excited when I had the chance to eat dim sum during my trip to Hong Kong a few weeks ago.  And there were dough wrapped dishes aplenty.

dough wrapped!

Long noodles with shrimp is probably one of the most beloved dim sum dishes.  Silky smooth rice noodles, succulent shrimp, doused in light soy sauce.

 more dough!

Shu mai is another well known dough wrapped dish, this time with pork and shrimp.

fish balls

We also ate some non-dough related dishes, like this fried fish ball.  It was full of stinky fish sauce loveliness.  Which I'm a huge fan of.  More fish flavor, condensed.

silver fish

It was my first time eating fried silver fish, but it won't be the last.  Soft flaky fish fried to a light crispiness.  Oh yes....

fried tofu

I've had plenty of fried tofu before, but this was very different.  It was lightly breaded which gave it another savory flavor dimension.  Definitely on my to eat again list.

more fish balls

One can never eat too many fish balls in Hong Kong.  So we must have it in another form, this time, stewed in a slightly sour cabbage soup.

and more dough

More dough wrapped meat!  I didn't eat this since I was getting full, but now I regret not trying this char shiu bao.  I can almost imagine the fluffy steamed bun with the sweet bbq pork.  Sad...

more fried!

There was also another fried tofu, this time topped with scallions.  It was tasty but I preferred the fat pillowy ones above.  The lightening quick chopstick action you see there was getting some lotus leaf wrapped sticky rice chicken.  One of my favorite dim sum eats.  Probably cuz I'm a slave to any sticky rice dish.

purdy

Another dim sum first was a jello dessert made with chrysanthemum and goji berries.  It was fragrant and tasty.  Nice light finish to the meal.

dessert 2

Oh wait, I lied, I had another dessert, in the form of mango pudding soup with tapioca.  Maybe not a light finish to the meal, but definitely a very nice one.

Random Brussels Eats

I ate at Café  Leffe twice while in Brussels.  The food was good there, but really, I loved chilling in Sablon, sitting at their comfy outdoor area, and people watch.  

shrimp salad

The food was fresh and clean, like the shrimp salad above.  Sweet shrimp and salty parmesan were tossed lightly with bitter arugula.  Perfect for a hot summer day.


Then I negated any healthy eating by ordering some frites to go with my salad.  No regrets here.  The fries were crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside.  My only complaint would be that they were not as liberally salted as I'd like.  In fact, I don't think they were salted at all.  I sprinkled salt on them, but by that time, it was too late.  Salt doesn't stick to non-straight-out-of-the-fryer fries.  Remember that kids.  Remember or your fry tastiness will not reach its full potential.

so much potential, wasted

Another day, I had a salad with lardon, grilled chevre cheese, and frites (or course), washed down with some of the cafe's namesake, Leffe.

lard-on

There were a generous amount of lardon.  I also loved the walnut chunks sprinkled throughout.  Despite the chunks of cheese and pound of lardon, the salad managed to be light.  I was thankful for the light hand in dressing.  The frites were again under salted, but overall, I was happy with the meal.


I ate lots of moules while in Brussels, it was the start of moules season!  I had it for dinner one night at Restaurant a la Folie.

with frites of course

The mussels were prepared with onions, parsley, the usual.  But it also had thinly sliced fennel, which I loved. 

I also had disks of fried cheese.  Yup.  Another light meal sabotaged by a plate of fried fat.

ooze

The final night in Brussels, I ate at Chez Leon, a super touristy place that was known for their mussels.  But I was fairly mussel out at that point, so I replaced one seafood with lots of seafood.

seafood, how i love thee

The bouillabaisse came with toast points, aioli, and cheese.  It was hearty in its lovely seafood murkiness, but bright in its freshness.  I especially loved the flaky fish and the prawn heads.  People should really consider making a dish completely out of prawn heads, I'd eat it.

Bits o' Stuff - Cendol

Shaved ice is probably my favorite dessert.  I can eat it for a meal.  I can make room for it after a meal.  In Malaysia, I tried to stuff as much cendol (the Malaysian version of shaved ice) down my gullet as humanly possible.  My favorite was a drink/cendol combo from a street vendor near our hotel in C-town.

best dessert ever

It was a shaved ice made with topped with chewy "pasta" jelly, corn, oatmeal, coconut milk, condensed milk, and the star - gula (palm sugar). Then the whole thing was topped of with creamy chai tea. ALL MY FAVORITE THINGS IN ONE GULP.  Holy cow, it was so good. So good that J-me and I walked around in 100 degree heat the next day looking for the vendor.  We found him after much persistence.  Then we returned everyday while there.

ice being shaved!

I miss it everyday....