Oriental Food Festival at L-14, by Renaissance Lucknow

Hey everyone, hope y'all are doing good! 

A lot of you already know that I've not been keeping well past a few days as I told you in my last post, and also as my Snapchat was filled with all kinds of sickness melodrama all this while, if you noticed! What more you must have noticed there, were glimpses of an evening from last week that I spent at L-14 of Renaissance Lucknow Hotel, enjoying the dinner buffet at the on-going ORIENTAL FOOD FESTIVAL.

L-14 is the 14th floor of Renaissance Hotel, the tallest building in Lucknow city, and thus has the best view for the visitors to experience! Also, its a fine-dine restaurant that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner and is of the most beautiful places to dine in town! So, as I attended the first day of the Oriental Food Festival serving the amazing Asian cuisine here, I thought of sharing the entire escapade with all of you.

Mesmerized to see this lady at the reception, dressed up all Asian and stuff, I don't think she's Chinese though, Japanese maybe?

Well, Asian cuisine has become increasingly popular all over the world, and being an Asian myself, I felt its high time I should know my own native flavors. This cuisine refers to any of several major regional cuisines, including East Asian, Southeast Asian, South Asian, Central Asian, and Middle Eastern. Ingredients common to many cultures in the East and Southeast regions of the continent include rice, ginger, garlic, sesame seeds, chillies, dried onions, soy, and tofu. Stir frying, steaming, and deep frying are common cooking methods in this cuisine!

So, the Food and Beverages department at Renaissance Lucknow Hotel has brought together the diverse and authentic flavours from the far East in its ongoing Oriental Food Festival that aims at serving delicacies filled with a variety of oriental tastes that extend beyond the traditional Chinese and Thai food to Japanese, Vietnamese and South Korean dishes. This time it promised food connoisseurs a culinary expedition, rustling up favourites like Singapore Chicken Rice, Satay Ayam, Tofu Satay, various Thai Curries, Schezwan Stir Fries, Pok Choy and Shittake with Burn Garlic, Malay Coconut Curry, Vietnamese Pho, Spinach Tomato Tossed Noodles, Crispy Corn and Black Mushroom, Aromatic Chicken and a lot more regular Indian dishes as well!

I was invited to attend the festival, along with my friend and photographer Mrinal Khatnani, and we made sure we didn't miss it as for my previous deals with Renaissance have been so amazing! 

PS : The fest is UP TILL 31st JULY, so you can actually go and experience it yourself. 

The buffet presentation was beautifully laid, as everything appeared so colorful and elegant. You just can't resist getting up from your chair, picking up a plate, and start pouring in the food. I too couldn't resist myself, you see! ----------- Scroll down to take a look at all the food pictures and drool. :p

Aromatic Chicken

Sliced Lamb in Massaman Curry

Curried Indonesian Vegetables

Crispy Corn & Black Mushroom

Slice Fish

Shrimp with Lemon Grass Rice

Murgh Awadhi Biryani

Indian Dishes : Dal Makhani, Yellow Tadka Dal

Thai Vegetables Tossed in Mild Garlic

Indonesian Fried Rice

Spinach Tomato Tossed Noodles

Both Mrinal and I were swayed by the extravagant preparations already, and not just the main course, this Oriental Food Festival introduced us to an extensive range of dips and sauces like red Thai curry paste, green Thai curry paste, Khow Suey paste and Japanese mayonnaise. Apart from a sumptuous culinary presentation, Renaissance L-14 also offered various salads and side dishes (both veg and non-veg) along with all the essential herbs, spices and necessary ingredients required to prepare these Oriental dishes. My mind was blown with excitement, tbh!

Veg sides/Salads

Non-veg Sides/Salads

Plain Sprouts

Salad Leaves, Seasonings and Dips

Asian Noodle & Soup Station

Oriental Pickles

I picked a few vegetarian dishes to try, which included noodles, an Indian curry dish, Indonesian fried rice, crispy corn with mushrooms, roasted eggplant and fruit salad. Whereas Mrinal being a non vegetarian, tried the biryani (which he absolutely loved), chicken satay, sliced fish and shrimps! It just won't sound true if we say we didn't like even one of the dishes. It was all super yum and flavoursome! 

If you thought that was it with the food pictures above, you'd be surprised when I tell you the Oriental bakery section was bomb! The appetising savoury breads made me drool literally! Such wholesome it looks, eh? The freshly baked buns and bread loafs took away my heart. So soft and delectable! (see pictures below)

When it comes to deserts, I just feel they should let the entire section to me. I can literally finish all the sweet dishes all by myself. They look purely scrumptious at the buffet table as well, during the food festival. And the best part about attending the buffet is you have no limits! Watch what all ate in the pictures below. Please don't curse me for not taking you all along, and please.stop.drooling! (haha)

Coconut Tart & Phirni (topped with fresh date)

Fresh Fruit Bread

White Chocolate Barfi

Mango Cake

L-R : Chocolate Truffle Pastry, White Chocolate Coconut Pastry, Fresh Fruit Savarin, Mango Mahalabia

Banana Bread

Halwa, Gulab Jamun

The best part about L-14 is that it has this open kitchen for the customers to see how their food is being cooked. Renaissance displays it all unique, I tell you! Also, I interacted with the Director Culinary Sandeep Pande and Chef Sachin who being the sweetest as always, made sure that I had a comfortable and the most wonderful evening, tasting some of their inventory preparations.

For all those who've been to this place already, know how pleasant the ambience is. But for those who haven't visited it yet, let me tell you L-14 is a high top floor, and has an amazing view (like I already told you above) covering more than half of the city on a wide scale and the nearby structures like the eminent Ambedkar park, Sahara States, Gomti River, etc. And other than that, the interiors are truly prepossessing as well. From the marble counter tops, to the wooden textures, the glass walls making it look glamorous and graceful, I feel like I'm sitting at some restaurant in the states. Renaissance L-14 has evidently raised the bar of luxury dine-ins in town and is liked by many! A jam packed corner is a proof, say wha'?

I don't really go and pose at bars at restaurants, but this one called for it loud! Just look how minimal and elegant it appears already. With some wine & martini glasses on the side, I compelled Mrinal to click a picture of me sitting here, while our mocktails were being prepared! Its was a chilled lemonade refreshment, after drinking only which I caught tonsillitis and am still on abstinence with hot water to cure the throat. But I must mention, it was delicious!

--------------------------------

Nothing like dressing up the theme, but I just wanted to keep it stylish and look my best as the typical Asian woman! Quite rare you see me in long slit tops, but I really like this floral one from Missa More. Paired it up with the lustrous, beige cigarette pants and a pair of green heels. Accessorized the whole look minimally with just a bronze hand cuff, over sized ring and a pair of long black earrings and I was good to go!

Photographed by : Mrinal Khatnani

If you liked this post, do visit the Oriental Food Festival at Renaissance Lucknow Hotel (running till 31st July, 2016) and experience an array of toothsome dishes from the most exquisite Asian cuisine, yourself.

 

Don't forget to share this post forward, and subscribe to this blog by entering your email on the right side column for a quick notification every time a new post is published here. You can also follow me on instagram, facebook and twitter for more cool stuff, and on Snapchat for some daily fun!

~xoxo~

Fitness Fascination with House Of Chase

Hey everyone, hope y'all are doing fine! Yes, I genuinely hope you are, because I'm down with pinching tonsils and mild fever and literally have no clue whether to hate the weather gods to do this to me, or thank them for switching the chill mode on! 

Anyways, I'm back with a new post for you, and this one is entirely different from the regular jazzy looks you've been seeing up on this blog for months. Today I've got to show you an extremely casual yet glamorous look with HOUSE OF CHASE for your orderly workouts! Below are some pictures and all details of the outfit, please scroll down to take a quick look..

tee, leggings : House Of Chase | shoes : Puma

If you know me well, you know I've never been to a gym and hate running on tracks, and my friends are super jealous because I eat too much pizza and don't really gain weight (as per them), but to be honest I DO RUN! Not every feakin' day but sometimes when I want to burn that extra fat from the heavy meal the night before, yes I do take quick rounds of my colony and sweat it out! There are days when I put efforts in my clothing for fitness sessions as well, like you’d think I’m going to prom and shit. But anyway, I’m more of a leggings and lose tee/top kinda girl, and I call that fashion too.

Like today's active wear from House Of Chase is no less chic. Its fun with that neon green t-shirt from their 'tops' collection, paired up with their spunky yoga leggings in black and neon green lining on the side, that you'll find under the 'essentials' section on the website. The fabric is amazingly soft and comfy and those stretchable leggings make it really easy to lift up my legs and try some kicks! I recently came across the fact that HOC also sells online, since I'd only heard of their two stores in Chennai before this. This designer brand has won my heart with their featured collection on the website already, suggesting some coolest fashion goals for the lazy chicks like me!

Big shout outs to House Of Chase for crafting the most amazing lifestyle collection of all times, for all body types and sizes. Ranging from sports wear, to leisure wear, clothing essentials, casual dresses/tops, etc. They have it all for you to check out and grab asap, and all worth that money in your pockets! Go, check 'em out now.

Photographed by : Mrinal Khatnani

~xoxo~

Healthy Snacking with Snackible

Is it just me, or you too have a habit of keep munching, every single time you feel bored in this crazy summer weather, and hence hungry? Its habitual of many of us that when we're working late night, we keep nibbling upon snacks and even if we're just sitting idle in the day, we reach out to our kitchens and search for substantial meals but don't always like to eat those sandwiches or noodles! Since our lifestyle is changing, and we're moving more towards healthy snacking, I've specially got this post for you.

If you're a follower on this blog since long, you must remember I posted about SNACKIBLE, last year around Christmas when they sent me their festive box containing some yummy snacks, and I reviewed it for you showing you 5 different flavors. If you missed reading it, do it now, HERE!

So, Snackible recently changed their packaging to a little more colorful wrapping and added a few new flavors to their snack collection, and sent me to try some of them. So, I being your guiding angel have got you the complete review of the new ones. I'd like you to scroll down to check it all out....

With two different types of subscription boxes, Snackible includes Weekly and Monthly Boxes for 1, 3 & 6 months that come in different prices and snack options for you to choose from! There's a premium range of healthy snacks available on their website, and you are free to choose the quantity depending upon your choice, that will be wrapped in a box and delivered to you at your doorstep with love. 

The five new flavors I tasted this time are listed as follows : 

1. Maple Honey Granola Crunchers : I like eating sweet snacks, but too much sweet kills it bad. These yummy granola crunchers contain the right amount of sweetness with oats, almonds, sunflower seeds, chia seeds and organic brown sugar (the word organic already makes me happy now). I mostly eat these in breakfast with milk and it even tastes better, giving me instant energy boost for the day!

2. Cream & Onion Wholewheat Thins : Cracker thins are one of my all time favorite munchies, and they help me curb my cravings for oily wafers many a times. The healthy substitution for the chips you love are these wholewheat thins that contain wholewheat (as the name suggests), flax seeds, cream & onion seasoning. These are exceptionally high in fibre, anti-oxidants and omega 3 fatty acids! 

3. Seedy Crunchers : I'm eating these at the moment, typing this down for you, because its my current preferred snack and I keep nibbling them even in college. Its basically a mix of mild sweetness and crunchiness, containing watermelon seeds, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and flax seeds with soya nuts, almonds, dry dates and black raisins, coated in corn syrup. These are extremely high in fibre and proteins and the helps curb cholesterol. You should definitely try these!

4. Baked Pizza Sticks with a Herby Dip : Hello favorite! I just don't need to mention my love for this one, because you already know my obsession with pizza and the name makes me drool on it, every time I pick the pack up! These pizza sticks are made of refined wheat flour, salt, cheese, pizza masala and veg oil, seasoned with red chilly-garlic flavour to satisfy one's pizza cravings (which I have like every.single.minute). The best part about it is, it comes with a nutritious herby dip with literally no MSG or artificial flavors. Trust me, you're missing out on something really serious if you haven't consumed it yet! 

5. Dark Chocolate Power Bars : I wanted to keep this for the last, as I knew you would skip all the others and directly head over to the Snackible website to order these (hehe, I know you guys)! Well, these power bars are like life savers, giving you instant energy when you feel low or giddy. Extremely rich in protein, with no added sugar, additives, artificial color or flavoring, these yummy energy bars are made of oats, peanut butter, dates, honey, raisins, pumpkin seeds, reduced fat dark chocolate (sugar, cocoa butter, soy lecithin and vanilla). Its like a complete fuel for your body for an entire day! Go grab it now.

The trial box I received from Snackible this time, also contained a pack of flaxseed spice mix from Flax Max. Its a 100% natural mix of organic spices that can be used in various snacks/meals to make it a little more healthier and yummier! The mix simply contains of roasted flaxseeds, garlic, kashmiri chillies, tamarind, rock salt, cumin seeds and asafoetida. Buy this pack from Flax Max by clicking HERE itself and give it a try. You'll love it! 

PS : Don't forget to checkout www.snackible.com and subscribe to your weekly or monthly boxes to include healthy eating habits in your lifestyle with breakfast, lunch and dinner (or even mid-night snacking)!

~xoxo~