Smokehouse Deli - a great way to start the weekend!

With two small children, breakfast is by far the easiest meal for us to eat out. By the time any restaurant opens, we have already been up for hours and usually managed to have enough playing time for the boys to sit happily for an hour or two.

Smokehouse Deli came highly recommended and did not disappoint! We have been to both branches in Benguluru for breakfast. The menus were very similar, if not identical, but both breakfasts were very tasty!


We ordered tomato, garlic, caper and olive fried skillet eggs, which were so fantastic that we ordered them at both visits! The eggs were perfectly cooked and bursting with flavour.





Next up was sausage and bacon scrambled eggs. The eggs were slightly more cooked than we would have liked and needed rather more sausage and bacon. 





The poached eggs benedict were delicious, although not served with a traditional english muffin or with bacon! 







The pancakes were sweet and fluffy, with lots of maple syrup, a huge hit with the boys, both little and big!

The highlight of the meal, without doubt, were the sides! Delicious crispy hash browns (order at least a couple of portions),  spicy baked beans and generous portion of streaky bacon!

The coffee was fantastic, both regular and decaffeinated, and the smoothies were a slightly healthier component to our meal. 

The desserts at the counter looked delicious and we will definitely be trying them on our next visit. 

Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese Icing

It is suddenly November and our yearly Christmas movie marathon has already started thanks to the Hallmark Channel! Although the weather can hardly be called cold in Bangalore, I have started moving towards the traditional winter flavours that I know and love. This cake came up in my Bloglovin feed and I knew I had to make it. Some slight adjustments to reduce the amount of sugar and the results were delicious, the perfect cake for a Sunday afternoon movie marathon.

Pumpkin Bread with Cream Cheese icing

slightly adapted from Creme de la Crumb

Ingredients

Cake:

• 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cups atta (whole wheat flour)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 heaped teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 heaped teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1cup pumpkin puree (1 pumpkin tossed in olive oil and cinnamon and roasted until soft)
• 3/4 cup oil

Cream Cheese Icing:

• 3 tablespoons cream cheese (softened) 
• 3 tablespoons butter (softened)
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 2 cups powdered sugar

preheat the oven to 175 degrees.

TO MAKE THE CAKE

1. Mix the flours, baking soda, baking powder, spices and salt in a large bowl.

2. Cream the sugar and eggs until fluffy. Then add vanilla extract, pumpkin puree and oil. Mix until well combined. 

3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. 

4. Still gently until just combined. 

5. Pour carefully into a greased loaf tin. 

6. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean. 

7. Allow to cool in the tin on a wire rack. 

TO MAKE THE ICING

1. In a mixer, whisk the cream cheese and butter until light and fluffy. 

2. Add the vanilla, milk and powdered sugar and mix on low until combined

3. Whisk for an additional 5 minutes. 

4. Ice the cake when cool. 

Store in an airtight container for up to four days, if it lasts that long!

Finding The Perfect Bangalore Burger - Part 1: Hard Rock Cafe

When we lived in London, beef burgers were often on our weekly menu and a meal of choice when we were out. Our absolute favourite restaurant was Hawksmoor; their burger is one we have tried to replicate ourselves with some success, and is our benchmark for burgers!

Since moving to Bangalore, we have not found it particularly easy to buy beef so a good burger restaurant has been high on our priority list! So part one, Hard Rock Cafe...



Hard Rock Cafe came recommended by friends and colleagues and had some pretty good reviews online. We went on a Friday lunchtime in the Diwali holidays which meant that the restaurant was practically empty. This was great as we had our two young children with us. The building was gorgeous: high ceilings, exposed brick, great artefacts and pictures, and good music.




We ordered potato skins and onion rings to start. The potato skins were undercooked and lacking in flavour. They were a real disappointment after we had sampled the same dish at the Hard Rock Cafe in Baku and loved it. The onion rings were very crispy and came with two good dips.

For mains, we had chicken burger and chips for our boys, and the bbq bacon cheese burger and the original legendary burger for us with a side of ceasar salad. The boys burger was pretty uninteresting and the chips were undercooked. It was all thrown in a bowl which was a again a disappointment after the food was so carefully presented for them in Baku. Our burgers were ok. The meat was juicy and still pink in the middle but lacked seasoning and flavour. The buns were toasted but both dishes were lacking anything that made them particularly memorable. 

The service was awful considering that the place was empty. There were lots of staff about but they seemed rather more interested in talking to each other and practising their bottle cocktail tricks. I am not sure what it would be like at a busier time.

All in all, we won't be going back. There are too many really good restaurants in the area to make this worth a repeat visit!