Skip to main content

Making a Hash of It

Do you like hash browns? I like them, in theory. Grated potatoes formed into cakes, shallow fried until crisp and served as a breakfast food alongwith your omlette and sausages. What's there not to like about it. And yet, every single place I've eaten hash at so far managed to goof up and create something you simply wouldn't like.

That was until yesterday morning. Then I went for breakfast at Vista, the coffee shop at Taj Lands End. And there on the buffett table, I met this really good looking hash brown. Perfectly round patties, crisp not just on the outside but all over. I had one with my egg white omlette and then went back to get a couple just to eat on their own.

These hash browns put Vista on my list of best breakfast buffets. And now, a list of best and worst 5-star buffets in Mumbai:

The Best Buffets

1. Lotus Cafe at JW Marriott

2. Peshwa Pavilion at ITC Grand Maratha Sheraton

3. Vista at Taj Lands End

The Worst Buffets

1. Grand Cafe at Grand Hyatt

2. Frangipani at Hilton

The ones that don't feature here either have average buffets (most likely) or are still untested (less likely, since I never pass up a buffett!)

So what's a good breakfast buffet, you ask. Watch this space tomorrow

Comments

Deeba PAB said…
Are we going to see wonderful hash browns here? Ooh, you made my mouth water. Looks like you're enjoying breakfast rounds Simran!!Good for you!!
notyet100 said…
waitin for ur post,.
KALVA said…
hmm cant wait for your hash....
Bharti said…
Good to know Simran! I'm living Bombay vicariously through you!
Biswajit said…
ITC breakfast buffet? i always find it very very difficult to convince them to serve me eggs in any shape or form.

Popular posts from this blog

I've found my perfect cookie

It's a bite sized cookie, with flavors of a pie, shape of a croissant and a pretty, pretty name. It's Rugelach. I first heard of this cookie when it became the baking pick for Tuesdays with Dorrie a couple of months back. The looks, the concept - everything was fascinating. And I've dreamed of making this cookie ever since. I ditched hundreds of recipes floating around and went straight to the master. It's Dorie Greenspan's recipe that I used, and ain't I glad I got it so perfect the very first time. So what's rugelach? It's cream-cheese pastry dough, rolled then cut into wedges, spread with jam and sugar and fillings of choice, rolled into crescents and baked. First the dough. Dorie did it in her processor, but I just went and did it by hand. Put 100 gms cream cheese and 100 gms butter out of the fridge until they were soft but still cold. Added both to a cup of plain flour (I omitted the salt because I use salted butter). Rubbed the flour and but

Mystery Fruit

This only happened a few times every year, just when the rainy season kicked in. A street hawker will come by, straw basket on head. He will yell "kaul chapni" and I will run out to buy a bundle of these. Stuck together like flowers, they looked like a bouquet. Every hole contains a little fruit. You break out the package, peel the tiny fruit that pops out and eat it. Done slowly, it can take you an hour to eat an head. Or did, when I was about 12 years old. That was the last time I saw this fruit. I've never seen it again, didn't even know what it was called or where it came from. Three weeks back, Vikram Doctor wrote about a store in Khar that sells Sindhi foods. He described this fruit and I knew it came from my vivid childhood memories. And finally, I knew we were talking about lotus fruit. Now talk about coincidences. Last weekend, I was passing by a lane in Bandra and for the first time in many, many years I saw the straw basket filled with my mytery fru

Of Brun and Bun Maska

There is more to Bombay's breads than the pao that goes into pao bhaji and vada pao. There's Brun. and there's bun. We will get there. First, you have to get to know the city's Parsis. And Iranis, who are also Zoroastrians, but came to city a little later, in the late 19th or early 20th century. And when they came, they brought with them these little cafes that dot the city. I am no expert on Irani chai cafes. And I can't tell you whether Yazdani Bakery will provide you the best experience or Kyani's. But I can tell you a few things you need to ignore when you get there. Appearances don't matter; so ignore the fact that the marble/glass top tables and the wooden chairs look a bit dilapidated. Also ignore the rundown look the place sports. Instead, get yourself settled. And order a bun muska. This one's familiar to you as a first cousin of the soft hamburger bun. It's similar, but just a tad bit sweeter. Maska, of course, is the generous dollop o