Non-serendipitous Perfect Scrambled Eggs

A few months ago, I'd blogged about how I'd stumbled upon the perfect scrambled eggs, purely by chance. After countless attempts and even more permutations-combinations of ingredients and cooking methods, I'd managed to hit upon the perfect scrambled eggs. But I was still vary of the recipe - anything that happens by chance cannot be trusted, eh? :)

An aside - 'perfect' scrambles means - soft, just-set, perfectly seasoned, creamy, rich, no firm/dry-ish clumps AND NO RUNNY WATERY JUICES SEEPING FROM THE EGGS ONCE THEY'RE PILED ON THE PLATE.

Coming back, I was leafing through Julia Child's memoirs - 'My Life In France' - when I came across her experiences at the Cordon Bleu cookery school at Paris. Her teacher there, Chef Bugnard, demonstrated his technique for the perfect oeufs bruilles after being horrified by her brisk-and-vigorous approach to making scrambled eggs.

Chef Bugnard had a way different approach to plating up fluffly scrambled eggs and his style was gentler, almost meditative and his recipe was different too. It struck me as sound, so off I went to the kitchen to experiment with the lone egg left in the fridge.

And guess what? Despite not following Bugnard's instructions to the T, I managed to whip up THE perfect scrambled eggs - and no sign AT ALL of any runny juices oozing-out-of-the- once-perfectly-set-eggs-and-making-the-toast-soggy!! Halleluljah!

I don't know if there are any copyright issues about sharing the recipe here - I mean it is not Julia Child's recipe, it is her retelling of it - besides, its not even a recipe, more of a technique.

So going by my judgment, I am sharing it here. If any of you know for sure that it is a copyright infringement, do let me know, I will take it off the post.

Chef Bugnard's Technique to the Perfect Ouefs Bruilles (Scrambled Eggs):
1. Break open the eggs, season with salt-and-pepper
2. Do NOT whip up into a froth - just gently mix the yolks and whites together with a fork
3. Smear the sides and bottom of a frypan with butter. Set it on gentle heat (lowest setting on your stove)
4. Once the pan is heated (not too hot!), gently pour in the eggs.
5. Do not stir/poke/scramble the eggs immediately. Wait till you see the eggs beginning to thicken into a custard.
6. Once the eggs start curdling, GENTLY, start pulling the outer edges of the scrambles to the centre. Keep the curds "loose", do not pull them into tight clumps. Keep doing this - GENTLY - taking the pan on and off the flame - we do not want the eggs to keep on cooking while we're scrambling them
7. Once the eggs are almost-cooked (the runny shiny white is almost dry) - add the butter/cream (as much as you like - the more, the tastier!). THIS STOPS THE EGGS FROM COOKING FURTHER (for some time at least)
8. Take the eggs off the flame, plate them on a serving dish, garnish with parsley and serve.

This technique worked perfectly for me - my scrambled egg was gorgeously just-set, a beautiful pearly, creamy pale yellow in colour and as for the taste - oh, all kinds of deliciousness! :D AND there was NO SIGN of the much-detested runny juices - even after 10 -15 minutes.



Oh, bliss!! :)

Oriental Odyssey - Day 3 - Hong Kong

Day 3 saw us making the trip back to Hong Kong from Macau, but this time around we had a relatively comfortable journey - perhaps we were prepped for it by past experience or maybe we were better rested after 2 idyllic days in Macau.

If Macau was a pretty watercolour painting - all blue skies and golden sunshine - Hong Kong was a steel and glass sculpture, a pulsing metropolis spread on both sides of the Victoria Harbour with an underlying vibe of energy and verve. Space is THE most precious commodity at Hong Kong, and hence all buildings - without exception - are upwards of 20 storeys. The gleaming skyline of Hong Kong across the blue waters of the harbour, with the zillion skyscrapers piercing the sky remains one of the world's immemorable picture frames.




After a delicious lunch at a basement Indian restaurant (tiny, like all HK eateries), we set off for the HK city tour. First stop was the Repulse Bay Beach. Some of HK's most premium beachfront real estate is around this neighbourhood.


There was a scattering of sunbathers (surprising, since I'd thought all Chinese girls struggled to maintain their pale porcelain-like complexion and tanning was NOT an option - but then there WERE more guy sunbathers than girls :) ) under the HOT mid-day sun and after taking a few snaps, we were more than glad to escape the relentless heat and get back to the airconditioned comfort of our coach.

Next on the itinerary was a visit to Victoria Peak, the most famous of the several hills on which Hong Kong is built. The Peak, as it is called, offers spectacular views of the valley below - that is, of the densely crowded skyscrapers and the busy harbour.


Also located at the Peak is the HK outlet of the Madame Tussauds Wax Musuem. We took a little over an hour to traipse through the waxworks, with the mandatory snaps in funny poses alongside the wax mannequins.


I used this free time to also put a quick call to K, one of my friends (rather, a friend's friend) who had recently relocated to HK and had said she could meet me for coffee. Since I was more than happy to grab some time with a localite, at a localite hangout, I made the call - by the end of which K had VERY kindly volunteered to show me around Hong Kong the next day - those little sights, sounds and smells which a rushed 2-day itinerary skips. My heart was singing by this point, since it meant I could do something better than spend the entire day in HK Disneyland (which our tour itinerary had included) - having spent 3 days exploring the Disneyland at Orlando (USA), I had no burning desire to see the same magical land all over again - especially on a crowded Sunday in summer!

With my thoughts in a happy buzz at the idea of a thorough exploration of Hong Kong, I barely realised when our coach reached the next in our city tour - the famous Night Market. The Night Market is one main lane which is closed to vehicular traffic after 6:00 PM and the network of alleys and bylanes that branch from it. On either side of the lanes are brightly lit stalls selling every trinket imaginable - bags, robes, curios, brassware, toys, TShirts, kimonos, electronic goods, souvenirs, shoes.....AND some highly interesting-looking street food. :) It looked like a cross between Aladdin's Cave, Diagon Alley and Dadar's Kirtikar Market! :P


I picked up a skewer of grilled cocktail sausages to munch on (much to the wide-eyed consternation of the typical Maharashtrian Uncles and Aunties in our tour group!) and sauntered through the busy market, picking up souvenirs, gawking at the 'live' menu in a restaurant (live crabs/mussels/fish to be chosen as your snack) and clicking a zillion snaps. Though none of my snaps did the place proper justice, methinks. :(




Last stop on the city tour was the Laser Show at TST (Tsim Sha Tsui - one of the districts of HK, across the harbour from downtown HK). Every night at 8:00 PM, there is a free laser show near the Avenue of the Stars (HK's version of Hollywood's Walk of Fame, only the Avenue of Stars has a prettier location - a promenade by the harbour) You basically crowd near the waterfront, trying to get as close to the railing (which separates you from the dark waters below) and see the colourful laser beams soaring across the bay - being projected from the tops of all the glittering skyscrapers of downtown Hong Kong. The exteriors of the buildings also get lit up in a series of musically-choreographed flashes.


The night-time view of the lit-up skyline across the black waters of the harbour itself was magnificient - the colour-and-music of the laser show came in a poor second. :)


After this we trudged back to our hotel, the Excelsior, which I joyfully saw, was located bang in the heart of downtown Hong Kong. All I had to do was simply step out and embrace the electric energy and urban chaos that is the identity of HK.

Restaurant Review : Cafe Mocambo, Fort

My date with Mocambo was as eagerly anticipated as a wallflowers's first date with the coolest guy in school . I was flushed with excitement and anticipation - I'd heard such so much about him..errr...it! :P

On the long drive to Fort from Shivajio Park, my cousin A (whom I was going with) warned me that it "was not a hip, youngsters kind of a place- it was rather middle aged". There came my first surprise - I'd always assumed it was a swish cafe (at least it had seemed so from the outside, the numerous times I'd walked past it!) where the swinging set would feed and water themselves.

Once we reached, I could immediately see what A had meant - the decor was far from coolly sophisticated, it was more like a cross between the "family restaurant"s of yore (complete with a yellow lighting, heavy wooden chairs AND a mezzanine floor) and a has-been swish cafe. What was endearing was that the clientele was not terrifyingly sophisticated (well, not all of 'em) but also included old Parsi extended families, the mandatory lovey-dovey couple in the corner, a rumbunctious group (growingly rapidly tipsy) at the next table - in short, an eclectic bunch of people.

We had two starters - Spice-N-Nice French Fries and the Paprika Chicken. Both were yummy, but not in a "WOW - Blew me away!!" way. The fries were drenched with a tangy spicy Schezwan sauce and drizzled with a disappointingly sparse amount of molten Mozarella. The menu description had me imagining fries snowed under gooey stretchy strands of melted cheese!

The chicken nice tasty too - not very spicy but toothsome and tasty, with bits of chilli and garlic scattered throughout the chicken morsels.



For mains, A and his friend R sampled the Fusilli Arrabiata (with special request to make it spicy! :) ) while I decided to conquer uncharted territory by ordering the pork ribs. (It helped that the ribs had a rave review on Burrrp.com !) But both mains turned out to be disappointing - the pasta was lacklustre.....


.....while the ribs were, to my novice tastebuds, fairly revolting.Maybe pan-fried ribs are MEANT to be this way but I could not stomach chewy strands of meat cavorting with soft, melting fat. :(


The roast vegetables (potatoes, carrots and peas) were nice, though. AND the pepper sauce that accompanied the ribs in a thoughtfully separate sauceboat was zingy too.

For dessert, we shared a slice of the Chocolate Mousse Cake - yummy and chocolatey. But again, nothing new.


Service was slow and almost distracted. We asked the waiter thrice to come take our order, to no avail. Ditto with asking for the cheque - we could have walked out without paying and no one would have noticed. :D

In short, the 'date' was a let-down - or maybe I'd pitched my expectations too high. Or maybe we ordered the wrong dishes. Or maybe the kitchen was having a bad day. After all, there's no smoke without fire and Mocambo's reputation is immense. So will reserve judgment for another day!

Date Report Card:

• Prices - Mid to High (starters hover between the 150 - 240 Rs mark, mains between 250-350)
• Ambience - Nice, can get a little crowded and loud. Nice to people-watch, though.
• Food - Nice but not exciting

Mocambo Cafe and Beer Bar
23/A, Sir Pherozeshah Mehta Road,
Fort, Mumbai
22870458, 66065264, 9821053066, 9820051364