Highway On My Plate at Bak Bak Bar

Picture Courtesy – Ruth/Sudhakar

If there is one food show on Indian TV that I really really like is Highway On My Plate, actually I don’t even know whether I can really call it a food show, there is so much more to the show. There is food, there is travel, there is culture and well ofcourse there is humor. If you know those guys you know what I am taking about, and its not just me everyone in my house loves the show, from my mother in law to the 5 yr old champ, so when Pallavi (muah) from Zomato asked me if I would like to join them for lunch with Rocky and Mayur at Bak Bak Bar (a place I adore) I was like YES YES YES (yes caps were intentional) After I said yes I realised damn I have already committed to putting a stall to sell cupcakes and stuff at ZopNow’s Kite Flying Festival called Udaan and my mind started working overtime on what to do, a solution was found easily by emotionally blackmailing N and asking him to man the stall for the last hour or so and no you are not allowed to ask what did I blackmail him with 😉

After braving crazy traffic of Bangalore and being very very late I almost ran into Bak Bak Bar only to realise that Rocky & Mayur were stuck in traffic too, if there is one thing we have to be happy about Bangalore traffic its the fact that it isn’t partial to anyone, it treats celebrities, guests and locals alike but then this post isn’t about traffic this is about the lunch, the food we had and how we laughed madly that… Seriously guys Rocky and Mayur are even more hilarious and funny and entertaining in person than they are  on the show and that is saying something and they are warm very very warm.

Picture Courtesy – Ruth/Sudhakar

After the initial round of introductions, Rocky took a comfortable seat next to me and we started the chats, very quickly say in 5 minutes or so we moved on from being formal and moved on to be buddy like, I sure it was partly to be blamed on the alcohol, we can’t be so shameless can we ? Ruth, Sudhakar, Pallavi, Swapna ? yes they were my partners in crime that day and no people we don’t want to hear the answer to that question

This was my poison for the day – Gabbar Singh, a vodka cocktail with chilli, salt and some curry powder…

After the drinks arrived the appetizers started coming and the first to arrive were the Citrus Potatoes, Chicken Sausage Kali Mirch, some corn and methi spring roll and Porkalicious. The Ctirus Potatoes are a surprise on the first look they look just like any other twice cooked potatoes served with chillies but one bite and you know this dish is on its way to become your favorite, second bite and I was sold, specially if you squeeze that extra lime that’s given with it and beware the dish is indeed spicy. The Chicken Sausage Kali Mirch was sausages stir fried with onion and pepper, pretty nice but I quickly moved on since I had so many more things to try that day, The corn and methi spring roll (it was called a veggie cigar I think) was ok though Rocky promptly refused to even taste it saying he will die if he eats such stuff. Porkalicious was a home style ginger and green chilli semi gravy like dish which was yummy and reminded me of the warm comfort of a home based meal and its funny since I read Swaps mentioning that a pav would have been good with since I actually remember taking the pav from the beef kheema dish and wiping the masala

While we were having food, Rocky was keep us entertained with some behind the scene stories of the show, photography tips, food trivia and more…. The discussion on ISO, flash, lighting and lens was natural when there were so many food bloggers around but I didn’t know that Rocky was so interested in photography, he told us that he loves clicking birds and how many times he has been found still trying to capture the bird in close proximity which I find I hard to believe in, I mean you think he can keep quiet, let alone still… he shared many interesting behind the scene stories among which the one that still has me smiling and laughing is the one  where the royal family was introduced to him by the bride on the wedding day as a very popular gaali up in the north which starts with C, what the heck I am from Delhi, I should be proudly calling what it is – chutiya but imagine that on a royal wedding…  Along side laughing I wasn’t forgetting to eat my favorite dish of the day – Beef Kheema with butrered pav. It really was yummiess plated, too bad Swapna couldn’t taste it

Post this Karthik and Pallavi had to literally drag Rocky off from our table since the others want to interact with them too, oh incase you thought we were the only 5 meeting them for lunch na, the lunch was actually organised by Zomato for making Rocky and Mayur (who are Zomato’s brand ambassador’s now) to interact with Super Foodies of Zomato aka people who write regular reviews on the zomato website, since none of us on the table do that we liked to believe that we are the cool food bloggers around and yes yes we did promise them that we will start writing more reviews on Zomato since the reach of the website is more than the reach of our blogs etc….

The next to come for tasting were the bhaji pizza which was very interesting, a  mix of local greens on a pizza, tasted pretty good, the wasabi prawns which looked oh so good but I could have done with a little more wasabi may be, well cooked prawns but needed a little more punch and the cola chicken wings, a little tad sweet for me but some people on the table seemed to love it

And then came the chance for our end of the table to interact with the other half of the show Mayur and the discussion promptly started with bombarding Mayur with the most asked question, that is he really a vegetarian or he pretends to be one for the show, turns out he really is a vegetarian and he proved it by eating a veg burger and now I am sure only a vegetarian can do that 😉 he also shared some very funny tidbits about the show like how he once fooled someone that not only him and Rocky but the entire HOMP team is gay, and how once Rocky cleaned the whole bathroom for an hour before taking bath and sat sitting on his own suitcase, and how they did a tea tasting once with suitable amounts of whiskey mixed with water, though he promised that the recording never came on the show … what fun these guys are man and ofcourse we had to click the usual 123 make a funny face picture

and yes like Swapna says the joke was on her *runs away*
Pic Credit – Sudhakar

Wait don’t go away, there was more food that I need to show you pictures of, we were foodies Super foodies meeting that day after all, there was Flambe Chicken which fascinated us all photographers plus it had old monk

and yes we did ask him to pour old monk again to capture the flame 😉

There were some kind of wasabi chicken coated with rice, I really really liked this dish and I wish it had come to my table before I had eaten so much, would have been able to do may be do better justice to it

There was also this gorgeous looking Stuffed Jalepeno which had most people confused whether they like it or not, I personally like it a lot specially when you take the second or the third bite of it and you get all three textures, the spicy Jalapeno, the crisp tempura like batter and the creamy yoghurt

Doesn’t this look like a dream?

And after eating so much, the servers asked me would I like to order a burger, I almost fainted but I saw that some people did order the burger and I thought I will click them for you, will tell you how it was when I go there next probably just to eat the burger but the people who ordered it on the table very pretty happy with it

And boy did I tell you about that Mayo? The smoked Mayo there is a to die for and I am not kidding when I say that… absolutely brilliant stuff, don’t forget to try it out when you are there

All in all brilliant three hours spent with great food and even better company

Name – Bak Bak Bar

Place – Kormangala (opp Prestige Acropolis)

Parking – Vallet

Loos – very clean

Damage to the wallet (I didn’t pay but Zomato says Rs 1000/- meal for two without drinks)