Notes from the Pop-Up Kitchen

70 puris, 30 eggs, 20 bottles of Weizenbier, 10 apples, 8 ltrs milk, 7 kgs carrot, 6 bottles of cava, 5 packs of salsify, 0.5 g saffron...

5 courses, 5 drink pairings and 25 happy bellies. And dimly-lit evidence of this source material shot by friends from our pop-up kitchen counter at Entretempo Kitchen Gallery. A few notes today, straight from that counter. On a side note, there are some uncanny similarities emerging between our supper club experiments and the iterative testing I've been doing at work over the last 6 months. Who would've thought...

Our menu, as follows:

I
Apple Celery Pani Puri
with Cidre / Spiced Apple Lemonade

II
Egg Bullet Bajji with Mint Chutney & Masala Peanuts
with Weizenbier / Sage Lemonade

III
Spicy Paneer Tikka Flammkuchen
with Lassi Especial

IV
Salsify-Tamarind Bhaji with Parsnip Chips & Cumin Rice
with Cava / Basil Lemonade

V
Carrot Halwa with Dark Chocolate & Boondi Brittle
with Cardamom Old Fashioned / Fruity Cardamom Tea

Egg Bullet Bajjis with Masala Peanuts

The Spicy Paneer Tikka Flammkuchen, straight out of the oven, pending coriander garnish

The salsify tamarind bhaaji with parsnip chips and cumin rice

The Carrot Halwa with Dark Chocolate and Boondi Brittle

Now for the notes. 

1. Salsify is the English name for Schwarzwurzel. It sounds like a verb, doesn't it? But it isn't. 
    
2. As in any project planning, it's all about effort vs. time. Lining up 60 egg halves to fry, 6 flammkuchens to roll, several other parsnip chips to fry again wasn't the best estimation of time. But, there's a next time!
    
3. 20 is our magic number. We'd realised this much earlier, but I agreed to 25 again anyway. If I was let loose, I would invite 20 more to dinner, but I need to refrain. We'll stick to 20 the next time.
    
4. Pani Puri is wondrous! I mean, you knew that, right? But– to watch as the pani puri master Karthik served folks who've never had such a thing in their lives, awkwardly stuff down a loaded puri and then go through a series of expressions synchronous with taste explosions is the single most exciting experience from all our dinners! I relive the magic of rediscovering it again with everyone. Like my colleague commented after hearing a description of it, "It sounds like something you'd invent as a kid". Couldn't have said it better.
    
5. I am happy to confirm that our paneer tikka flammkuchen officially knocks everything we've ever made out of the park! It makes my heart fly.
    
6. Carrot halwa + Thomas' dark chocolate. You just need to try it. I'd take all the credit, but it was truly a joint effort I am proud of.
    
7. Ever so often we find the time to print menus, and this time I wanted to create them with every spice and ingredient included so our guests would know exactly what was cooking. If sketching on a small piece of paper was any metaphor for my planning skills, I ran out of space pretty soon. So the full-ingredient list menu will come the next time. In the meanwhile though, look at these menus below! While we were busy cooking, a couple of guests invented a sort of menu improv and sketched some new ideas for us. Of course, they went straight for the monkey brains first! Well, who knows what the future menu holds...

Thank you friends, indeed! We love that we get to play, experiment, feed you and take home sweet memories of smiling faces and warm hugs. We couldn't ask for more!