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ered as Crispy Roomali Roti – another‘must try, but deservedly so. It washuge and we thought this was theFamily Naan we’d ordered! When werealised it wasn’t, we had a sinkingfeeling, soon justified when we sawthe size of the actual Family Naan! Gi-gantic and they obviously had the In-dian joint family in mind! Thankfully,it was quite good.Meanwhile, penance was happen-ing in the form of bottled water, whichwas being served for free! The singer, asthough understanding his limita-tions, was now crooning ‘Please For-give Me’
Desserts:
From about ten options onthe menu, only four were available,and that included ice cream! Consid-ering the experience thus far, we de-cided to play safe and try just the Gulab Jamun. That was surprisingly not bad!By this time, the singer had reached‘Take me home’, and we heartilyagreed.
In a nutshell:
‘Arrgo’ would be a pithyway to describe our predicament - sixof us held hostage in a pirate theme res-taurant serving not-so-great food.Such is the restaurant scene in Kora-mangala that a new place needs to runatight ship just to keep its head abovethe water. Shape up or ship out, as thesaying goes, and it’s mercilessly en-forced. There would be first visits cour-tesy the theme but unless there’s a seachange in the service, food and pric-ing, The Black Pearl could soon be inDavy Jones’ Locker!
Bangalore Mirror reviews anonymously and pays for meals
T
here’s something very ironicabout ‘borrowing’ a ship’sname from
The Pirates of the Ca-ribbean
franchise, and using itto run a restaurant with a piratetheme! Even more ironic when it’s lo-cated right next to an establishmentcalled Empire! But that’s exactly whatThe Black Pearl has done, and theyhave obviously invested a lot of effortinto doing justice to the theme. Acrossthree floors – the top floor akin to anupper deck with open sky above –there are décor elements that accentu-ate this – anchors, cannons, manne-quins, chains and ropes, skeletons,swords. There is a tinge of tackinesstoo, like the huge bones that becamethe butt of many jokes, and it was a lit-tle funny to have pirate-costumed ser-vice staff valet parking and speaking inHindi. But ambiance is only part of thetale – the service, and the food had arole to play too, and that’s where theseas got rough! In the end, keepingwith the theme, looting did happen,in the form of a bill.
Starters:
Except for some pirate lingo,there was hardly anything on the me-nu that went with the theme. Whenwe began ordering the starters, we real-ised it was pointless to navigate theContinental and Chinese sectionssince they weren’t available.That went for some of themore interesting (sound-ing) drinks as well! Fromthe Indian menu, weasked for a Til aur Paneerka Tikka, an AfghaniMutton Boti Kabab, Aat-ishi Murgh and a PirateSpecial Macchi Tikka. Theveg representation was super-ficially spicy, though the paneer it-self seemed quite fresh. We wereserved what was claimed to be thechicken, but easily sensed that itwasn’t. For a while, we pondered thevarious possibilities, until we weretold that it was just the mutton dish. Alittle too bland. The Aatishi Murghmade an effort to live up to its name interms of spiciness, and was quite a fa-vourite. The Macchi Tikka was mildlyspicy and quite tasty. In addition tosome standard fare, we had ordered aMasala Cola. That turned out to be aHajmola cola in disguise, with an over-dose of masala! Exactly the oppositehappened with the Pomegranate ‘N’Tamarind Martini – it had no trace of atamarind flavour. Meanwhile, theship was under aural attack – a singerwas methodically gunning down fa-vourite numbers!
Main Course:
It took so long for the foodto arrive that we joked that it hadto be brought from the main-land! The Dal Peshawari waswatery and had none of thebutter and cream that waspromised! We unani-mously agreed that theNavaratna Korma de-served a spot in the dessertssection! The Malai Goshtturned out to be its near-cousin,the only consolation was that themeat was well cooked. The MurghMatka suffered from a methi overdose,though the boneless chicken was ten-der. The Ulte Tawa ka Paratha wasmentioned in the menu as a must-try,but was nothing special. Ditto for theAfghani Kulcha, which had a few dryfruits slivers tossed into it for thenamesake! The excitement was deliv-
BangaloreMirror
 I
FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 2013
 YOU
www.bangaloremirror.com/you
18
BM VERDICT
Cuisine
Indian for now, Chinese and Continental soon
Owner(s)
Srikant Upadhyay
Chef 
Gautam
 Alcohol
 Yes
Price range
For about
`
1800, youcould share a cocktail, a non veg starter, a couple of main course dishes,rotis and a dessert.(Inclusive of taxesand service charge)
Parking 
Valet Parking 
Wheelchair
No
accessService
The ‘pirates’ we sawwere completely atsea! Clueless aboutdishes and tardy! Thebill took 20 minutes!
Sound level &
Live music. The singer
Music
brought the lyrics “I’llgo down with thisship..” to mind.
 Ambience
Pirate theme, donewell. An extra pointfor the hard work!
Hours
12-3.30 PM, 7-11 PM
Home delivery 
No
Reservations
 Yes, will work better
 P
 T P 2 & 3 F 1 A C R K L J N C 5 B K - 5 P 0
 
-6
Cussed like the Sparrow ship
chip," says Mother . The left over cuttings of the Host are not wasted. “We consume theleft-overs or somebody comes and buys. Wealso supply to the poor,” says Sr Yvonne.During Christmas, Easter and St Mary’sfeast when the demand is more the nunsmake Hosts twice in a day. “Earlier we wouldsupply to St Mary’s Basilica for all the ninedays of the feast, they would take about1lakh hosts for the people but now the pres-sure is less because there are two otherconvents,” says Sr Yvonne. A practising Ca-tholic consumes the host with much rever-ence, for the nuns who make it, the processis equally sacrosanct and they look forwardto it each day. “We believe it is Jesus’ bodythat is nourishing our soul and strength-ening us… it was instituted by Jesus and wehave faith in it,” says Mother. And so do mil-lions of Christians around the globe.
—Ayesha Tabassum
ing of the Hosts consists of three majorsteps - baking, moistening and cutting. Thefreshly prepared thin batter is poured in ma-chines that resemble a roti-maker. Theseare then baked and left overnight to dry inthe baking room. Next day, all the crisp cir-cles are transferred to the moisture room.They are placed on plastic net racks and ahumidifier is turned on. As and when thehosts get moist they are packed in plasticbags to retain the softness. After about anhour they are taken to the cutting roomwhere a multi-cutter cuts the tiny coin sizedHosts, while the medium sized Hosts are cutmanually by the nuns. Then these are packed in tin boxes to besold to churches. A packet of 1,000 coinsized Hosts costs Rs.120, a packet of 100medium sized hosts is Rs. 120 and each oneof the big hosts costs Rs. 10. “The roundshave to be perfect circles and they shouldn’tchines are engraved with symbols for themid-sized Hosts. The coin-sized hosts aretoo small to get embossed,” Sr Yvonne fromGreat Carmel. Every month the conventbuys three to four bags of wheat flour of 50kilos each. The Host gets made every day.“We start at 8 am and by 11 am we wrap theprocess,” says Sr Yvonne.This two-hour Host-making procedure isan ongoing process in these convents. Mak-ly, over a period of a few hundred years, theHost replaced the bread as a convenient op-tion. But preparing the simple-looking pris-tine white rounds is not an easy process.Three prominent convents in Bangaloreare in-charge of making the host – GreatCarmel Convent, Good Shepherd Conventand Shanti Nilayam. The earliest among them was the Great Carmel Convent estab-lished in 1932. The Host is a mix of pure wheat and wa-ter. Earlier the nuns would buy the wheatand grind it to make the Host, explainsMother Superior Anne Therese. Now theconvents buy pure wheat flour from storesthat have been supplying to them for years.The Host comes in three sizes: Large - 6" indiameter; medium -3" (these are meant forthe priests and are embossed with Latinsymbols ) and small -about 1" (which are giv-en to the congregation). “The baking ma-
T
he white round thin slices – the Host –served during Christmas, Easter andother religious ceremonies is not a sim-ple preparation, apart from the reverence,three critical steps are essential to bake it.Thousands of years ago, on the holyThursday, Jesus and his disciples had theLast Supper (also known as the Holy Euchar-ist). After giving thanks to the Almighty Fa-ther, he broke bread. He gave it to his dsci-ples and said: “This is my body which isgiven for you, do this in remembrance of me.” Christians across the globe still breakbread in rememberence of the Lord. Onlynow, the bread has become thin, whiteround slices called the Host. For non-Christians, the Host is still a mystery. Wehelp decipher it.Initially the holy bread was essentiallypure wheat bread sans any yeast that wasgiven to all devotees during a mass. Gradual-
The thin, white, coin-sized Host represents the body of Christ for Christians. There are three prominent convents that supply the Hosts to the churches in Bangalore
 
BM SAVEUR:
THE HOST
From top: Macchi Tikka, Crispy RoomaliRoti, Aatishi Murgh and Gulab JamoonManu Prasad
bmfeatures@gmail.com
AJEESH F RAWTHER

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