Wok And Fire...

If Chinese food is what your stomach craves and your heart desires, you can’t but let them have what they want but if your pocket is in a bit of a jam and your dad’s wallet is not made accessible to you, then Wok and Fire is your destination. Situated just behind Athena furniture, resting itself on four wheels, this food cart awaits its customers. Now the specialty of this place, is that none of its food….contains salt. Yeah that’s right, no added salt, but that doesn't mean it lacks in flavor at all, if anything it tastes better than most Chinese food available.

Our visit to Wok and Fire was not planned at all. We got to know the owner of Wok and Fire during our interview at Kiva Han and he graciously welcomed us over to his food cart. As I've mentioned in our earlier blog, we had a very interesting conversation with Mr. Ziaul Alam, people should know how different food tastes like and how the food is originally supposed to be but instead we try to blend and mix the tastes with our own native flavors in a way ruin the specialty of that food. Instead of complaining how undercooked authentic Chinese food is, people should have the realization that Chinese food is meant to be like that. 

The taste buds of our country are accustomed to a wide variety of seasoning and flavors therefore we end up wanting all that, from every single bite that we take and if we don't like it, we pass around a comment that the food wasn't good. What doesn't seem tasty to you might very well be delicious to other people. But do we actually take that thought into consideration? The Chicken Chow Mein that we tasted, was absolutely delicious, we didn't even feel the need for salt and the best part, was that it was on the house!!! I even took some home for my mother to taste and she loved it. Another interesting thing was their use of sporks, it's not really that widely used in Bangladesh.

To every yin, there is a yang but in this case, it’s more like room for improvement. We know it’s a food cart and what more can we really expect than good food at a cheap price, but the dustbin really needs some improvement….. :P

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Kiva Han Boutique Cafe...

So by recommendation of Khadija Ismail, whom we had met during our visit at Smoke Music Café, we decided to check out Kiva Han. Situated at the busy heart of Gulshan-1, surrounded by corporate offices, there it stands, a place where you could just forget about all your worries, sip on a cup of coffee, nibble on some snacks and spend time alone, or maybe with some friends or even with that special someone. The interior was not well lit, as if it was to soothe the tired mind, preparing it for more work. 

Near the entrance there was a cigarette case and nearby was a smoking zone...good news for the smokers!!! 

We were both exasperated and most definitely hungry. After scanning our eyes through the menu, it was the Bolognese Pasta and the Fried chicken with Thai fried rice and Chicken Chili that we craved. The menu was a nice touch actually, printed on brown wrapping papers it was cheap and creative.

The wait was pleasant and short. Hip Hop music of various artists like Bruno Mars, Nicki Minaj, Rihanna and Eminem filled the air, not the kind of music the corporate would like to hear. 

There was nothing special about the presentation of the food. It looked plain and simple, like it was just poured down straight from the pan to the serving plates but then again, you can't really expect a restaurant quality flashy presentation of the meal in a café. The quantity was wholesome, nothing special in the taste, but it was pretty good.No complimentary drinks though, unlike in Smoke Music Café even though the price was almost the same.

For dessert we ordered the chocolate mousse, perhaps we had raised our expectations a bit too much. Watching too much masterchef might be the reason. It looked nothing like they showed on tv. Served in a plastic cup with an oreo stuck in between. It didn't taste that great either, it should've been more dense, more chocolaty. Not a great ending to our meal.

Then came the interviews, the first two that we proceeded shot us down, they were too “busy” for it. But the second two was a success, 

Mr. Tahsin Ahmed Chowdhury, director at a real estate company and Mrs Rafeya Ahmed Chowdhury a school teacher at CGS. They both had almost identical opinions on the place. The service was great, the food was okay but the music was not to their liking.They had both been here before and were satisfied all times. They had the Japanese fried rice, iced tea and lemonade. Even though a bit overpriced they would recommend others to try out this place.

The third interview was of Zia Ul Alam, coincidently the owner of Wok and fire, and Ahmed Farha Khan, they both come here often and are quite big fans of Kiva Han's pastries and drinks but does not quit share the same opinion on the other foods on the menu, this time they had the red velvet cake and the lemonade. They judged the place based on it being a Cafe and they would rate the play and 8 out 10. we had a very insightful discussion with them but we'll save that for our next adventure where we explore Wok and Fire...

By recommendation of Mr Tahsin Ahmed Chowdhury our next destination is Brews and Bites…. can't wait!!! :D

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Smoke Music Cafe......

It was a sunny day and I could very well feel the wrath of the sun on me and by courtesy of Mr. Big Burning Ball of hydrogen, the back of my shirt was soaking wet. So after waiting for 30 minutes under the scorching heat, Mr. Late (Hassan Mahmood) finally decides to show up and we’re on our way to Smoke Café situated in Banani. Now,  To add to our demise, we had no idea where Smoke Café was actually located except for the idea that it was somewhere near Platinum Suites. So after we reached Platinum suites we roamed around for about another 15 minutes asking random people about the specific location of Smoke Café with no luck at all and after a while we found ourselves circled back to Platinum Suites, and guess what? Smoke Café was actually on just the opposite side of the road. It’s like it magically appeared by the time it took for us to circle back to Platinum Suits. We make our way up to the 5^th floor by the elevator and then again another flight of stairs to reach the main café. It was kinda situated on the roof of the building.


So we get ourselves settled in, ran our eyes through the menu and ordered the BBQ cheese burger for myself and the All American burger for Mr. Late and zealously went through the burgers in a matter of minutes, once we were served of course, the complimentary drinks along with the French fries was a nice touch. Next up were the interviews. We found a group of young ladies aged around 15 who had just finished up with their meal and they were perfect for the interview.  They had ordered The Smoke Burger, The BBQ Cheese Burger, The Five Napkin Burger and The BBQ Steak Burger. The empty plates in front of them said a lot, they had a pretty fulfilling meal. So according to them, the food was great and the size of the burgers, even though a bit intimidating was not a problem because of its great taste, the service was satisfactory and the environment was pretty cool. For a few of them it was the first time they had been there just like us and all of them agreed that would definitely recommend others to try out Smoke Music Café and all in all we’ll give them a 7.5/10.

Umme Salma Shabbir, Khadija Ismail, Sherebanu Saifuddin, Insiyah Hussain, Rashida Lokhandwala



By recommendation of our new friend Khadija Ismail… our next target is Kiva Han… can’t wait :P

                                                                         

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