Vegetarians, please help!

First of all, a big THANK YOU for all the feedback we've getting. It is helping us a lot. In our effort to continuously improve The Farm based on feedback that you give us, we review feedback every week and we've been able work on everything relevant but one particular feedback that we get every week.

Since you, our customers, have been giving us the feedback I think it is best to look to you for a solution. We've been racking our brains and have not been able to come up with an effective solution. We do have some ideas but we'd like to hear from you too.

"There should be more variety for vegetarians" is the comment that stares at us from vegetarians' feedback forms every weekend. No matter what we try, this feedback refuses to go away. It haunts us day and night. Basically the vegetarians are asking for more and we don't know what the problem is. To dig deeper, let's review our typical dinner menu:

Non-Veg

• Chicken Kebabs
• Mutton Sheekh/Tikki
• Masala Fish
• Pork Chop
• Beer Chicken
• Chicken Pizza
• Chicken Paratha

Veg

• Soup
• Garlic Bread
• Grilled Salad
• Paneer Tikka
• Stuffed Mushroom
• Allo Sheekh/Tikki
• Baked Tomato stuffed with herb rice
• Grilled Brinjal with Cheese and Garlic
• Allo Paratha
• Gobi or Paneer Paratha
• Dal & Rice
• Pizza with 7-8 veg topping options

It is pretty clear that there is more veg than non-veg on The Feast menu.

We have an idea what the core issue may be. We understood this when we visited places with similar concepts - like Kebab Factory. They segregate their veg and non-veg customers. You choose between a veg and non-veg dinner. At The Farm we have no such restriction. So maybe, just maybe, the vegetarians are feeling short changed because the non vegetarians have 'more variety' since they can, and actively do, eat veg and non-veg.

In that case, increasing the offering on vegetarian choices will not help at all. The meat eaters will still have more variety no matter how many dishes we add to the veg menu.

The other option is for us to segregate our customers too. We really do not want to do that. We would hate it if we had to restrict choices for anyone. We make good food and would like you to enjoy everything without having to pay an arm and a leg. Maybe its time we went to a printed menu. I don't know yet.

We have the feedback so please help us with a solution. Any suggestions/recommendations/solutions/ideas will help.

Getting high on the Food at the Farm

Although I enjoy my drink, I have not been able to figure out the addiction, compulsion or association of alcohol with having a good time or good food. But we hit on a couple of theories.

When you go out to eat in a city (like Chennai), what would you do in a restaurant for 3-4 hours? You need to drink to pass your time. There are no interesting places where you could spend a few hours with friends or family without alcohol. What would you do in an enclosed space with paintings and fancy lighting (a typical restaurant)? The other option is go to a restaurant, order food (which probably is very mediocre and template) eat and leave. Total time spent - an hour and a half. How do you spend the rest of the Friday or Saturday night, and where?

Our second theory is based on our own experience while evaluating the competition (we ate everywhere). The food is bad but once you've had a few drinks, it doesn't matter. Everything tastes great when you are drunk. I don't think I could eat the food most places dish out when I am sober.

At The Farm, you have all the space you need and time that you can make. The food is so full of flavours that you need to be in your senses to be able to relish them. There is so much of food that you need time to eat it in phases and then time to digest it while you lay in the lounge. You can spend time doing nothing and still have a fantastic time. We are the only place that invite guests to come in at 5:00 PM for dinner and they end up staying till 11:00 PM. Take a walk, lie down on a comfy bed in the lounge or laze in the pool (yes, we now have a pool but more about that later). No wonder you don't need alcohol to have a good time at The Farm.

Also, the way we serve guests is not like your typical restaurants. We offer a very personalized service and have meaningful conversations with them. By the time the guests leave, we are on a first name basis with most of them. The second time they visit The Farm, it's like visiting a friend. A drunk customer in such a situation is very difficult to deal with. We want you to enjoy the place, the company and the food and most importantly remember the experience. You can do that only if you are sober. You really cannot appreciate our food after a few beers - you will still like it, but your culinary sensors will not be able to distinguish it from the rest.

To our delight our theories have been proven right. Our challenge is to get alcohol craving customer to The Farm once. We've not heard anyone who is revisiting us ask us the status of our bar. We have a had a lot of people question our decision to put in a bar. We now have feedback from some customers that alcohol may spoil the experience. I am talking about active drinkers giving us this feedback.

We are working towards acquiring a bar licence. The government wants us to build a 21 room hotel, which is under construction, but we are not in a hurry. We can and will succeed without alcohol first.

Now when customers ask us if they can bring their own alcohol, we say no - just bring your appetite and, as our customers put it, you'll get drunk on our food.

The Pool @ The Farm

YES!! We finally have the pool at The Farm and it is fantastic! I was fortunate to be the first person in the pool and I can tell you that it is the best investment we've made so far.

It's a 16X32 above the ground pool with a depth of 4 feet. The cool clear blue water is soothing and adds a different level of laziness to the OpenLounge. Now we have a better process for you - come in and lounge in the pool to build up your appetite. You could do a few laps if that is how you work up your appetite but I highly recommend doing absolutely nothing. Close your eyes and think about all the food you are going to gorge on and feel the hunger pangs set in. When you can't take it anymore jump out of the pool and dive into the food. Use the Lounge later to recover.

The pool is open all day on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The law requires us to get everyone out by sunset, by then its already time to eat. The usage of the pool comes free with the Weekend Feast and Brunch at The Farm. The next time you visit, bring a change of clothes.

So what are you waiting for? An invitation?

The OpenLounge at The Farm

The first reaction (from first timers to The Farm) is usually a raised eyebrow. It is the first thing you will see when they enter our Yellow Doors. I am talking about OpenLounge - the open air lounge at The Farm. "I'm here to eat. What are all these beds and divans doing outdoors?" - is the thought going through their mind. We offer no explanation because it is very entertaining to watch them go through the discovery/realization.

Almost a fifth of an acre of the restaurant space is converted into the OpenLounge - comfortable divan's and beds scattered under trees and bamboo clusters. The mattresses are adorned with colourful bedspreads and comfortable pillows (see photos on the Facebook group). It adds vibrancy and much needed splash of colour to the greenery.

This is also where you will wait while we get your table ready. Almost everyone goes about exploring the place after a chilled tender coconut has refreshed your parched throat. All the kids head out to the kids play area and proceed to have a blast at the rope obstacle courses. The parents accompany the children to the play area and soon realize that prying them away will be a long drawn and futile attempt and retire back to the OpenLounge for some much needed time away from the kids. Once back in the lounge, expecting the usual waiting chairs in restaurants we've noticed people sitting stiff, not sure how to use the beds and divans.

It happens right after dinner! Once you are stuffed with the best food you've ever and step back out in the OpenLounge for desert you see the comfortable beds and divans again. With the dawn of realization and a big smile you head towards your bed/divan and drop your overstuffed self on the mattress. "I understand now" - you think as you kick off your shoes and pass out on the soft pillow to catch your breath from all the gorging in the last one hour. "It cannot get better than this". Well it does. As you lie there in the cool breeze watching the night sky through leaves and branches of the tree you are under, you hear a call for desert - Farm made Kulfi, the famous 'Orgasm' or the warm Banana Walnut cake with ice cream. And you tell yourself or your mates - "Give me ten minutes while I make room in my stomach".

The OpenLounge is constantly evolving, with more beds, divans and hammocks coming soon for our ever increasing customer base. The coffee shop is almost ready for you to come hang out in the evenings - read a book or play board games with your family and friends over tea/coffee, cookies and sandwiches. The kids will keep themselves busy for hours running around, playing in the kids play area and making new friends. We are contemplating adding a pool too before we start our weekend brunches (14 kinds of stuffed parathas from the tandoor, butter, lassi and pickles). So stay tuned for more updates and visit us soon; your bed in the lounge is reserved and you and now you know what to use it for and more importantly, how!

Beer Can Chicken - The Feast at The Farm

Almost everyone who calls us for a reservation asks for the Beer Can Chicken. The first timers to The Farm are fascinated by it and ask for it during their next visit or while making reservations. With the dish so frequently requested (its shares the number one spot with our Pizzas, but more about that in another blog), we have decided to make it a permanent part of the Weekend Feast at The Farm.

The Beer Can Chicken is probably the juiciest grilled/barbecued chicken you will ever eat. We don't use any tenderizer to soften the meat. The meat drips juices and cooked evenly through and just slides off the bones. All this with a very crusty outer layer. Squeeze some lemon onto it and have it with raw onions or our grilled salad and you have another favorite dish added to your list.

The recipe and method is simple and no secret. Google 'Beer Can Chicken' and the search will retrieve thousands of results. Here is what we do:

Take a cleaned whole chicken (about 800-900 gms) with skin. Use your preferred flavour or masalas as a dry rub. Take some time to rub the masala well into the skin (be careful not to tear the skin) and keep aside for 30 minutes. You can stuff the inside of the chicken with minced ginger, garlic and coriander (or any other herbs for the flavours you like). Now comes the most interesting part - pop open a can of beer, take a swig, and insert the can into the chicken. It will fit snug in the chest cavity. Using the chicken legs and the beer as a tripod, stand the chicken on a grill over medium to low heat and cook covered for 1-2 two hours depending on the heat. A half an hour after the chicken is put to cook, baste it will a little oil or butter. On an average it takes and hour and a half to cook - or putting it another way - keep the heat to a temperature at which it will take 90 minutes to cook the chicken over indirect heat. After a couple of attempts, you will get the hang of it.

Since canned beer is not available in Chennai, we fill up a soft drink can with bottled beer. So don't be surprised if you see our Beer Can Chicken on a Coke or Pepsi can.

Since the chicken is covered, the residual heat will cook the skin to a crispy crust full of flavour of your dry rub. The basting with oil helps in the crisping of the skin. Meanwhile the beer keeps spewing inside the chicken and keeps is moist and the herb stuffing adds a nice flavour to the juicy meat.

So if you have a grill, I say go for it today. Pop open two cans of beer - one for the chicken and one for yourself and invite a few pals over. A simple easy way to feed your friends some delightful chicken to go with the beer at the next party and claim bragging rights. Or, bring them to The Farm and leave the "hard work" to us. You still earn bragging rights!

Cooking on Pathar (Stone)

There has been a lot of buzz around stone grilling/cooking recently, and a couple of restaurants are now based on this concept. A lot of restaurants in North India offer Pathhar Kebab - meats cooked on a hot stone. Naturally, excitement and curiosity kicked in big time and we decided to find out more. There is a lot of information on the internet on this topic. In the US you can buy a lava stone - which is the preferred stone - for your restaurant or for your home.

First we had no idea where to get a big enough lava stone from. So we decided to try the stone that is available to us - granite. We mounted it on our charcoal grill. Next dilemma, what would we cook on it? In a simple experiment, we put our current meat recipes on the stone, heated up with coals and wood fire. Lo behold - it worked. It worked better than our skillets.

It takes a couple of hours to get the stone hot enough to cook (given the size of the stone) but it retains heat evenly and for a longer time. It took us a while to get to the right thickness of the stone. The first few were too thin and cracked on heating. Now that we have the right thickness, cooking on the stone is a breeze. The rise and fall in temperature in never sudden and hence easily controlled. You can leave food on it unattended without the fear of it burning. Over prolonged use, the stone blackens. This we realized is called seasoning, which imparts better flavour and reduced cooking time.

We now make our Mutton Chops & Steaks, Pork Chops and Beef Steaks on the stone. We don't call these 'pathar kebabs' or any other fancy name. Instead on one big stone, we've ordered three small stones. They will heat up quicker and people who are averse to eating beef or pork are assured that the meats are cooked separately.

So come and enjoy these flavoured meats at The Farm. In the meantime, we'll figure out if we can do veggies on the stone.

Our Food - The Feast at The Farm

Gluttony is the sincerest form of flattery at The Farm, and that’s exactly what 'The Feast at The Farm' makes you want to do. The Feast runs only on the weekends, that is Friday and Saturday nights.

We start you off with refreshing chilled tender coconut water and Farm fresh garlic bread, chips and dips while you wait in the lounge for your table. The main course consists of a variety of mouth-watering meats and veggies thrown on the grill served with chutneys dips and grilled salad.

There is also delicious hand spread pizzas fresh out of our wood-fired brick oven, stuffed Parathas and Naans served hot from our Tandoor with butter made form our own dairy.

If you still have space in your stomach and crave to end the feast with some roti rice and dal, help yourself to home cooked dal and curries. We cook our rice, dals and curries over our smokeless chulha. Condiments like the famous Farm made pickles and curds are served with hot Tandoori Roti and Lachcha parathas.

Then there is desert served in the lounge with tea/coffee to get you back on your feet again. Eat all you want of any one course or all of it.

A feast by definition is a sumptuous entertainment or meal for many guests. And here at the farm guest are welcome to do precisely as they want. Mingle with other guests, get behind the grill and grill your own food. Or you could even make your own pizza. Once you are full, there's always a mattress in the lounge for you to lie down and chill till you are able to move again to your car to head back home.

Of'course we do not charge for mineral water and refreshments are included in the price.

'The Feast at The Farm' is by reservation only, priced at Rs 500.00 (plus taxes) per person. For RS 500, you choose what you want to eat and how much. Stay as long as you want to in the lounge (11:00 PM is closing time). So give us a heads up on +91 9176050562 and drop in. We recommend making reservations at least a day in advance. Whether you come alone or in a group, come hungry, very hungry.