Trademark american

Sat, May 3 01:30 AM

The recent past has seen the emergence of two totally different companies doing American delicatessen products in our city. The lesser known of these is DNY Bread Bar in Vasant Vihar.

Though it is American in concept, the execution appears to be local - the tiny stall with a single table inside does not have the look of a multi-national chain. Where they win, however, is on the food.

Streets ahead of the late chain O'Briens who did something similar, they're not unlike Subway in the multiplicity of fillings and sauces. Super sandwiches DNY Bread Bar uses only flat bread in a variety of styles - white, wholewheat, sunflower seed sprinkled, linseed and thyme, olive and jalapeno, red chilli and multi grain.

Fillings include Smoked Chicken, Basil and Scamorza as well as Peanut Butter and Jelly - my two personal favourites. They straddle the two ends of the more-than-adequate menu at DNY - the gourmet and the comfort food factor.

I always ask for blue cheese dressing on the Smoked Chicken Sandwich; there's a different dressing for every filling, but you are welcome to give your own preferences. For the Cottage Cheese Steak, I like the Pesto dressing.

Each sandwich costs between Rs 69 and 109 for the regular size. Two sandwiches make a meal for an average appetite; one regular sandwich is a filling snack.

Doughnut delight The other new place that is making waves is Mad Over Donuts in Noida. Like DNY, it is poised to spread its wings around the country before long.

Yeast doughnuts - which means deliciously soft and fluffy - come in as many as 15 flavours. Priced at Rs 25 and Rs 35 each, the fun is trying all of them out and then deciding which your personal favourites are.

An extremely skillful job has been done on the toppings, which are jam-centered or glazed with variously-flavoured icings. The best part about Mad Over Donuts is their introduction of savoury donuts, which takes this snack to a sophisticated, adult level.

My personal favourites are the Midnight Beauty dark chocolate, the barely sweet Almond Einstein (white chocolate icing with almond flakes) and Perk Me Up, a chocolate and coffee mousse combination. The rest of my family is extremely partial to A-maize-ing Chaat, one of the savoury doughnuts with chaat masala on it.

The tough part is deciding not what to have, but what not to have.

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