As of late, there have been a few new establishments that have opened in Rourkela. I took this as my cue to dust off the old blog and start writing! One of these establishments happens to be Maaya, an eatery located inside Mokshaa - right next to the main restaurant. 

Right off the bat, I have to say it. I love their ambience. The soft lighting, the glasses hanging down from the ceiling, there’s just a certain charm to it that you don’t get in most of the eateries in Rourkela. There’s both indoor and outdoor seating available, but if you ask me inside is the place to be. There are comfortable leather seats that run the circumference of the interior with wooden seats facing inwards. 

Indoor seating. Picture from google. 

The menu here is quite varied - they have quesadillas, kebabs and everything in between! In the three times we’ve been, we’ve tried a fair number of items including their pizzas, sandwiches, meal combos, quesadillas, their poutine, pasta and even a few mocktails. 

I’ll start with the pizza because it was easily the most disappointing dish we’ve had at Maaya. It was absolutely tiny and was more of a side dish than anything else but the prices would indicate that you’re getting a decent sized pie! Brushing aside the pizza, the rest of the food was brilliant.

As for the mocktails, I’m a simple guy. I see a Mojito, I order a Mojito. I’ve had my fair share of them and the one at Maaya was one of the best I’ve had in Rourkela. The others we tried were pink lemonade and a chocolate milkshake whose actual name eludes me, but like I said. I see a Mojito, I order a Mojito and I liked this one. 

I haven’t tried actual poutine so I can’t comment on it’s authenticity but the poutine here is delightful. In fact, all three times we visited, poutine was the first dish we ordered! While the pasta we tried was called Carbonara, it was more of a generic white sauce with chunks of chicken. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just not Carbonara. Nor is the pesto. It was extremely creamy with chunks of broccoli in it. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, it’s just not pesto

Outdoor seating. Picture from google. 

Unfortunately, here’s where the glowing review gets a little critical. Maaya is a bar. Their main money maker is alcohol. You get the feeling that if you don’t order drinks, you’re a second class citizen here. On one occasion, our waiter blatantly ignored us on several occasions, only to wait patiently near the table next to us as they were getting copiously drunk. On another, it felt like the waiter was pushing us to order some booze and when the bill arrived, he lamented that it was only ₹750. Excuse me? I’ve just spent a fair bit of money at your restaurant - that's not an appropriate response at all. It’s a shame, because otherwise, Maaya has the best ambience of any restaurant or eatery in Rourkela. 

Financially, Maaya will leave a hole in your pocket. Probably not as big as mayfair, but you’ll feel it alright. A full meal for 4 including starters, soup, mocktails and a main course came out to ₹2200 after the student discount. Yikes. However, if you’re willing to forgo some of the smaller items we had, you can bring that down to a much more palatable amount, like the ₹750 I mentioned earlier in my review. 

I’m quite conflicted as I write this conclusion. I love (most of) their food. I adore their ambience. I like not having to shell out ₹400+ on transportation. However, it is unacceptable to pay that much for food and have the staff pass a comment like that or for the staff to be that blatant in waiting serving some tables while ignoring others. That’s not to say I don’t like Maaya. I do, it’s just that I believe that tables should have equal preference, regardless of what they order.

Dice your chicken like this

So, I decided to move away from pasta for this post. I’m not completely done with it - I still have another pasta post on its way, but the next 2 posts (not including this) are not going to include pasta in any way or form. After all, there’s only so much of the stuff you can eat!

I saw a pie sitting in a bakery window and thought why not? Rather than make a fruit pie, similar to the one I saw, I decided to make an old favourite of mine - Chicken Pot Pie. 

For Chicken Pot Pie, you’re going to need : 

• 100ml of olive oil
•  500 grams of chicken breast, diced
• 2 large onions
• 2 carrots
• 1 celery
• 1 small bag of frozen peas
• 1 cup of chicken stock
• 1/4~ cup of flour
• 1/2 carton of cream (small)
• A few pinches of thyme
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• Pie crust to line a bowl/pie dish
• 1 egg

Brown your chicken

Despite the long list of ingredients, it’s not too difficult to make a mouth watering pie. 

Start off by slicing your chicken breast into bite sized pieces. Heat some olive oil in a pan and toss your chicken in when the oil is nice and hot. Brown the chicken - ideally 6 minutes per side but you can stretch this a little further if you’ve cut your chicken into bigger pieces.  Be sure to season each side of chicken with salt and pepper. 

Mix it all together!

While the chicken is being browned, dice your onions, carrots and celery into cubes. Once your chicken has been browned, put it aside and toss your diced veggies into the pan along with some thyme. If you’ve got some fond (chicken bits stuck to the pan), that’s not a a problem. If anything, it’ll add more flavour to your filling. Again, season the vegetables with salt and pepper or you’ll end up with bland filling. Once you’ve mixed the vegetables with the thyme and seasoning, coat them lightly in flour and stir your vegetables to get a nice even coating. 

For your broth, you can make it from scratch, but I had neither the time nor the inclination to do that. Instead, take 2 large stock cubes (or 4 small ones) and put them in a cup of hot water. Stir thoroughly to ensure you have no lumps and that should be your broth done. Pour it into the pan with the vegetables and let it simmer for about 10 minutes. 

Dump the filling into the pie 

While the pot is simmering, it’s time to get the pie crust ready. I, unfortunately couldn’t find any piecrust in the supermarkets. What I did find was Samosa shells, so thats what I used. I layered samosa shells on top of each other, separating each layer with a coat of egg wash.  Egg wash is simply a beaten egg that can be brushed onto the pastry layers. If you’re using Samosa shells like I did, be sure to have at least 3 layers of shell for the base and walls. 

Sealed up and ready to bake!

By now, your pie filling should have simmered for about 10 minutes. Pour your cream in, give it a mix and toss in the peas and the chicken you browned earlier. Don’t worry if your peas are frozen, they’ll thaw in the heat of the oven. Your pie filling is now complete! 

Heat your oven to 250 degrees Celsius and pour your pie filling into the piecrust/samosa monstrosity you made a few paragraphs ago. Cover the filling to seal it off and put it in the oven for half an hour. As with the base, be sure to have at least 3 layers of samosa shell all painted with egg wash between the layers.

The final product!

I’m not the biggest fan of celery, so the next time I make this, I’ll probably use a little less celery and compensate with onions and carrots, which I happen to love. However, you’re free to change the vegetables around, within reason of course. I highly doubt adding, say, tomatoes to this would end well. As always, if you’re going to make this yourself, please do let me know! I’d love to hear about other people replicating whatever I write about and adding their own twist to it!

Bonus shot!