Flora, Worli

The moment I stepped into Flora, a familiar aroma hit me with full force and almost instantly took me back to my childhood. This was one of the places that we used to frequent - once a month during those days - and order the same food, every time - crab corn soup, vegetable spring rolls, chilli chicken, chicken fried rice and some kind of prawn dish. When I think about it now I wonder how we used to consume so much of meat in one go. But as kids we weren't so worried about cholesterol and stuff like that then. Good old days! I will always remember the Chilli Chicken that used to be served there at that time. I never tasted anything like that anywhere ever again. Wonder who their chef was. The dish used to consist of crispy spicy pieces of chicken and equally crispy (need I say spicy?) pieces of green chillies. Tasty down to the last bit. I don't recollect the name of the prawn dish. But amazingly enough it used to be crispy on the outside and soft inside with a creamy texture. If I could go back in time, I would love to eat both these dishes again, and again, and again!

Enough of nostalgia. I opened the menu knowing fully well that I wouldn't find any of my childhood favorite stuff in there. 4-5 years ago we had visited the place and found the food not so upto the mark. We hadn't bothered going back again till today when I hoped a different chef had come aboard. Surprise, surprise! Crab corn soup was still on the menu. I decided to order it - and warned myself that I could be sorely disappointed. Crispy spicy chicken sounded suspiciously similar to chilli chicken so the dish made it to the order. And we decided to go for chicken chow mein.

Sweet Corn Crab Soup

Crispy Spicy Chicken

Chicken Chow Mein

When the soup was served I wasted no time before dipping in and was pleasantly surprised. It had the same taste. How is that possible? Maybe they have always used the canned variety. Who knows? It was thicker than the one I remember from my childhood and had more crab meat than sweet corn. I didn't think much about it as I went about polishing it off.

There wasn't anything spicy about 'Crispy spicy chicken'. Very bland indeed! It would have been impossible to eat it had it not been for the schezwan sauce. :-( And I guess you cannot go much wrong with Chow Mein. It was as I expected it to be - except that it was a bit runny.

I don't mind going there again but I am sure to order something different next time - except for the soup, of course! :-)