The Saturday Brunch with FeminaBelieve

The Lifestyle Portal had a fantastic time at the Saturday Brunch hosted by the vibrant team of FeminaBelieve, at Hakkasan, a fine dining Cantonese restaurant in Bandra, Mumbai.

One step into the venue and we were transported into a whole new world of great food, a brilliant ambiance, interacting with the team of #BrunchWithFeminaBelieve and the fellow bloggers from our city.

Each blogger present there represented a niche talent of their own and we felt immensely proud and happy to be a part of this fun learning event.

The highlight of this brunch was a sneak peek into one of FeminaBelieve’s workshops that they run for women across all age groups.

Femina upholds a woman’s beauty and strength in all forms, shapes and size, from any part of the country or world, creed or religion. They make us believe that we’re beautiful no matter where we come from, who we are and what we do and one of their ways to reach out to the women are these wonderful workshops.

Their workshops range from – Styling, Make Up, Communication Skills and Body Language and Dining and Etiquette that are regularly held in Mumbai and Pune. 

So if you’re just out of school/ college or looking for that perfect job, traveling abroad, getting married – whatever your requirement maybe, FeminaBelieve’s workshops will definitely come handy.

Our Saturday Brunch was conducted by the gorgeous Greeshma Thampi an ace Image Consultant from Mumbai.

She taught some simple tips starting with Dining Etiquette, the placement of cutlery and how to use them, Napkin Etiquette, Table Manners, the Meal Courses and some simple dining do’s and don’ts.

One of the tips we liked a lot was the very simple ‘BMW’– that’s the Bread plate to be placed on your Left, the Main Course plate comes in the Middle and the Water or Wine glass comes to your Right – this will always come handy when you’re setting a table for guests at home.

Small interesting tips and snippets were also shared as to why the Chinese eat with chopsticks and why a red wine glass is larger than the white wine or a champagne glass.

The highlight of our workshop was that we got to learn how to hold and eat with chopsticks; personally for us, we finally cracked the chopsticks code and relished some heavenly dumplings cooked up by the kitchens of Hakkasan.

We were reminded for our favourite character Po from the iconic Kung Fu Panda animation film while we tackled the basket of dumplings with a pair of chopsticks! 😀

We started our conversations with some beautifully concocted mocktails such as the Sangria and Virgin Hakka.

Then as we learnt the art of eating with chopsticks, our tables were will filled with baskets of beautifully crafted small eats such as the Hargao – which consisted of the prawn and chive dumpling, Chicken Shui Mai, Pan friend chicken satay buns, carrot cake, black fungus dumpling, crystal and Pak choi dumplings.

The winners for us were of course the prawn and chive dumpling, the crystal dumpling and the saucy, sweet and tangy carrot cake.

Then we were kept busy with a little contest where the bloggers were teamed up to pick up peanuts from a bowl using our newly acquired skills – the chopsticks. We had a lot of fun doing this exercise until the mains arrived. My team – Prerna (Maaofallblogs) and I managed to aquire a meagre 37 peanuts together, while the winning team collected over a 50!

For the non-vegetarians there was Sanpei Chicken Claypot with Thai chilli and basil – we loved the sweet, spicy glazed finish of the chicken.

Then there was the steamed Indian Salmon with a home-made chilli sauce that went well with the Edamame Fried Rice and Vegetable mee goring noodles.

The vegetarians were in for a big treat with the stir-fry spicy lotus root (delicious!) with celery and black fungus and mixed vegetable in asam sauce.

Finally we were thrilled to bits with the arrival of the dessert that came with a Jivara Bombe topped with puffed rice flakes, Dark chocolate mousse and ice cream.

This was an event that we’ll remember for a very long time, thank you team FeminaBelive, Image Consultant Greeshma Thampi and Hakkasan for making us feel so special.

Fore more pictures of our fun Saturday Brunch with Femina, visit The Lifestyle Portal’s official Facebook page.

Get Featured: 

Write to us at tanya@tanyamunshi.com if you’d like to get featured or collaborate with The Lifestyle Portal.