CaLDRON Year-ender December 2013

CaLDRON December 2013 1

CaLdronDec

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3Monthly Blogazine

there’s always something cooking Year ender!

ReviewsCavalli Caffe Delhi/NCR

Cafe Uno Delhi/NCR

Smokehouse Deli Delhi/NCR

Yauatcha Bangalore

Tandoori Nights Bangalore

Harry’s Bar Mumbai

Serafina Mumbai

EventsParty in the HeavensGrape Crushing, Wine

TastingLunch with Gary MehiganCooking with Rishi Desai

Cover ThemeAll about Chinese Cuisine

Memories of Hong Kong5 Chinese Teas

8 Chinese Cuisines5 Chinese Desserts

Roaming Rover in Westin, Pune

Kitchen KinChef Ajay ChopraChef Veena AroraChef Dong Long

Tested: Philips Saeco Intelia

2 CaLDRON December 2013

TRIBUTE

Last night while I was winding down, a message popped up on my screen from Sid Khullar asking me if I would like to pen a few words about Tarla Dalal, about whose passing I had read about just a few hours prior.

I did not have to think twice about Sid’s request and immediately agreed to write my thoughts on the most unique talent in the history of contemporary Indian food. However, when I did sit down to write, I was at a loss for words, attempting to describe someone who I knew only through her writing and media. I’ve spent many years learning from her, just like Eklavya did with Dronacharya’s idol, but in my case the medium of instruction were Ms Dalal’s books and recipes.

During that hour many important occasions/people in my life flashed in front me like it does for anybody who hears of a loss. Revisiting those memories, I realized that Tarla Dalal was my companion on several of those cherished moments. One such incident I vividly remember is when I moved to the US in my late teens. While deciding what precious things I would carry with me in the two suitcases I was allowed, a book authored by Ms Dalal was on the top of the list. I arrived in the Fall and at my first Thanksgiving dinner in the US, I used her recipe to cook Vegetable Au Gratin; a recipe I consider iconic from the hundreds perhaps thousands she has authored. Needless to say, it was a hit amongst my dinner guests who were amazed that a “vegetarian” dish could taste so delicious and be so easy to prepare.

As an author she was able to bring to the traditional Indian kitchen, recipes from around the world. Her Indian recipes were so authentic, one could easily recreate the Idli-sambar eaten at an Udipi restaurant, Dhokla from the best Farsan shop, or Paranthas and achaar eaten at a Punjabi dhaba. Over the next decade I acquired several of her books, all of which I treasure and are amongst the few cookbooks I own, each one with recipes that are well written, easy to follow and most importantly, which result in dishes that taste awesome.

A petite person in stature but with a larger than life following, a lady who helped create many happy moments between a husband and wife, a mother and child or just amongst friends, I humbly thank Ms Dalal for helping polish a facet of my personality. She will never know it, but those who read this will understand and wholly agree that she made a big impact on our lives through her books, TV shows, cooking classes and charity.

Rest in Peace. We will continue celebrating your life.

Tribute to a Legend: Tarla Dalal

Rupa Balachander writes a personal tribute to one of India’s culinary giants - Tarla Dalal.

by Rupa Balachandar


THE CHEF AT LARGE TEAM

MANAGING EDITORSID KHULLAR

ASSOCIATE EDITORNATASHA ALI

CONSULTING EDITORVINITA BHATIA

EVENTS EDITORPARUL PRATAP SHIRAZI

RECIPE CURATORNADEEM KHAN

SUBJECT MATTER EXPERTSSANDEEP SRINIVASA (COFFEE)JASWINDER SINGH (WINE & SPIRITS)

SPECIAL PROJECTSRITUPARNA MUKERJISHRUTI ARORA

REVIEW TEAMDELHICHARIS ALFRED BHAGIANTHANPARUL PRATAP SHIRAZISID KHULLAR

MUMBAIVINITA BHATIA

BANGALORENATASHA ALI

KOLKATAMEGHA JHUNJHUNWALA

GROUP MODERATORSID KHULLAR

If it’s one foreign cuisine that’s become an integral part of our culture, it’s Chinese. Of course, one might say Italian has the same status, which is true to a large extent, however Chinese was the first to occupy that exalted slot, even if it is now un-recognizable to the Chinese, even as a distant cousin to their

own food. As the story goes, of the Chinese who came to India to work in sugar mills, some stayed back and adapted their cuisine to local ingredients and sentiments. Given that this happened in the mid 1700s, Indian-Chinese is a cuisine in its own right; a fact some of us need to consider before turn-ing up our noses and claiming to like ‘only authentic Chinese’.

We also lost an icon during the production of this issue, Tarla Dalal. Rupa Balachander wrote a few words to express her feelings; a common slice of what most of us would have felt on her passing on.

The results of the poll we conducted on the Chef at Large group weren’t very surprising, given how deeply entrenched the cuisine is in our food culture, almost Indian, some may say. In any case, I’m proud to present to you, our third issue, and look forward to learning what you have to say and awaiting your feedback.

Stay well.Sid

EDITORIAL & CREDITS

OTHER CREDITSCover photo courtesy, The China Kitchen, Hyatt Regency, New DelhiCover photo was taken by Sid Khullar

RECIPE CONTRIBUTORSSAYANTINI M.http://www.ahomemakersdiary.com/

SARANI TARAFDARhttp:// http://cocoawind.blogspot.in/

CHEF AT LARGE WEBSITEhttp://chefatlarge.in

DOWNLOAD THE ANDROID APPhttp://bit.ly/calandroidapp

JOIN THE CHATTER ON OUR FACEBOOK GROUPhttps://www.facebook.com/groups/chefatlarge/

STAY INFORMED WITH OUR FACEBOOK PAGEhttps://www.facebook.com/chefatlarge.in

FOLLOW US ON TWITTER http://twitter.com/yourchefatlarge

MAIL THE GROUP MODERATORS [email protected]

SEND US A PRESS RELEASE OR EVENT [email protected]

MEMBER ART

Sugar Paste Flowers and Butterflies by Blessy Bless.


CONTENTS


Member PollYour Take on Indian-Chinese Food, 7

ReviewsLunch at Cavalli Caffe, Delhi/NCR, 8The Kiwi That Flew, Delhi/NCR, 12

An Orchestra of Taste, Delhi/NCR, 14Delicate Dim Sum and Cool Cocktails, Bangalore, 24

An Ode to a Hole in The Wall, Bangalore, 25Powai’s New Watering Hole, Mumbai, 26

A Gastronomical Affair to Remember, Mumbai, 28Product Review: Philips Saeco Intelia: Expensive Convenience, 67

Special

Tribute to a Legend: Tarla Dalal, 15

Kitchen KinLunch with Chef Dong Long, 16

Meet Chef Ajay Chopra, 70Meet Chef Veena Arora, 74

EventsParty In The Heavens, Delhi/NCR, 59

Grape Crushing, Wine Tasting, Feasting, Bangalore, 60When Gary Mehigan Cooks Lunch!, Mumbai, 62

Cookfest with Rishi Desai, Mumbai, 64

Cover ThemeThe ABC’s of Chinese Cuisine, 54

Photo Feature: Memories of Hong Kong, 34Five Chinese Teas You Didn’t Know of, 88

Eight Chinese Cuisines You Didn’t Know Of, 90Five Chinese Desserts You Didn’t Know Of, 94

Recipes - Two Flavors of Chili ChickenChili Chicken I, 28Chili Chicken II, 32

Roaming RoverA Weekend at the Westin, Pune, 78

CONTENTS


YOUR TAKE ON

Indian CHINESE FOOD

We ran a quick poll on our Facebook group and weren’t surprised at all by the results. After all, we do know our Indian Chinese food, don’t we?

Link to Poll on Facebook

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https://www.facebook.com/groups/chefatlarge/permalink/547417805346866/

https://www.facebook.com/groups/chefatlarge/permalink/525566107532036/


REVIEWS - DELHI/NCR

Lunch atCavalli CaffeCavalli Caffe dishes out some excellent fare, with two dishes that may be

quite unique, including a one-mm thick pizza. A must-try.

Cavalli Caffe’s been here for a while, eponymous with Roberto Cavalli, the fashion brand among other areas of it’s application. In my experience, the application of the word ‘luxury’ is usually a veiled manner of saying, “We have the money to sink into solid gold cutlery, but we really can’t be bothered about the food because we assume you’ll be so dazzled with our solid gold cutlery, that the food will be of little consequence”. This has happened many times in the past, the most recent being the sorry experience that was Pangaea‘s open-ing night, and you really can’t blame them, not in this city in any case. You see, Delhiites eat with a jeweler’s loupe, evaluating their experience from the point of view of perceived exclusivity and Facebook brag poten-tial rather than culinary value. This also explains why we have celebrity chefs strutting around this city who couldn’t dish out a decent plate of properly scrambled eggs.

This, I admit, was my reluctant state of mind when I visited Cavalli Caffe in the very luxurious DLF Emporio Mall, a paradigm that was somewhat justified during my first interaction with staff members who, far from


being able to seamlessly commu-nicate with customers, appeared to have difficulty with English as a medium, which in this particular setting is definitely below par.

Happily, that was that and events proceeded smoothly thereafter. We chose to sit at the zebra-striped out-door area, than the indoor bar and lounge. Note that, outdoors is still under the mall roof.

Kapil and I picked out a rough three course meal for ourselves, the first

of which was Burrata with Cher-ry Tomatoes (650), which in itself doesn’t say anything if you don’t know what a Burrata is. Burrata, is a south Italian cheese from Puglia that is essentially a shell of fresh mozzarella stuffed with a mixture of mozzarella strips and cream. At Cavalli Caffe, the Burrata was served with a sprinkling of halved cherry tomatoes, a drizzling of reduced balsamic vinegar and a drift of crisp, trimmed rocket leaves. Okay so ‘a drift’ is really more suited to a gathering of quail than a bunch of

rocket leaves. Every once in a while, one is surprised by a dish, which while speaking volumes about one’s own exposure, is quite a wonderful event, because we end up dispropor-tionately wiser from the experience, exposure and knowledge gained. The Burrata was served with tiny, shallow bowls of (a very nice) extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and sea salt, and accompanied by two slim slices of pan-fried eggplant. Mild, subtle, tangy, crisp and sur-prisingly good, don’t bother trying to find the dish in Delhi. Chef

REVIEWS - DELHI/NCR


Kapil insists even restaurants must line up to buy a few portions of the stuff.

Our splendid starter was followed by an equally great cold Crema di Porcini (300) and a very well presented, but more-like-pizza-sauce Crema di Pomodoro (200), a cold mushroom soup and a hot, very thick tomato soup served in a margarita glass and a hollowed out loaf of bread respectively. My mushroom soup was smooth, resplendent with all the flavor of porcini and button mush-rooms while Kapil’s tomato soup, I believe could have used some cheese to cut through it’s thick-ness, accompanied by a very cold winter draft. It’s true! Sometimes, enjoying the things we order, the way they’re cooked, depend on climatic conditions. In this case, I believe a withering, winter wind and a crackling fireplace were es-sential elements that really should have accompanied this particular soup. I suggest you try this soup in peak winters and avoid it in summers.

After an enjoyable Rucola and Goat Cheese Salad with Pine nuts and Oranges (550) that included a very generous helping of goat cheese, we began on the mains, a Traditional Chicken Cacciatore (450) for me and Caponata stuffed Zucchini Canola (400) for Kapil. I wasn’t too happy with my dish, given it too tasted like pizza sauce, with the same cliched flavors within. Kapil thought while his dish was very well executed, the stuffing needed flavor and season-ing, without which the final result was stolid chewing and little else.

Somewhere along the way we also

tried Cavalli Caffe’s thin crust pizza, which, I kid you not, isn’t much more than a single millime-tre thick. If you like your pizzas and want low carb meals, this is the place to go. We ended with Hot Chocolate Foam with Rum Granita and Red Wine Poached Figs and Apricot Crumble with Wild Berry Semifreddo. The hot chocolate foam was closer to a mousse and quite delicious; ditto for the crumble and semifreddo.

As you can see, preconceptions can be dangerous things. If you’re in any of the three malls, do try Cavalli Caffe as an alternative to your regular lunch. ■

by Sid Khullar

REVIEWS - DELHI/NCR



I hope Guy Beringer is having a great time in heaven, as that’s the only place he should be for having invented the term and concept of brunch. Yes, that word and concept that we are so used to now were coined in 1895 or 1896 for a mag-azine article. Thankfully it found its place in the general lexicon. Without it, life would have been such a drag. I harp on history because I found it really inter-esting to read about the origins of the word that i looked up out of sheer habit after coming back from Sunday brunch at Shan-gri-La, New Delhi. Executive Chef Darren Canole, an Austra-lian married to a Kiwi (the na-tionality) and his team wanted to do something different with kiwi (the fruit) and came up with a five course brunch with some of the best ingredients at their disposal. Center of atten-tion was, indeed, kiwi fruit from Zespri, New Zealand.

I had never been to Shangri-La before. I’m talking about the hotel in New Delhi, not the mythical valley in China where you find eternal

life. So I was a bit taken aback by the amount of red on the walls of 19, Oriental Avenue. A constant, nagging feeling that I’m about to be in the middle of a Triad hit kept hounding me for some time but like everything else in life, I got over it almost as soon as the food started

coming out of the kitchen. Well, almost.

An open kitchen in the middle of the restaurant was the setting for the proceedings for the morning where Darren and his crew belted out an

exceptional pre-starter course with kiwi mayonnaise. Yes, a kiwi mayon-naise – just like your regular may-onnaise, with kiwi fruit in it, served with fish, grilled pork and lamb chops that were topped with a kiwi sauce. The look of it made me recoil a little – that much acidic fruit on

one plate. Surprisingly, it worked just fine. In fact, it worked great. The mild salt and pepper on the lamb and the rather salty pork chops combined with the kiwi sauce was just perfect on the palate.

Next course was very interesting, one of the most amazing dishes to try. Ceviche is pretty much the staple street food in most Latin American countries. Every place has a variation of its own; most interesting are the Mexican, Chil-ean and Peruvian. What makes it interesting is the method of

cooking where fish is ‘cooked’ in lime – all you need is fish and lime juice, no stove required. The acetic acid is enough to cook the soft flesh of the fish and impart a pink tinge to it, like when lobster is cooked, the shell turns red. What Darren and

REVIEWS - DELHI/NCR

The Kiwi that Flew

A brunch at the Shangri-La where the kiwi was the star and diners were

treated to innovative food.


his crew had done was a clam cevi-che with kiwi pesto and rocket cress for us, the lime replaced with kiwi. Kiwi apparently has enough acid-ity to replace lime. The vegetarian option was with feta cheese instead of the clams, but with equally good results.

Ceviche was followed with a chilled roasted pepper, Chinese gooseber-ry and Jerez soup – much like a gazpacho, very interesting with the sweet and tangy notes of the goose-berries and the kiwi nicely offset by the roasted bell peppers, and chilled to perfection. I don’t believe it would’ve tasted half as good had it been served warm or even at room temperature. The speed and efficacy of the floor crew mattered most; they served everything at an unmatched pace and with amazing coordination, much like an athletics relay team.

Darren’s team had chosen to pair the food with select wines from

Wolf Blass – a Chardonnay and a Cabernet-Merlot blend. It was a last moment decision to include wines in the menu and to a snob like me it seemed quite obvious. The Cab-ernet-Merlot had well-rounded dark fruit notes on the nose and the palate and slightly rough around the edge tannins that gave a rather full mouth-feel with a hint of bell pep-pers on the finish. The Chardonnay was rich and creamy with notes of citrus fruits on the nose and palate and a smooth finish that paired much better with the kiwi inspired menu than the Cabernet-Merlot.

Lamb tenderloin with kiwi de menthe jelly and Moroccan jam quinoa was served next. The kiwi de menthe jelly was definitely the most interesting part of the assembly of medium rare lamb tenderloin done to perfection on a bed of Moroccan jam quinoa, kiwi de menthe jelly and garnished with coriander and ginger. The preparation looked and sounded simple enough but I’m

sure the kitchen team toiled over the concept and the recipe of Chef Darren, to get to the levels of perfec-tion he seems to expect and extract out of them.

Having lived in India for a good four years now, Darren and his amazing team comprising of so many expat chefs came up with a ridiculously amazing idea for a dessert – sushi with an Indian twist. What they did was replace the sticky rice with kheer and the fish with kiwi fruit. The result – awesomeness. I would’ve enjoyed a good late harvest Riesling or a Chenin Blanc with the dessert but life is not always that kind to you. All said and done, it was one amazing brunch – the food, the wine, the company, friends – ev-erything seamlessly falling in place for a wonderful experience. I’d say this kiwi flew rather well that day. ■

REVIEWS - DELHI/NCR

by Jaswinder Singh


An Orchestra of Taste – Smoke House Deli, Hauz

KhasFine dining at its best, alongside a tranquil lake and a bright clear sky, says Jaswinder

of Smoke House Deli, Hauz Khas.

There’s a lot about the labyrinth of narrow alleys that lead you through the interesting neighborhood of Hauz Khas Village that always manages to evoke curiosity in an insatiable mind. The graffiti on the walls, people sitting under the shade of a tree, painting, writing, reading or doing nothing at all make you wonder if that’s really possible in a city like Delhi.

We started off with assorted seafood and sausage platters followed by grilled chicken skewers with lemon-grass and coriander accompanied by a 2012 Jacob’s Creek Chardonnay. Honestly, life does not get better than that. The chardonnay had subtle hints of ripe, juicy grapefruit and lime on the nose ending with a mild note of citrusy raspberries and a creamy smoothness on the pal-ette that paired beautifully with the seafood and the subtle flavors of the sausages.

My main course consisted of ten-derloin steak in horseradish and rosemary emulsion and jus; pan seared Himalayan trout with wasabi cream; John Dory with smoked bell peppers, creamed leeks and tomato

risotto; chicken quiche topped with goat cheese and figs and tomato and mascarpone risotto. To describe each dish will turn this column into a novel, and not to say something about each of them will be a gross injustice to the food and the team at Smokehouse kitchen. Tenderloin steak done to perfection, figs in a tango of taste with the goat cheese quiche; the risotto, the trout and the John Dory with a melt-in-your-mouth texture; it was like an orches-tra of taste and we were the audience that afternoon.

The dessert cart followed the main course with tiramisu, flourless choc-olate fudge and a roasted almond ganache torte. Except for a slightly bitter for my taste buds tira-misu, the rest were just the way I like it – sweet.

Wine and conversations flowed into late afternoon on Saturday and after spending about INR 12,000 for four people that includ-ed plenty of excellent food and wine, it was time to call it a day. It could be de-scribed as a well spent five

hours at lunch. The high cost can be attributed to all the wine that was consumed through the afternoon. The food was priced well with an average meal for two at about INR 3500.

Of all the locations of Smoke House Deli, Hauz Khas is undeniably the best. Head Chef Shamsul Wahid’s attention to detail shows in the preparations and the setting of the restaurant.

A restaurant I’d visit again any day and encourage you to do so too. ■

by Jaswinder Singh

REVIEWS - DELHI/NCR


PHOTO RELIEF

Slow-cooked pork belly with vegetable rice. :)


Delicate Dimsum

&Cool

Cocktails

Exactly a week after I got back from Hong Kong, I found myself at Yauat-cha, the Chinese dim sum specialty restau-rant located in the 1 MG Road Mall. Now, this is a chain that began in Soho, London, where the term Michelin starred has been earned. They already has an Indi-an presence in Mumbai, and I had been hearing good things ever since it opened its doors in Bangalore in September and just waiting for a

chance to partake of the offerings.

Located as they are, in a mall, they decid-ed to create a special (Drink some and Dim sum, *tee hee*) that will appeal to mall wanderers, and can be availed any day between Monday and Thursday. You get a basket of eight steamed dumplings (veg/mixed; 4 kinds) and one cocktail/mocktail at a great price point, especial-ly if you are doing the cocktails! The Chicken and prawn shui mai was as good as any I’ve eaten in Hong Kong, and the 17-fold Har gua was tops too. The two veg selections in the mixed basket were Crystal and Chive

dumplings. We also tried the Duck rolls, served with a plum sauce. This is not to be missed if you’re a duck

eater – Finnish duck, no less, and the taste and tex-ture were superb.

We tried the much tweeted and talked about Raspberry Delice, that looked and tasted like a

dream; the tartness of the raspberry sauce paired beautifully with the chocolate mousse and the fact that it looked like a velvet rose pincush-ion just added to the charm of the dessert! We also enjoyed the Reli-gieuse, another chocolate concoc-

tion, though the ice cream served with this one was overpowering – the flavor was too strong and a bit odd when combined with chocolate. Clearly, there’s a reason why the delice gets rave reviews!

We also, with just a little egging on, tried more of the cocktails that Yauatcha makes. They have an interesting and large range, as the well stocked bar which occu-pies one section attests to. As part of the ‘Drink some’ selection, you can choose from the Thea Martini and the Lalu (vodka, lemongrass, Oolong tea and lychee juice). There was also a crushed red grapes, vodka and champagne cocktail, Cha La Lai, that was quite good, but my favor-ite from the lot was the spectacular looking and tasting citrus-y kum-quat fruit infused concoction.

Yauatcha also has an impressive ar-ray of teas on offer, and a large menu of all kinds of Chinese food, so I shall be hoofing it back there at the earliest to partake of more of their delicious food and drink. This time it was just about the drinking and dim summing. Once you are inside, you are sure to forget that just below you is a mall and shops, and you can enjoy a lovely meal in a gently lit, attentive setting. And if you’re there at an in-between time, or just in the mood for snacking and a drink, definitely give the set menu ‘Drink some and Dim sum’ a try! A meal here will cost you significantly more, so this is the perfect way to enjoy the place without breaking the bank. ■

by Natasha Ali

Natasha checked out the 'Drink some and Dim sum' offering at Yauatcha, Bangalore

and came away well pleased.

The famed Raspberry Delice

REVIEWS - BANGALORE


An Odeto a

Hole inThe Wall

We all know of such places, the little hole in the wall restaurant that looks a tad dingy and is maybe in a congested or dirty alley, but where the food is so good, you find your-self going, or else ordering take out or delivery from it, often. Soon after I moved to Bangalore 2 years ago, Tandoori Nights in Jayanagar became just that place for me. It serves both North Indian and In-dian Chinese fare, and for the most part, my friends and I prefer the latter. There are a couple of kebabs that they make that are outstand-ing – the Lasuni Tikka (125) has the most tender and moist chicken ever! On an afternoon work lunch, we ordered 4 plates of the tikka, once I’d introduced my colleagues to its delight. The curries, however, are gloppy and sometimes oily, so I usually abstain, though friends and colleagues like them. The Chinese though, is a whole ‘nother story: desi style Chinese at its best.

Manchurian, Szechwan, Hunan – all make their appearance on the veg and non-veg (prawns, fish and chicken) menu. Dragon Chicken (130) is my favorite starter; a sizable helping of spicy and delicious fiery colored chicken pieces. There are numerous prawn starters (140) and I’ve tried and enjoyed the Chilly and Hot Garlic versions. They do a really good job of both fried rice and noo-dles, so for me its generally a toss up between the Park Inn Special Fried Rice (125) or Singapore Chicken Fried Rice (110), and the Mixed Noodles (120) or Szechwan Chicken Noodles (110). The portions for the rice/noodles are generous and can easily be split between two people or two meals. They have about 20 plus gravy items as well, and the ubiqui-tous Chopsuey and Chowmein. Pure non-vegetarian that I am, I have never really ventured into that por-tion of the menu, but my non-meat

eating friends are quite happy to tag along, so that says something.

Ordering in lunch or the gang heading to Tandoori Nights hap-pened every so often at my old job, and even when we ordered extra planning to take it home for dinner, usually it would disappear! I sadly now live outside the home delivery area, so I only eat there when I am in the neighborhood and stop in with friends or else bring my favor-ite order home to enjoy when alone. There have even been times when I have worked my errands around being able to pick up a meal from there. There is talk that this little place will either shut down or have to move next year. I sure hope its not the former, for there are many die-hard fans who would miss the food, yours truly included! ■

Tandoori Nights is one of those unassum-ing little restaurants that serves up lovely

Indian Chinese.

REVIEWS - BANGALORE

by Natasha Ali


Once, a banking professional named Nick Leeson was a regular patron of a quayside bar in Singapore. He would head there almost every day after work, shooting the breeze with other financial traders. No one paid him any special notice; he was one of the many bankers who’d visit the pub before heading home. Then one day, Leeson was arrested for his role in losing $1 billion of his company’s, Barings, in speculative dealings, leading the ages-old merchant bank to the brink of fiscal collapse.

The bar that he frequented made the most of his notorious legacy and even created a drink after him called Bank Breaker. And the day Leeson was released from his Singaporean prison, the staff at the pub wore T-shirts that shouted ‘Leeson Learns His Lesson’ and served free beer to patrons for two hours! This is one of the more popular legends about Harry’s in Singapore, which has around 25 pubs in the island coun-try. And now it has opened its doors in Mumbai.

When we visited Harry’s, we hoped to try the Bank Breaker, a whiskey drink with Midori fruit liqueur and soda water. Sadly, the Mumbai

outpost didn’t have it, probably be-cause it did not want to inspire any Leesons in Mumbai, which is also the financial heart of India! The two-month old Harry’s is relatively small and gets cramped once the crowd pours in post 8pm. But its designers have given thoughtful touches to make it a great after-work watering hole. There’s a brightly lit chequered display behind the bar, the volume of the music is not so loud that you have to scream yourself hoarse to make yourself heard to your drink-ing companion and the lights are dimmed, so that a solo drinker doesn’t find himself in the glare of curious looks.

The alcohol menu is thrice as lengthy as the food menu; the diminutive 2-page food menu includes a couple of salads, burgers, pizzas and four desserts. But a barfly told us that Harry’s is revamping its food menu because the management has realized too much emphasis was placed on the beverages. And luckily for them, since they share a com-mon kitchen with Spaghetti Kitchen next door, expanding the food menu will not be a task. Coming to the beverages menu, some of the drinks have been Indianised with the help

of mixologist Shatbi Basu, though Harry’s has retained some signature drinks from its Singaporean station. Beer lovers

can choose from German, Irish, Belgian, Danish, Japanese, Mexican, Italian, American and Indian beers. Strangely when it comes to draught beer, you can choose only from the Australian Foster’s or Belgium Stella Artois or Hoegaarden – there’s no Indian beer there at all!

We preferred to try some vintage Singaporean Harry’s drinks – the Dirty Harry (229) and Harry’s Old Fashioned (269). The Dirty Harry, served with skinned whole litchis and crushed mint leaves, had too much ice for us to feel the potency of the vodka. We knew the drink came with an ice mist, but what we had was akin to a glacier. Drinking through the straws was challenging as the ice got stuck in them, while drinking straight from the glass was an invitation to laryngitis. If you would like to order this drink, better tell the bartender to go easy with the ice. Whiskey lovers will like the Harry’s Old Fashioned because the slight tang of caramel doesn’t hinder the bitterness of the whiskey that purists prefer, and we could see sev-eral dapper men in their work shirts sipping on this particular drink at the bar.

As an accompaniment to our drinks, we had the Singapore Chicken Lollypop (189), a safe dish to try if you are not too adventurous while ordering. The fried chicken wings were well charred on the outside,

but slightly dry on the inside. A little juiciness in the meat would’ve been welcome, though the spicy chilly sauce drizzled on the lollypops does mask this flaw. The very crispy Fried Calamari is served with aioli and is sup-posedly amongst the most popular appetizers at

Harry’s: Powai’s New Watering Hole

Just over two months old and packed the day of out visit– a harbinger of good times

for the first Harry’s bar in India.

REVIEWS - MUMBAI


Harry’s. It’s perfectly spiced, not too chewy, and can be easily shared in a group, making it an ideal bar snack.

Apparently, Harry’s sees a steady stream of ladies who prefer genteel cocktails, especially the sangrias. We tried the Red Wine Sangria (269) that is gently spiked with red wine and has a delightful quantity of pomegranate seeds and apple pieces. This is the perfect drink for work-ing women talking shop who don’t want their brains to be addled while they are at it. We decided to try the Caramel Popcorn Martini (229), merely because it sounded unusual. And while it’s a pretty looking drink, it tastes as if you are having a choc-olate dessert in a martini glass with a couple of popcorn kernels floating on top, which then get soggy if you leave them on the drink for a while.

We returned the drink requesting the bartender to spike it with more gin, which made it bearable. You could follow our example at the onset while ordering the drink. The Singapore Sling had too much sweetened spirits, and we could not discern the flavor of the classic Benedictine and bitters.

It has oft been said that drinking without eating is a surefire way to welcome a hangover, which is never a pleasant prospect. So we had the Harry’s Jazz Burger, which is load-ed with fried onions, mushrooms, bacon rinds and cheese with some pickles and fries on the side. Though the mutton patty was succulent, and accompaniments played a great supporting role, its sheer size was daunting and we couldn’t polish it off despite giving it everything we

had!

Harry’s is located in the busy street of Powai that is populated with several hangouts for working pro-fessionals. Its closest competitor is Chili’s that is just a stone’s throw away and has already established itself as the prominent watering hole in the vicinity. The management of Harry’s has calculatedly kept the prices of its drinks reasonable to attract crowds, and the crowd we witnessed on a week night is testi-mony to the fact that the gamble is beginning to pay off. But it will have to do more than that to keep the crowd coming back. ■

by Vinita Bhatia

REVIEWS - MUMBAI


Who doesn’t like to hear a fascinat-ing story that traces the roots of a restaurant chain that is frequented by celebrites like Justin Bieber and Eva Longoria? We know we do! So we listened with rapt attention when we were told that Serafina Restau-rant Group was conjured when two friends, Vittorio Assaf and Fabio Granato, forged a pact while they were lost at sea in a small sailboat. Suffering from bitter cold, violent weather and severe hunger pains, and clad in just their bathing suits, the two stranded friends got talking about pizza. When they were res-cued, Fabio decided to use his archi-tectural skill to construct an avante

garde oven, while Vittorio put his expertise in Neapolitan cuisine to create the perfect pizza. And that, ladies and gentlemen, was how the now popular Serafina Fabulous Piz-za came into existence in 1995. Well, there’s one romantic story, though skeptics might gleefully poke several holes in it.

Whatever Serafina’s history, we were happy to enter its well lit and cozy Mumbai outpost, which is the 15th outlet that Vittorio and Fabio have opened in the past 2 decades, glob-ally. Located in the tony Palladium

Mall, the first thing that strikes you when you enter the restaurant is the frescos of winged angels and flam-ing sun on the walls. These, we were informed, were specially created by artist Michela Martello to symbol-ize Northern Italian cuisine, which is what Serafina specializes in. The second thing you notice when you are seated in the spacious restau-rant is the open pizza station. This traditional wood stone pizza oven was apparently crafted in the US and then shipped across for fitting in Mumbai. The well stocked bar and the wine rack also reassure you that this is the place to be if you are picky about the drinks accompanying

your meal.

We decided to start with the Kaffir Lime Margarita (599), which thank-fully was not the sickly sweet or the utterly acidic variety usually offered. The kaffir lime gave a nice Asian flavor to the sour mix of the mar-garita, making it a perfect summer drink. The Pineapple Black Pepper Margarita (599) was tart and sweet at the same time. But the black pepper played a more ornamental role because one could not taste its spiciness. Mrigesh, the solicitous bloke managing our table, told us

that the black pepper in the drink was peppered down because several patrons found it too overpowering.

One reason we were excitedly look-ing forward to our meal was because Serafina uses only premium produce in its dishes. The lamb, for instance, is imported from New Zealand while the beef is procured from Australia. And each of the dishes have been personally designed by Vittorio and Fabio, as they dabbled with locally procured and interna-tionally sourced produce and then finalized on which of the two was a better option. So, we decided to test their claims about the worthi-

ness of their produce by trying the Carpaccio Di Filetto Con Salsa Di Tartufi Neri (1475), which in simple English is beef carpaccio. And it was love at first bite. The carpaccio was fresh and so thin that you could see the serving plate! The accompany-ing tiny cubes of boiled potatoes are tossed into the warm black truffle sauce minutes before it’s ready to be taken off the stove, which is why they imbibe the earthy flavor per-fectly.

The Lobster Carpaccio (953) is a play of subtlety. The sauce is so

Serafina – A Gastronomical Affair To Remember

We finally know why celebrities like Justin Bieber, Prince and Kim Kardashian head to Ser-afina for comfort food. The Mumbai outpost of this international restaurant offers the best

of North Italian cuisine in a setting that puts you at ease. The prices though, might leave you edgy!

REVIEWS - MUMBAI


mild that initially you think it’s too bland. But then you take a couple of bites more and you realize that it’s been kept delicate so that it doesn’t overpower the fine taste of the lobster chunks. Since the genesis of Serafina was pizza, how could we not try that? We decided to go for the Tartufo Nero (1784), which has three types of cheese – Robiola, Fon-tino and Truffle. And it is cooked in truffle salsa with small slices of black truffle. Of course, it’s a foregone conclusion that this pizza is only for those who love their mushrooms. You can smell the divine fragrance of truffle as you raise the slice for a bite. The entire package is cheesy as hell, but it’s totally worth that additional 20 minutes you’ll have to spend the next day at the gym,

working it off. One piece of advice though – eat it when it’s warm; once cold the pizza becomes chewy and too greasy.

We decided to check the pasta next, and the first option that sprung to mind was something with mince meat. Mrigesh suggested we try Rigatoni Alla Bolognese (1011). Thankfully, this was not a very saucy preparation; instead the rich meat and tomato sauce coats the pasta well. The Farfalle Al Limoncello (780) pasta is cooked in a rich lem-on infused creamy sauce. And rich it surely is, so all the best finishing it, as it does end up tasting monoto-nous after a few bites. We requested for some salad to break this monot-ony, which was quickly served. The

sauce, made of Presidence Cheese, is the main protagonist of this dish, while the prawns played the role of a chorus girl. Its presence or absence doesn’t affect the dish per se. Inci-dentally, one thing that we noted about the pasta is that it is cooked perfectly al dente. But if you want your pasta well cooked, the chef is happy to do that on request. And the substantial portions of all the dish-es are good for sharing. We’d sug-gest you exert judiciousness while ordering, or you’ll end up with a lot of food that you might not be able to polish off.

For the mains, we opted for Baby Lamb Chops (2252) where the New Zealand lamb is marinated in rosemary and garlic. The delicately spiced chops were tender and juicy, while the mash is what really caught our attention. This too was cooked with Presidence cheese, which gave it its smooth texture and silky taste. The same mash also features in the Brasato Prago Rosso (866). The red snapper was mildly seasoned which helps you truly appreciate the freshness of the fish. We also enjoyed a glass of the full bodied, single grape Baron Philip red, which complemented the chops, while the Woodbridge Merlot went well with the fish. Both were apt suggestions by Mrigesh, which made us realize that the best way to enjoy a meal at Serafina is to go by the recommen-dations of the captain and just sit back and enjoy the food – especially if the lengthy menu has you flum-moxed. And enjoy this restaurant you will, because Serafina does live up to its tagline – where everyone feels at home. We will be back here, sooner than later. ■

by Vinita Bhatia

REVIEWS - MUMBAI


For us, the best part of waking up is sipping coffee – always. In fact, early mornings seems to have been designed just so that one can sit with a warm mug full of steaming cof-fee, inhaling its intoxicating aroma, enjoying the tranquility around and wishing that if only things were this serene throughout the day. Even au-thor Anthony Trollope agrees with us. After all, he was the one who asked, 'What on earth could be more luxurious than a sofa, a book, and a cup of coffee?’

Yes, we love our coffee. So when we were offered the chance to try out the Philips Intelia Automatic coffee machine, we clapped our hands in glee.

After the machine was delivered, a representative from Philips helpfully outlined its various functions and gave us a demo of its uses. When he ran us through it, the sleek looking machine did come across something awe-worthy and something one could only trust a barista with. But he assured us that using it would not be as forbidding as it appeared.

COFFEE AT YOUR FINGERTIPS, LITERALLYThe best part about the Philips Saeco Intelia is that it is plug and use, so even gadget-unfriendly folks shouldn’t have trouble installing it. You can put around 200gms of coffee beans in the container on top, or use the measuring spoon that accompanies the coffee maker, to

spoon in around 7 grams of coffee powder into funnel for a single 15 ml of single shot of espresso. One note of caution here – do not use instant coffee powder ever in this machine.

The moment you power the machine on, it goes into a self cleaning mode and the dirty water accumulates into a drip tray. In case, you forget to clean the drip, don’t worry that the residual water will spill over – there’s a tiny red knob that will rise up and warn you to clear the tray. Fill up the water container which can take up to 1.2 liters of water.

We stuck to experimenting with espresso and cappuccino. For the later, you need to load the milk ca-rafe with full-fat cold milk. Choose how strong you would like your cappuccino to be by selecting the options on the LED display. One done, place your mug beneath the dispenser, fill the water container click on the cappuccino option. That’s it. A little whirring later, the machine will first pour out frothy milk, followed by coffee.

You can choose to have a single shot or two glasses of espresso at a go. Just click the buttons on the panel and the machine will do the rest. The coffee dispensing nozzle can be moved up or down to accommodate different types of coffee mugs.

The good thing about the machine is that you can program it to suit the frothing levels and coffee strength to your preference. Once you have fed in your preference, it’s truly a one touch coffee making machine. If you like to sip on your cappuccino slow-ly, then you can place your mug on the steel panel near the coffee basin, to keep it warm.

If you are unwilling to compromise on the quality of your espresso or cappuccino, then the Philips Saeco Intelia is for

you.

Philips Saeco Intelia:

Expensive Convenience

PRODUCT REVIEW


It’s also easy maintenance, or so the Philips representative would have us believe. The 2-year warranty for Philips Saeco Intelia covers any damage to the ceramic grinder within. You just need to refill the coffee basin, water and milk containers; and empty the waste bin and water tray. And the machine will prompt you whenever you have to do any of the above.

OUR VERDICTAs with every product, there are pros and cons to the Philips Saeco Intellia too.

What we liked:• It’s easy to use. Once you know which buttons to

press, using this machine is a breeze.• It offers you the choice to use whole coffee beans

or coarsely ground coffee powder.• You can refrigerate the milk carafe if you do not

want to use all the milk at one go.• It’s almost mess free. The machine cleans itself

and it also cleans the milk carafe. All you need to do is clean the container where the coffee palettes gather.

What can be improved:• The water container needs to be almost at half

level. A little lower and the machine warns that it is out of water.

• The drip tray fills up pretty quickly and needs to be emptied often.

• The price is on the higher side, putting it out of reach of the masses.

Phillips Saeco Intelia Espresso Maker simplifies coffee making for those who like their cappuccino or espresso and would rather have it at home, than head to the nearest coffee shop. But it does come at a steep MRP of Rs 74,995. But if you must have your specific type of coffee and do not mind the price tag, then this machine could well end up taking place of pride in your kitchen. ■

by Vinita Bhatia

PRODUCT REVIEW


“We tend to underestimate the love for fine (and expensive) things that people have in India.” - Jayati Singh Chakraborti, Marketing Director - Health and Wellness, Air and Coffee, Consumer Lifestyle, Philips Electron-ics India tells us why she believes In-dians will happily embrace the Philips Saeco Intelia Espresso Maker.

Vinita Bhatia (VB): What, accord-ing to you, sets the Phillips Saeco Intelia Espresso Maker apart from other coffee making machines in the country?Jayati Singh Chakraborti (JSC): Saeco is known for its great Italian

heritage in coffee. And keeping up with the respect for its Italian her-itage, we focus on taste, ease of use and design.

Speaking about taste, only Saeco has patented its Saeco brewing system (SBS) which helps you choose and create the crema anyway you like. Unlike other brands, Saeco has ceramic grinders for its full range that ensure even grinding, no metal taste in your coffee and long last-ing grinding performance. Saeco’s adapting system automatically opti-mizes the grinding phase in order to guarantee the same perfect releases

of the aromas, regardless of the type of coffee bean being used.

The other important aspect is ease of use. With our ma-chines, everything that requires cleaning is easily accessible by opening the front door, and without removing any parts of the machine.

You can also choose milk from your favorite setting. Saeco ma-chines remember how you like your coffee best. The patented

Saeco milk circuit is automatically steam cleaned every time you use it, and the machine remembers to do it so that you don’t need to. In terms of design, only Philips Saeco uses premium material like stainless steel and chromed aluminum across the full range of machines.

VB: Who are your target customers for this machine?JSC: Philips is targeting coffee con-noisseurs who know their espresso and are looking for that perfect brew. There are a lot of expats who

INTERVIEW

Vinita also had a chat with Jayati Singh Chakraborti, who heads Marketing for Coffee among other verticals at Philips Electronics

India.

A Chat with Jayati Singh Chakraborti


are used to the coffee in the west and search for the same taste, at home.

Then there are the luxury seekers – a growing population that wants to experience and possess all new things especially those that represent ‘fine taste’.

VB: But do you think these custom-ers would be willing to invest in an expensive machine like the Phillips Saeco Intelia Espresso Maker?JSC: Interestingly, we tend to un-derestimate the love for fine (and expensive) things that people have in India. The fact that we ran out of stocks during Diwali speaks volumes of the demand there is for these high-end products. We have been over-achieving our sales numbers for Intelia.

VB: Coffee drinking is associated with hanging out with friends in a coffee shop, and is viewed more as means to socialize; or enjoy the ex-perience of a coffee shop. So, why do you think will people prefer brewing their coffee at home to visiting the local coffee shop?JSC: You are right, coffee drinking at cafes and coffee shops are associated with hanging out and a youth phe-nomenon that has given an impetus to the popularity of coffee especial-ly in the north and west of India. However, with this trend itself, and with the developing taste for coffee, people are now looking for ways and means to get that same taste at home as well and want the perfect brew. The successful Indian youth sees possessing a high-end machine like our coffee maker as a statement of their eclectic taste and of victory. So yes, the cafes are here to stay as a place to hang out, but the in- house coffee experience for our target

group is about the experience and taste of a fresh, self- brewed coffee, just the way they like it, at home. ■

by Vinita Bhatia

INTERVIEW


The first thing you can’t miss about Chef Ajay Chopra is his passion for innovating iconic dishes. The second is his penchant of calling a spade a

space, even though it has land-ed him in many a soup (pun completely intended). But it’s his very fervor for the Indian cuisine that has made him trek

to places like Rampur to unearth the local cuisine there and replicate it in The Westin Mumbai Garden City. And which also makes him separate the business of cooking from the joy of creating food. Here he talks to Vinita Bhatia about all things food, culture, trends, and a bit more.

Vinita Bhatia (VB): You started

your career in Cecil (Oberoi Hotel) in Shimla at a fairly young age. When you took the decision to become a chef, did you get the oft-repeated incred-ulous question – “Bawarchi banna chahta hai”?Ajay Chopra (AC): Of course! That’s a staple in India, unless you are a chef ’s son. In fact, till MasterChef India happened, my mom still felt I was doing the wrong thing in life.

VB: How did MasterChef India change things for you?AC: It changed a lot of stuff in my life. It was not limited to the fact that I became famous. It also created a different thought process in my mind that we are not the only ones who create magic in the kitchen – every homemaker does it, every day in their home. In three months the contestants were able to recreate the dishes that trained chefs prepare in fully togged up kitchens. This means that they have the right attitude towards cooking, if not the correct aptitude, and that was quite a

learning for me too.

VB: Slow cooking is a technique that is seeing a resurgence, especially in Indian cuisine. What’s your take on this method?AC: Actually slow cooking has always been the traditional way for cooking not merely in Indian cui-sine, but the world over, because in olden times, people had limited resources to cook food. They used to cook it on coals while now we cook on high pressured gases. But the only problem with Indian cuisine was that we never had a method to our madness. Recipes were family secrets and weren’t shared beyond

the immediate family members.

Now it has been re-discovered, or rather chefs are making an effort to discover it. There are chefs who have realized that food is science and are trying to understand why onions are fried before they are ground to paste and other techniques. It boils down to understanding which can be then passed on to the next generation. And that could be why suddenly we are seeing a lot of things happening around traditional Indian cuisine in the country.

VB: So you are basically trying to demystify the aura that is built around certain iconic dishes and cuisines?AC: Absolutely. Food always comes with some history. Also you have to remember that some dishes became iconic in older times because back then wars were not fought only with weapons. Kings and emperors would try to undermine their peers with the food cooked in their royal kitch-ens or the signature dishes of their khansaamas.

For instance, the legend goes that Galouti Kabab came into being so that the aged emperor Bahadur Shah Zafar could enjoy a kabab despite being toothless. This Galouti Ka-bab was famed all over the Mughal empire, and other princes and kings wanted to upstage it someway.

A few years later, the King of Kakori invited Bahadur Shah Zafar for a meal and instructed his khaansaama to prepare a sheekh kabab as soft as a Galouti. And that’s how the Kakori Kabab came into being.

There are some things that you just can’t miss about Chef Ajay

Chopra. Vinita Bhatia finds them out and introduces you to the

man behind the chef.

MeetChef Ajay

Chopra

KITCHEN KIN



So you see, food always has an inter-esting story. All that’s needed is for someone to unearth it. Thankfully more chefs and people at large are going back to their roots and learn-ing why their forefathers cooked the way they did and are trying to emu-late their cooking techniques. Call it demystifying or rediscovering – but that’s the trend in food now.

VB: A lot of restaurants are now roping in chefs from specific ethnic backgrounds to recreate the food from their respective regions. Do you think that these chefs can actu-ally do justice to the cuisine?AC: Some hospitality establishments are hiring chefs from families that have always been renowned for cooking and helping them set up their signature restaurants. But this might not always work.

I don’t believe that a restaurant can work on the concept of two con-sulting chefs who are there today and gone tomorrow. A restaurant is built on its foundation of food. These consulting chefs might have come from families that cooked for the royals but they approach food as business now. So they consult a hotel on how to source the masala, train the staff and plan the menu, because that’s part of their business.

But we all know that most business do not run on ethics. So for in-stance, they might get their masalas in, but will not reveal the recipe of the masala thereby making the restaurant’s management dependent on them.

It happened when I took over the reins of Kangan at The Westin Gar-den City Mumbai too. Our consult-ing chefs had tied each recipe to a particular masala and without the

right amount or the right kind of masala, the dishes just did not turn out right. And our restaurant’s kitch-ens had several such masalas like pahadi, potli, hariyali, etc, which the consultant chefs had kept in packets, but no one knew its composition.

So I started decoding the masalas and we started making our own masalas. The food at Kangan might not taste like what our erstwhile food consultants had created – but it tastes better! We cook with our heart and we tailor cook our food based on our guest’s preferences and that is what makes Kangan so popular.

VB: As a chef what appeals to you more – cooking new dishes and seeing the smile on a guest’s face or running a successful kitchen?AC: It’s a composite package be-cause people do not go to a restau-rant only for food. If you get the best food with terrible service would you go for it? So people want a great dining experience. So if a chef in contemporary times is confined to his kitchen, he can never the experi-ence because it is not in the bowl of curry alone. Good food served in an empty restaurant is not good food – it’s a waste.

That’s where chefs have to move out of their kitchen and learn what their guests really want to give them the perfect dining experience. It’s when the chef comes to meet the guest and people are happy when the person who has cooked their meal comes to their table and offers to change the dish to their preference if they wish. That’s the experience I strive to offer to my guests. ■

by Vinita Bhatia

KITCHEN KIN

28 CaLDRON December 2013CaLDRON October 2013 | page 28


I spent a lovely afternoon a while back, with Chef Veena Arora of Spice Route at The Imperial. Her ethnicity (Indian) combined with the culture she was brought up amidst (Thai) gives her the perfect understanding of what appeals to the Indian diner from her vast repertoire of Thai cui-sine. Here’s a little something so you can get to know Chef Arora a little better.

Sid Khullar (SK): We heard you grew up in Thailand. What was that like? What sort of cultural perspec-tive did it give you?Chef Veena Arora (VA): It was quite a wonderful phase of my life. Being part of the only Indian family in Phathalung in South of Thailand, we as a family never felt isolated, rather it was a very strong commu-nal bonding which made us feel as if we are from Thai origin. The culture which greets with folded hands and bears similarity to Indian Namaskar made my childhood years incred-ibly amazing and I grew up in a close-knit family like atmosphere in Thailand.

SK: How did you happen to visit India?VA: My dad is from India so we were sent to India to study to get better acquainted with Indian cul-ture and traditions. Later I found my dream taking its form in India, when I started my career as a chef here.

SK: Not having attended Culinary School, did you face challenges with being credible to the hotel industry? What were they?VA: Yes, definitely I faced lot of challenges in my success path but with my intense passion for cooking and strong will power, I kept mov-ing even when the environment was

hostile. This was essentially due to the fact that Chef industry in the earlier days didn’t have too many women chefs. But I found my foot-hold through my skills and knowl-edge and was determined to succeed in being a lady chef.

SK: What has been your experience with authentic Thai food and the Delhiite?VA: In the beginning, 17 years back it was not a very satiating experi-ence as Thai food was not a popular palate and guests were not quite aware of or fond of authentic Thai cuisine. But with the changing travel scenario, the liking for Thai cuisine has been tremendous in the capital. Understanding of flavours and spices has seen a sea change. We at the Spice Route get a mixed profile of guests includ-ing domestic and international, who are not only ready to try traditional offerings but are also keen to experiment with inno-vative creations. All this gives me the impetus to change my menus from time to time and come up with unique creations whilst maintaining original flavours.

SK: Today, seventeen years after opening Spice Route, what is your biggest challenge and big-gest source of satisfaction?VA: My biggest challenge is to keep guests delighted and con-tent every day. The biggest satis-faction comes when I see some of my guests enjoying meals at Spice Route for years and still want to visit the restaurant each time they are around.

SK: Being with the same restau-rant for nearly two decades, how do you satisfy your creative

urges?VA: My creative urges find meaning in bringing out new menus, doing unique promotions and catering to global palate. Housing 6 different cuisines under one roof and each time bringing something new to the table satisfies me to the hilt.

SK: Considering you were in the opening team of Spice Route, what about the restaurant is undeniably, ‘you’?VA: I am a Buddhist so being in the environment of the restaurant brings lot of peace and also gives me a feel-ing of sitting in a Buddhist temple as Spice Route has a calming effect with it’s temple pillars and mural art.

Be sincere, believe in your in-stincts, give your best shot and al-ways speak your mind… the sky is yours - Chef Veena Arora’s advise

to budding chefs.

MeetChef

Veena Arora

KITCHEN KIN


PHOTO RELIEF

Grind your own beans for maximum satisfaction


SK: What were the adjustments you had to make to adapt to life in India?VA: Adjustments were primarily on the aspects of clothing, food, culture and traditions since I was born and brought up as a Thai national. But later on being a chef I could adapt to anything and everything while train-ing my team consisting of people from various cultural backgrounds. It was a great learning too.

SK: Have you developed a palate for north Indian food or do you prefer Thai food as a staple?VA: Definitely Thai

SK: What advise would you have for budding chefs?VA: Be sincere, believe in your instincts, give your best shot and always speak your mind… the sky is yours. ■

by Sid Khullar

KITCHEN KIN


PHOTO RELIEF

A Sausage, Egg and Toast breakfast, all-in-one!


Lunch withChef Dong

Long atThe China

Kitchen, Hyatt Regency

Understated interiors, a vast menu, a quiet chef and delicious food. What more could I

have asked for?


I visited The China Kitchen at Hyatt Regency, New Delhi recently and met Chef Dong Long over lunch. A quiet, unassuming man who observes more than he speaks, Chef didn’t have to say much. His food did all the talking and I can tell you this, it was one of the finest Chinese meals I have ever eaten. Just like Chef, I’m going to let my photos do the talking. What I will say however, is that the simpler the recipe, the better the dish. Nearly every dish on our table that afternoon was as simple as possible, each dish speaking volumes about itself and its prove-nance.

Steamed Spinach with Mustard-Sesame Sauce

This dish was stunning in its sim-plicity and depth of flavor, despite using less than a handful of ingre-dients. I now cook it regularly for visiting houseguests.

REVIEWS - DELHI/NCR


Chicken Sui Mai

While the dish itself is common, its execution certainly wasn’t. Perfectly steamed dumplings, stuffed with a firm mixture of subtly flavored minced chicken - excellent.


Ginseng Chicken Soup

The simplest dishes satisfy the most. The subtle flavors of Gin-seng came together beautifully with those of wild mushrooms and wolfberries in this classic and comforting chicken soup.


Old Fashioned Peking Duck

Old fashioned it certainly was, with crisp, juicy skin and served with the traditional range of accompaniments. Definitely one of Delhi’s best places for Peking Duck.


Sichuan Poached Lamb

Sliced lamb surrounded by fragrant oil and spicy enough to appeal to the traditional Indian palate, this dish was a perfect match for rice we ordered with it.


Huonzhou-style Pork

Braised pork belly is always delicious and always served in the simplest of sauces because it just doesn’t need much more, the scrumptious cut of meat that it is.

Steamed sea bass fillet, picked chili, Chinese wild mushroom and soy sauce


Chef Dong Long shared one of his recipes with us - Steamed Spinach with Mustard-Sesame Sauce. Not only is this dish exceedingly simple to make, but is low fat, nutritious and delicious to boot! Ingredients:

• 3 ml Mustard oil• 8 ml Seasoning vinegar• 50 gm Sesame paste

• 10 ml Soya (light)• 600 gm Spinach• 2 gm Breakfast Sugar

Method:1. Wash the spinach and steam it for 5 minutes ( or blanch it) , cut into even size.2. Add water, sesame paste and mix well. Add sugar vinegar soya sauce and mustard oil3. Arrange one layer of spinach and one layer of sauce.4. Sprinkle roasted white sesame seeds on top.

REVIEWS - DELHI/NCR



Chili Chicken I


Ingredients:• 2 pieces, Chicken breast, cut into 1” cubes• 1 large Green capsicum/bell pepper, diced• 1 large Onion, diced• ½ inch piece Ginger, paste of• 5 large cloves Garlic, paste of• 3 large cloves Garlic, minced• 7 Green chilies (per taste, grind half, slit half)• 2 + ½ tbsp Vinegar• ½ tsp Pepper powder• 2 tbsp + 1 tsp soy sauce

• 2 tbsp Chili sauce• 2 tsp Ketchup• 1 tsp Kashmiri red chili powder (optional)• 1 Egg, beaten• 2 ½ + 2 tbsp Corn flour• Oil for deep frying• 1/3 tsp Sugar• Chopped sprigs of spring onions• Pinch of red food colour (optional)

Method:1. Mix pastes of ginger, garlic and chilies.2. Marinate chicken with 2 tbsp vinegar, 1 tbsp soy sauce, paste from step #1 and pepper powder for 1 hour3. Mix the beaten egg with 2½ tbsp corn flour and chicken pieces, once done marinating.4. Heat oil in a deep pan and deep fry the coated chicken piees till golden brown. Drain with kitchen paper.5. Mix 2 tbsp corn flour and 3/4 cup water and set aside.6. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Add the minced garlic and the slit green chilies. Fry for 2 min-

utes on a medium flame. Add onions with a pinch of salt and saute for another minute. Add the bell peppers and saute for a few seconds more.

7. Add all the sauces and ½ tbsp vinegar. Mix in the chicken. Add the salt, sugar and pepper powder.8. Stir well. Add the reserved corn flour mixture from step #5 and mix well, so everything in the pan is coat-

ed with the sauce. 9. Simmer till the gravy is absorbed and the chicken cooked and shiny.

- Recipe and Photography by Sayantini M.

RECIPES


Chili Chicken II


Ingredients:• 500 gm Boneless Chicken 500 gms, diced• 1 tbsp Oil• 1.5 cups Onions, thinly sliced• 2 tsp Ginger and garlic, grated• 5 Green Chilies, chopped thin

• 1 large Capsicum/Bell pepper, thinly sliced• 1 tbsp Cornflour• 2 tbsp Soy sauce• 1.5 tbsp Vinegar• Salt to taste

Method:1. Boil the chicken pieces in enough unsalted water to cover the pieces, till they lose their pinkish tint2. Drain and transfer the pieces to a bowl. Reserve the liquid. 3. Marinate the chicken pieces with the soy sauce, vinegar and cornflour4. Refrigerate overnight or at least for 6 hours. 5. To heated oil in a pan, add sliced onions, grated ginger and garlic and fry well. 6. Add capsicum, chopped green chilies and the marinated chicken pieces. 7. Stir fry on medium-high heat while scraping continuously till the chicken pieces turn darker brown. 8. Add the reserved liquid from Step #2 to the pan and cook till the liquid is nearly gone.9. Serve hot with rice or noodles.

- Recipe and Photography by Sarani Tarafder

RECIPES


The A, B, Cs of Chinese

CuisineRanjini simplifies and clarifies Chinese cuisine for us.

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It’s hard to pare Chinese food down to a single morsel of deli-ciousness – not even the lumpia (a savory delicacy of Fujian origin, made of cooked vegeta-bles wrapped in a papery rice outer skin, topped with crushed peanuts, usually served cold), possibly the most ubiquitous Chinese food item that’s also a celebratory one to boot – will do justice to the vastness and diversity of the cuisine. While the first thing to summon to mind at the very mention of Chinese food would likely be a localized variety in some nook and corner of the world – the cultural history of Chinese food is rich and has its foundation built on historical trends, among other factors. That said, the Chi-nese people have always eaten well and continue to do so. The most critical elements in Chi-nese cuisine are color, taste and smell, which in turn are divided into five main types. The five main colors are red, yellow, blue,

white and black. The five smells, represented by five spices, are: fennel, chilli, aniseed, clove and Chinese cinnamon – and they are meant to remove repulsive odors, including fishy, meaty or pungent ones, and pique the diner’s senses. The five tastes are sweet, bitter, salty, hot and sour.

In the Lun Yu, or edited conver-sations of Confucius, this little excerpt outlines Confucius’ idea of ‘proper eating’:

“His rice is not excessively re-fined, and his sliced meat is not cut excessively fine. Rice that has become putrid and sour, fish that has spoiled, and meat that has gone bad, he does not eat. Food that is discolored he does not eat, and food with a bad odor he does not eat. Undercooked foods he does not eat, and foods with a bad odor he does not eat. Meat that is improperly carved he does not eat, and if he does not obtain the proper sauce, he will not eat.


Though there is plenty of meat, he will not allow it to overcome the vi-talizing power of the rice. Only in the case of wine does he not set a limit. But he never drinks to the point of becoming disorderly. Purchased wine or dried meat from the market he does not eat. He never dispenses with ginger when he eats. He does not eat to excess.”

For an insight into what defines and delineates Chinese food, it would serve one well to go with the com-partmentalisation that’s fairly well accepted. It is with good reason too that this eight piece breakdown leads one not only to the provincial flavours and tastes, but also to the long-standing culinary traditions of each. They are Anhui, Cantonese, Fujian, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shandong, Szechuan, and Zhejiang cuisines.

Anhui: Anhui cuisine pertains to the culinary tradition of the Huangshan Mountains region in China, and includes the delicacies of South Anhui, Yanjiang and Huai Bei. Anhui food leans towards salty and spicy, and is mainly stewed or braised. It uses mushrooms, bam-

boo and bayberries quite a bit, as also wild herbs grown in the region. Also characteristic of Anhui cuisine is its use of wild chickens and wild rabbits.

The key focus in Anhui cooking is on the taste, color of dishes and the temperature to cook them. Ham is often added to certain dishes as an

enhancer as also sugar candy, for a wallop of freshness.

Cantonese: While Cantonese cui-sine is recognised today as one of the most popular regional cuisines of China, it took until the dawn of the Republican era. Volumes have been written about the Cantonese ‘pot,’ which, in Chinese, broadly refers to a boiler. But to the Canton-ese, the pot is much more than just a cooking utensil, it is a reflection of how they eat. Dishes are meant to be served directly from the pot, like soups, porridges and gingery broths housing seafood.

Chicken, beef, pork, snake, and snails are common meats in Can-tonese cuisine, mostly steamed or stir fried. Shallow and deep frying is also favored in Cantonese cooking. Herbs, while not entirely taboo, are not at the core of Cantonese cook-ing, with the exception, possibly, of chives and coriander as garnishes.

Fujian: Commonly known as the Eastern cuisine (south of Shanghai, for the geographically inclined), Fu-jian cooking is heavy on seafood,

Tea took its place of prominence in Chi-nese culture some-time around 316

B.C.E., in the Sich-uan province. Later, in the Tang Dynasty down south, Lu Yu wrote about tea in his famous book,

Chajing, and cata-pulted its status to very important so-

cial beverage.

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and a perfect melange of sweet, sour, salty and savoury, pretty much in every dish. Fujian food is light and less greasy.

Popular Fujian foods are soups like fish ball and Wangko crab, ribs with sweet and sour sauce, and popular ingredients are pressed curd of bean,

leeks, pears, crystal fruit, tea, soy sauce, red wine lees (dregs of rice used at the bottom of wine barrels) and soy milk.

Hunan: Hunan foods are strongly flavored, with spicy fish pastes and spicy peppercorns, sour and salty (with the use of cured meat and pickled vegetables) and rather oily. The cooking process is fairly elabo-rate and complicated even, with cer-tain recipes calling for ingredients to be double fried or triple cooked.

Typical Hunan delicacies include steamed pigeon eggs, fried eel, spiced beef, stuffed spareribs, and pickle with minced pork.

Jiangsu: In Jiangsu cuisine, one can often see local freshwater catch-es cooked in roasted, stir-fried, deep-fried or simply braised form. Cooking techniques concentrate on keeping the texture, especially that of meats, soft, but not to the point of falling apart, and on bringing out the sweetness and freshness of ingredients. The focus is also on seasonal produce.

Common ingredients include mush-rooms, fish, crab, tofu, tea leaves and pea leaves, bamboo shoots, pears and dates. Some popular eats in

Jiangsu cooking are crab shell meat-balls – essentially pork meatballs in crab shells, salted dried duck, and Farewell My Concubine (soft-shelled turtle stewed with many other ingre-dients such as chicken, mushrooms and wine).

Shandong: Characterized by the use of ginger and garlic, Shandong food is pungent, fresh and tender. Soups are a major part of Shandong cuisine and other foods are non greasy.

Main ingredients in Shandong cuisine are clams, squid, scallops, cabbage, eggplant, corn, mushroom and vinegar. Some popular dishes include braised abalone, calamus in milk soup, stewed chicken and sweet and sour carp.

Szechuan: Possibly the main high-light of Szechuan cooking is the almost merciless use of chili pep-pers, particularly brown Sichuan peppers. Also, Szechuan food is salty and sour particularly because of the liberal use of vinegar. Fish sauce is also a common ingredient.

Some regular Szechuan dishes

The most common Eightthe Book of

Songs are: phoenix’s marrow, leopard’s

foetus, dragon’s liver, carp’s tail, roasted

osprey meat, yellow weasel’s lip, crispy cicada and bear’s

paw.

The amount of grain (staple food) or ‘fan’ an aver-age Chinese person consumes makes about 90% of their diet. ‘Fan’ also means meal. It is part of the greeting, ‘chifan,’ to say hello, even though a literal translation would be, “Have you eaten?” Food and cooking were at the core of early Chinese culture. The most critical task for the rulers was ‘shih’ or providing food to the people. ‘Shih’ meant a variety of things, like to feed, to eat and to drink. It also meant good grains, which exemplifies that grain was always an important part of the Chinese diet. So important, in fact, that rulers had custom made bronze canisters to store grains and alcoholic bev-erages made from the grains. Also, the rulers were buried with them.

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include hot and sour soup, diced chicken with chili sauce, dan dan noodles (spicy, greasy noodles with minced pork and a dusting of chili bits), kung pao chicken with lots of chili peppers, ribs wrapped in lotus leaves.

Zhejiang: With roots in the cities of Hangzhou, Shaoxing and Ningpo, Zhejiang cuisine primarily consists of seafood, bamboo shoots and tea, including tea-soaked dishes. Zheji-ang food is fragrant and flavourful, with emphasis on freshness and

subtle tastes.

Some prominent Zhejiang dishes include shrimp with Longjing tea, oyster soup, and Westlake soup with watershield (a slimy vegetable grown in Westlake).

Now that the eight styles of cooking have been, if briefly, laid on the ta-ble, one might wonder what to take away from them. Especially since the world is inundated with all kinds of doctored and fusion-stylised Chinese food, like American, Singa-porean, and of course, Indian.

Still, one cannot turn away from the basic forms and ways of Chinese cooking, starting with staples like rice (one of the earliest domesti-cated crops of the Southern China province) and conjee, right up to the more universally acclaimed stir-fried noodles with vegetables and the tangy, spicy, hot, sweet sauce-doused meats. Of course, it is a well-known fact that the sauces could be anything ranging from soy, vinegar or fish-based mixtures. Nor can we forget the beer and rice wine, with which the Chinese wash their food down. Also, we mustn’t forget the one food that the Chinese have been consuming for ages, primarily for longevity, is porridge, or conjee. A thin, light porridge made from the starch of grain is typically had in the morning. Carrot porridge, they say, prevents high blood pressure. Vegetable and wild herbs porridge is good for those accustomed to excess meat intake, to amp up essential vitamins and protect kidneys. Mush-room and bean-based porridges are good for digestion and rich in nutrients.

Furthermore, the general dining etiquette that the Chinese follow

streams effortlessly into those pockets that serve Chinese food, across the world: knives, to begin with, have no business on the table, and the silverware is mainly com-prised of bowls, chopsticks and soup spoons.

Coming to the inevitable, cooking techniques, the most significant and commonly employed cooking tech-niques in Chinese cuisine are:

Steaming (zheng) – Typically done by placing the prepared ingredients in a steamer, to tap into the steam coming off the boiling water to cook efficiently and in a way that pre-serves nutrients in the ingredients.

Stewing in soy sauce (lu) – Raw ingredients added to a pot of water along with soy sauce, wine, salt and sugar, and a muslin bag filled with select spices dunked into this pot. Once the sauce is fragrant, meats are steeped in the gravy and cooked on a low flame.

Double-boiling (dun) – Ingredients placed in a stewing container, which is in turn placed in a steamer, with its cover closed at all times.Baking + Stewing (wei) – Ingredi-ents immersed in a broth and baked in a ceramic vessel.

Decocting (ao) – A slow cooking process that enables extraction of nutrients into the base liquid. Used especially in medicine and herbolo-gy with the intention of using only the decocted brew.

Smoking (xun) – Cook directly over smoke – typically sugar or tea-based.Baking or roasting (kao) – Convec-tion cooking with hot air or broiling in a closed space.

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Deep frying (zha) – The process of immersion cooking in hot oil or other fats.

Pan frying (jian) – Cook in a pan with very little oil and allow the food to brown up.

Stir frying (bao) – Cook with lots of hot oil in a big wok and toss the in-gredients on high heat until tender.

Dressing (ban) – Toss raw or unfla-vored cooked ingredients with select seasonings and serve soon after.

Marinating (yan) – Steep ingredi-ents in soy sauce or soy paste and salt prior to cooking.

Cooking of course requires imple-ments and utensils. The wok is quite possibly the most important utensil used in Chinese cooking. Right from the Han dynasty to the present day, iron woks have been used exten-sively for stir-frying, deep-frying, roasting, sautéing. Woks come in two varieties: flat-bottomed and round-bottomed.Some other important tools that are used in Chinese cooking are: a wok spatula, a cleaver, wooden chopping board, sieved ladle to strain out oils or moisture, claypot to prepare stews, and a bamboo steamer, and last but certainly not the least, long chopsticks that could be used as ladles or to eat with.

Speaking of chopsticks, or ‘kuaizi,’ according to the Liji (The Book of Rites) chopsticks were used as early as the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC – 1100 BC). Going by experts, wood or bamboo chopsticks can be dated to about 1,000 years earlier than ivo-ry chopsticks, which manifested in 1100 BC, during the reign of Zhou, the last Shang Dynasty king. Bronze

chopsticks came about during the rule of the Western Zhou Dynasty (1100 BC – 771 BC), and lacquer chopsticks in the Western Han (206 BC – 24 AD) were discovered in Mawangdui, China. Gold and silver chopsticks became popular in the Tang Dynasty (618 – 907), and legend has it that silver chopsticks could detect poisons in food.

And coming back to where we start-ed, Confuciusianism had its impact on how Chinese food was prepared and presented, served and shared, while Daoism dealt with how it af-fected the body, kept diseases at bay, and contributed to longevity.

As all good things should come to an end, here’s a sweet note to tie together our sojourn through one of the most popular and favored cui-sines. Little fuss is made over des-serts in Chinese cuisine, but when it is, it is generally less sweet than Western desserts. That being said, both the steamed and sticky, rice-based Gao as well as the deep fried Mantou buns have their takers, and so do the various bean-paste sweets.

As the Chinese say, “Eat the whole thing,” whether or not it’s Peking Duck – where the skin is relished wrapped in pancakes with plum sauce; the meat diced, fried and eat-en in lettuce-wraps; and the bones used in a soup broth to end the meal with. ■

by Ranjini Rao

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5Chinese TeasYou didn’t know Of

Golden Dian Hong is fairly recent tea that first started production in the first quarter of the 20th century, its name being derived from ‘Diān’ (an abbreviated name for the Yunnan region) and ‘hóng’, which means ‘red’ (tea), with ‘Yunnan red/black’ being acceptable monikers for the va-

riety’. A black tea that is considered to be a fairly high-end tea that is occasionally blended with other teas as well, the primary difference between other Chinese dark teas and Dianhong is the number of leaf buds, the tip of the tea plant, present in this tea. The name ‘Gold-en Dianhong’ comes from this distinction as those leaf buds are also known as ‘golden tips’. Dianhong is typically fermented with

longan, rose and lychee, producing a light copper colored brew that exudes a mild, sweet aroma without any astringency, with low-cost variants resulting in darker

brews, leaning towards the brownish in color and possibly bitter.

Gunpowder tea gets its name from the small, round pellets that the tea is rolled into, the cheaper teas by machine and the highest grades, by hand. Produced in the Zhejiang province, this rolling method is usually applied to green or oolong tea and is meant to help the tea retain its flavor and aroma for longer durations of time, besides making the physical tea hardier than usual, to survive the long rides export markets. If you’re buying Gunpowder tea, remember to take a good look at the pellets. Smaller pellets are usually indicative of higher quality tea with the degree of shininess relating to the freshness of the tea - the shinier the better. The three primary varieties of Gunpowder tea are Pingshui (original and most available, larger pellets, better color, more aroma), Formosa (grown in Taiwan, its own peculiar aroma, usually fresh or roasted oolong) and Ceylon (grown in Sri Lanka).

Photographer André Helbig

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Pu’er tea or Pu-erh, as it is also known as is a dark tea produced in the Yunnan province, that also undergoes fermentation as of it’s treatments. In this method of tea production, first the tea is dried and rolled, and then subjected to microbial fermentation and oxidation, a Chinese specialty, where the output teas are classified as ‘Hei Cha’, that can be translated as ‘dark/black tea’. Note that what the West calls dark/black tea, which is the completely dried version of tea and most oxidised is called ‘red

tea’ in China and different from the Chinese version of ‘black tea’.Pu’er tea is the most well known variety of tea in this category and is named for the place where dark tea was traded hundreds of

years ago.

Shoumei is a white, fourth-grade tea, being a by product of Bai Hao Yinzhen tea that uses Da Bai or ‘large white’ leaves. The primary constit-uent of this tea are the upper leaves and tips that have naturally withered, which results in a flavor that’s stronger than that usu-ally found in white teas and which will remind the experienced tea drinker of lighter varieties of Oolong teas. Due to this tea being separated from the bush later than Bai Mudan, the final leaves can be darker than usual in color though still retaining shades of green. Con-trary to Golden Dianhong, where the gold color is characteristic of the tea, the presence of gold alongside black and red leaves indicates a lower quality Shoumei tea.

Photographer Matros

Da Hong Pao tea is the most premium and prestigious tea in China and also the most expensive in the world. Discovered when a cluster of bushes cured the mother of a Ming Dynasty Emperor, this variety of Oolong tea costs up to 1,250,000 (one point two five million) US dollars. As a matter of fact, three of the four original bushes, which were draped in rich, red cloaks by a grateful Emperor, still survive today on Mount Wuyi and are the subject of much veneration. Based on the original legend of a

peasant farmer who reached enlightenment, drinking 10 re-steeps of this tea is believe to increase the wisdom of the drinker as well as impart a glowing blue aura.

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by Sid Khullar


Anhui Cuisine

Characteristics: Herbs from land and sea, simple methods of preparation, most-ly fresh ingredients

Cooking techniques: Braising & Stewing (rare or no frying)

Notable dishes: Luzhou Roast Duck, Sanhe Shrimp Paste, Egg Dumplings

Typical ingredients: Seafood, bean curd, poultry, vegetables, pork, eggs, rice, rice flour, flour, leeks, soy sauce

8Chinese CuisinesYou didn’t know Of

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Fujian Cuisine

Characteristics: Flavorful, light, soft and tender, emphasis on meaty flavors/umami

Cooking techniques: Braising Stewing, Steaming, BoilingNotable dishes: Buddha jumps over the

wall, Popiah, Ban mian, Fragrant snails in wine

Typical ingredients: Fish, shellfish, tur-tles, mushrooms, bamboo shoot, peanuts, crab

Hunan/Xiang Cuisine

Characteristics: Chili-hot, high fla-vors, seasonal menus with over 4000 dishes

Cooking tech-niques: Stewing, frying, pot-roasting, braising, smoking

Notable dishes: Beer duck, stinky tofu, dry-wok chicken, stir-fried duck blood, pearly meatballs,

pumpkin cake

Typical ingredi-ents: Varied, due to inherently agricultur-al nature of the region

Hunan cured ham with pickled yardlong beans

Fujian thick soup, or geng

Szechuan Cuisine

Characteristics: Pungent, intense flavors

Cooking techniques: Smoking, pickling, salting, drying, stir frying, frying/deep frying, stewing

Notable dishes: Kung Pao Chicken, tea smoked duck, Fuqi feipian, dan dan noodles

Typical ingredients: Beef, poultry, offal, Sichuan peppers, garlic, star anise



Shandong Cuisine

Characteristics: Light seafood, inclusion of soup, huge array of sea-food, use of corn & peanut, excellent vinegars

Cooking techniques: Stir-frying, deep fry-ing, high heat, braisingNotable dishes: Stir fried pig’s kidney, pig’s large intestine, sweet potato with cara-melised sugar, deep fried cicada

Typical ingredients: Potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, bell peppers, cabbage, pork, offal,

cicada, corn, peanuts, seafood

Zhejiang Cuisine

Characteristics: Non-greasy, mellow, fragrant, soft

Cooking techniques: Frying, stewing, braising

Notable dishes: Dongpo

pork, west lake fish in vinegar, beggar’s chicken

Typical ingredients: Bamboo shoots, poultry, seafood, freshwater fish, livestock

Jiangsu Cuisine

Characteristics: Balanced, Soft, (not mushy), seasonal ingredients, emphasis of visual appeal and the use of soup

Cooking techniques: Braising, frying, stewing, slow cooking

Notable dishes: Braised spare ribs, fried gluten balls, fish omelettes

Typical ingredients: Fish, pork, eggs, seafood

Steamed xiaolongbao

Cantonese Cuisine

Characteristics: Balanced, non-greasy, fresh ingredients, subtle flavors, low chili-heat

Cooking techniques: Blanching, frying/deep frying/stir frying, slow cooking, roastingNotable dishes:

Steamed eggs, steamed spare ribs, sweet & sour pork, deep fried pigeon, winter melon soup, chow mein

Typical ingredients: Poultry, pork, beef, sea-food, offal, vegetables

Braised spare ribs with gluten

Siu mei platter, including roast pork, roast goose, smoked ham, white cut chicken, and jellyfish

by Sid Khullar


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5Chinese Desserts

You didn’t know Of

While we’re largely served the same boring bunch of desserts regardless of the restaurant we visit, 5-star authen-tic or downtown Punjabi-Chinese, the Chinese have a good thing going, even in the desserts section. Chinese desserts can be roughly classified into 6 categories:

• Bing, usually baked, wheat-flour based, they include parallels from different cultures including Indian, French and Italian items such as rotis, galettes, crepes and pizzas. Bing are a casual-eating food category, but sometimes included in formal meal settings too. The same category exists in Korean cuisine too.

• Candies, usually made with cane sugar, malt sugar and honey• Gio, made with glutinous or normal rice• Ices, made with shaved rice and served with sweet condiments and syrups• Jellies, use gelatin based jellies, grass jelly, agar-agar, and aiyu jelly• Soups, consist of mostly hot soups and custards, some of them with healing properties

Below, you’ll find a few varieties of desserts that we wish restaurants in India would begin serving up.


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Red Tortoise Cake, usually made with glutinous rice flour.

Sweet (right) and savory versions of Shaobing.

Zaotang and Tanggua candies - usually used ceremonially.


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Memories ofHong Kong

It was time for my periodic pil-grimage when I head towards food and destinations oriental. This year, the plan was to visit one of my favorite destinations, Hong Kong and it certainly didn’t hurt that college roomie appeared to be nicely settled in a plush area of the city. My room and board budget could therefore be spent on the finer things of life - good food and drink. I also decided to, for the first time in a very long time, photo-graph and share as much as possi-ble on this trip. So here goes!

Natasha shares her experience of Hong Kong, which by any measure appears to be

a city for foodies.


Soup Filled DumplingsSoupy dumplings are always delicious, bursting with hot, delicious soup within. These dump-lings tasted awesome with the different, bright

colors representing different fillings.

A darling little cart filled to the brim with the

most enticing vegetables. Doesn’t it look lovely?


Vietnamese Pho

I picked this from a Dim Sum cart full of the most

scrumptious goodies - pork, water chestnuts and leeks encased in soft and

sticky wrappers, drenched in light soya sauce.


Rice and Chicken in BambooAn all-in-one dish, this dish was a portion of

rice, topped with a spicy and delicious gravied chicken, sprinkled with crisp, fresh spring onion

stalks and served in a thick stalk of bamboo.


The soupy dumplings a moment before I popped them into my mouth. :)

This meat shop had every part of every animal I could think of

and some things I didn’t!


A Japanese Hot Pot meal, with beef, carrots, kimchi, sticky rice, peas and corn


Snow white and incredibly soft Bao stuffed with soy and spring

onion flavored pork. Yum!

Ginger scented prawn stuffed dumplings.


A ridiculously deli-cious savory crepe from a Frenchman run joint called La Creperie. This

one had a whole egg, sun-ny side up, shiitake mush-rooms, chopped parsley, lettuce and a flavored

Bechamel sauce.




Fried street food at it’s decadent best, usually

picked up by commuters on their way home.

A whole roast Thai-style chicken


A jumbo portion of Phad Thai noodles with lots of green lime for my lunch.


Korean Sweet and Sour Pork in a takeaway bowl,

for a quick lunch.

Tapioca Fritters Pork Buns Japanese-style Steak


The best egg-noodles I have ever laid eyes

upon!

More crepes


Dessert Crepe with Toblerone

Thai Coconut Custard served in leaf cups.


Different meats and vegetables being braised in a small street eatery,

ready to be ordered.




Party In The Heavens – Suryaa Sky Lounge Opening

Jaswinder enjoyed opening night at the newest open air lounge in Delhi and com-pliments the range of food and drink on

offer at Sampan.

EVENTS - DELHI

The Delhi skyline is nothing less when compared to any other place on earth, especially at night. Still, for some inexplicable reason, the authorities are wary of giving op-eratingl licenses to restaurants with open terraces. It can’t be the logistics involved in operating open terrace lounge spaces that intimidates the authorities for sure; it’s not supposed to be their problem. There have been a few places in the city with open terrace seating for patrons; one after another, a lot of them have closed off such spaces. So obviously, it was a pleasant surprise to hear that Suryaa Hotel in New Friends Colony was opening up the terrace of Sampan (spelled Sam-Pan, as in Uncle Sam and frying pan) to patrons.

Sampan has been a place of in-trigue for me. Suryaa is known

to specialize in weddings for the upwardly mobile gentry of Delhi, but its restaurant has still made a name for itself with the range of its menu. Getting oriental salads, sushi, sashimi, tempura, Thai, Chinese, soups – all in one menu and getting it right to quite a degree is bound to be a massive effort and by no means a small achievement. However, it is items like Sarojini Nagar Momo and Gobhi Manchurian – that provide the twist of taste.

The wine and alcobev menu features some of the best names and cocktail recipes. I won’t be able to comment on the cocktails, that’s a no-fly zone for me – but in the whiskeys and wines department, Sampan is pretty much sorted. Ranging from the very affordable and palatable Indian produce to the very expensive im-

ported wines – some of which in my opinion are just for showing off, the menu has something for everyone who wishes to unwind after a long day in the bustle of the city.

Post recently concluded renovations and opening the terrace for patrons, the one thing that will make a real difference will be the food and drink. From what I experienced on opening night, the magnificent view of the city skyline from the large windows of the rooftop restaurant and the terrace is well complement-ed by the food and the plans to have an open-counter barbeque during the winters entices me to visit again. Honestly, I wouldn’t mind spending approximately INR 5000 for a meal for two at Sampan, hoping that it’ll still be worth it. ■

by Jaswinder Singh


In my last job, I had the misfortune of working the dreaded half-day Sat-urday. Waste of time and energy, and I had to miss some events as a result too. However, when an invitation to attend a Grape Crushing, followed by wine pairing and kebab tasting luncheon at Taj West End arrived, I decided it was a most worthy cause to take a day off. And so, along with a dear friend to join in the festivities, and wearing my best wino tee, off we went that Saturday.

The event began at the Tulip Ga-zebo, a gorgeous space with little

fountains and statuary that had been set up with barrels and wine and nibbles, streamers of fake bunches of grapes adorning the structure. The cool waters of the pool nearby, and a general atmosphere of serenity and luxury pervading, we helped ourselves to glasses of bubbly and waited our turn to enter the tub where fresh, chilled grapes were poured in as participants crushed and mushed them. This turned out to be super fun and I think quite a few of us would have liked to stay in there a lot longer than etiquette demanded. We did not get dirty as

such, but there was a room provided where one could change/wash up (I felt like I’d had a lovely wine pedi-cure when I got out of the tub – spa owners take note). The cold grapes underfoot on a hot day, the abandon that came with letting go and just stomp-stomp-stomping away.

We then made our way to the sig-nature Indian restaurant at the West End, Masala Klub. Two large tables had been set up on the patio for the guests of the event, and a profusion of wine glasses sparkled and beck-oned. Now, I am generally lukewarm at the prospect of an Indian meal, but was I wrong this time! This was fusion food at its best; Executive Chef Sandip Narang and his team created a contemporary and totally delicious spread, with each course bringing wonderful flavors and fun elements on the plate. There were veg and non veg versions of the 3 course tasting menu; we of course went with the latter, each course accompanied by a Grover’s wine.

After a nimboo pani granita, the first course appeared: sowa lahsooni jhinga and lal mirch aur ajwain ka seabass, served with moong dal and mini onion kulcha, and

Grape Crushing, Wine Tasting, Feasting

Natasha had a lot of fun at the Grape Crush-ing and Wine Pairing with Kebab Tasting

afternoon at Taj West End and says its a great group event for a special occasion!

EVENTS - BANGALORE


accompanied by Grover’s Sauvignon Blanc.

The palate cleanser that came next was cool in every sense of the word: tamarind sorbet served in a bowl with dry ice on the inside and holes, so that the vapors escaped, creating chilled wisps of smoke.

We all oohed and aahed and clicked away, before enjoying the tangy sorbet. Grover’s Cabernet Shiraz was the second wine, and to eat we had a succulent methi aur safed mirch ka murgh and dal makhani and olive naan (this was possibly my favorite item of the day – olive in a naan!).

Every morsel we ate was divine and the third course of lamb chops from the tandoor, with a lotus stem and water chestnut sabzi and a superb ultatawa paratha was no different (the accompanying wine was Gro-

ver’s La Reserve Carbernet Sauvi-

gnon & Cabernet Shiraz).

Dessert was another lovely plate: rasmalai cheese cake with anjeer ka halwa. I have always been wary of cheesecake+Indian dessert com-bos, but this rasmalai cheese cake worked very well, and was served lightly chilled.

Now, this afternoon of grapes, wine and kebabs is something that the Taj will be offering as a package for interested private groups.

I think it would make a splendid event for a bridal shower, special birthday or anniversary, reunion, etc.

Make sure to call the hotel to book at least 8 days in advance (INR 6000++/person, group size 25 or more) , and get ready for a crushing good time! ■

... chilled grapes were poured in as participants crushed and mushed them.

Text by Natasha AliPhotos by Neha Mathur

EVENTS - BANGALORE


… and you are part of the select few who are invited, then it’s not an occasion to be missed!

You’ve seen him night after night – the jolly, amiable chef who lights up your TV screen, questioning amateur chefs on whether they have tossed the perfect chicken salad, or putting them through the paces under the strain of a ticking clock. Yes, he’s one of the famous trio that foodies the world over will know, probably better than who the cur-rent president of their country is.

Yes, he’s Chef Gary Mehigan, better known as one of the three judges on the MasterChef Australia TV series. This British born, Australia-based chef held a select gathering at the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai enthralled, as he took them through a special Master Class. And we have the Aus-tralian Tourism and Major Events Minister, Louise Asher, to thank

for contriving this cooking session as part of a trade mission to the UAE and India, and letting us sample the special lunch that Chef Gary Mehigan’s cooked at Celini Restaurant. So there he was, showing what he called “comfort food” for him, but which was nothing short of a culinary mar-vel – Rillettes of smoked salmon with rosemary on an olive biscuit. And for the vegetarians he whipped up Crostini with Favetta, sheep cheese and pistachios. There were also Croquettes of cauliflower and cheese with Saffron Aioli, which was his interesting take on our desi pakora, followed by a Par-fait on sweet brioche with mushroom tartine. “I do not think there is anything

greater than our cultures coming together over food and wine, two of my favourite things,” Gary smilingly mentioned.

In between talking about his ex-periences as a MasterChef judge and also as a hatted chef who runs Maribyrnong Boathouse in Mel-bourne, Chef Gary then proceeded to create a Salad of new season asparagus with boiled eggs and goat curd with Green Olive Tapenade as well as Roasted chicken breast with baby carrots, hazelnuts and jus gras. If you think that reads exotic, let us say that this authentic Victorian food tasted even more so. Of course, we would have much preferred that he had treated us to the venison or veal, like he keeps urging the contes-tants on MasterChef to whip up. But then again, we could not fault his logic that he did not want to pull any culinary faux pas while in a dietary

conscious country like India.

When we read what was up for desserts, we felt an inkling of trep-idation. Who wouldn’t, when they are told that they would now be eat-ing Warm Tuscan Chocolate Cake with Milk Chocolate Mousse, Salty Caramel, Oat Biscuit and Olive Oil Ice-Cream? But you know what they say about looks being deceptive? Well, this was one time when what was mentioned on the menu hardly did justice to the unusual olive oil icecream, the dense cake and the velvety slick mousse. The last part of the meal was probably the only time when people in the room paid more attention to their plates rather than the chef before them.

It was a meal to remember, made all the more memorable because of the beautiful plating. It was simple, intricate and enticing – all in equal measure. In fact, it was crafted like a dream on a plate. And what made the luncheon all the more special was the self-effacing demeanor of Chef Gary Mehigan, which belied his celebrity status. The good chef did mention that he would like to return to India soon. And we too would like to see more of him – preferably behind a kitchen counter banging out exotic dishes for enthu-siasts like us. ■

When Gary Mehigan

Cooks Lunch!

Vinita tells us about a lunch to re-member with Chef Gary Mehigan.

EVENTS - MUMBAI

by Vinita Bhatia



When this Kolhapur boy made it to the finals week of MasterChef Australia’s Season 5, In-dian food lovers could not suppress their grins. After all, Rishi Desai had made the country

proud. He was recently invited by Sofitel Mumbai BKC to cook for their hotel guests and select media people, and managed to bowl them over with his creative take on traditional

dishes.

Cookfest with Rishi Desai

Gary Mehigan called him the cre-ative bloke who turns Indian food upside down. Matt Preston regularly commented about his well-main-tained physique and even called him Muscle Man. And George Calom-baris believes that he has the steel and the smarts to open his own restaurant, a dream that the 35-year home cook harbors. Yes, we are talking about the charming, smiling

Rishi Desai, the chap from Kolhapur who gave traditional Indian food an avante garde twist on the popular MasterChef Australia Season 5.

That Rishi was a much-liked contes-tant on the TV show is evident from the fact that when he was eliminated in the finals week, his fans took to social media saying that the judges were too harsh on his ‘Spiced Mussel

Soup’. Be that as it may, Rishi has taken his ouster in stride. And these days he is busy juggling his job for IP Australia in Canberra, playing the doting father to his 7-year old son and also managing various culinary promotion events.

He was in Mumbai in November 2013, on a promotional tour for the upcoming ‘Celebrate Australia festi-val’. And he showcased his culinary skills at Pondichery Café in Sofitel Mumbai BKC to a select audience comprising the hotel’s guests and mediapersons.

Those who would have followed MasterChef Australia diligently would have noticed that Rishi has always made his respect for Heston Blumenthal wellknown. Like his idol, he too believes that food is not meant to be savored by one taste organ – it should be a celebration for all our five senses.

“Gastronomy is one of the key attri-butes of the Sofitel brand and that is

EVENTS - MUMBAI



why I am delighted to be showcas-ing my creations from MasterChef Australia its all-day dining café,” he said. Rishi cooked his now infa-mous ‘Curried Mussel Soup’ with Baguette, ‘Karnataka Risotto’, ‘In-dian-inspired Lamb Burgundy’ as well as ‘Potato-Cauliflower Gratin’ for the guests and also explained his approach towards gourmetising con-ventional Indian cuisine. He rem-inisced about taking recipes from his Pune-based mother who runs a spices shop and then tweaking it to make it more novel and innovative.

Cooking, he said, is something that one should do from the heart and one should never be afraid to exper-iment with ingredients while doing it.

Rishi also spoke to the guests after the cooking demonstration, answer-ing their various queries about the dishes he had cooked and how he had given the recipes a noveau twist. Some of them were hopeful that his dishes would become a regular fea-ture of the Pondicherry Café buffet.

He might have lost out in Master-Chef Australia, but the ever-smiling soft spoken home cook sure man-aged to charm a lot of people – not just those who watched him on the show, but also those you watched him cook at Sofitel Mumbai BKC. ■

by Vinita Bhatia

EVENTS - MUMBAI


On the sidelines of the event, Rishi spoke to Vinita Bhatia about what cooking means to him and how MasterChef Australia has impacted his life:

Vinita Bhatia (VB): You are visiting India after many years. How attached are you to the country?Rishi Desai (RD): A visit to India is always great because it is like coming back to my home and my roots. This time I am back after almost 8 years, that too for just a week, and it has primarily been a very busy tour around the country. I visited New Delhi, Mumbai and Pune. India, of course, needs a lot more time than just a week, especially now when so much has changed in the country. So I look forward to coming back soon with more time to spare. India is my roots and Australia is home now.

I especially enjoyed my stay at Sofitel Mumbai BKC because I had heard a lot about this luxurious hotel room in Sydney too. I also found Sofitel's collection of restaurants and bars to be a gastronomic delight and thank them for giving me the opportunity to showcase my skills to their guests.

VB: You chose some very traditional Indian dishes during your cooking demo and then changed it entire-ly.RD: It might appear that the selection of my dishes at the demo at Pondicherry Café was impromptu, but that was not the case. Gastronomy and wine are Sofitel’s brand pillars, so my cooking was well planned with them.

Besides I wanted to showcase my top recipes that I stirred during the Masterchef Australia show. Since all recipes have Indian origin, what better place than to showcase in my own hometown. And if the responses of the guests who were present is anything to go by, it seems they loved it.

EVENTS - MUMBAI



I visited The Westin at Koregaon Park, Pune last month for a very interesting wine event, that literally crowdsourced the wine menus at the Westin’s restaurants, while also ex-posing Indian vineyards to the local population and media at large. Hav-ing made the trip, it made sense to pay a little attention elsewhere too, and bring you a report on the stay, food and service at this property.

It started at the airport. While a prompt pick up isn’t unheard of, a

twelve and a half minute drive to the hotel largely is. The Westin, Pune is just five kilometres from the airport and a scant ten to fifteen minute ride by car. Arriving, I checked into an Executive Club Room, of which they have seventy three on the fourth floor. With an awesome view out-side, complimentary Internet and access to the Executive Club Lounge, this was a nice room to be in. This property has three types of rooms – Deluxe, Executive Club and Club Suites plus a Presidential Suite, that

I was told has been booked by one gent for the entire year. Obviously, one of us counts his money and the other weighs it. Click here to learn more about the different types of rooms at the Westin, Pune.

Quite conveniently, I received two room key cards, one to enter and exit and the other to share or to keep the room power on to charge devic-es etcetera. Radio frequency cards would have been more convenient than those relying on a magnetic

A Weekend atThe Westin

Pune

The Westin in Pune, besides being ridiculously close to the Airport, is a great place to stay at and home to three lovely restaurants.


strip though I’m still thankful for the luxury of fully charged devices when out of town.

The room was well appointed though I’ll never get used to the transparent bathroom wall. A large enough TV, bottled water, well stocked mini bar that was quite low on snacks with no sugar-free/diabetic/healthy options et. al. Similarly, the bathroom was well maintained and stocked with some delightfully flavored lotions and soaps, with more bottled water. My favorites in this room – the lotions etc in the bathroom and the beds. I have a sensitive back and if the beds aren’t right, I usually end up with a sore back the next morning that lasts for a week, sometimes up to a month. The beds here were soft and supportive, leaving me perfectly sprightly the next morn-ing. The pillows too belonged to the baby bear (neither too hard, nor too soft) leaving Goldilocks (a black haired, 115 kilo male ver-sion) perfectly happy.

After a brief delay, awaiting my baggage, it was time for lunch, Sunday Brunch to be precise, land-ed as we had just in time for this weekly treat.

The restaurants at the Westin, Pune are located on the second floor, the lobby on the first and the gardens on the ground. This property also displays a marked preference for art of every sort. This, going by my general liking for the way it’s been built, greatly enhances the property itself, the art too being enhanced by the vast open spaces the Westin sports. The picture below, is of what I saw when I left the elevator on the second floor and turned left – an illustration of what I mean.

For those of you who understand photography, yes, this one was tough because of the overwhelm-ing light coming in from the front and no, this photo doesn’t use HDR. My learning for this shot was how to remove unwanted tints from glass. To the left is Prego, the speciality Italian restaurant and to the right are Kangan, the speciality Indian restaurant, Seasonal Tastes for all day dining plus the buffet breakfasts, lunches and dinners and Mix@36, the bar. Both spe-ciality restaurants only open for dinner – 18:30 – 00:00.

We’ll start with Prego as that’s where I first ate. Apart from being open for daily dinners, Prego is also home to a delightful Sunday Brunch. The restaurant is huge, with live kitchens lining the left almost all the way to the end. Being a Sunday Brunch, the crowd was lively, the atmosphere friendly and garrulous and food and drink in plenty. What made this brunch stand out from others I’ve been to was the number of permanent live counters that normally cater to a speciality Italian restaurant and were therefore primed for much higher quality than the makeshift live counters most brunches work with. Also, the food was all Italian, which could work both ways. We sometimes want a mish-mash of cultures in our brunches and at others are at home focusing on a single culture. Different types of seating is available at Prego, every seat within a few steps of a food counter on the right and a lovely view with bright natural natural light via a glass wall on the left. In the picture you can see what I mean, as well as observe Chef


Anurudh Khanna, who used to be with The Park in Delhi, keeping a watchful eye on things.

The first counter you pass on your left is Bread and Pizza. Complete with a wood fired oven, this count-er is responsible for the wonderful aroma that knocked me back a step or two when I entered Prego. Doesn’t good bread always do that? This counter also dishes out a bunch of related stuffed-pastry and some derivative products like those inset in the photo above. Everything was fresh and a perfect match for the soup counter opposite. Serving from a large pot of Minestrone, the quintessential Italian soup, the soup counter had a bunch of very color-

ful large-ish bowls (I’m a little tired of the little white ones most hotels insist on sticking with) alongside a bunch of toppings that included, and I breathed a vote of thanks to any number of divine beings, freshly made pesto. When was the last time

you had freshly made pesto? If it’s been a while, go make some. It’s easy to make, but you do need the will. The bottled stuff is, and I don’t say this lightly, crap. If that’s been your staple for pesto, it’s time to change. You’ll experience the same differ-

ence people find when they make the switch over from bottled garlic paste to fresh garlic.

The sides too were a little different from other brunches. I didn’t photo-graph these, but Chef Khanna’s been busy charming vegetable growers, with the result that he now has a constant supply of baby carrots, which is nice and zucchini flowers, which is wonderful. He also receives Hadga, an ayurvedic flower that has a wonderful effect as a flavor en-hancer. A pile of parma ham (liter-ally) and chorizo among other cold cuts were available too.

Apart from the usual pastas and pizzas that serve as mains for

The bottled stuff is, and I don’t say this

lightly, crap.



vegetarians, the non-vegetarians mains included roast lamb and a massive grilled fish among other fare we don’t get to see too often in Delhi. The desserts section is suitably populated too though this isn’t the section you’ll find me partaking from. I did notice a few souffles and quite a bunch of fruit trifles among a fair selection of other desserts. At 1699++ and 2299++ (with alcohol) this brunch is a steal and is open from 1230 to 1530 on Sundays.

The Wines of India event began at 1600 hours and I snuck back into my room for a quick snooze. At this point, I had been awake for thirty two hours and looking for-ward to the beds every Starwood property talks about in hushed tones of respect and awe. The wine event done around 1830 hours, I indulged in a grilled platter with Yu Yu Din and then returned to my room with every intention of hitting one of the two speciality restaurants for dinner, but those beds actively prevented me from doing so. Instead, I awoke at 12am and ordered room service – Mut-ton Biryani, which was delivered in about twenty minutes. The accompanying yogurt was more suited for Kadhi, but the Biryani itself was perfectly appropriate for a late, night room service order. A late-night room service order is essential for every property covered by Chef at Large and you wouldn’t believe the kind of stuff we experience during these meals. The Westin, Pune, I’m relieved to report, passed this one.

Breakfast was open from 0600 to 1000 hours at Seasonal Tastes, alongside a little, open air pool on the terrace. Bright, airy and with

its own wine storage, Seasonal Tastes appears to be essentially a buffet restaurant. I tried, and I mean really tried to order a dish from the a la carte menu for lunch that day, but the manager on duty was quite insistent I do the buffet and short of refusing outright, did everything else to ensure I ate from the buffet. I wonder why? Considering the man himself was a nice chap, who, noting I wasn’t happy with the slow fried egg that morning, ensured it was done right the next morning, it is a question that I’d love to learn the answer to. Breakfast was a predict-able affair, with two exceptions, one nice and one not so nice. The nice one was the presence of Indian lunch/dinner dishes. I like

heavy breakfasts and abhor the ones where the only such dish is Sambhar… and there’s no bacon. Seasonal tastes had a bunch of lunch dishes as well as my beloved bacon. The second exception may provide the source of the first. A few dishes during my second breakfast there, were identical to dishes served at lunch the previ-ous day. I understand recycling, but seeing identical dishes is a little unnerving. The standard Westin breakfast therefore ends up with a ‘satisfactory’ tag.

The Spa was an available option, but I skipped it due to not having parameters in the Chef at Large Property Checklist for it and in-sufficient spa experience to wing

I understand re-cycling, but seeing

identical dishes is a little unnerving.



it. Similarly, I skipped the bar too.

By lunch time I was deeply con-cerned over what I thought to be diabetic gustatory sweating and until a qualified diagnosis could be reached, resolved to take it easy with my meals. Lunch therefore needed to be what I thought to be healthy. Fortunately, Seasonal Tastes with-stood this test and provided me an awesome lunch without the carbs.

I ate a platter full of delicately flavored and very fulfilling vegeta-bles – french beans, broccoli, snow peas, pok choy, grilled zucchini and tossed bell peppers plus a serving of hummus and bocconcini. There were other items available too, including pizzas from a wood fired oven, a bespoke dessert counter and a starters counter making up to be what a few in Delhi might say could be passed off as a Sunday Brunch.

Did I mention there’s a little pool outside Seasonal Tastes?

The afternoon therefore was spent with Mehak Mathrani, who was kind enough to take me to a few great places in Pune to pick up some of their key offerings. We first stopped at Kayani Bakery at East Street, from where I picked up Shrewsbury and Wine biscuits. Both were impossibly crunchy with the Wine biscuits carrying overtones of rose. I also picked up small cakes that were perfectly sweet and moist. The next stop was XYZ, where we picked up little triangles of baked puff pastry, called Khasta biscuits, ending up at Dorabjee’s, which was heaven. I could shop there for hours without tiring. Friendly and helpful staff, hundreds, perhaps thousands of food items of different sub-variet-ies and every price range. I of course couldn’t return without the pea-

nut-garlic, garlic, kadi-patta chut-neys nor the methkut or the bhakar-wadi. The Sand Gorgon is a scary creature and can only be pacified by Bhakarwadi, much like Thimbletack the Brownie is pacified with honey in The Spiderwick Chronicles. The picture on the left is of the staff/owners packing/recording orders at Kayani Bakery. They’re only open for a few hours each day and jam-packed for time duration that they are. They were out of Wine biscuits and the little bag they salvaged, the very polite owner refused to charge for.

Now, I couldn’t leave without trying both Prego and Kangan. Yes, I’d al-ready done the Sunday Brunch, but one really can’t just do a buffet meal at a specialty restaurant. Also, given how much I’ve heard about Kangan from colleagues in Mumbai, it wasn’t an option either. There was a single



meal opportunity left and I split that meal between Prego and Kan-gan. Obviously, I couldn’t do justice to either, but did manage to sample the spirit of both. While the ser-vice attitude at both establishments needs looking into, the food was good. As with the last time, a whiff of yeast, baking flour and delicious bread greeted me on entering. The entire restaurant has the low lighting that’s characteristic of fine dining restaurants though reading the menu was easy enough. The wine menu was modest and so were the prices, with a Lobster entree for ex-ample, at INR 1300++. We selected an antipasti platter from the menu, Antipasti Misti (800), which was ex-ceedingly pretty to look at and was a

mixture of ricotta, olives, sun dried tomatoes, batter fried zucchini flow-ers, portobello mushrooms, provo-lone cheese, basil leaves, grilled tuna passion fruit and hadga flowers. This is the sort of platter one shares with others on the same table and indulg-es in different soul-stirring combi-nations of food that are rarely found together. This was followed by a well done, herb encrusted and plump Rack of Lamb with Dijon mustard and baby potatoes. Part II of my dinner was at Kangan, Westin’s fairly well known Indian specialty restau-rant, where I did enjoy the Chicken Dohri Tikki (600), chopped chicken tikka inside a coriander flavored, minced chicken patty, served with star anise flavored charcoal smoke.

Interesting huh? Perhaps it was the rush of the evening or maybe the fact that I could barely see any of the other dishes, but this is the only dish I feel worth mentioning. I’ll save the other dishes for a dedicated review of Kangan and Prego.

So that’s the end of that. Pune is a delightful city to visit with loads of food to discover and lots of food shopping to do. The Westin, Pune is ideally located to facilitate and host your stay with Pune with it’s helpful staff, awesome location, soothing interiors, lovely rooms and great food. ■

Text and photos by Sid Khullar




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CaLDRON Year-ender December 2013