I've wanted to start a food blog but I always retract. Some blogs like this one and this seem like food pornography to me. You may have some better examples, but these are what I found..they are just seemingly cataloging gluttony. Anything that does not fill-up your senses is just incomplete and artificial. Most experiences do not go all the way, but then, I am partial to complete experiences.
What I enjoy more than the taste of the food, is what comes with it. Food is incomplete without the company, conversations, surroundings and novelty. So yes coming back to the main point, I haven't gotten around getting my own food place on the cyberspace yet. Even if I have a food blog, I will not paste pictures of food in variety of tempting ways. No, it is not worth staring at loads of food you will never get to taste. With me you will get stories, an occasional recipe, and critiques you never asked for: complete experience I say.
So enough talking, and food reminds me what happened last week in Bihar. And this sobered me. Maybe something in our collective consciousness tells us that it is morally wrong in parading food when we have such a conditions prevailing not far from us. The problems must be tackled and honestly I am still in limbo to figure out what must be done.
And while I am talking about bad food experiences and the online media, you may have heard about the Lemp case. And from here I am going to move to the topic of how dining out seems to have changed in Delhi. I left it at point where new places where just cropping-up. Moving from Nirula's ice-creams and Moti Mahal's butter chicken, Delhiites were discovering Russian, Italian, Greek cuisines. To confess I am the kind of person who could have fallen for the Hawaiian brunch offer just to have a good idea of how FAR away it was from the real experience. Always one up for the closest-to- genuine experience. I have this one-eyebrow-raised expression when it comes to fusion.
Not this time, we (my Brady bunch) went to Indian Accent. Getting there was truly, brilliantly and genuinely Indian experience. Braving the close to 50 degrees summers, the gaadi gave up in the middle of the road, its fan crashed. And next to us on the red- light pause, on a humble cycle, we found a mechanic! What are the chances? Nevertheless, Gaadi became Jugaadi and we postponed our reservations thrice. We reached there sweating, huffing and puffing, relieved to know we still had junta to serve us.
The interiors were simple and elegant. I liked the lamps.
We were very hungry and had a long look at the menu. We decided against wine because we had to drive back the Jugaadi late at night and drop off the Brady bunch. We had corn ka shorba to begin with. This was a nice starter: small bite sized naans with blue cheese. You thought you can pop a few of them but the cheese made them heavy on the stomach and palate. You can try this at home.
And while I am talking about bad food experiences and the online media, you may have heard about the Lemp case. And from here I am going to move to the topic of how dining out seems to have changed in Delhi. I left it at point where new places where just cropping-up. Moving from Nirula's ice-creams and Moti Mahal's butter chicken, Delhiites were discovering Russian, Italian, Greek cuisines. To confess I am the kind of person who could have fallen for the Hawaiian brunch offer just to have a good idea of how FAR away it was from the real experience. Always one up for the closest-to- genuine experience. I have this one-eyebrow-raised expression when it comes to fusion.
Not this time, we (my Brady bunch) went to Indian Accent. Getting there was truly, brilliantly and genuinely Indian experience. Braving the close to 50 degrees summers, the gaadi gave up in the middle of the road, its fan crashed. And next to us on the red- light pause, on a humble cycle, we found a mechanic! What are the chances? Nevertheless, Gaadi became Jugaadi and we postponed our reservations thrice. We reached there sweating, huffing and puffing, relieved to know we still had junta to serve us.
The interiors were simple and elegant. I liked the lamps.
We were very hungry and had a long look at the menu. We decided against wine because we had to drive back the Jugaadi late at night and drop off the Brady bunch. We had corn ka shorba to begin with. This was a nice starter: small bite sized naans with blue cheese. You thought you can pop a few of them but the cheese made them heavy on the stomach and palate. You can try this at home.
Since we could not decide on the menu, we had a long and interesting chat with the chef. The Brady bunch is very adept at talking gastronomy, and I am usually the fence sitter or/and photographer. Fence-sitting has advantages which suit me: I get involved when people are confused and share my verdict.
Forewarning about the Prawnagraphic material ahead. I love prawns especially the nicely skewered once because I think its such an art to get them right. Here you see some with wasabi cream.
And one on my plate:
Then a very authentic Indian lamb kebab dish, boti kebab in dollops of ghee served with pancake rotis and absolutely delightful mango, imli and mint chutneys. Winners all. And you can also see the morsel of the prawn kebab on my plate. One of my friends moments later showed me how excellent the is tail too.
Then we had this palate cleanser. Anardana sorbet. It is served in this cute little cooker and makes you think: why did I not think of this earlier. Maybe because I did not have a great freezer like these guys at the restaurant. We made a round of jokes on this one, which cannot be mentioned here. Also I should have taken better pictures.
For mains we settled on Rice Crusted John Dory moilee and Dal Gosht which were both very well composed dishes. The Indianness was intact.
I thought the presentation of Dal gosht was very continental. An Indian version would have served gosht with bones. Here they made them into meat balls and decorated it with flattened rice papad like things as fans.
We chose various kinds of kulchas with bacon, duck and chicken tikka filling. Totally filling.
The chef was happy with our Brady bunch and sent us gratis dal makhani ( I found it too tomatoey, while the Brady bunch sided with the chef) and raita (you can see a square dish above).
We were too full to consider desert. But then there was this which took us back to childhood: chikki, aam papad, phataphat, and hingolis, on a charpai!
We had a quick feedback session with the chef, complimenting mostly. He shared ideas for a desert: Chawanprash Cheesecake, and we were like..we just wish. But not today. He said the whole point was to get people nostalgic about food, which we were terribly after these nuances. I suggested a dish with Parle- G. I think I am on board with the chef with these crazy food ideas and he even complimented me. I hope to see that dish on the menu soon!
Till then, I think it was about food, it was about culture. The place does not lose its Indian-ness, just mixes it with global influences. It felt very much familiar not intimidating and exotic. I should be going to this place back, sooner.
