India. By The Oberoi

The Oberoi, which is one my favorite 5 stars in the city is running “India. By The Oberoi” festival all of August. Essentially it is a follow up of the super successful Rajasthani food festival they did sometime ago. All through August, Jardin showcases a culinary trail of India celebrating its 68^th year of Independence by serving the authentic delicacies from North, South, West and the Eastern culinary regions of our country. Me, along with another friend were invited for a tasting of the same.

What I really liked about the whole thing was the fact that they didn’t get stuck on the uber popular recipes from all regions but dug a little deeper and got something new and refreshing to table. Like we tasted Thovial sorakka from Tamil Nadu essentially a lauki gravy which was such a delight that one would forget that we are actually eating a lauki, the fish tenga from Assam was such a delight, so light and simple, in my mind I was clearly expecting a pork and bamboo curry from the north east but this was such a welcome change. So was the suwar ka soanth from Rajasthan, a tradition smoked curry made from game meat for the festival being served using pork. Another thing that was a favorite that day was the fish puttu, with fish and coconut rightly balanced I would eat this with some spicy curry (fish tenga went very well with it) for a complete meal.

With desserts like ghevar, pan ice cream and balusahi, I strongly recommend you folks to go try out India. By The Oberoi. At Rs 1475 + tax it is totally worth it

Here is a little photo walk of what we ate that day

Early Grey Martini : a delight and an experience with all the smoke

Bloody Mary which a almost a tree of celery 🙂 packed a punch with a special variety of tomatoes exported from the farm of king of Thailand. I could drink this everyday only if I didn’t waste so much of celery

The starters : Lamb Sheek from Kashmir, the white Chicken Reshmi Kebab, the Amritsari Fish, Bharwan Paneer, the Tandoori Cauliflower and the Gujar Vada

From left to right : Suwar ke saonth (Rajasthani Pork), Bengali kosha mangsho, Fish tenga from Assam, Thovial Sorakka (bottle gourd curry from TN), Avial, gobhi musallam and fish puttu.

On the left : baingan ka salan and steamed rice. On the right : Andhra Biryani