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I enjoy a good chat … as many readers now appreciate when they check out my regular interviews with chefs around town as part of the new social media interactive face of GulfWeekly.
But I found out I enjoy a good chaat much more when I visited the new delightful Desi Dish Night at ART Rotana … but more of that later.
I must admit I was in a bit of a sweat as the regular Monday night affair unfortunately clashes with our press deadline night but I thought if I was professional and well organised, just for a change, I might manage to make Amwaj Islands on time to tuck into some delights.
Things were looking good as I stepped towards Choices restaurant which had really pulled out all the stops with delightful decorations and burning candles at the entrance. Willowy waitress Amrutha Subhakar from Kerala was dressed to impress too in traditional attire and politely showed me to my table.
I quickly posted a photograph on Facebook to inform the good lady wife, Kathryn, so that she would know to give my home-cooked dinner to the dog (for some reason she was really annoyed by this), and settled down to savour the atmosphere when I received a frantic message to call the office.
It appears that I had forgotten to write the headlines on one of the pages and my night page designer had been trying to call me but the ropey Amwaj telecom connection appeared to be stopping any incoming calls to my mobile.
Fortunately thanks to the delights of WhatsApp we managed to sort some sublime wods to fill the gas on the page so I could settle down for a good old-fashioned chat with a chef over a bowl of chaat.
Chaat, for the uninitiated, is a term describing savoury snacks, typically served at road-side tracks from stalls or food carts in India. With its origins in Uttar Pradesh, chaat has become immensely popular in the rest of South Asia and is going down a storm on Desi Dish Night.
The word derives from Hindi meaning tasting a delicacy and from Prakrit meaning to devour with relish, eat noisily. The chaat variants are all based on fried dough, with various other ingredients.
The original is a mixture of potato pieces, crispfried bread, chickpeas and tangy-salty spices, with sour home-made Indian chilly and dried ginger and tamarind sauce, fresh green coriander leaves and yogurt for garnish, explained Chef Jijo Jose, another cool Keralite who boasts 11 years of culinary experience specialising in the cuisine, including six years at the renowned Taj group of hotels in India, and is helping Executive Chef Theodor Rudiferia ensure authenticity on the night.
The Italian, however, is not short of knowledge himself haing sent moe than fie years in India as executive chef at two Hilton properties in Dehli to completely immerse himself in the spices and rich aous of the county.
Its popularity is understandable, an amazing combination that can deliver a knock-out punch on taste-buds and its definitely a dish to share with loved ones (note to self, bring Kathryn next time) and, dare I say it, chat over!
A generous selection of salad dishes helped cool the palate before I started sampling a few stunning spoons full of soup called Tomato Ka Shorba followed by a few sips of a curry pumpkin offering too. I would have had more but there was plenty to come.
I set off on a tour of the cooking pots containing a colourful array of curries which looked as good as they tasted, like the Palak Paneer, Fish Moile, rich MuttonRogan Josh and the European expat favourite Butter Chicken, calling out to be dipped with a naan fresh from the oven.
Another firm favorite on the night was the Hyderabadi Mutton Biryani which had a heart-meltingly strong aroma and the powerful prawns packed a punch under the title of Dhaniya Jhinga.
The marvelously marinated chicken dish Merg Malai Tikka was another masterstroke as was the Fish Tajin, with the glorious and well-loved Bahraini hammour doing the job too because, unlie many local fish, it doesn’t fall apart during the cooking process.
For lamb-lovers, the piece de résistance was the Masala Raan, a luscious meaty leg that simply fell off the bone and melted in the mouth after hours of being slowly marinated in a delicious blend of aromatic spices.
Indian cuisine is immensely popular too with vegetarians for religious and health reasons and Desi Dish Night does not disappoint on that score either with a succulent selection of vegetarian kebabs featuring cauliflower, spiced up mashed up potato and an amazing Paneer Tikka, a supreme cheese creation.
One man alone could not sample all the fare on offer, so I had to give a miss to the sweet desserts and traditional juices for another day.
Perhaps we could move press day from a Monday so I can come again?
