Bollywood flavours shine!

Diners craving Desi delights can now enjoy a range of spicy street foods and curries combined with a touch of Bollywood movie magic at one of the kingdom’s top Indian restaurants.

Every first Friday of the month, starting from March, the Crowne Plaza Bahrain will be featuring a special ‘Flavours of Bollywood’ themed-night at its Spices Indian Restaurant offering food-lovers a glimpse of the country’s movie culture through a buffet selection of savoury and sweet dishes.

A Bollywood Brunch used to be staged in the restaurant on the last Friday of every month, as featured on more than one occasion in EatingOut, and it was placed on hold due to the growing popularity of the hotel’s legendary Absolutely Fabulous Friday Brunch.

“It’s when we stopped the brunch that we realised how much people loved it and were requesting it,” explained Priya Shankar, marketing and communications manager. “That’s when we came up with the concept of making it an evening event instead … and the ‘Flavours of Bollywood’ concept was born!”

And, how better to launch it than by having famous Indian actor, producer and director Randhir Kapoor join the celebrations as a special guest, alongside VIPs and members of the media last Friday evening?

The private dinner was entitled ‘An evening with the Kapoors’. The celebrity’s grandfather, Prithviraj Kapoor, was a pioneer of Indian theatre and of the Hindi film industry, and his father, Ranbir Raj Kapoor, was also regarded as one of the greatest cinema showmen.

Priya added: “A musical tribute was being held in his father’s honour at the Bahrain Conference Centre the same night as our Flavours of Bollywood launch, which made it an ideal time to have Randhir unveil our planned themed nights. “We were honoured to have had him with us.

Also, at the moment we do have a Flavours of India Night every Friday, but, on the first week of every month from March it will have feature the special Bollywood theme. We will also highlight different types of Indian food depending on its particular focus.

“It’s a great way to spice up the restaurant. We will also be staging entertainment such as having signs with popular movie quotes on tables for people to take ‘selfies’ with, a DJ will spin Bollywood’s top tunes as well as ask guests Bollywood trivia questions.

We will be adding even more fun experiences in the future.” The live street food station being manned by Chef de Cuisine Mohammed Arif and his culinary team will be a huge draw too if Friday’s feast is anything to go by, as my husband, Sam, and I, can testify.

According to Mohammed, Bollywood is ‘Mumbai’ because that is where the Hindi film industry is based. As a result this buffet feature a range of popular dishes such as Biryani, tikkas, kebabs and chaat to capture the essence of the city, complemented by a selection of meals from both northern and southern India.

The Chaat savoury snacks are a mixture of potato pieces, crisp-fried bread dahi vada or dahi bhalla, with chickpeas and tangy salty spices, sour homemade Indian chilly and saunth (dried ginger and tamarind sauce), fresh green coriander leaves and yogurt for garnish.

Other popular variants included aloo tikkis or samosa (garnished with onion, coriander, hot spices and a dash of curd), bhel puri, dahi puri, dahi vada, papri chaat, sev puri and our favourite pani puri.

We had just filled our plates with appetisers and tpani puri, deep-fried hollow balls of puffed bread filled with tamarind water, chickpeas and spiced mashed potato, when Randhir made his grand entrance.

After a lamp-lighting ceremony and speeches from the actor and hotel’s general manager Gilles Nicolas, the buffet was formally opened and people flocked to either side of the restaurant to plate up with salads, chaats and curries.

Meanwhile, Randhir’s favourite Bollywood songs from his family’s movies were blasting from the surround-sound and DJ Apke Paresh roamed around asking guests movie questions. All diners were given jasmine flowers to wear around their wrists as well as bags of bangles and earrings which was a nice touch.

We started with a zesty potato salad and a sweet and sour fruit salad. After getting a healthy dose of greens, we moved onto our highlight of the evening - the pani puri with its explosion of flavours.

The fish tikka was also delicious as was the chicken tikka. There was also an assortment of kebabs and a superb savoury grilled paneer. Main dishes included a tender dum ka murgh, a tasty Hyderabadi dish in which the chicken is slow-cooked in its own juices combined with lots of spices, almonds and cream.

There was also a Punjabi chana masala with green chilies, onion, garlic, and fresh cilantro, a blend of spices, chickpeas and tomatoes, and other dishes like dhal makhani. Since Randhir loves sweets, the chef made sure there was a large table of desserts full of favourites such as the sugary, milky gulab jamun balls, the cashew diamond kaju katli and kheer - a rice pudding with milk, rice, sugar and dried fruits. And, the syrupy gulab jamun proved to be the perfect way to end a night of special spice.

The Flavours of Bollywood theme nights will run until December from 7pm to 11pm. The dinner is priced at BD10.300 net. Remember, the themes will change every month and a DJ will play the latest Bollywood hits. 

For further details, contact 17531122.