A Summer's Affair
This summer the new menus at restaurants are designed to keep you away from red meats and deep fried favourites.
Summer has packed a mean punch this year. How about fighting it back with an ash roast sweet potato, herb yoghurt, ganth gobhi carpaccio , or some crunchy kakdi with fresh figs? And to wrap things up in style a bit of Ratnagiri Aamras and a pomegranate granite?
This fitting reply to the heat is part of Indian Accent's summer menu. This season most restaurants are keeping their deep frying stations on a low and stocking up their refrigerators with cool shades of green . While the red meat dishes are not the highlights it is the white meat, fish and chicken, that rules the entrees.
"We have used arbi, umeboshi, cucumber, fresh fruits, mango in this new menu," says Samrat Banerjee, manager, Indian Accent, The Manor, Friend's Colony. The ingredients he listed have been dressed up at their summer best — Tawa Arbi Satay with peanut nariyal chutney, an umberoshi raita, and Meetha achar Canadian spare ribs with sun-dried mangoes and the like.
If fusion doesn't tickle your palate, you can try a desi summer menu at Brown Sahib, MGF Metropolitan Mall, Saket, where Bhapa Murghi (steamed boneless chicken marinated in cream and mustard), Tauk Dal (dal cooked with raw mangoes) or a Moricher jhol (a lightly spiced vegetable stew) will keep you buoyant for the rest of the day, and not call for a hot afternoon siesta. "I always have the smoked hilsa (it has no oil and its boneless) and the watermelon soup," says Rajyasree Sen of Brown Sahib.
At Buzz, Saket you can sip a frothy cool beer with a shish touk (chicken marinated in lebanese spices skewered and grilled) or some Mutton Kibbeh (stuffed Mutton torpedos flavored with Arabic spices, oven baked and served with hummus). While mutton may seem a bit heavy for a snack, it has been baked to keep the dish light. "Besides baking the meat, we serve them with cool dips like a cold garlic sauce that goes well with the touk," says chef Harman Singh. And if you are watching your weight, Singh will exchange the naan for a whole wheat roti and keep the cream and the oil far away from your orders.
At Blanco in Khan Market, similar improvisations are underway. Steaks come in white meat, in this case, chicken and are dressed up in unusual flavours like lemon grass. "It makes sense to have more white meat than red meat in this weather," says chef Mmanav Sharma.
No summer menu is complete without the customary ode to the salad. A crostini of asparagus and blue cheese, mushroom, tomato and mozzarella, Smoked oysters and tuna salad with orange and mint, Salata horiatiki — greek salad with feta cheese and kalamata olives, or a Thai raw papaya salad with crushed peanuts — you can take your pick of these crunchy cool green platters at the Mist and Aqua restaurants at The Park hotel. "We don't have too much fish in our summer menu, but we have kept smoked oysters and scampi. In the main course, our speciality includes the grilled pink peppered salmon," says chef Aditya Jaimini of The Park.
But if the very thought of food is putting you off in this heat, head for Ai at the MGF Metropolitan mall, Saket, and chill out with their pear sorbet, or wasabi sorbet or green tea ice cream. What better way to beat the heat?
