India. By The Oberoi

India. By The Oberoi is a fantastic festival running at The Oberoi the whole month of August!

The Oberoi, which is one my favorite five start hotels 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 68th year of Independence by serving the authentic delicacies from North, South, West and the Eastern culinary regions of our country. Me, along with another friends, 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. Similarly, 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 kasoanth 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 withs ome 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 🙂 It 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.