Mango Mania at Grand Mercure is an interesting summer festival to attend 🙂
Last year I was invited to the Mango Mania Festival at Grand Mercure. We loved it so much that for the two weeks of when the festival was running, we went twice after the preview meal. The mango dishes of last year’s festival were so good that they stayed with me for a long long time. Absolutely inspired dishes executed impeccably. See the pictures here to drool!
So this year when I received the mail for the Mango festival announcement, I had already started making plans for visiting and then came along the preview invite mail. This year’s festival menu has been designed and executed by a new executive chef that Grand Mercure has “Chef Vijay David”, the menu was inspired by mangoes this time as well. Some very new combinations tried, some of them worked very well for me, some of them unfortunately didn’t. Though, I am still recommending the festival to everyone around as there are hardly people who are doing stuff with Mango and we have to give it to Mercure for trying, the execution of the menu for me wasn’t as flawless as last time’s.
Here is a photo review for you guys, Go try and soak in mango goodness.
Mango and Apricot Mojito – as good as it sounds, it lacked the punch. We were all left disappointed by it. I think of the reasons the dinner didn’t shine as much was the drink. May be, I also had the last year’s stellar dinner in my mind to compare to.
Mango Caprese Salad – Brilliant twist on the standard, very well executed. The radish micro greens on the top added just the right punch.
Mango Zeal – mango, rum and vanilla ice cream. The better of the drinks, but in the end, I resorted to ordering the aam panna and spiking it with vodka 🙂
Shrimp and Raw Mango salad with a soy chilli dressing – impeccably cooked shrimp, very well balanced sauce but somehow the salad wasn’t coming together till one of us asked for some extra sauce and bingo it all fell in place. So order the salad with extra sauce and enjoy.
Mini Mango Poppadums – falafel, mango and tzatziki while the non-vegetarian option included smoked chicken and mango. For once I preferred the veg one
Chicken breast stuffed with raw mango – Chicken breast stuffed with raw mango and mushrooms served with sweet potato mash and veggies. A dish that looked as good as it tasted
Tenderloin steak with rock salt. Perfectly cooked steak, well plated dish had us all wanted to dig into it, unfortunately I didn’t taste any mango in it plus thought it needed a bit more seasoning.
Balsamic grilled Vegetables with Parmesan Mango Polenta and Pomegranate glaze – Dish of the day for me really. I love polenta and this one with a hint of mango was outstanding.
Spinach, ricotta and Raw Mango Ravioli. Inspired and well executed, also check last year’s ravioli in the album. This was good but I was dreaming of the last year’s.
Thai Green vegetable curry with Mangoes, just the dish I was craving that day I think. Very well made green curry with bites of mangoes while you eat. Lovely!
Thai inspired Kaffir lime leaf crepe stuffed with fresh mangoes. Chef recommended it though unfortunately it didn’t do much for me!
Passion fruit and Mango Tart – A dessert which could have been stellar but which failed at many levels, the topmost being doughy and uncooked pastry. Again I couldn’t help but compare it to last time when I had gone all the way to praise the shortcut pastry!
Mango Panacotta with the Basil Raspberry Coulis – Well if one forgets it’s a panacotta, it is a good dessert 🙂
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