Karela a la carte
Indian restaurants are moving away from the tried
and tested vegetarian menus. Of late, kitchens have started reimagining desi
dishes using everyday vegetables
Till sometime ago, if dinner was torai, tinda or
karela, there was a good chance you would order in reinforcements from the
nearest tikkawalla. But today, restaurants around the country are putting these
homely vegetables on their menu albeit with an innovative twist.
Farzi Cafe, one of the Capital's buzziest restaurants,
serves karela calamari and veg galawati kebabs made with torai.The newly-opened
Desi Roots in Delhi with its Champak comics and retro decor is big on
rekindling memories with dishes like jimikand galawati pate, khichdi made with
four different grains and aloo wadiyaan in its “Daal Sabzi Ghar Di“ section.
Mumbai's latest culinary triumph, The Bombay Canteen, entices diners with arbi,
pui saag, kathal (jackfruit), pumpkin and khichdi with baingan bharta.
These restaurants are transmuting humble, desi
ingredients into dishes that are perhaps a truer representation of essential
Indian food. Amandeep Singh, director Lemon Seeds Hospitality , conceptualized
Desi Roots as a restaurant where the flavours of the past would be dressed up
as food of the present. So his vegetarian galawati uses jimikand (yam), a
`meaty' vegetable that few Indian restaurants use in their kitchen. “We wanted
to design a menu that would remind us of our childhood, of a time gone by .We
also wanted to educate people about the treasure trove of flavours that is
Indian food,“ says Singh. His restaurant has the ubiquitous black dal but with
Amritsari wadiyaan (dried lentil dumplings), a dish that is very rarely found
on restaurant menus.
“I'm a Punjabi and we would always get our wadiyaan
especially from Amritsar. It's a flavour that reminds us of mom's cooking,“
adds Singh. Zorawar Kalra has given Indian cuisine such an edge at Masala
Library in Mumbai that people are willing to wait three weeks for a table. At
his Farzi Cafe, the karela calamari is one of its hottest selling starters
alongside the pankocoated dal chawal arancini (stuffed rice balls). “The
objective is to contemporize familiar flavours, food that is comforting yet fun
to eat,“ says Kalra. “People today want creativity and a fresh approach to
food. Even if it's karela, a vegetable that one has to bribe kids to eat, if
you make it more appealing, people will eat it.“
For Floyd Cardoz, swapping the courgette with
torai and rocket leaves with pui saag or Malabar spinach is part of a trend
that encourages chefs to look in their own backyards instead of flying in
vegetables from halfway across the globe. “There has been a revival across the
globe with (the idea of) returning to one's roots and using those inspirations
with new techniques. Indians are now beginning to realize it as well,“ says
Cardoz, who made Americans swoon at the taste of the humble upma.“Restaurants
in India for the longest time have looked to the east or west for inspiration.“
Not everyone, though, is convinced of the trend.
Manu Chandra, executive chef and partner at
Monkey Bar and The Fatty Bao, introduced regional dishes like Coorg pandi
(pork) curry and Gujarati snacks like dabeli to the pub-going generation way
back in 2012. He is amused at the sudden interest in local produce and cautions
against unimaginative aping of a trend. “Everything that was familiar is now
exotic, how ironic is that,“ he says with a chuckle. “It's a pity that the
restaurant evolution in this country was restricted to a homogenized mix of
dishes which would seldom evoke a sense of familiarity and longing. While I
think it's great that people are at least eating vegetables they have grown up
with, they must look at what they are putting on the dining table at home and
what's wrong with that picture.“
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Ruhi Batra
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TOI19APR15
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