Delhi's Goa Belly
A mega restaurant that serves chaat and kebabs, a Goan shack
that brings sand and susegade to Delhi -regional food will have its moment in
2017
It's yet another crowded evening in Delhi's Connaught Place,
Lutyens' showpiece that has changed character through every decade of its
80-year history. As a nightlife hub with perhaps the highest concentration of
bars in the entire country, CP's current avatar may be quite at odds with the
stateliness of its Georgian origins but no one can accuse it of having remained
frozen in time.
There's chaos and confusion, the energy of new money
transforming an old business district. There are bright-eyed women in boots and
jackets, men with flashy belts, who have driven all the way from their distant
West Delhi enclaves to get a drink or more. Everything is alive and bustling
and parking lots spill over way past the office hours. By the time we have
navigated through the chaos, we are in dire need of a reprieve. Some Goan
susegad will do quite well. If life cannot always be a beach, the laidback
beach shack can perhaps come to us.
Lady Baga is the latest brand of Olive Bar and Kitchen, one of
India's largest restaurant companies, that owns Olive, SodaBottleOpenerWala and
Monkey Bar. The idea is to recreate a Goan beach shack experience, channel some
of the flower power and easygoing spirit of a Goa that perhaps doesn't exist
today.
The first of the “shacks“ is set to open middle of this week,
right in CP. The signboard is still going up when we walk up the stairs for a
preview, looking at old pictures that capture the liberal, multiculturalism of
Goa in the 1960s and '70s . There's one in particular that catches one's
attention.It's an iconic poster of the Beatles, whose visit in the swinging
'60s had put the gold en beaches of Calangute (and Baga) firmly on the global
map.How ironic then that Goa should now be put on a platter for the Lady Gaga
generation.
Lady Baga, the name, may make you smile. Inside, a faux beach
with sand and two comfortable beach beds will make you scramble and fight for
the right to laze on them, Chorizo Bloody Mary in hand (quite an inspired take
on the Bacon Bloody Marys trending in international bars). There's also
cashewinfused vodka shots (inspired by feni), kitschy décor, Goan thalis, fresh
seafood flown in from Mumbai, sandwiches, French toast, omelettes with prawn
curry poured on top, all apparently pop dishes of older shacks, a huge shower,
and above all, a defining video, projected wall to wall, of the sea shot for 24
hours, real time.
“You hardly have the old-style shacks anymore. But I remember
those such as 29 Coconuts at Candolim that were quite something. It had tiled
floors, a tree growing in the middle and a real shower, which was a big thing,“
says restaurateur AD Sin gh, partner and managing director 7 of the Olive
Group. It's the memory of these experi ences as well as one of Singh's older
brands, Soul Fry, a two-decade old coastal café that still rolls on in Mumbai,
that seem to have inspired this new venture that will eventually go pan-India.
However, it is not just nostalgia but also a deeper thought
about where the restau rant business in India is now headed and how Indian food
within restaurants is panning out that is equally behind Lady Baga's foray,
complete with its cheerful psychedelia.
Future of
Indian FoodAnyone even remotely acquainted with the country's
restaurantscape will recognise that Indian food as a category is driving
business in bars, cafes and restaurants. However, what kind of Indian food that
is is debatable. “Modern Indian“, as it is dubbed, has been the current
darling. What it encompasses is hard to tell. Anything from carbon bhaji (paos
coloured black with ash, served with bhaji), molecular chaat trying in vain to
imitate Gaggan's Bangkok success to deconstructed samosas, valiantly sous vided
lamb, sausage aspiring to be kebab, butter chicken in sushi rolls or worse
could be termed as contemporary Indian. In short, there is an overriding
emphasis on plating and “fusion“ at most restaurants.
Says Singh: “Over the last few years, Indian products have come
to the forefront at bars, pubs, gastropubs etc. We ourselves as a company have
been at the forefront of that. Unfortunately, with a lot of people jumping into
the space, now there is a khichdi.“
This oversupply of mixed and mixed-up restaurants and bars has
begun to bore the metro consumer. Over the last few months, there has been
increasing discourse against generic Indian food that relies on plating or
technique to wow customers. Restaurateurs are beginning to recognise this too.
Gee! Chaat
“We are tired of modern Indian. It does not work. I don't
believe in it,“ says Ankur Bhatia, executive director of the Bird Group, who is
also in the hospitality business. Bhatia is set to launch Kheer, a mega
226-cover Indian restaurant at the new Roseate hotel in Delhi's Aerocity.
Inspired by the Zuma restaurants, Kheer will be an informal diner serving
backto-basics kebabs and chaats with no-fuss presentations and service. The brand
may travel to London later.
Rohit Aggarwal, director Lite Bite Foods, that has 12 restaurant
brands across India, including the popular Punjab Grill, says any “modern
Indian“ food should keeps its classical underpinnings in place. “Indian food
needs to be relevant to a younger audience. It can be made lighter and perhaps
given a fun presentation if that truly works. But classical flavours and
research is important. The way to go forward is to bring classical regional
cuisines but in a younger way,“ he adds. His company is looking to open its
first “modern Indian“ restaurant at Delhi's Malcha Marg this year. It has also
just come up with Punjab Grill Tappa, a modern format of Punjab Grill but with
the parent DNA in place.
Every year, in fact, Punjab Grill conducts a “Rangla Punjab“
promotion that is a culmination of travel and research undertaken by chefs and
Aggarwal. They visit towns, farms and villages, sampling rustic food for
inspiration. “We went to a village where the whole tradition of langar started,“
says Aggarwal.Some of these travels have translated into dishes on the menu
like the Kotkapur Da Atta Chicken, covered with dough and roasted in a tandoor,
thought to have originated from Kotkapur in Faridkot.
Regional Goes Modern
If 2017 is ushering in a trend, it seems to be one revolving
around these wholesome, researched regional flavours, presented in nofuss,
“modern“ ways. Not that there aren't examples of this style of food in
restaurants.The Bombay Canteen, which has had such a spectacular run in Mumbai,
recreates everything from a classic nargisi kofta to the Keralastyle meen
pollichathu. Its chefs are known to travel across the country, visiting gourmet
cities like Kolkata, Lucknow or Kochi, every few months for inspiration.
Even Indian Accent, that ushered in the entire contemporary
revolution eight years ago, relies on locally inspired flavours rather than
technique even if it plays up presentation. Its sibling Chor Bizarre, Delhi's
biggest launch of last year, has remained firmly oldfashioned. The wazwan, its
core strength, is now being offered authentically and beauteously at its new
address -the spectacular Bikaner House.
Restaurants such as the Delhi Club House owned by Marut Sikka
toe a similar line of “modern“ Indian, where well researched, regional flavours
are at the fore. Internationally, the acclaim of Paowalla in New York and even
the success of Dishoom (whatever you may think of its food) are built on this
definition of modern, regional Indian food. SodaBottleOpenerWala has
reacquainted an entire generation of Indi ans with the idea of Irani cafes,
broadening their appeal with Mumbai-style food that may not always be “Irani“.
Clearly, that is a role model for Lady Baga, which seeks to
broaden the beach experience. While keeping its pop credentials in place, the
restaurant serves up quality Goan food. To find fish such as bangda and bombil
on a Delhi menu is an exception. The Goan curry uses rawas, all flown in from
Mumbai. I haven't tasted a fresher fish cafreal even in Goa, the xacuti with
its roasted masalas is spot on, as is the vindaloo with its pork and vinegar.
It's top-class regional cooking, never mind if the format is modern and chain.
Question of Technique
Any student of cuisine and culinary traditions knows how
difficult it is to navigate the ideas of historicity and “authenticity“ in
food.What exactly is traditional or classical? It's a question that has no
clear answers. A corollary to it is the question of technique. When cuisines
evolve as a response to social and scientific changes, the tech niques of
cooking change too. But is pressure-cooked dal (subsequently smoked with a gun)
any less than dal cooked overnight on a wood-fired chulha?
If modern Indian food is attempting to retain the soul of
traditional regional cooking even as it lightens up and finds a younger, fickle
audience, it is also trying to navigate the question of technique. Mindless
presentations and techniques brandished as theatrics without focusing on
flavours and details may have given us a contempo rary Indian that we don't
quite like but that doesn't mean that experimentation stops.The new wave of
food will necessarily have to adapt -judiciously.
One of the most interesting openings of this quarter will be ITC
Hotels' modern south Indian brand in Chennai. The yet-to-benamed brand seeks to
use all the expertise of Dakshin, which turned food from peninsular home
kitchens into a restaurant format.While the new brand will have these
underpinnings, its menu will not go the regional route. Dishes will be
spice-led and restaurant-created, sometimes using modern techniques like sous
vide. For a hotel group identified with its “classical“ Indian food, be it the
Avadhi-style Dum Pukht or Dakshin, this seems a new path.
What we deem as classic today was modern in another context.
Bukhara, one of India's most successful restaurant brands that has been running
for 40 years, brought the tandoor to the fore when traditional cooks used the
bhatti. It was a restaurant innovation. So was the Dum Pukht biryani that
borrowed from Lucknow's pulao tradition.
The litmus test must be whether any attempt at modernising keeps
the integrity of the parent cuisine. Like Singh says, “When Avatar came, people
started copying its technology without any basic storyline... If you can do
both, it's great. But if you only do only the theatrics without the substance,
the soul, then obviously it doesn't work.“
Here's looking to a 2017, when the soul comes back into modern
(regional) India food.
Anoothi Vishal
ETM8JAN17
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