Rajasthani Food Fest @ Hornby's (ITC Grand Central)

Those of you who have known me for a while now, also know that the man and I share a special love for Rajasthan. And in the last few years, we have been gradually exposed to Rajasthani, especially Mewari cuisine, by the folks in Udaipur.

So the whole Dal Baati Churma, Ker Sangri, Linua, Ghewar, Doodh Ke Laddoo, Marwari Dal Kadhi trip etc. has been done. And most importantly, at home. By seasoned chefs who have been cooking the food of that land for several decades now. From Mami's Ker Sangri to Khemraj (the Maharaj at her place) Bhaiyaa's Dal Bati, the drill is now familiar.

So when I had two back-to-back invites for Rajasthani food sampling (read pigging out) I was not going to say no. Even if they meant trusting the digestive system to not collapse. Coz Rajasthani food is not benign. It is tough, it is supposed to make you survive harsh desert conditions and the Mumbai palette is weak, not to forget, inexperienced. Nevertheless, we braced ourselves. In this post, you are going to get a quick view of what I tried, what I liked.

Rajasthani Food Fest @ Hornby's (ITC Grand Central, Parel, Mumbai)

This was a buffet. Which was all mixed up with Continental, Greek and North Indian, complete with a cheese platter etc. While people told me that the place caters to an international audience, I felt the least they could have done was allow the food its own little nookie, a place where it could stand out in all its glory, probably with the theme reflecting in the decor around that space.

Nevertheless, we had a quick Q&A session with the Head Chef for this fest - Chef Kailash, who cooks at ITC Sonar (massive Marwari population in WB - a fact that every native Bong hates admitting) and who has in the past, cooked for the royalty at Rajasthani, including Maharaja Arvind Singh Ji. While our questions were answered, we were served a welcome drink (jaljeera based virgin mojito). People were deliriously hungry so we made our way to the food counters.

For starters (vegetarian), they had Tilwale Paneer - I'd have eaten just this for dinner if I were allowed to do that. Yummy, crispy on the outside with a batter fry that had loads of white sesame. And soft, melty paneer inside. With a lovely mint chutney to go on the side.

We had Bharwan Mirch Ka Salad - a stuffed Indian Jalapeno. The filling has saunf (fennel seeds), methi dana (fenugreek seeds), ginger, and a load more - served slightly cold dunked in a virgin oil and chopped soft walnuts - this was lovely and definitely a palate cleaner, with ingredients that would prepare your digestive tract for the onslaught that would follow. Loved it.

There was Panchmel Dal (5 dals together) that is served with the Churma and Baati - the Baatis were lightly fried in pure cow's ghee and then steamed to retain the softness. Rustic baatis are harder than that. This was good - personally, I prefer my dal and baati and end with churma alone but mine was served combined - dal baati with churma. I am not a big fan of combining sweet and salty flavours so that did not work for me - but separated, the dal baati and churma would have been awesome.



There were curries and subzis - Dhaniya Mangodi (Coriadner Moon Dal Dumplings), Pittod Masaldar (also what we call Gatte - gram flour dumplings in a tomato gravy), Badami Moongfali Curry (Peanuts in Almond Sauce), Ker Sangri (this is sort of my litmus test dish for Rajasthani cuisine - read more about it here), Paneer Mircha (cottage cheese in capsicum, tomatoes and onions). There was the quintessential Dal Makhni, of course. There was Sev & Mutter Pulao (gram flour shavings with basmati rice and green peas) and Papads (spinach and urad dal papads, salted with the foam from Sambar lake - India's only natural salt water lake).

What I loved? The company :) Desh and Ashrita aka Caramel Wings, Gaurav and his missus, Shirin from burrp! were there to taste food and gossip. In the food section, the Pittod Masaldar was luscious, cooked well, soft and melt-in-the-mouth. Ker Sangri was nice, better than what I have eaten in this city but not close if compared to what we make at home - I'd have liked some more amchoor in mine and a little less pale. The Peanuts in Almond Sauce was creamy and flavourful - while I cannot eat a fistful of peanuts in one session, it was definitely worth a good try. The rest, I found okay - not out of the world but not bad either. The Paneer Mircha was average - it could have been skipped. The Pulao - the heat had turned the sev soggy so I could not really differentiate it much from the rice - it was okay.

Desserts. The big test :) They had Ghewar (a ghee-fried, sugar syrup soaked, wheat based Rajasthani festive sweetmeat) and Lapsi (broken wheat pudding flavoured with cardamom, saffron, almonds, pistachios). People usually look down on Lapsi (poor man's food, high fibre and sort of qualifies as what your nutritionist would recommend to you) - but this one? After the first few bites, which seemed humble, the thing grew on me. It's the kind of dessert that isn't overwhelmingly sweet and so, you can have quite a bit of it. Recommended.

The Ghewar, which I was all kicked about, was a bit of a dampener - the flavours were perfect but it was just not crisp enough for me - while it isn't meant to be overtly crispy either, but this was one sort of, umm, limp. Anyway, I was eating Ghewar after months and I did not complain much about it :)

The food in the fest keeps changing, keeping some basic recipes like the Dal Baati, Churma etc. in place. For 1800 bucks plus taxes, would I go back for this? Umm, maybe :)