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The Indian Accent, a part of the small, luxury hotel carved out of a big bungalow with a lush overlooking garden that is heavenly in the winter season, has been a popular cosy restaurant in other avatars for the residents and loyal clients from the neighbourhood alike even before the hotel was leased by Rohit Khattar- owned Old World Hospitality.
Aman Resorts had used the restaurant and the adjoining onyx bar facing a verandah, offering a magnificent view of the expansive garden for serving Mediterranean cuisine. ‘But when we took over the hotel on lease last year and asked our clients most of whom are expats, they showed a distinct preference for Indian Food, says Rohit.
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| Chef Manish Mehrotra |
Rich with experience of running Indian restaurants like Chor Bizarre in Delhi and London, Delhi o‘Delhi in the Habitat Center, Rohit knew he did not want to offer the similar run-of-the-mill desi food. So he took the help of his executive chef Manish Mehrotra who had opened Oriental Octopus in the Habitat and is now looking after the Pan Asian restaurant Tamarai in London too, to come out with a menu which would test the boundaries and offer a 21st century fare and flair.
Chef Manish set out to use the best local fresh produce and ingredients from the world market to create something that might be turned as fusion food, contemporary modern food but would excite the traditional yet adventurous taste buds. Thus evolved uncommon dishes like masala morsels (the rare gucchhi mushrooms) with water chestnuts and paper rolled dosai , panko crusted bharwan mirch with goat cheese mousse and aam papad chutney, fois gras stuffed galawati kebabs with chilli strawberry chutney, tamarind glazed lamb shank, rice crusted red snapper moily with pine nut poriyal, anardana and avocado raita-all of which I devoured and make me salivate when I think of them. Even the humble naan became an epicurean delight with stuffing of wild mushrooms and a sprinkling of truffle oil.
The Wine Experience
The food preparation and presentation cries out for a glass of wine with every course-well almost. The puchkas (gol-gappas) made in wholemeal and semolina with masala cous cous were served each resting invitingly on top of a small shot glass filled with five waters, mint, tamarind, pineapple, pomegranate and buttermilk. Delicious appetite builders-they could be my main course or the only course. But I won’t waste the dry Riesling from the Rheinhessen based Estate of Gunderloch owned by my friends Fritz and Agnes Hasselbach with tem and save it for most of the other dishes served as we went along.
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| Charles Metcalfe with guests |
The painstaking job their London based consultant Charles Metcalfe has done to experiment and pare wine with food, thus creating a wine experience through the wine list he has created, reflects on the palate; puchka-riesling included. The smoked salmon- Villa Maria NZ Chardonnay might be a classical pairing but the morels were simply divine with the Yerring Station Chardonnay from Yarra Yarra Valley as was the bharwan mirch with the Villa Maria Sauvignon Blanc.
If the galawati kebabs show a resistance to match with wine due to the exotic spices, it did not show with Charles overcoming it by selecting a simple village appellation Bourgogne red from Louis Jadot. Anybody can select a Shiraz for a lamb dish but the Peter Lehman from Barossa Valley did ample justice to the tamarind glazed juicy shank with its ripeness, fullness and the acid backbone that teased and played with the fat in the meat while the soft tannins smooched the tender meat in the mouth.
The great wine experience reached the crescendo with my all-time favourite crunchy apple crumble dancing with the Late Harvest Furmint dessert wine from Oremus in Tokaj, Hungary (oops, I forgot that ‘Hungary’ is redundant now that Italy and France and in fact no other country can use the word Tokaj) on my palate. Cheese cake with chyawanprash served with badam milk might be a healthy aphrodisiac but I had made the mistake of attacking the sweeter crumble earlier and its flavour did not impress.
Great Value Meal
A similar culinary experience with the degustation menu I leisurely enjoyed, would set you back by Rs. 1900 (Rs. 100 less if you are shakahari but eat eggs, -the menu clarifies it explicitly). The vegetarians, I feel get short changed unless they love the heavenly morels. But the 5 half glasses of wines (4 served in 75mL quantity, the Tokaj would be perhaps less) cost you only Rs. 1000 extra and are a great bargain for the palate and the purse. The opportunity of tasting five different wines rather than sharing a bottle is a bonus for the wine connoisseurs.
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| Food and Wine Experience with Rohit and Charles |
The complete degustation menu may set you back by almost Rs. 4000 a head with wine, taxes and service charge but you might be able to save over Rs. 1000 a person, if you order in the traditional Indian style and share dishes, advises the menu which lists average meal per head at Rs. 900 + + during lunch without beverages.
The Indian Accent has a sombre ambience to go with the serene environ. The service was very professional and warm and should not give any reason for complaint. A young Russian lady, Yulia Kisel ( I suspect she will be called Julie soon) welcomes you as the restaurant manager. If Siberia where she hails from in Russia, has women as beautiful as she, hordes of Indians would love to be exiled there. Her MBA at a Swiss hotel management institute, two year stint at a London hotel and knowledge of Indian cuisine make her an important part of the team that seems to be motivated and charged up to make the new restaurant in town a great food-with-wine destination for the discerning.
Subhash Arora
Menu Gallery |