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Photos By:: Adil Arora
 Climbing the stairs to reach the first floor of Chez Nini Restaurant in Delhi where the 228th wine event of the Delhi Wine Club is being organized, one cannot miss the walls painted with black and adorned with interesting graphics in white on both sides. As you enter through the glass door, your eyes are fixated on an all-familiar hand cart on 4 bicycle tyres to your left-interesting because of various sizes of matkas (indigenous clay water-cooling pots) decorated with a bottle of bubbly, beautiful white lilies or the printed special Menu of the Brunch in each of them.
As we are handed a welcome glass of Prosecco, we notice the restaurant ambience has been changed yet another time for the members by the highly innovative Chef Nira Kehar for whom a Brunch does not mean infinite number of pre-cooked dishes laid out in the Buffet but serving each dish fresh and piping hot from the kitchen-starting from the breakfast items like French Toast. As we sit down to enjoy the chilled corn soup and Warm Mustard Potatoes and Peas salad made from the small whole skin potatoes, we know the food would be innovative and interesting –and of course delicious and in abundance. I see many people order another soup. Remembering Chef Nira’s advisory the previous day, I resist the temptation for the encore though.
It was a bubbly start for the lazy Sunday afternoon for the full house. Pissaldiere (the French equivalent of Pizza) is a specialty of the Chez and it must be a part of a meal at some stage. Today, it had two variants including the Pesto and Mushroom for vegetarians. I had been slightly apprehensive about the Classic (caramelized onions and anchovies) Pissaldiere due to the sometimes over-saltiness due to anchovies. Chef Nira had soothed my nerves and assured me she would use only a dash of anchovies to balance the sweetness of the caramelized onions. She was right on the button but I found myself devouring second and later third portion of the Pesto and Mushrooms, despite the crust being a bit too hard for me to chew. Cardinal Brut Prosecco helped me down the Pissaldiere slices nicely.
Four Proseccos and a Champagne
 A day earlier, as I had reflected at the Menu e-mailed to me by Chef Nira, it had been easy to decide the serving order of the bubblies-San Simone, Cardinal, Mionetto Prestige Collection, Foss Marai Roos and Drappier Brut Champagne. But I was slightly anxious whether the dishes would be sufficient for a 4-hour Brunch. Alleviating my fear Chef Nira said it would be very difficult for most members to finish all the dishes and in any case, repeats would be welcome.
I also had an apprehension about not much choice for the main dish since she had only lamb brioche and no white meat. But she was right on both counts! Not only did most people feel satiated before they reached for their dessert, no one thought about the chicken alternative we had planned as a contingency. This shows her acumen as a Chef to know what is good for the palate and stomach of her customers.
For the Club it was yet another occasion to experience that Prosecco can be a no-brainer match with the whole meal. Of course, I had selected the lighter bodied San Simone and Cardinal to precede the fuller bodied Mionetto Prestige Collection. The low level of alcohol, 11.5% in all three was also demonstrative of how a lower level alcohol wine is amenable better with food.
 Egg Benedict (on a bed of Pork belly on a toast) and Egg Florentine (on the bed of spinach on toast) would normally be considered a poor match with wine. No such problem with Prosecco-both went quite well even as the members were raving about both the dishes and debating which one was more delicious. I missed the shavings of white truffle that would take you to heaven for the brief moments when they are available in Italy (of course the momentary trip to heaven can be very expensive- 10gms of fresh white truffle shavings can cost €20-30, around Rs. 2000-Rs.3000, when in season!)
Pancake stacks and French Toast were delicious by themselves; Prosecco naturally paled in front of them due to the sugar in the dishes. Star of the Lunch Course that had Cauliflower Mousse and delicious dill gnocchi accompanying it was the Pull Lamb Brioche. Not only because the members were already groggy with too much food and wine, no one missed the chicken dish as is a customary option in the Main Course at the DWC events. Quasi Blanc de Noir Drappier Brut with about 90% of Pinot Noir, 3-5% Pinot Meunier and about 5% Chardonnay ruled over the Prosecco in comparison, by making a beautiful match with the Lamb Brioche and adding to the flavours.
 I was thinking it was not a total surprise that the amount of bubblies consumed was less than the wine we consume at our DWC events despite longer hours, as Chef Nira sprang another surprise by bringing out a gift pack for each member-a loaf of raisin bread which is one of her many specialties.
It might seem Crazy what I’m about to say*…but the combo of delicious, raining dishes with the FIVE bubblies, helped me change the lyrics of Lou Bega’s peppy number MomboNo.5 to ComboNo.5. If there had been karaoke this afternoon we would have danced to the tune of ‘Happy’, and we would have sung along:
COMBO No.5
A bit o’ San Simone for a start
A little bit Cardinal by my side
A little o’ Mionetto is all I need
A little bit of Rose Foss Marai
A bit o’ chilled Prosecco in the sun
Lovely food in the afternoon long
With that Drappier perfect Champ
A little bit of all makes me y’r man
Combo No.5
Subhash Arora
*Opening line of the popular song HAPPY by Pharrell Williams
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