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Indian Culinary Route
12 CHEFS 12 CITIES 12 CUISINES
This has been an event that Bangalore has been looking upto for quite some time. I still remember the times when the initial ads started pouring in various Social Media channels, I had this bookmark this as must attend event. But glad that there was a special invite for the bloggers to be part of the event.
To give a brief intro, it was a culmination of 12 CHEFS meeting under 1 roof @Mariott – Whitefield. Apart from the opportunity of meeting the 12 Chefs, eating the food they have prepared, I was excited to go to Mariott as it’s a really good place.
The event was an idea to bring in food of 12 different cuisines including –
Rajasthani, Gujrathi, Maharastrian, Delhi, Goa, Hyderabadi, Kerala, Chettinad, Karnataka, Lucknow, Gharawali & Punjabi.
The individual counters were represented by the Chefs from the corresponding Mariott. Let me share my experience by sharing info regarding the individual cuisines, along with info on CHEF and the food served.
- Best of Karnataka – Chef Thirumal
- Magic of Kerala – Chef Saji
- Chettinad Spices– Chef Satish Reddy
- Lucknow/Awadi – Chef Shanawaz Qureshi
- Gharawali from the Hills – Chef Deepak Rana
- Heavenly Hyderabad – Chef Madhusudhan Rao
- Gastronomic Goan – Chef Selester Fernandes
- Gourmet Gujarati – Chef Mitesh Saraiya
- Radiant Rajasthani – Chef Ranjith
Let me share my experience of eating some good at various food-stations.
Namma Karanataka Food
The delicacies served in this section included mostly from the Mangalore sytle.
Like the Mangalore Bajjiis with various chutneys that went alogn with the bajjis. And yes there some varieties of pakodas as well.
Cochin India
Chef Sajjis has quite a few items for us to pick up from some of them included. Appam and some chutneys that went along with it.
But the fact I remember in this section was the variety of home-made pickles that were there to take.
The pickle flavors included – Bittergoaurd, Mango & Pineapple, Pineapple (only), Kadkumanga, Beetroot, Egglant. Section was named as ‘Kerdian Kalappam’.
I never thought that so many varieties of pickles could be made. Infact, I would say that its an out of the box thinking.
Namma Chennai
This section had quite a few of the known varieties including – Panniyaram with 3 different flavors, Adai with chutney and subji, curd-rice, sambar and many other items.
Panniyaram was simply superb, which was served with 5 types of chutneys. Enjoyed it with all varieties of them.
Adai also was very well done and it tasted quite good with the subji and chutneys.
Lucknow Corner
I guess this was a section which was only focused on the ‘Non-Veg’ part of the food. It was quite disappointing coz everyone would not have only non-veg right.
There should have been an assortment of the veg kebabs as well.
Gharawali – Hill Side Food
This is supposed to the food of the hills. I did not think they had much of vegetarian option. Another disappointing section to say.
Hyderbadi Corner
This was one of the real good section where they had quite a few items for offering including – Hyderabadi Biryanis, Chaats including – Katori Chaat,
Pani Puri, Dahi Puri, Samosa Chaat.
It was fun eating the items as they tasted quite good.
When you see so much food on display, you get tempted to surely eat more. But then I did control coz there were many more items to be tried.
Delhi/Punjabi Food
The chef was available almost all the time and he made sure he would share his idea of the good food.
I ended up trying few items from here including the – Chole Bautre, Mock-meat (soya based) that went along with Naan.
The ‘Batura’ was well made it went along quite well with chole.
Taste was brilliant.
Goan Food
Interesting they have few different food items for veg including – Butata Chi Kappu, Cottage Cheese & Green Peas Foogath.
Butata was more like dry item and then foogath with a bit of gravy was to be consumed with the Paav Bhaji bread.
Chef was quite cool and willing to click picture with us.
Maharastrian Food
This section the most famous items was the Matka Chaach.
There we nice clay cups in which you would take the chaach/butter-milk.
Another item that was there was the Poori-Bhaaji. The bhaaji was having good quantity of Aloo + Gravy. Taste was quite good.
Chef was so busy that when we wanted to take pics, he decided just stay behind at the counter and posed for picture.
Gujarati
This section maximum vegetarian food could be expected. Some of the items that were there included – Alook Ki Katli, Shakawale Veda & Daal.
Chef had kept a selection of daal also on display.
Rajasthani
Another section where vegetarian can feast. Items like Mari Idli & Khandvi, Cashewnut & Karela Saag.
Chef was quite cool and was having a long conversation where in he told about the place and the place made. He also invited to the Mariott @Jaipur to be able to enjoy the delicacy.
I guess this bring to the end of the food items that were there on display and many of the ones that I consumed. But there were quite a few additives like – Paapads, Deserts, Beverages I should be telling about.
Beverages
There were 2 varieties of Alcoholic & 2 Non-Alcoholic drinks available.
Elder Flower
A nice Vodka based drink served in a classy glass. The taste was pretty good and it went along well with the main course that I was having.
Passion Fint
This was pretty okay drink which was again based on Vodka. But was served in a very unique glass.
Elanner
This was a non-alcoholic drink which was pretty okay. Nice presentation of the drink, but when you try the alcoholic the non-alcoholic somehow is a bit dullish J
Drink section was in one corner and just outside the M-Café dine-in area. But it was quite noticeable by people. And we had to goto the counter and tell about the drink and they would get it.
Deserts
I guess this for sure is a highlight coz they had quite a few deserts for us to consume. There were cake based, traditional indian sweets and fruits ofcourse.
Few of the deserts that were there including – Jamoon, Rasmalai, Velevet Cake, Vanilla Pistachio Butter Cake, Rasgulla, Pineapple based desert, Anjeer Barfi, Kesar Barji.
Its hard to describe all of them but yes few of them that I could recollect, I managed to mention.
Service/Variety
I want to take a special note on the service where in there were some #(s) boards in each table. The service was planned well, where in we had to goto the counter, tell the Table # and they would deliver the food there instead of having to wait for it to be ready and then take it.
The managers and the waiters were very willing to help customers who were looking for some food.
Chefs were also equally willing to spend time talking about the food, place, ideas.
Rating
I would rate this experience @M-Café to be 4.0/5 and wish that many more such events happen so that we can enjoy delicacies from different parts of India.
My rating in individual departments would be –
Food – 4.0/5
Service – 4.0/5
Ambiance – 4.5/5
Drinks – 3.75/5
The overall cost of the event would be INR1600+Taxes which is a good price for anyone to come try variety.
Conclusion
It was a great evening where I got chance to meet the chef and spend time with many of my foodie friends. Hopefully other hotels also take up this idea and bring in similar events in Food-Loving Bangalore city!
Ofcourse, our foodie freinds, they make the event more special 🙂
Foodies with me included – Aarti Kamath, Nitin Hajela, Shruti Suresh, Debolina Ray, Balakrishnan Subramanyan, Nikhilesh Murthy, Manjunath Chikkars, Tapash Kumar Sahu, Caroline Radhakrishnan, Jai Foodie Gurudev, Faraz Ahamed
