Snacks with an Accent

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The Great One pinged me asking whether I'd be interested in attending a four-hands collaboration between Chef Shantanu Mehrotra of Indian Accent and Chef Gaurav Kulhari of Chaat. She would be in Europe for the festivities in advance of The World's 50 Best Restaurants, but had been told that she could pass along her invitation to someone else.

As Foursheets is halfway around the world, I needed to find a dining companion willing to put up with me for a couple of hours. Thankfully The Man in White T-shirt was available and curious enough, so I didn't have to be the loner for the day. 

We are treading on B Bestie's turf, so I wasn't the least bit surprised to find that lunch had turned into dinner service for us. Thankfully I don't have anything planned for dinner since I'm home alone. B Bestie also very smartly kept me away from the table he was actually hosting for lunch...

Khakhra, vatana, chutneys, from Indian Accent - the flavors of the Gujarati khakra (ખાખરા) shell were now familiar to me after the few visits I paid The Bombay East Indian Girl last year, and here we've got some peas inside, with yogurt and tamarind chutney, and finally bits of dhokla (ઢોકળાં) on top with a tiny piece of avocado.

Kothimbir vadi, chilli peanut thecha, from Indian Accent - the Maharastrian kothimbir vadi (कोथिंबीर वडी) was pretty nice, with a crispy exterior and a soft interior, and of course the coriander flavors were prominent. The chili peanut thecha (ठेचा) definitely brought some heat.

Kristal caviar, sweet shrimp, aam panna pani puri, from Chaat - that was quite the presentation with dry ice...

Underneath the superfluous caviar which, admittedly, did not detract and worked decently with the pani puri, we've got a cold mixture of aam panna (आम पन्ना) sauce made with raw mangoes, Alaskan pink shrimp (甘海老) from Russia, lentils, and pomegranate seeds. There was a nice level of heat and stronger spices like cumin. Nicely done.

The first drink I ordered was sitting at the bar counter for quite a few minutes, so I thought I'd message B Bestie to fetch it for me since he was standing only about 2 meters away. Didn't count on him to ignore me and continue talking to the restaurant staff...

Tamarind highball - this was pretty interesting with all the savory spices.

Tandoori quail, from Chaat - marinated in spices like turmeric, garam masala, yellow chili, yogurt... They substituted the beetroot sauce with a tomato sauce for me.

The sauce had hardened and crusted up from being in the tandoor. There's some heat here but not too much. I could definitely taste the ginger in the mix.

Soft shell crab, congee, narthangai, from Indian Accent - I didn't know they had congee/kanji in India, so this was a nice discovery. I liked the soft-shell crab with little dots of Madras gunpowder sauce to add some interesting heat. The flavors of the congee were fairly light, so the curry leaf bringing the aromatics was pretty nice. The congee also came with pickled mango as well as pickled citron that was not unlike Cantonese salted lemon (鹹檸檬), and as both were fairly salty, I would have liked to have had more congee to balance things out.

Kokum sour - I was first introduced to kokum (कोकम) by The Bombay East Indian Girl last year, so I was curious about this drink. This was rum-based and the kokum really brought its fruity acidity to work with the coconut milk. At first glance, though, I thought they had mistakenly given me a glass of bandung...

 

Halibut pollichathu, from Chaat - a popular dish from Kerala but done using Dutch halibut, the fish was pan-fried before being wrapped in banana leaf - and the wrap was kept in place with the use of 3 cloves piercing through the leaves.

We've got tomato and onions on top, and I would have guessed perhaps some ginger. The sauce was acidic but the thing also tasted a little like otak otak to me... The level of heat was just nice, and I really could have used some rice to go with this.

Wagyu, sweet onion korma, from Indian Accent - the beef cheek was marinated in "basic spices", then served with a pickled daikon, fried onion ring, and a sauce that was either sweet onion korma (as printed on menu) or sweet garlic korma (as introduced).

The beef, unfortunately, was tepid. I would have preferred it warmer so the fat was melty and satisfying.

Black dairy dal, from Indian Accent - the dal makhani (ਦਾਲ ਮੱਖਣੀ) was made with cream and ghee (घी). Very rich and heavy.

Pomelo and roasted cumin raita, from Indian Accent - the pomelo came with spices like cumin, and this was really nice. Loved how refreshing this was.

Kashmiri gucchi pulao, from Chaat - I've had absolutely wonderful gucchi khichdi from my friend a few times so I was expecting great things here. Got some caramelized onions to make it a little more "moreish", along with almonds and pomegranate seeds.

Black truffle and onion naan, from Chaat - I dunno why B Bestie asked the kitchen to send this extra dish out, it's not like we didn't have enough to eat, and the two jaded palates here don't get impressed with truffle sauce...

Indian Accent kulcha - apparently Indian Accent is well-known for their stuffed kulcha (कुल्चा), and today we had butter chicken inside.

Doda burfi treacle tart, vanilla bean ice cream, from Indian Accent - reported invented by wrestler Harbans Vig in his kitchen over 100 years ago, this was my first doda burfi (ਢੋਡਾ ਬਰਫੀ) and I really loved it. It was intensely sweet just like I would expect, and it worked really well with the ice cream. If I only had the stomach space for another serving...

Golden chai masala, from Chaat - this came with a performative service, but unfortunately neither of us were interested in taking a video and posting online. Still a very tasty glass of masala chai.

I was really, really stuffed... and I tried to tempt The Man in White T-shirt into having some expensive gelato with me after lunch. Unfortunately he had had enough of my company by this point and chose to run away... Anyway, I was very grateful to have inherited this invitation from The Great One, and I do love these lessons on "Indian" cuisine - since I understand that the diversity of cuisine across the subcontinent is certainly not less than the diversity of "Chinese" cuisine. Looking forward to more lessons in the future, perhaps at Indian Accent in Delhi!