The Taj Bubble Cafe’s latest food festival, ‘Around the World in 15 Days’, is what it promises to be—a whirlwind tour for your palate, of varied cuisines. Created to celebrate 15 years of the restaurant’s existence, it showcases the most popular dishes the menu has hosted over the years. “We’ve put together around 100 dishes for each day and the options change throughout the course of the festival. The cuisines range from Punjabi and South-West coastal to Mexican, Italian and regional fare,” says executive chef, Jaffar Ali.
To begin with, we sample appetisers from the 10 live counters available. There’s a chat stall offering some well-spiced samosa chat, kachoris , aloo tikkis and palak pakoda chat. Don’t forget to try the butterfly prawns soaked in buttery lemon sauce, the slightly bland roast leg of pork, the excellent reggae-reggae chicken skewers, and the fusion special, grilled tuna with mustard honey, all whipped up right before your eyes, to suit your tastes. From the Western world, the starters section also features mini pizzas, sizzlers and steaks made to order. Among the salads, the experimental pasta and tuna salad is worth a try, as is the cold chicken tikka salad.
The main course is less adventurous with its highlights being naadan staples such as meen mulagilittathu , pork varattiyathu and kozhuva fry—all three richly flavoured with local masalas. Representing North India are roomali rotis with murgh awadi khorma and murgh tikka . If Oriental cuisine is your choice for the evening, the chef has his special Malah noodles—served dry with a side of large mushrooms.
Sri Lankan food finds a mention too, with the juicy Sri Lankan beef curry and the unusual jackfruit curry, for those who prefer vegetarian dishes. There is also a live counter for yam galoutis, a creation the chef says tastes like it is made of mutton though it uses only yam. For accompaniment, there are many varieties of rice, including the sweet corn and paneer pulao as well as a generous pot of Lucknowi biryani.
To round off a sumptuous dinner, 15 desserts await you from the Malayali palada payasam to moong dal halwa . If you favour fruit desserts, try the blueberry financer and the strawberry brulee. Most memorable though are the perfectly balanced mocha pudding and the rather strange, but successful bitter muddy chocolate.
