Dehlvi belly

At the Dehlvi Food Festival, each morsel takes you on a trip back in time

The Dehlvi Food Festival at restaurant threesixtyone◦ at The Oberoi Gurgaon was a rare exception.

In an emerging food industry where people are coming up with fusion and molecular food, there is hardly any initiative which excites me and takes me back to my childhood. The Dehlvi Food Festival at restaurant threesixtyone◦ at The Oberoi Gurgaon was a rare exception.

Presenting one of the most secular cuisines for me, Chef Dirham Haque showcased some rare master dishes selected by him after a lot of research. Trusting his ability, as he has trained under Chef Manisha Bhasin, I went to taste some of my favourites. I say favourites because I have grown up on Dehlvi cuisine. Born in the walled city, my medicine for a cold used to be a piping hot spicy nehari.

All said and done, I met the young chef who presented his menu for the day. I was impressed by his selection of dishes as it was a perfect mélange of Mughlai, Marwari, Punjabi, Kayastha and Vaishya styles of cooking. To refresh me, the chef served mufarrah, a drink made out of rose petals. Justifying its name, the drink really brought

farhat (happiness) to my soul.

I followed it with a platter of non-vegetarian starters — tandoori tangri, sil batte ki shammi, gilawati kabab to name a few. The gilawati got its flavours and aroma right but the tempting sil batte ki shammi lacked in texture. A tad too refined and pasty, I would have preferred the chef to have used only hand pounded coarse mince, further grated on sil batta, as it would have improved its texture.

A jamun sorbet in between acted as a perfect palate cleanser to ready my taste buds for the main course to follow, a mix of very interesting dishes which could even tantalise the taste buds of a Mughal king. The murgh musallam with perfect stuffing and gravy to complement beat every other dish on the table. The Marwari influenced amrud ki sabzi impressed me a lot, as did the thande masale ki machli. The rare to find delicacy reminded me of my grandmother’s words: “Garmi mein machli khani hai to thande masalon mein banao uski taseer badal jaegi”.

For my final dish of the day, I had nehari which disappointed me a bit as it was more of an Awadhi preparation rather than from the Dehlvi gharana of cooking. To sign off with some sweet memories, I had the habshi halwa and the royal fruit cup.

Meal for two Rs. 7000 plus taxes