I love autumn for many reasons. One, it ushers in winter and bids goodbye to several months of sweltering heat and humid weather. Two, this is the time when there are festivals around. And, three, festivals often mean food — so that’s another reason to rejoice. One of the more enjoyable festivals of the season is the annual one organised by the India International Centre (IIC) in Delhi. The IIC, as we all know, is a beautiful complex, and just to sit there and look at the greenery around is a balm for sore eyes. But this season, when it organises festivals themed around different subjects, is particularly exciting. This year’s fest was a mélange of ideas and cultures. I went there a few times, and came back culturally richer and somewhat fatter.
Alas, one cannot eat out every day — for I would have liked to have tried the food at the Spanish and Mangalore-Konkan dinners. I was present at two of the food festivals (which followed cultural evenings). I heard the enthusiastic qawwali rendered by Ustad Chand Afzal and his group and after the performance went to taste the food from “The Sufi Kitchen” curated by Babso Kanwar. Kanwar and the food maestro Pushpesh Pant are a formidable duo, and had earlier laid out a vast table at the IIC of Partition food from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan – which included dishes that are now dying or dead.
The Sufi Kitchen, again, was a table groaning with food. I will tell you the three dishes that I enjoyed the most – the kakori kabab, which was so subtly spiced that, like Oliver Twist, I wanted some more (but, sadly, it was over). The dal gosht was thick and spicy, and the mildly sweet taste in the chicken lapayta appealed to me.
Two days later, we were there for Thanjavur food. A beautiful canopy had been set up on the Rose Garden, and we were the first ones there because people had mostly gathered to listen to Sikkil Gurucharan. I missed that, but was happy to see that the food had been laid out, all ready for the early birds.
Thanjavur food highlights an interesting mix of influences. Recipes for the dishes that had been cooked by the IIC kitchen, stuff had been culled from the cookbooks of Serfoji II. The Maratha king was the last ruler of Thanjavur, and that accounts for the divergent streams in the cuisine.
I started with the mutton pasandhe, which was excellent, flavoured as it was with fennel and coconut. The shrimp curry was very, very good, with small crunchy shrimps in thick and spicy gravy. I was wondering which of the vegetables dishes to go for. There was an array of dishes cooked with brinjal, ladyfinger, pumpkin, drumsticks and so on.
We were sitting with our friend, Srini, who claims he is from Thanjavur (though he is actually from Rabindra Nagar) and once he gave his nod to the drumstick and jackfruit seed curry, I helped myself to it. Indeed it was very nice, with the soft seeds mingling well the juicy drumsticks. I enjoyed the pumpkin poricurry, too – a mashy dish of white pumpkin.
On the dessert table there was something called an orange puff, said to have been evolved by the king’s kitchen. I bypassed that and had the Mysore pak. This wasn’t as ghee-drenched as the sweet tends to be, but was certainly most delicious.
All in all, I had some very nice moments at the festival. Now for next year!
