There's nothing that I like more — apart from a juicy kabab or a crisp kachori, or perhaps a plump pork chop or a succulent beef steak — than getting letters from readers. Some days ago, an email caught my eye. It was from the Venezuelan ambassador in India, and I was happy to read that she loved street food. But Ambassador Milena Ramirez had written with another purpose. Being a great foodie, she had asked a visiting friend, a well-known Brazilian chef, to cook for a small gathering of guests. And she'd invited me to taste the chef's special dishes.
I was delighted. For one, Venezuela is a country that I have long admired, and Chavez is a hero of what was once called the Third World. To top it, Brazilian food is one of the most exciting cuisines that I know of. In fact, the food of South America is a delicious mélange of influences. I have tasted dishes from Colombia, Ecuador, Chile, Peru and so on, and have always been greatly impressed by the various kinds of streams that constitute the food of the region.
So, of course, I accepted the ambassador's invite. The visiting Brazilian chef, Carlos Siffert from São Paulo, is quite a celebrity chef. São Paulo itself is considered the food hub of Brazil. And the food of the city is a great blend of various kinds of cuisines, reflecting the ethnic roots of the people living there. So, not surprisingly, Chef Carlos had prepared a most interesting menu for us.
There was a lot on the table — including crispy fried karelas, fried bhindi and malai kofta — but I am going to concentrate on the chef's offerings. I had an excellent dish called moqueca, which is a traditional Brazilian seafood stew. The broth had been lightly spiced, enhancing the flavours of fish and prawns. I am told that there are a few varieties of this dish. The moqueca we ate was from Bahia. This recipe, influenced by African cuisine, is flavoured by coconut milk.
The moqueca was eaten with a wonderful rice dish. The chef had cooked the rice in milk and coconut milk, topped it with grated coconut and then chilled it in a mould. The rice was mind-bogglingly different — I had never eaten anything like this before. And it went beautifully with the light stew.
I also enjoyed the empadas, little savoury pies filled with melting cheese. There was a dish of fried cassava, a starchy tuber, too. The taste, so mildly sweet that it's almost bland, had been pepped up with a pinch of salt, and I liked it. It reminded me a bit of our jackfruit fries. We ended the meal with a caramelised banana flambé. And the dessert was the sweet ending to what had been a most enjoyable evening.
I am told the chef has cooked for a host of eminent people such as Jacques Cousteau and John Updike. And now that I know I am in that august group, my feet have not stopped tapping. I think they are doing the Samba.
