At a time when more and more restaurants in Delhi are looking at foreign shores for inspiration, it is a delight to come across one that looks inwards. Saatvik at Select City Walk in Saket offers Indian food in an Indian ambience the Indian way. Though the restaurant hosts a food festival every month, this month's Gujarati food festival deserves greater attention, firstly because you do not always get to taste authentic Gujarati food and, secondly, even when we do get it at fairs and exhibitions, the ambience is more of street food than the real Gujarati fare. Under the circumstances, Saatvik deserves a lot of credit for paying attention to its ambience with a dash of clay and hay on the walls besides colourful ribbons, flags and the likes. One can, for a moment, think one is sitting in Bharuch rather than Delhi.
Food, too, retains the actual Gujarati flavour — spices being on the lighter side and a pinch of sugar in almost every dish creating a distinct and unique combination of sweet and spicy. Sugar and spice is the essence of Gujarati cuisine.
One can start with snacks like khandvi and dhokla, which are served with a tomato chutney, and move on to dahi ka shorba. (Buttermilk tempered with curry leaves and spinach, it is supposed to aid digestion.) Moving on to the main course, a thali is served with five different dishes consisting of makai na bharta (American corn kernels tossed in chopped masala), undhiyo (assorted seasonal vegetables paired with muthiya), Gujarati kadi dhokali (a fusion of traditional Gujarati kadi stewed with crisp dhokla), traveti dal (a combination of three different dals) and bhakri (Guajrati roti made with whole wheat flour). There's also rice pulao. In the dessert section, aamrakhand (mango flavoured sweet creamed curd cheese) is provided, which again combines sweet and sour.
