The lit pool shimmers under the September sky at the Charcoal Skewers outdoor restaurant inside Fortune Pandiyan Hotel. The idyllic evening is jazzed up by Elvis Presley’s Can’t Help Falling In Love… , playing on a large projector screen and I take a seat near the sizzling tawa where the chefs are patting out perfect round rotis. As I go through the A’la Carte menu that offers over a dozen varieties of vegetarian and non-vegetarian wraps and rolls, I smell potatoes being fried with spices and see a fiery red filling getting wrapped in a delicate piece of chapathi.
The General Manager of the hotel, Vivek Pathiyan says, “Wraps and rolls are popular street food in the West and associated with leisure evenings. That’s the concept we are trying to promote in Madurai, since Charcoal Skewers is a perfect setting for idyllic evenings. The idea is to push the space as a let out for families on weekends, especially for some post-work unwinding.” Aesthetically lit with serial lights on tree tops and painted lanterns lining the pathway along the pool, Charcoal Skewers is a bohemian set up.
Vivek adds, “We have also created a subtle celebration mood with a playlist of rock and roll music from famous bands, from which the guest may choose the song they want.” The number switches to Shakira’s Hips Don’t lie… , a platter of wraps and rolls with four kinds of dips and chutneys arrives on my table. I grab a wrap and bite into a juicy filling of pineapples and chicken. Oh, how eclectic! “It’s the Chicken Hawaiian wrap that’s made of roasted chicken salad and served with salsa and sour cream,” says Chef Kesava Kumar, adding that the menu is an assorted mix of varied flavours. “Unlike a Frankie roll in which the fillings are standard, we have mix-matched the ingredients.”
Eating a wrap is always fun! One, because you don’t need a fork and knife and hence can happily be messy. Two, you bite into a medley of spices and a pod of tastes explodes in your mouth with each bite. And three, wraps and rolls are food to your curiosity. The moment a perfectly sealed roll arrives, you itch to unfurl it but it’s best left to your culinary senses to identify and enjoy the known and unknown flavours. The dips are all the more exciting, from salsa and sesame to sweet chill and mint chutney and add punch to the rolls.
After belting countless potlis with fillings of chicken, fish, egg, veg patti and tofu, I try out some kathi rolls. The Kalimirch Kathi is a parantha rolled over spicy chunks of chicken while Keema Kathi is parantha stuffed with mutton kheema masala. I also take customary bites of the Hari Mirch Kheema, Paneer Khurchan and Achari Kathi, the options for vegetarians and it’s a wrap!
The Wraps and Rolls festival is on till September 18 from 7 p.m. to 11 p.m., at the Charcoal Skewers. For more details, call 8220136666
Few moments with Brett Lee
An experience that added punch to my evening was the cricket bigwig Brett Lee who walked into the restaurant suddenly. The ace cricketer who was putting up at Hotel Fortune Pandiyan for promoting the ongoing TNPL, took a seat in the lawns with his friend Scott Styris, much to the excitement of the few diners in the restaurant. While some managed a picture or two with the idols, others were visibly thrilled and walked up to them, either to say a hello or shake hands. As John Lennon’s Imagine by The Beatles played on the stereo, Brett Lee and Scott Styris hummed the lyrics. Later, Vivek Pathiyan, the GM, sang Let it be and Brett Lee eventually joined him grabbing the mike. Known to be a guitar player and a vocalist and as a member of the Aussie rock band Six and Out, it was only natural that Brett Lee nurtures love for music apart from cricket. It was indeed a pleasure to see the cricket icon put his legs up in the Temple town.
