Flambé at Ambrosia

Note: I had written this for The Hindu's Metro Plus supplement (article on The Hindu's site is here). This blog article features an additional YouTube video.

As the mercury dips in Bangalore this December, the Flambé food festival at the recently opened Ambrosia restaurant offers a fun way to enjoy a cozy evening with some sizzling fare.

Flambé (also spelled flambe; pronounced /flɒmˈbeɪ/) is a cooking procedure in which alcohol is added to a hot pan to create a burst of flames. The word means flamed in French. (Source: Wikipedia)

If you're wondering if this is yet another sizzler joint in town, hold that thought. Joints such as Kobe's (in Garuda Mall) adopt a pan-asian approach where the dish is cooked on a hot iron until it sizzles. In the case of flambé, the dish is cooked in alcohol (typically cognac or brandy) in a hot pan and served immediately. At Ambrosia, the dish is made on a mobile counter right by your table, creating quite the spectacle when the flames leap out towards the ceiling.



We started off by sampling the Threaded Baby Corn, a lovely little dish with deep fried corn wrapped in wonton sheets. Next, we tried their Gamberoni Al Ajillo, a scrumptious jumbo prawn starter that reminded us of tapas.

Eager to get on with the flambé dishes, we quickly moved on to the main course. We first tried the classic Beef Burgundy (a.k.a. Boeuf à la Bourguignonne), stewed in red wine and flavored with pepper, garlic, baby onions and cream. The dish was flamed with brandy and served promptly at our table with a helping of rice as a side. The cubes were slightly chewy, but the overall flavor of the gravy was fairly good.

Next, we tried the Salmon Fillet, which was marinated, pan fried and briefly flamed with brandy just before serving with a side of bearnaise sauce. This hit the spot, retaining the natural flavors combined with simple seasoning and subtle lingering flavor of the brandy. If you like fish, we would recommend this dish.

We also sampled the Mushroom Ragout, another stewed vegetarian preparation served on a bed of penne that might be popular only with pasta aficionados.

All the flambé dishes come with a complimentary glass of Big Banyan wine. The options include their Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel and Sauvignon Blanc. Other beverages including a few domestic and international wines are available off the menu.

We topped off our meal with the Drunken Bananas (a.k.a Bananas Foster) which you can see served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream in the YouTube video inserted in this post. And finally, we were treated to a special ghajar halwa to close out the meal.

While we didn't get to sample these dishes, here a few you may wish to try out: Ratatouille Nicoise (veg), Chicken Cafreal, and if you really want to play it safe, the ever popular Chocolate Brownie.

The Ambrosia restaurant is located a stone's throw away from the Sony World junction at the cusp of Indiranagar and Koramangala, right off the Inner Ring Road. If you have trouble finding parking, use their convenient valet service. The restaurant offers a cosy ambience and comfortably seats small to medium sized groups.

In addition to the flambé specials, which are available through end of December as a part of the food festival going on, Ambrosia offers an international selection of dishes. For vegetarians, calorie conscious diners, or simply those looking for Indian food, you'll find a fair selection on the à la carte menu. And for corporates looking for a quick power lunch, they offer a fixed price menu list.

Their address is: 52 B, 100 Feet Road, 4th Block, Koramangala, (Near Sony World) Bangalore 560 034 Phone: (080) 4094 0101/2

Cost: Rs 300-500 per person
Cleanliness: Good
Quality: Good
Service: Good
Ambience: Good
Bottomline: If you like sizzlers, you'd love flambé at Ambrosia.

A clan's classy cuisine (The Hindu's Metro Plus)

Note: I had written this for The Hindu's Metro Plus supplement. You can find the original review article on The Hindu's site here: The Hindu Metro Plus - Coorgi Food Festival review

Coorg stirs the imagination with its exotic location and unique history. For those who haven't yet made the much-recommended visit to this hilly country, there's a rare opportunity to sample authentic and traditional Coorgi delicacies closer home.

Taj West End is hosting a special Coorgi food festival until October 2 at its poolside barbeque restaurant. An a la carte menu is available for lunch and dinner during the festival. Sandeep Kachroo, Executive Chef at the barbeque restaurant who earlier set up the Taj's Vietnamese restaurant, is passionate about the need to explore lesser known but rich regional cuisines in Karnataka and offer them in an authentic style.

Soothing ambience

We arrived at the Taj West End early in the evening and made our way past the lovely lawns to their elegant poolside restaurant. A live band playing gentle rock numbers offered a soothing ambience, although the music was occasionally a bit loud. Parvati from Coorg, currently mentoring the Taj chefs during the festival, gave us a vivid cultural primer about the Coorgis. As it is in many other parts of India, food is often closely linked with weddings and key festivals such as Kail Podh and Huthari. While a typical daily meal may consist of simple rice and chicken-based dishes, the festivals are celebrated with special lamb (yarchi) and pork (pandi) delicacies. A spice unique to Coorg is kachiampuli, an extract from the fruits of the garcinia tree. It adds a distinct colour and flavour to the meat, reminiscent of tamarind, but more earthy in flavour.

We started our meal with two dry starters, the yarchi bartad and pandi bartad. They are prepared by frying the meat with powdered spices in coconut oil, and are best had with a beer. This was followed by the main course of yarchi nad kanne (lamb broth), pandi curry (chunks of tender pork) and koli curry (chicken). These were served with noolputtus (similar to idiappam) and sannas. We were impressed by the juicy and tender meat, literally melting in our mouths. The food was medium spicy and the flavours of kachiampuli and pepper were well tempered with other spices. We also tried the pooputtu, a steamed rice preparation that is cut into square pieces. One of the two well-known dishes which we did not get to sample but would recommend are the bimbale curry (baby bamboo shoots) and akki otti (rice-based roti).

Limited desserts

Coorgis aren't big on dessert, and we topped off dinner with a light haalbai, a variant of kesari bhath with a stronger milk base.

Bottomline: This fest serves the best kept culinary secrets of the Coorgi meat-eating warriors in traditional style. Bringing veggie friends? Have them plan on an early supper on their way in!

ARAVIND KRISHNASWAMY

Taj West End - Ravioli and Gnocchi special (The Hindu's Metro Plus)

Note: I had written this for The Hindu's Metro Plus supplement. You can find the original review article on The Hindu's site here: The Hindu Metro Plus - Pasta All The Way
The headline added by the newsdesk unfortunately incorrectly referred to the Taj Residency instead of the Taj West End.

Pasta all the way

The ravioli and gnocchi food promotion at the Taj Residency offers some splendid fare

NEAT PRESENTATION The menu is tailored for both the uninitiated as well as the foodie

Love Italian food, but bored of the usual pasta and pizza options served up by Bangalore restaurants? The Mynt diner at the Taj West End is hosting a promotional gnocchi and ravioli special until Sep 15.

Set in a pleasant ambience with a Romanian duo playing soft music, the fest spotlights two kinds of pasta — gnocchi, the dumplings typically made of semolina or ricotta cheese, and ravioli, the thin-layered pasta usually filled in the middle with vegetables or meat. While these two pastas as the motif might be limiting for most, innovative Chef Kachroo serves up a vista of dishes.

The starters

The two soups up for starters are zuppa pommodoro (fresh tomato soup) with capellaci and zuppa di pesce (mixed seafood soup). Both were fairly good, although we missed the meat-based minestra.

The main course offers substantial veg options, ranging from classics like gnocchi in sage butter sauce to interesting flavours of bengal gram and beetroot capellacci in olive tapenade sauce. We also liked the herbed gnocchi with quattro formaggio, the interplay of the subtle flavours of the four cheeses blending with the creamy sauce.

Other avatars

Other cultures have parallels to ravioli as well, such as the Chinese jiaozi, Russian pelmeni, Tibetan momo and Jewish kreplachs. But, like all pastas, the taste is `al dente', and is a bit chewy. Gnocchi, which literally means `lump', cooks faster than normal pastas and can fall apart if overcooked.

Amongst the non-vegetarian items, we loved the innovative pumpkin and semolina gnocchi with salsa di prosciutto (ham) the most — the mild sweet flavour of the pumpkin complemented the ham and gnocchi well. Also interesting were the duck confit ravioli in orange cream sauce and the crabmeat tortellini. The potato gnocchi with bolognese sauce was passable.

In the Tuscan area of Italy, spinach and ricotta-flavoured gnocchi are called strozzapreti (priest-stranglers). Legend has it that a local priest choked and died after a binge on the delicious gnocchi.

We sampled two of the desserts, the baciali limone (lemon custard dome with glaze) and the spuma di pere (pear mousse with chocolate sauce), which were excellent.

Overall, we were impressed by the creativity of the spread, and the thought that had gone into the selection. The promotional menu is à la carte and supplements the regular diner menu which visitors can feel free to choose from.

Bottomline: The festival offers a pleasant introduction to ravioli and gnocchi for the uninitiated, as well as some splendid innovative new flavours for those up for an Italian culinary adventure.

Call The Mynt at 66605660 for reservations.

ARAVIND KRISHNASWAMY

Sun 'n' sand 'n' seafood (The Hindu's Metro Plus)

Note: I had written this for The Hindu's Metro Plus supplement. You can find the original review article on The Hindu's site here: The Hindu Metro Plus - Caribbean Food Festival

Sun 'n' sand 'n' seafood

The Caribbean food festival at The Leela celebrates the vibrant spirit of the tropical archipelago's cuisine

VARIED FARE Contrary to the general belief here, the islands do not share a uniform cuisine

You don't need excuses to celebrate the Calypso spirit and The Leela offers none as it for its exotic Caribbean food festival.

When we visited, although the up-tempo music was yet to be turned on, it proved a lasting treat for the palate.

Contrary to the general belief here, the islands do not share a uniform cuisine, having come under different colonial experiences over the centuries. But they share a vibrant common spirit that is typical of the tropical islands and that is reflected in the preparations on offer.

We started with the seafood bouillabaisse, which is also known in the islands as "fish tea". While not exclusively Caribbean, there's an excellent spread of salads that includes the Caribbean seviche, Haitian ham salad, smoked fish, crab salad and an interesting combination of salty beef with mango salsa.

For the veggies, there's a Bahamian potato salad, vegetable Rasta salad, Pomello salad and several other options. A live salad station offers tossed salads made to your preference.

The meal is complemented by a glass of peppy ginger beer.

From the English-speaking Bahamas to the Spanish Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Danish West Indies, the islands offer quite a variety of seafood dishes and an even richer variety of spices in which to cook them. Surprisingly, none of the preparations were spicy enough, which could come as a bit of a disappointment if you tended to expect the flavours from the Caribbean islands to match their music and lifestyle. This was apparently a concession for the regular clientele.

The main course menu had a natural predominance of non-vegetarian dishes, mostly seafood. We enjoyed the absolutely fabulous Havana lobster mariposa which was attractively packaged and cooked to a delicious finish, flavoured with crisp toasted almonds and a tangy orange sauce. Also excellent was the St. Martin fish steak, a well-marinated grouper set on a plate of wild rice and flavoured with sweet tasting ginger and rum sauce. Instead of the full buffet, visitors may also choose to order the main course items à la carte.

To top it off, the dessert counter offers delicious banana fritters with mango ice-cream and an assortment of other popular items. As a bonus, a selection of Caribbean cocktails is also available.

You can sign off summer in style at the Caribbean food festival. The fest is on till May 21. Call 30571340 for dinner reservations at the Citrus.

Ambience: Good, but sans Calypso spirit

Service: Buffet cum a la carte

Specialty: Caribbean flavors

Wallet factor: Rs. 1,500 per head

ARAVIND KRISHNASWAMY

A culinary twist (The Hindu's Metro Plus)

Note: I had written this for The Hindu's Metro Plus supplement. You can find the original review article on The Hindu's site here: The Hindu Metro Plus - Moplah food at the Jamavar, Leela Palace

Header, leader, and insert on South Travancore Christians courtesy the edit team.

A culinary twist

Regional cuisine is big and it's the right time to check out the Moplah food festival at the Jamavar in The Leela Palace

CONFLUENCE Moplah cuisine has Arab as well as Kerala influences

Moplah is the anglicised version of Mappila, the Kerala Muslim community of north Malabar. (It's another matter that the Christians of south Travancore are also called Mappilas!) The Malabar Mapplias are believed to be descendants of Arab seafaring traders and the local fisherfolk. Many of their customs and attire have Arab influence even as they have retained their Malayali roots. Moplah culture and cuisine have evolved over the centuries and are now well integrated into the Malabar traditions.

Exotic fare

Jamavar, the Indian restaurant at The Leela Palace, is hosting a special Moplah food promotion until April 14, and this offers a fine opportunity to try their exotic food in a pleasant outdoor setting.

Jamavar hosts two north Indian and two south Indian festivals each year to celebrate regional cuisines. The spread is carefully chosen after research by its team, which spend time with regional chefs to understand the subtleties of how preparations vary from one household to another.

We started with alise, a chicken soup of Arab origin. It had an interesting thick texture due to its wheat base, and was garnished with golden shredded fried onions. Alise is a special preparation traditionally offered to the groom before his nikah ceremony. A vegetarian kanji (cumin-flavoured crushed rice stew) is also available. We then sampled the erachi porichathu (fried lamb), kozhi chuttathu (roasted chicken) and the chemeen (prawn) cutlet. The lamb was a bit dry, but the chicken and prawns were excellent.

The style of preparation of Moplah food is similar to the rest of Kerala cuisine, with a few subtle differences being the use of ghee versus coconut oil and addition of dry fruits. The use of locally available ingredients predominates, just as it does in most other regional cuisines.

Main course

The main course items we tried were the chemeen manga chaaru (prawns and raw mango curry), lobster mulakittathu (chilli hot lobster curry), Moplah mutton curry (tender lamb cooked in onion, tomato and garam masala), and chicken khorma (chicken gravy). Of the lot, the mutton curry with its succulent meat and the chicken gravy stood out. We also tried the rich chicken rice biryani, which was very good. (In fact, you can't find fault with any biryani made by a Kerala Muslim!) The gravy items are typically had with either pooris or pathiri (wafer thin tava baked rice pancakes). Variations like the podi pathiri and nei pathiri are available.

Although the Moplahs are not particularly known for vegetarianism, Chef Venkatesh Bhat has included several veggie options in the menu. A few we sampled were the thakkali vattichathu (stewed tomatoes garlic mustard gravy), kaippakka varutharacha curry (bittergourd in coconut gravy) and the chakkara kadu manga (sweet and sour mangoes). The bittergourd gravy is recommended.

In addition to the Moplah promotion menu, visitors can also choose from the regular à la carte items.

Those familiar with Moplah food or Kerala cuisine in general may be surprised by three missing items: mutta mala (egg garland), beef and choru. By policy, Jamavar does not serve beef and pork.

For dinner reservations, call 30571342.

Ambience: Excellent
Service: Average
Specialty: Moplah food from north Malabar
Wallet factor: Rs 1,100 upwards

ARAVIND KRISHNASWAMY

A salmon trip (The Hindu's Metro Plus)

Note: I had written this for The Hindu's Metro Plus supplement. You can find the original review article on The Hindu's site here: The Hindu Metro Plus Salmon Special at The Oberoi

The headline and leader courtesy the edit team.

A salmon trip

Le Jardin's salmon promotion menu takes you on an exotic adventure

PHOTO: BHAGYA PRAKASH K.

FINE CATCH Chef Zafar Ali has crafted innovative dishes using Norwegian salmon

The salmon is legendary for its unusual lifecycle starting from its birthplace upstream in freshwater, down to the sea where it spends most of its life before making the arduous journey all the way back upstream to lay its spawn and die of exhaustion. How the salmon finds its way back to where it is born remains a mystery.

The exotic fish is a delicacy in northern Atlantic and the far-eastern Pacific. Le Jardin, the all-day diner at The Oberoi, is hosting a special dinnertime salmon promotion staring today (March 25) until the end of the month. Chef Zafar Ali has crafted several innovative dishes using Norwegian salmon that you can sample in addition to the regular à la carte items.

Great starters

We started by sampling the plate of salmon starters, a delightful combination of gravlax (salmon cured with salt, sugar and dill) with melba toast, mild teriyaki flavoured and sesame topped salmon, salmon mousse and smoked salmon cucumber. All of them were splendid, with the more traditional gravlax and melba standing out with its crunchy, mild sweet taste.

The easily recognisable bright red striped salmon is infused by other accompanying flavours and blends them in elegantly, offering interesting marriages of land and sea condiments. The cold cucumber soup with a scoop of salmon sorbet had an interesting texture, with the sorbet melting and blending in with the citrus base, barring a slightly jarring piece of peppercorn that was in the mix.

We tried a few of the main course items, starting with the cilantro crusted salmon with lemon and clam linguini, which was absolutely splendid.

We then tried the pan-seared salmon with lentils, green apples and smoked bacon. This was a exotic play of flavours that would delight the adventurous, ranging from the milder lentil and salty bacon to the acidic apples, with the salmon playing cameo. The grilled salmon with leek and fennel risotto had a pleasant aroma and subtle flavours.

The à la carte menu offers a range of dessert options to top off your meal. In addition, the restaurant offers a fine wine selection, with recommendations on accompaniments to go with the dish of your choice.

There is a pleasant and understated ambience in the restaurant with its high ceiling, oak wood finish and French windows overlooking the tropical landscaped garden. The open doors to the terrace area let in mosquitoes, and you may want to ask for a table away from the garden though!

For reservations, call 2558 5858.

Bottomline: The salmon promotion with its experimental nouvelle cuisine is likely to delight the more adventurous diners out for corporate entertaining or to sample creative seafood dishes.

ARAVIND KRISHNASWAMY

Royal flavour on common tongue (The Hindu's Metro Plus)

Note: I had written this for The Hindu's Metro Plus supplement. You can find the original review article on The Hindu's site here: The Hindu Metro Plus Caviar & Champagne Special at Leela

The headline and leader courtesy the edit team.

Royal flavour on common tongue

If you want some upscale caviar at a reasonable price, head for The Leela Palace

CELEBRATORY All items on the menu come with a glass of French champagne

Caviar, the processed roe of the sturgeon fish, has long been a luxury privy to the aristocracy. In a setting fit for the tsars themselves, The Leela Palace offers a rare opportunity to sample caviar and champagne at their Library Bar. Incidentally, the classic British lounge room with its antiques and book collection received the Forbes award for the No. 1 Bar in Asia & Oceania for 2005.

Some of the best caviar in the world today comes from Iran and Azerbaijan. Typically, the lighter coloured and less salty ("malassol") varieties of caviar are rare and thereby more expensive. The caviar selection at the Leela is imported from Iran, and includes the mid-size grained beluga, and the smaller asetra and sevruga. All items on the menu come with a glass of Moët & Chandon, the popular French champagne.

The combination

Uninitiated to caviar and looking to celebrate with a few starters before moving on to other things? I would recommend trying out the chilled tomato caviar shooters, which comes in a tall shot glass of gazpacho with a splash of lemon juice, topped with crème fraîche and about half a teaspoon of beluga caviar. The aftertaste of the caviar is discernable in the tomato base without being too overwhelming. Two shooters and the glass of bubbly cost Rs. 1,750. Another similarly priced option is the trio platter of lobster medallion, salmon tartar and sevruga caviar, all of which were excellent.

For the more adventurous, we suggest trying the caviar profiteroles. Unlike the popular French cream puff dessert, the profiterole stuffed with caviar is a starter. If you are with friends, you may want to try the Royal Caviar Experience, and assortment of various platters for Rs. 4500.

Finally, for the connoisseurs, the caviar of your choice is served by the ounce in a chilled ice tray, accompanied by a platter of various condiments like crème fraîche, egg white and minced onions. These can be applied on either the toast points or small blini (thin Russian wheat pancake). As silverware tends to taint the subtle flavours, caviar is served with a small wooden spoon. This is the best way to savour the soft buttery flavour of fine caviar.

The dark blue beluga left a pleasant sweet aftertaste, whereas the asetra and sevruga with their brown, smaller grains were slightly stronger. When I was in Russia a few years back, I noticed that caviar is sometimes smeared on a large blini, rolled into a tube, and served with vodka.

The Caviar and Champagne Experience at the Library Bar at the Leela is on till March 26. The bar is open from 11a.m. to 11 p.m. No reservations are required.

Bottom line: This is an excellent opportunity to try upscale caviar at a reasonable price, and would be a good choice for corporate entertaining or a celebratory stop for city socialites before moving on to one of the hotel diners.

Wallet factor: Rs. 1,750 to Rs. 9,000 per head

Specialty: Caviar

Service: Very good

Ambience: Classic British lounge with antiques, books, cigars and single malts

ARAVIND KRISHNASWAMY

A cuisine carnival (The Hindu's Metro Plus)

Note: I had written this for The Hindu's Metro Plus supplement. You can find the original review article on The Hindu's site here: The Hindu Metro Plus - Cajun Food Festival Review

I had started my piece with

“Well, he sings a song about a crowded hole
He sings a song about a jelly roll
He sings a song about meat and greens
He wails some blues about New Orleans”

- Elvis Presley, lyrics from ‘King Creole’

but this was clipped by the edit team.

A cuisine carnival

The good times roll with Cajun and Creole fare at The Leela Palace

MYRIAD TASTES The Cajun Food Festival showcases an eclectic range of cuisine that combines African, French and other European cuisine styles

New Orleans is famous for its Mardi Gras festival and jazz, but its distinctive cuisine which combines Cajun and Creole origins is not so well-known. Cajun cuisine originates from the cooking style of the French-speaking Acadian immigrants to Louisiana.

In contrast, Creole cuisine blends more elaborate classic European styles of the settlers. Both cuisines use capsicum, celery, and onion often, and a spice mix of parsley, bay leaf and cayenne pepper.

The elegant Citrus restaurant at The Leela Palace is hosting a Cajun Food Festival until March 17, with a dinner buffet crafted by Chef Paul Rajarajan.

We started the buffet sampling the sweet potato and apple salad, fried tomatoes with shrimp remoulade and stuffed artichokes with grilled goat cheese, followed by oyster shooters (accompanied with a tomato purée and Tabasco chaser) and a house salad with Creole croutons. All of them were delicately prepared with attention to detail. The chicken pecan pate was a good accompaniment for the Creole artichoke bread. In addition to these, the buffet offers a wide range of starters.

Besides the French, Cajun food also has African influences, which are apparent in the Gumbo, a chowder-like soup. The buffet offers both a z'herbes (vegetarian) gumbo and a chicken andouille (sausage) version, both of which are excellent.

Traditional Cajun food is usually cooked in three pots, one for the main dish, one for rice, and the third for the vegetables of the season. We sampled the celebrated rice-based jambalaya, which is common to both Cajun and Creole cuisine. It was somewhat mild, flavoured with Spanish paprika instead of cayenne pepper.

We went on to try the grilled blackened pomfret fillet, a mild and smoky dish — not originally Cajun — that was popularised in the '80s by American diners. The beer battered corn with chilli butter was passable. The beef on char grilled capsicum polenta with Creole butter was tender, juicy and well marinated and had us going back for second helpings.

When we got to dessert, it was hard to choose from the myriad options being served up at the counter. We chose the classic banana fritters with vanilla ice cream and the king cake, and were not disappointed — both were excellent.

The items on the buffet have been carefully selected, ensuring it caters to a wide range of tastes. Health conscious? Vegetarian? Seafood lover? Gourmand? Sweet tooth? The buffet has something for you.

If there was anything amiss in the buffet, we might have hoped for a small wine selection bundled into the price, similar to the Citrus Sunday brunch. Apart from a mermaid figurine, a saxophone on a high chair, and piped blues music, there wasn't much in the way of a theme ambience.

Bottomline: The New Orleans official motto goes "Let the good times roll" and their food is definitely a celebration in itself. Leela has a splendid Cajun food line-up at the buffet that could rival the best Nolas in the world, and is a rare opportunity to try out the exotic cuisine.

The Cajun Food Festival is on at Citrus till March 17. For information, call 30571340.

Ambience: Good, but not quite all that jazz

Service: Self-service buffet, courteous staff

Specialty: Cajun and Creole food

Wallet factor: Rs. 1,500 per head

ARAVIND KRISHNASWAMY

Sri Lanka on a platter (The Hindu's Metro Plus)

Note: I had written this for The Hindu's Metro Plus supplement. You can find the original review article on The Hindu's site here: The Hindu Metro Plus - Sri Lankan Food Festival Review

My original headline was " Culinary bridge to Lanka". I wish they had retained it instead of the "Sri Lanka on a platter" the edit team has put in.

Sri Lanka on a platter

The Sri Lankan Food Festival at Taj Residency introduces you to authentic cuisine of the island country, but some of the more popular dishes out there are missing

GOOD STARTER The festival offers a pleasant introduction to the island country's cuisine Photo: K.V. Srinivasan

The mention of Sri Lanka evokes vivid images of the Ramayana, Muralidharan's offbreaks, Tiger Prabhakaran and sprawling colonial tea gardens. The teardrop island south of the border has a historic past and a delightful cuisine to match. Fortunately, here's an opportunity to sample authentic Sri Lankan food right here in Bangalore.

The Sri Lankan Food Festival, which runs through March 5, is at the lovely poolside Café Mozaic at the Taj Residency on MG Road. Head chef Selvaraju, who has lived for several years in the Lankan resort city of Bentotta running the Taj Exotica restaurant, has brought along two chefs to ensure the preparations are authentic. All spices are freshly prepared — ground from natural ingredients.

While Lankan food is similar to Kerala food, beef and pork are not typically eaten, apparently due to the Sinhalese Buddhist beliefs. Instead, the use of soy meat as a substitute is common. Ghee is used sparingly, and rice forms the staple.

The buffet starts with a sambol, which is a grated salad that is had with naan or fish curry. The popular ones are the lunu sambol (onion) and pol sambol (coconut).

The vegetarian main course items are the traditional ala thel dhala (potato curry) and the mushroom curry, flavoured with authentic thuna paha (Lankan masala). Most Lankans are non-vegetarians, and the curries have flavours influenced by Dutch and Portuguese cuisine and are reminiscent of our vindaloo.

We sampled the soft shell crab curry, the lamb curry and the isso curry (prawns). The large chilli prawns cooked with coconut milk and flavoured with curry leaves and lemon grass was excellent, and was the highlight of the meal. For those unaccustomed to the flavour of lemon grass, the taste may be a tad too citrus for their liking.

You can also pick live seafood and spices of your choice from the display and request to have it cooked.

The dessert selection was quite impressive, and we were treated to kauwum, kockis, pol toffee, which are typically had during the Lankan New Year which falls in April. We also sampled the watalappam, a mildly spiced dessert resembling crème custard flavoured with Lankan hakuru (jaggery) and cardamom.

We did not get to sample the well-known kithul treacle and buffalo yoghurt dessert, but were told it would be available at the evening buffet. A limited Lankan tea selection is also available.

Having spent a couple of weeks travelling through Sri Lanka last year, I had expected to see of some typical dishes I had enjoyed. However, the hoppers, Maldive fish, kiri bath (coconut milk boiled rice had with sambol and fish curry), mango chutney and popular fruits like pineapple fritters, rambutan and mangosteen were not included in the buffet. Also, the thambili (king coconut) and ginger beer, both of which are excellent accompaniments to a spicy Lankan dinner, were missing.

Bottomline: The festival offers a pleasant introduction to Sri Lankan food for a first-timer with excellent seafood and vegetarian dishes in pleasant café surroundings. The dinner buffet starts at 7 p.m. Call 5660-4444 for reservations.

Ambience: Excellent

Service: Good

Specialty: Pick live seafood and have it cooked to your preference

Wallet factor: Rs. 850 for the buffet

ARAVIND KRISHNASWAMY