burrp! picks from Chef’s Table

LINK: http://know.burrp.com/b-buzz/chefs-table-chennai-burrp-picks/46393

Sandhya Ramachandran makes a list of the most exciting dishes on the six burrp! Chef’s Tables across Chennai.

As Chennai gears up for the exciting burrp! Chef’s Table across six of the best restaurants across the city, we decided to scan the menu to tell you what you should must must try!

 The Chef’s Table begins on 16th November at Focaccia at Hyatt Regency, known for its splendid Italian cuisine. With the affable Executive Chef Thomas Angerer at the helm of the table, the evening promises to be full of fun and of course, good food. The dish on the menu that sounds most enticing is the antipasto (‘before the meal’ or a starter, in layman terms) of warm carpaccio of prawns, candied lemon, watercress, chilli. Primarily a dish of raw slices/pounding of prawns, the dish already makes our mouths water! Another dish we are looking forward to is the layered baked dish – the seasonal vegetables millefuille, balsamic glaze, crispy artisan cheese.

Burrp! Chef’s Table No 2 is at Beyong Indus (Taj Club House) on 19th November. A dish called ‘Chops of the Third Kind’ has our attention locked down on this menu! The three flavours of lamb chops and vegetables are made in jalfraize style ( marinated lamb chops and vegetables vegetables are fried in oil and spices to produce a dry, thick sauce to form a type of  curry).

On 20th November, when the Chef’s Table moves to Benjarong, we urge you to try the famed National dish of Thailand – the Phad Thai Goong - Thai rice sticks cooked in a sweet and tangy sauce with prawns, wrapped in an omelette. Chat up with Chef Anand and Chef Ram Kumar and get to know yourHormok Talay from your Larb Gai(well, wait and discover what they are at the Chef’s Table).

Apart from the pastas on offer, what draws us towards the menu at Tuscana’s Chef’s Table on 21st November, is the Gastrin. An ancient version of the baklava from Crete, this dish is made with nuts, seeds, and pepper layered between filo pastry (thin sheets of dough). Also a must have on the menu is the Greek coffee – strong, unsweetened and a purist’s delight!

At Teppan, on 22nd November, feast on the Grilled Tofu in Hoisin sauce (a Chinese dipping sauce made from soybean, sweet potatoes and other flavourings) with scallion and roasted garlic. If you love your garlic, toss in some of the burnt garlic and mixed vegetable fried rice!

We bring the curtains to a close at the Chef’s Table on 23rd November at Hip-Asia, Taj Connemara. Make sure you don’t miss the Saka – mushi susumiyaki. Made by cooking fresh salmon and vegetables in an envelope on teppanyaki, this delicious dish comes served with pickled vegetables and teriyaki sauce. There is also a very interesting sounding dessert that we recommend here for you to finish off your meal in style – the green tea tiramisu.

But most of all remember, we have just picked out one dish from the menu. There are oh-so-many more. With each menu offering you between a three and five course meal, with all-new dishes exclusively conjured up for the Chef’s Table event, get set and gear up for a gastronomical adventure with the Chefs between 16^th and 23^rd November!

Of traditional food and tales long-lost!

LINK: http://know.burrp.com/food-dining/chef-radha-rao-hyderabadi-food-fete-copperpoint/46172

Over tales of lost Hyderabadi cuisine and Jani mamu’s recipe collection,Sandhya Ramachandran chats up with Radha Rao who is in town to host the Hyderabadi Food Fete at GRT Grand Copper Point.

The first thought that struck me when I first spoke to Radha Rao was how passionate she is about food and how much I’d love to taste her cooking! That is the kind of person she is, effervescent and full of stories to tell about every dish she has carefully planned for the Hyderabadi Food Fete on at the GRT Grand Copper Point till 11th November.

Radha always had leanings towards food, as it was her father who opened the first of its kind Udupi restaurant in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. Radha’s interest drifted towards Hyderabadi cuisine when she came under the influence of her uncle, the gourmet Chef Mir Hussain Ali Moosavi, whom she fondly calls Jani Mamu.

“I inherited all his recipes. He would go to the chowks (by-lanes) in Hyderabad searching for old books about food and cooking. Then he would patiently translate it from Arabic or Persian to Urdu. I translated them to English, although he would often tell me, ‘beta, learn all the languages’ to get the exact recipe,” she explains.

Radha feels that biryaniand haleem have become synonymous with Hyderabadi food and the lost traditions of Hyderabadi households, especially the Muslim families, need to be revived. And in this attempt, the Hyderabadi Food Fete was born, thanks to Radha’s enthusiasm and Mr.Sitaram’s (Culinary Director at GRT Grand) long-standing love for this cuisine.

I ask her to tell us more about the menu (and the tales they carry too!). She begins with the Badam Ke Rab, a sweet dish that likens almonds to God’s food. “It is an old recipe. No one has it, as far as I know. We got it from an old book from one of the chowks,” she elaborates. Her haleem dish has, along with the regular meat and wheat combination, chicken in the korma – yet another innovation found in her Jani Mamu’s collection.

One more badam dish she mentions is theBadam Ki Jaali that Muslim households get made during weddings to gift on silver plates, while inviting or as a return gift to guests. “It is a baked almond dessert,” she says, “and has an almond biscuit at the base with a silvervarq (foil) separating it from a mould cut biscuit that resembles lace or a jaali(screen)”.

In an attempt to give “a complete array of Hyderabadi food”, she has whipped up a menu that changes every day of the fete barring two or three regulars. With oh-so-much to feast upon, I decide to have some fun and urge her to suggest a must-have three-course meal to appease an irate boss.

“Start with the Motiya Sherbet, it would floor anyone,” she begins. “Then if your boss is a hardcore non-vegetarian, urge her/him to try thePattar Ka Ghosht. We cook the meat in the traditional way with actual stones. Also try the Dum Ka Murg(chicken cooked in the dum style of cooking) as its smoky flavour and tasty gravy is sure to please anyone. Finish it with two desserts. A cold one – Khubani Ka Meetha or stewed apricots, and a hot one – Dabbal Ka Meetha which is made out of Hyderabad’s Dabbal bread soaked in sheera (thick sugar syrup) and flavoured with nuts.”

“If you bring a boy instead of your boss, just serve the Motiya Sherbet,” she continues, “he’s sure to propose to you on bent knees with a rose!” Curious, I ask her what this magic dish contains! “Jasmine flowers, a proven aphrodisiac,” she laughs.

Must Try: Kabuli Biryani, Dabbal Ka Meetha, the “comfort food” combination of Steamed Rice-Kaddu Ka Dalcha (bottle gourd with chick pea lentils)-Tali Hui Bhindi (deep fried okra), Pattar Ka Ghosht, Motiya Sherbet

Meal for two: Rs.1900 + taxes

Food Photographs: Copper Point 

Chef Photograph: Sandhya Ramachandran

From the plates of the rich and famous!

LINK: http://know.burrp.com/food-dining/quereshi-nematkhana-festival-at-minar/46014

When you hear that the Quereshi Nematkhana Festival is happening in town, you just know you have to be there, especially if you love good food and good stories to go with it, says Sandhya Ramachandran.

The Quereshi brothers Ashfaque and Irfan are known across the world to whip up some of the best heritage cuisines albeit with some spins. While it may leave many tummies awestruck, they are simply following their father, the legendary Imtiaz Quereshi known for his research on the forgotten cuisines of the Moguls and perfecting its recipes.

Minar Legendary Dum Cuisines of Qureshis, Savera Hotel-Chennai prides itself on having the Quereshi brothers as their restaurant consultants. Minar is the only place in the city where the two ‘Heritage cuisines’ perfected by Qureshi’s – ‘Frontier’ and ‘Dum Pukht’ are available.  So when we heard that The Quereshi Nematkhana Festival (on till 6thNovember) at the Minar, is serving the Chennai public, some of the recipes that the brothers cooked up for celebrities, for dinner, we couldn’t resist but go savour some!

Celebrated for their Dum Pukht cuisine, which involves – apart from a lot of history and legend – cooking the rice, vegetables and meat in a container sealed on top with a thin maida seal, the cuisine literally derives its names from the words dum meaning ‘to breathe in’ and ‘pukht’ referring to the act of cooking.

The special menu that the Quereshi Nematkhana (meaning ‘food storage’ or ‘larder’) Festival has lined up, offers a good variety to choose from. So you could either go for what the Quereshi brothers whipped up for I.K.Gujral’s party, or be a giggly fan girl and gobble up the special they cooked for Hrithik and Suzanne’s wedding reception. Either way, you know what you are feasting on has some story simmering in it. So read through the descriptions on the menu and decide which celebrity you’d like to dine like, that night!

Dressed in kurta pyjama and a topi, the usher welcomes you into the heavily Mughal influenced interiors of Minar complete with jaalis at the entrance, mini jharoka-shaped hanging lamps, Persian patterns on the ceiling, chandeliers and three musicians crooning (with better singing, it would have been a perfect fit to the evening!)

As a basket of papadsmade its way on to our table, we explored the dips kept. There was one particular Papaya Murabba containing papaya soaked in syrup along with chillies, and a sprinkling of sesame and fennel seeds. Basically, a papaya preserve, its incredible bittersweet taste gained our favour, and we nearly made it a starter to our meal!

Officially, however, we began the meal with a Vegetable Curried Soup. Traces of pepper and jeera in a soup made of ground vegetables on a bed of basmati rice, served with a spritz of lime. This clearly was one remarkable soup one has had! On an unusually cold Chennai evening, this soup lent warmth and wholesomeness to the meal.

The actual starters arrived while we still kept digging into the Papaya Murabba. The Aloo Bharwam which had “spiced potatoes and nuts cradled in roasted barrels, finished on dum with fragrant herb gravy” to quote from the menu was as delicious as you could imagine.

The Lahori Paneer Tikka was average since the spices had not seeped into thepaneer! The Kamal Kakri Ke Shami Kebab made out of lotus root minced into a delicate kebab was very similar to the Soya Bean Dum Ke Kebab, made exclusively for Late President of India, Mr. Fakrudhin Ali Ahmed – real dumcuisine, but vegetarian for health reasons. The kebabs were tasty, but were pasty in texture and collapsed on scooping with a spoon, thereby losing its charm. TheGimikhand Ke Kebab also was quite similarly cooked, though a little sweet as it was made from yams.

By the way the Dum Pukht cuisine is primarily a carnivore’s feast and we did find the non-vegetarian food on the menu to be so much better than the vegetarian food on offer. Which is why the Dum Murgh Ki Potlee where a chicken mince was delicately wrapped in a chicken leg skin and grilled after throwing in spices and herbs was what we found fantastic! This classic dish was an absolute work of a genius; the use of chicken skin as a potlee/parcel making it tender and tasty.

Another noteworthy dish is the Mahi Dum Anari which had a red snapper seasoned and stuffed with cheese, capsicum, pomegranate and herbs, and dumcooked on slow roast. Made exclusively for President Clinton’s delegation, this indeed is a delicacy fit for royalty. If only they had avoided or reduced the number of capsicum dices they had stuffed in, we would have written an Ain-e-anari (like the famed book on Akbar Ain-e-Akbari) about this dish.

The Lucknowi Dum Ki Chhaap – a dish conjured for the Nawab Wajid Ali Shah in Lucknow – is made from mutton chops slow cooked on dum with spices is another dish worth recommending. We then came in to our favourite, the biryani section. The Noormahal Gosht Biryani created for the royal Jaipur wedding of HH Bhawani Singh in the 1940’s, had baby lamb and lamb mincekoftas cooked in dum style.  It made for a delicious biryani made the classic way.

In the vegetarian section, we had theSabzi Masala Biryani, a very simple vegetable biryani. The rice was aromatic, although the caramelised onions and the carrots made it a bit sweet in taste. The Sabz Bohri Biryani was what we attempted next. It lured us with a promise of baby potatoes, dry plums, apricots and tomatoes in rice. We ran a thorough search for the plums and apricots, but they were definitely missing in action. However, if we could view it as a baby potato biryani, it was one delightful eat. And yes, we have filed an FIR for the missing apricots and plums!

The dessert sections had the Lab-e-Mahshoukh, a sort of kulfi with rose syrup, nuts with starch noodles twirled around served on a platter. Its claim to fame being that Begum Akhtar favored it and it was created exclusively for the Queen of ghazals herself. Not overtly sweet but rich in taste, the Lab-e-Mahshoukhmade for a grand finale.

Must Try: Vegetable Curried Soup, Papaya Murabba, Dum Murgh Ki Potlee, Mahi Dum Anari, Aloo Bharwan

Meal for two: Rs.1200 approximately

Photographs:  Samarth Jairaman

b! Review: Dessert Studio @ Nungambakkam

LINK: http://know.burrp.com/food-dining/b-review-dessert-studio-nungambakkam/45973

Sandhya Ramachandran heaves a sigh of relief as desserts find their altar of worship, finally, in Chennai’s newly-opened Dessert Studio India.

Chewing on gooey marshmallows dunked in a little square tub of the smoothest Belgian chocolate* on a gray afternoon in a white space with Easter egg-ish chairs as raindrops pelt the glass wall, I had just one thought running in my head – one can rarely say no to chocolate. That’s probably why Food Spreads Pvt Ltd began Dessert Studio in Chennai. No one is going to say no to chocolates, ice creams, yogurts or anything and everything dessert!

Food Spreads Pvt Ltd’s Jinshad Haziy, Rishdin Nasir and Anas Nasir found there was a lack of  ‘a food court for dessert’ in Chennai. Deciding to fill the gap, they launched Dessert Studio India, with its first branch in the city, to cater to the sweet tooth of our makkals (people)! With three brands to choose from – Choco Berries (UAE), Yogo-D-Lite (Italy) and Shake-a-Take (UK) – Dessert Studio is the place to head to if you want to satisfy those sweet cravings.

Just a week old, and they launched a new ‘signature dish’! Jinshad, who spoke to us, seems to be really passionate about giving his customers just the very best. The three young entrepreneurs have apparently hand-picked the best of Belgium chocolates after trials, sourced the very best of ingredients and can even make items from their menu themselves!

With heart-warming signature crepes (Rs. 250) smeared with honey (we asked for maple syrup instead) and having slices of strawberry, mango and banana tossed over it accompanied by a few curls of vanilla ice cream, we began our binge.  Called the ‘Hunny Bunny’, the crepes were well made and tasted simply divine.

The Strawberry yogurt (Rs. 70) was tangy, grainy textured and was how a frozen yogurt ought to be. Extra brownie points for wonderfully overcoming the difficulties of ‘getting a tad too sweet’ that strawberry flavour generally poses. And as all yogurt brands woo you to their yogurts, Dessert Studio also lets you personalise-your-yogurt section, where for an extra charge, you could top it with apricots, kiwis, sesame seeds, M&Ms and much more.

The fruit and walnut crumble (Rs. 175) won my favour instantly. One needs to describe this dish in detail, for it merits that. The bottom layer was biscuit crumbled in ghee (my friend wasn’t too appreciative of this, although I personally loved this touch. So the anti-ghee brigade, take note, you have been warned). The next layer was milky white cream that was a little sour. Over that was the most delightful mix of whole soaked almonds, slivers of walnut, condensed milk and cooked apple pieces – soul food, to sum it up. This mix is dusted with crumbled biscuit, a swirl of chocolate sauce and gratings of coconut (once again won my heart and made my friend more wary of the dish!).

However, what we both simply agreed on was the Ferrero Rocher milkshakes (Rs. 180).  An instant spirit lifter, we guarantee, this milkshake could be topped with any of the toppings you request – from wafers to walnuts and what not! And if you are not really a Ferrero Rocher fan (although I can’t imagine a human being of that kind!), then you could choose from a variety of chocolate bars – Galaxy, Toblerone, Bounty, to name a few – for your own version.

We also tried the Lindt Dark Chocolate milkshake (Rs. 250), insisting that we have the 85% dark chocolate bar in our drink. What resulted was a purist’s paradise – fit only for those who love their dark chocolate passionately!

And it is not just for the food that you go to Dessert Studio – the white space has been carefully (and personally!) designed by the owners and their families. A bright colourful print hangs as a false ceiling contrasting with the stark white tables and perforated egg-like chairs.

They promise they are thinking of introducing a few types of coffee to go with their crepes for what we thought was a dream-come-true Sunday brunch plan. Rishdin and Jinshad insist that they are going to begin to try out some varieties of coffee beans for this! We promise to come back for the coffee, although we are sure the desserts are going to woo us back to the place and we suspect it is going to be very very soon!

* The dish called the ‘Choco bites’  (Rs. 200) offers a platter of marshmallows, strawberries and bananas that could be had with a tub of Belgian chocolate.

Must try: Ferrero Rocher Milkshake, Apple Almond Crumble, Choco Bites

b! Review: Azulia @ T.Nagar

LINK: http://know.burrp.com/food-dining/b-review-azulia-t-nagar/45788

When you get food from ten countries in one buffet spread, that is the place to head for lunch, says Sandhya Ramachandran about the weekend lunch buffet at Azulia.

When a beautiful lady in traditional Turkish wear welcomes you into a romantically lit Mediterranean café, you know you are in store for the exotic. Turkish plates line up the walls. There is a cosy recess painted blue, with strings of wooden beads veiling it from the archway. And one wanted to believe that, that was where they store their secret ingredients in Azulia- the Meditteranean restaurant at GRT Grand, T.Nagar!

Settle down on those roughly polished azure wooden chairs with hints of rouge, and sip on your red wine. And slowly begin your cold mezze plate. We suggest you start your gourmet meal by nibbling on your dolmades de vines. It is chewy and very home made in its taste. Chef Ethem Aydemir, Executive Spciality chef, is always around for a quick chat, so be sure to ask him for some stories from his life in the Mediterranean as you spread some hummus (chickpeas mashed in tahina, with seasoning and a dash of lime) or mutabal (smoke roasted egg plant with garlic, tahina, lemon juice and olive oil) on your kuboos (Arab flat bread).

He’ll tell you how he made the unforgettable aromatic mohamara by mixing five nuts with cumin, tomato and variety of Mediterranean spices with the flavour of onion chilli and virgin olive oil. When Chef Ethem is around, you don’t have to worry about not knowing your P’s and Q’s on the table. He’ll help you order, tell you everything you want to know about the cuisine and the culture or keep you entertained with a casual chat.

We are sure you’ll ask for a second helping of the mohamara as the combination is startlingly good. Post the mohamara, as you bite into your falafel and hear Turkish music from within (never mind that they are also playing it on the speakers), take some time out from that delightfully tasty and crunchy patty, to flip through their regular menu, or rather book. With information about the culture and food of Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, Israel, Egypt, Malta, Morocco, Spain, France, and Italy, it is more a coffee table book than a menu!

If you were one of those who loved their Phantom Cigarettes as a kid, theBourak Bel Jibneh (or the cigar-like roll filled with halloumi, feta, emmental cheese, onion and herbs) would delight you. The outer filo layers are crispy and evened out so thin; you wonder how it was humanly possible.

Move over then to the Fatayer – Lebanon’s answer to our samosa, only that this one has a filling of spinach, pomegranate, sumac, onion in olive oil and lemon juice. Definitely interesting but not something we’d come back for.

The Israeli dish of Jawaneh – chicken wings deep fried and sauteed with garlic, lemon, oil and coriander – was what we tried next. The chicken was hard on the inside although the gravy was delicious. The garlic prawn that followed was cooked really well. It was a simple elegant dish, very nicely prepared.

We had a passion fruit sorbet for a palate cleanser. It is a shame to reduce this spectacularly made sorbet to that of an in-the-passing role. We vote for it to have its own throne in the dessert section.

For the main course we had the Antolian Moussaka. If one were to write a song in cheese, this dish would be it. The béchamel cheesy, creamy sauce melted into the fried aubergines (which had a to-die-for crisp outer ring) and blended with potato, chick peas and carrots in the plum tomato sauce to produce a truly orgasmic dish! Fact: we still lust after this moussaka days after consuming it.

The Hutta Bitir Zalza was the non-vegetarian equivalent of what the Moussaka was for the veggie tongue. This dish comprising of a fish fillet grilled with flat parsley, garlic and lemon bandage was excellently cooked. The gravy was a tad high on salt for us. Nevertheless we believe that this fish is our best bet as a contender for world peace through food.

The baklava (layered puffs stuffed with nuts and topped with wild honey and perfumed rosewater) bossed over the dessert section with its proudly layered nutty presence. Absolutely delicious, definitely, but what beat the baklava and nested itself into our mouths and hearts was the chocolate soufflé! The foodie manifestation of a heart-warming long hug, this soufflé erupts to ooze out a hot chocolate lava. With sugar dusted over its crusty top, it is a pleasure to look at, taste and die for!

The blueberry cheesecake that was next on our dessert plate was very well made with the sweet berry merrily complimenting the delicate dissolving cheesecake. We also had the vanilla ice cream with strawberry sauce transporting us to our childhood days when ice cream parlours used to squirt squash on the dollop of ice-cream.

The lunch menu has a lot of elements from their Greek festival last year, with of course the other countries adding their dishes to the list. And what’s more, you could even peep into the kitchen and ask Chef Ethem and his men “what’s cooking”. Head to Azulia over the weekend with your family, sit back and be transported to a land of azure skies, sun and sea through some great food!

Must Try: Mohamara, Hutta Bitir Zalza, Antolian Moussaka, baklavaand chocolate soufflé

Meal for two: Rs. 2800+taxes

Pictures Courtesy: Azulia

Additional photographs: Sandhya Ramachandran

Chef Appeal: Talking about vegetarianism, Viagra and more

LINK: http://know.burrp.com/chefs-corner/chef-ethem-aydemir-interview/45725

Chef Ethem Aydemir chats with Sandhya Ramachandran about food, more food and life.

Chatting with Chef Ethem Aydemir, now Executive Chef-Speciality Cuisines at GRT Grand Azulia is always a pleasure. He’s always brimming with stories and anecdotes, making conversations with him unforgettable. To top it, he serves us a strong cup of the rich and heady authentic Turkish coffee. Although a tad too sweet for our taste, he tells us, “It is said in my culture that one cup of coffee is memorable for the next 40 years. That means you will remember me for 40 years starting from today”.

As if anyone would ever forget him anyway! Not only is he one fantastic chef but he also resembles Kollywood’s hoot-worthy hero Ajith Kumar (the only difference being, Chef has a charming accented voice). People have told him so, and we wholeheartedly agree. “When I travel around the city, people keep asking me if I am Ajith Kumar. Ajith is going to be jealous (if he hears about) Ajith No.2 running around Chennai,” Chef adds heartily. A Chennai photographer, Arun, even did an entire photo-shoot with Chef Ethem posing like Ajith! Talk about being a good sport.

Chef Ethem tells us about life in Bolu, the province from where he hails. The fifth generation Chef from his family, Ethem grew up in an environment that revolved around food. “When people met, they spoke of nothing but food. ‘Where do you source your meat from? How do you get those fresh vegetables? How is the crop this season?’ and so on” – used to be the nature of most conversations between friends. “My first job was in a kitchen of chefs who were big on discipline. They were not flexible. There were long hours – almost 15 to 16 hours every day. As a 14 year old, I had no time for anything else. Work and sleep – like an army – was the routine,” he elaborates.

Those tough times are probably what helped him climb to his stature today of becoming the Executive Chef-Speciality Cuisines at GRT Grand Azulia. “I cannot be flexible with hygiene. I joke with my team, I kid with them, but they know their limits. I have had a very good team for almost a year now. But at the end of the day, my kitchen is a school and we all learn together with discipline,” he says.

Chef Ethem also is very particular about the quality of food. He makes sure that he gets fresh vegetables and meat. He even tried growing his own ingredients. Unfortunately, the weather gods had other plans. “When I was in Uzbekistan, however, I gave some seeds I had from Turkey to a farmer and taught him how to cultivate it. Today he has become a rich man and has not forgotten me. All the Chefs now source their supplies from him,” he narrates with a child-like happiness.

He doesn’t believe in travelling light; he takes all that he has learnt from his many travels across Uzbekistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia and Europe and continues to add to the many flavours he conjures up in the kitchen. “Everywhere people are the same. The culture is a little different, but the basic nature of humans is the same,” Chef Ethem tells us. “In Asia you find more hospitality, in Turkey you find great respect for the guests. Recently, in India, when I was driving, a man was following me for almost five to six kilometres. He finally pulled over in front and gave me my tyre’s hub cap. Apparently it had fallen off and this stranger had travelled all the way, following me, just to give it to me. I was touched by the concern! ”

What else does he like about India? Especially, in the food section, we prod. “I love Indian breads, especially roti. Dosas and idlis are good too. I love kebabs and biryani and the Indian tea,” he reveals. However Chef Ethem sure has some issues with Indian cooking. “Indian gravies have too many spices. It is full of flavour. I like it when the natural flavours are brought out. When meat is meat and fish is fish.” He also finds the huge number of vegetarians in India, a very curious fact. “In Turkey 30 million tourists come every year. Not even 1 per cent of that lot is vegetarian!” he laughs.

“I love Italian cuisine with all the fresh vegetables and fresh meats. I love their pastas. Mediterranean food has become trendy now,” he says. His daughter is now following his footsteps and is studying to be a Chef. “We are all good cooks. My wife is an excellent cook. But she doesn’t even send me to the markets when I am home. ‘You will buy too many ingredients,’ she complains. So the kitchen is her territory,” he tells us.

So far away from family, we wonder how Chef Ethem spends his time in Chennai. “I go to Express Avenue. Meet fellow chefs at Amethyst Café. I drive down to Pondicherry or Mahabalipuram. I like photography,” he says and narrates an incident of clicking the picture of a monkey drinking out of a coke bottle. He asks us to check it out on his Facebook album. Friendly and fun, we are assured Chef Ethem can easily strike a conversation anywhere.

Having just finished our coffee, Chef Ethem suddenly makes a grab at the cup and upturns it saying, “Gypsies back home read the patterns left in your cup and predict the future.” We ask him if he can brew up some such magic for us, and he says simply, “I don’t lie.” Chef minces no words in getting to the point.

We ask him about what his favourite preparation is, amongst his own cooking. “The Chef never reveals that!” he jokes. He serves us baklava and somewhere between the layers of filo bread and the nuts, we lose all sense and clarity and fall a victim to its taste. “It is the Turkish Viagra” he tells us, when we gush as to how amazing it tastes. “So never feed it when you come here with your boss!” he adds with a laugh. He encourages us to go for a Mousakka or a lamb shank if we need to choose just one dish to impress the boss or a better half (with baklava, of course).

Ask him what the most memorable meal he has ever had, and he goes into flash back mode – “When I was in Germany, I had a roast pigeon in a restaurant in a castle. It was the best I have had! I also like fresh seafood,” he adds.

So what new plans, we ask, now that Azulia has its wonderful weekend lunch menu in place. “I am off to Bolu and Istanbul for a holiday” he says, excited at the prospect of going home to his wife, two daughters and the rest of the family. We ask him to bring us back some Turkish coffee, more exotic recipes to try and send him off with the warm Indian goodbye he has come to associate with this country.

Photographs: Sandhya Ramachandran

b! Review: Peaches’ @ Velacherry

Vegetarian’s heaven just shifted to Velacherry declares Sandhya Ramachandran after a hearty lunch at Peaches’

Vegetarian. (n): The only people after Hansel and Gretel who survive on bread crumbs and air. Said species can be found reading through restaurant menus three times to cross check ingredients, or on flights, interrogating flight attendants about food.

The above jocular definition has stood ground over centuries making fun of the comparatively lesser food choices that vegetarians the world over have. Something in the powers that govern our lives must have got really offended by the joke and well, prodded three young promoters – Raghu Viswanathan, Venkatesh Kannan and Niranjan Tata – to begin Peaches’.

Or so we would like to dramatise, for Peaches’ brings to Chennai’s vegetarian crowd, world-cuisine on a platter. From vegetarian dolmades to fajitas, Peaches’ already has plenty of choices and is planning some more. With all these yummilicious words popping out of their online menu, we were simply seduced into trying the food at Peaches’.

When you enter Peaches’, the first thing that hits you is the minimalist orderly décor. There is something about those white pipes of exposed wiring that contrast well with the bamboo cover at the entrance. The diamond pattern in which the pins hold down the pipes on the wall, the bulbous lights and the cosy seating all add to the elegant and well-planned décor of the place. We pretty much fell for the seating by the glass wall, imagining a romantic candle-lit dinner as the city’s traffic whizzes past below!

Getting back from dreamland to food, we began with what can only be described as an amma kaiyyaale samachcha (or made with love by mom) Cream of Peas soup. The cream along with the grainy texture of the blended peas made it a thick, warm beginner to a good meal. Appetiser? Indeed! It got us asking for more.

With garlic and cheese being prime ingredients and having a diagnosed obsession for the two, we blindly picked the garlic cheese bruschetta for the entrée. Definitely tasty, but we just wish it was a little warmer when served. That a piece of bread served fresh from the oven always makes you feel at home is a dictum we believe in and this bruschetta just missed the crown.

The cream and cheese mushroom tortellini on the other hand wins our words of praise for being so tastefully prepared. The well-made nachos refrito made us wish there was a movie or a match playing. But that is just us being greedy!

What completely had us captive were the pot stickers. Some distant relative of the dim sums, they were chewy on the outside with oodles of sticky syrup and had vegetable filling on the inside. Who said ‘finger-licking good’ was just for KFC’s bucket chicken huh?

If you had to declare what was the best course in all the food we had at Peaches’ the main course would be it. The Tava Sheermal and the Bhurwan Mirch Kholapuri was simply one of the best combinations we have had. The sign of honey over the Tava Sheermal contrasted with the hot Bhurwan Mirch Kholapuri – the sweet and spicy, a delicious symphony. Must definitely eat!

The pasta with sun dried tomato was probably one of the simplest and tastiest we have had. Cooked al dente, this is one dish we will wish to dig into on a rainy evening by the window sill! It was poetic food, to us. Although we must warn you, it is a dry pasta and may not be everyone’s calling.

Go for the great Hot Choco Fudge Fundae simply because it has choco brownie and chocolate sauce and well, we don’t need any more reasons than that! Or try their signature Somaras. A lychee and coconut milkshake it has traces of ginger that hovers around as an after-taste. On first sip, you are port-keyed into some land of splinched tastes – you are not sure whether you like it or not. Second sip gets you to the ‘hi-hello’ stage with the brew and you savour the combination of coconut with lychee. The third sip is when the ginger meets you and you become friends. But the Somaras, we personally feel, is one of those drinks that grows on you. So we shall wait for the second-time slurp before we decide. However, the filter coffee needed no second thoughts. It was good, strong and hot, and a great end to the scrumptious lunch.

Die-hard vegetarians (or pure vegetarians, asIndiacalls them), despair not! Here’s where you head and hog to your heart’s or rather tummy’s content. And don’t forget to ask the three promoters, if they are around, the one crore rupee question – “Who is Peaches”?

Must try: Pot Stickers, Tava Sheermal, Bhurwan Mirch Kholapuri, Somaras (everyone must experiment with food once in a while!)

Meal for Two: Rs.800

Additional Photographs(nachos and tortellini): Venkatesh Kannan