Savour sub-continental food at Hilton Chennai

Chennai, March 13 (IANS) After India's frontiers got realigned during partition in 1947, the cuisine of the countries beyond our borders got confined within their own boundaries. To overcome that, the Hilton Chennai's Ayna restaurant is hosting an "India-Beyond Borders" food festival with vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes of Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.


"The spices used for making the masala in these countries are similar to ours. But the different ratios with which ingredients are used to make the masalas gives each dish its distinctive taste and flavour," Achal Aggarwal, Executive Chef at Hilton Chennai, told IANS.

"The ratio of spice ingredients used in Pakistan to make their masala is completely different from what we use in India. Pakistanis use more of aromatic spices, including rose petals for a nice aroma," Aggarwal said while offering the starters.

For the vegetarians the char grilled soft Pakistani kandhari paneer tikka coated with reddish pomegranate juice and mild spicy masala tasted great, while the begun bhaja (mustard laced grilled eggplant) gave out the mustard flavour at the first bite.

The beehaji ka tikka (pan fried lotus stem patties from Sindh province in Pakistan) was crunchy.

Non-vegetarians can go for chapali kebab -- lamb patties from Pakistan's northern frontier.

"Instead of chicken one can keep one or two chapali kebabs inside a cut bun and have it like a burger," Aggarwal said.

Seafood lovers can certainly dive into the Bangladeshi speciality macher dhakai paturi (fish coated with spices and mustard oil, wrapped in banana leaf and cooked). The aroma of the mustard oil masala and fish is not to be missed.

One can also blindly go for Nepali poleko machala (roasted soft grouper char-grilled with newari spices). Chicken lovers can opt for chiken sekuwa (skewered chicken thigh rubbed with spice mix and grilled on charcoal).

According to Aggarwal, the masalas are different for each dish and are not inter-changeable.

Both the soups, vegetarian (subz shorba) and non-vegetarian (murgh jahangri shorba), were light on the stomach.

At the next table, a tween was seen mixing a tamarind/garlic dip with the vegetarian soup and smacking her lips.