New summer foods

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Think of summer in the Mediterranean and images of a cold gazpacho soup over lunch automatically float into your mind. In India too, there has been a long tradition of summer foods. The mango panna, for instance — tart, spicy and aromatic with mint — has long been favoured to ward off the heat. Similarly, there is little to beat the lightness and wholesomeness of a meal of curd-rice. Then, there are the Unani and Ayurvedic systems of healing that have affected traditional cooking, holding up certain classes of ingredients as natural coolants: There is milk (that changes its taseer from “cool”, when consumed cold, to “hot”, when consumed hot, possibly with a dash of turmeric to act as a natural antiseptic). There is also the concept of “hot” fruits (like grapes) versus cooling ones (water melon) and vegetables like the bitter gourd, which though deep fried to cut their bitterness, are still extolled for their cooling and curative properties. Finally, there are also sherbets, a unique class of drinks owing their origin to the Mughals, better than all the aerated colas we stock up. But while we may use many of these products at home during these long summer months, what should we look forward to while eating out?

 

Cold soups as a category have never done well in India, agree restaurateurs and chefs. Yet, there are some brilliant options available — even if you don’t want to have a gazpacho, which, at its best, ought to be flavourful with the freshness of vegetables (tomatoes, bell peppers, garlic, cucumber), olive oil and lemon. Well-known restaurateur Ritu Dalmia of Diva, incidentally a firm believer in Ayurveda, does an excellent (and lovely-looking) beetroot soup that she first rustled up for Business Standard about a year ago. Since then, it has found its way on to her restaurant menus. But Dalmia has most recently opened a rather gorgeous café to go with the Harnn spa in Delhi, where she does an equally refreshing orange, carrot and lemongrass soup — with a hint of pesto in it.

The Lalit-Ashok in Bangalore too has a range of cold soups, combining ingredients such as smoked salmon and mango with cucumber. Chef Morimoto, on the other hand, the famous “Iron Chef” who presides over the kitchens of Wasabi both in Mumbai and Delhi, has a special new menu (it’s been done to mark the first anniversary of the restaurant in Delhi), where the presentations are innovative and summer-friendly. The extensive vegetarian selection has an edamame (soyabean) cappuccino, done as a cold soup.

For cold appetisers at Wasabi, try the tomato fruit carpaccio with a fantastic basil sorbet (!) — sheer culinary shock. I prefer the Japanese avocado salsa though, set in a crispy rice basket.

Salads is a section you gravitate to during this season. And there are many unusual kinds being rustled up. China Kitchen in Delhi and China House in Mumbai, developed by the Hyatt group as part of its international chain of restaurants, have new summer menus. (The menu at both the restaurants is the same since it is standardised for the entire chain.) One of the winners here is a celery and shallots salad, exploding with flavours. The other awe-inspiring salad I have recently come across is a grilled eggplant one with crispy shallots and cashewnuts (and rocket leaves) at Dalmia’s café. Eggplant is not something that one would order by choice but the way Dalmia drizzles it with balsamic and a Thai sweet, chilli sauce is imaginative.

For drinks, while a host of restaurants continue to do great smoothies and juices, this may be the season to try vegetable juices at Yash Birla’s new herbal café, H3. The first one is located in Mumbai (along with a spa) though the plan is to take the chain across the country.

However, if it is a taste of Indian khana that you savour — not necessarily home-cooked — visit Fire at The Park, New Delhi. Chaat samplings and tandoori tikka with cooling curry leaf, excellent organic dals (a result of Priya Paul’s personal passion, no doubt) and innovative recipes like beetroot-flavoured curry coating lamb shanks — all paired with New World, light wines — make for a great and light summer meal.

(anoothi.vishal@bsmail.in)