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Sample the best of Asia

Asia Garden on ECR offers some of the continent's most fascinating food

COMBINATION OF FLAVOURS Chef Shivajee Chandran displaying some dishes PHOTO: SHAJU JOHN

The East Coast Road has been the refuge for average food for just too long. Sure, ambience makes up for a multitude of sins, but even sea breeze gets boring after a couple of hours, and uninspired multi-cuisine at almost every stop along the way just doesn't cut it. Fortunately, there's finally a new genre of cooking in that line-up of seafood "name your fish and we'll cook him" style restaurants along the ECR stretch.

Asia Garden, claiming to specialise in exotic Asian cuisine, recently inaugurated its woks here, and is now bustling with activity, scenting the sea breeze with the wonderful flavours of lemon grass, galangal and kafir lime.

The location is rather surprising. Considering how interesting the menu here is, it's unfortunate that Asia Garden is tucked into a corner of The Farmhouse. More so because The Farmhouse waiters seem to be an absent-minded gang: they directed us straight into their multi-cuisine restaurant and only remembered the existence of Asia Garden after some pointed, and obstinate, questioning.

Once you get there, the restaurant is pleasant and restful, with a pool outside. They do, however, play some rather dreadful music, which I suffered through for a while — assuming it was Cambodian and telling myself I should improve and expand my mind — until I realised that the music system was faulty and what I thought was esoteric tribal drumming was actually static.

Interesting menu

Chef Shivajee Chandran, a Singaporean who previously worked with Taj Connemara's Hip Asia, has put together an interesting menu, keeping in mind his Chennai customers. Which means he's been forced to walk a tightrope, trying to ensure a balance between authenticity and convention. The result is a cuisine that's unfamiliar, but at the same time never really forces you to venture out of your India-dictated comfort zone. Not necessarily a bad thing.

We started our meal with juicy Cambodian grilled prawns, served with an addictive cucumber and onion dip. It came with rather solid skewers of good old chicken satay, and an excellent Malaysia-inspired chicken redang, cooked in fragrant roasted coconut and chilli paste.

Not everything works though. The hyped Pak Choi, made with imported vegetables, is a little disappointing and so was the Mee Goreng. But on the whole, it was a memorable meal, thanks to Chef Shivajee's deft, if restrained, use of pan-Asian spices.

The menu here represents the cuisines of Malaysia, Thailand and Cambodia. And of course, a little Chinese manages to sneak in too. They even have teppanyaki, and if you head here in the evenings you can sit by the Teppan and watch the chef juggle your dinner. At about Rs. 300 per head, this is a reasonably priced way to sample some of Asia's most fascinating food. Asia Garden, The Farmhouse, is at Uthandi.

SHONALI MUTHALALY

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