Features: Magazine | Literary Review | Life | Metro Plus | Open Page | Education Plus | Book Review | Business | SciTech | Friday Review | Young World | Property Plus | Quest | Folio |

The Lahore Express comes calling

There are discoveries in store for gourmets at the Lahore food festival at Intercontinental The Grand in New Delhi

SUMPTOUS SIGHTS The Lahore food festival promises some great culinary delights

There is chappal kabab, dumbha kabab, mutton qasoori, dhooan gosht, lamb paya curry, paneer kabab, Baluchi sajji, barra taka tak... .the list is endless. These culinary delights await food lovers, especially non-vegetarians, at Baluchi restaurant in InterContinental The Grand, New Delhi. And those who have prepared them for you are your neighbours, chef Rehan Rasees and his associates Khawar Naseem and Muhammad Amjad from Lahore, Pakistan. Kanwar Asif Maqsood leads the team. The occasion is the Lahore food festival.

The festival titled Lahore Express that continue till this coming Sunday, serves the delicacies of the region through a specially designed a la carte menu. The chefs, flown in from Holiday Inn, Lahore, are taking care that the food includes Punjabi specialities too, since Lahore is the Capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab.

If you are wondering what is chappal kabab, dhooan gosht, etc, here are hints from Maqsood.

"Chappal kabab is more flat and larger in size. It is made of beef, mixed with some onion and coriander leaf. Unlike shami kabab, it doesn't include any chana dal. And is fried in mustard oil and not vegetable oil as in shami kabab. Some gram flour is also used to make it crisp."

Dhooan gosht is actually very tender mutton flavoured and fumed with charcoal after steam cooking. It has no gravy. It is dry and spicy, can be eaten without rotis too. Baluchi sajji is lamb marinated in salt or lemon juice overnight and treated with special Baluchi spices. "We also use some vinegar to make it to add that zing," h e says. While mutton qasoori is red meat prepared with Qasoori methi. Qasoori is a state in Lahore. Its fragrant methi is famous worldwide," he adds.Maqsood explains the main difference between Indian five stars and Pakistani five star hotels cooking non-vegetarian food. "India uses a lot of cream, cashew nuts and other dry fruits to make the non-vegetarian dishes rich, while Pakistan prefers adding no extra cream or dry fruits. It cooks them in its own flavour with just those needed spices so that the actual taste of the food is not lost."

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail