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Variety be the spice of life

Small portions allow greater variety and choice at the Menu de Degustation festival in Uppal Orchid's Chef And I restaurant

With the Chinese August Moon Festival just round the corner, Chef & I at Uppal's Orchid is celebrating the sampler food fiesta. Called Menu de Degustation, this food festival will run for a week at the restaurant ending this Wednesday.

`Degustation' is a French word that means `tasting', in which a meal consists of about 10 or 12 different, small courses. Chef & I is serving authentic Chinese and South East Asian delicacies, Degustation style. The idea is to provide the diners a broad spectrum of dishes, instead of those huge portions, which often makes diners feel heavy and full. Chef Devraj Halder has arranged the menu so that similar types of dishes are clubbed together and are to be had as a combination.

The festival offers a wide range of dishes and flavours. You will find a lot of lemon on the menu, be it the soups, the starters, the main course or the desserts. Lemon is used to give a refreshing and a tangy taste to the dishes. But at times it dominates too strongly over other flavours.

Assortment

One can start off the meal with salads like black and white fungus, lemon-scented pineapples, original som tam and lemony three cabbage served in small portions.

Sushi lovers can try California temaki, Nilgiri sushi, goomkan and maki sushi, available as a combination. Moving on to the starters, you may try the chicken teriyaki and Beijing lamb chops which are available along with Chinese BBQ prawns and fish hitoku.

The main course offers a widevariety for both vegetarians and non-vegetarians. Try out the lamb in masamun curry, chicken rendang and prawns pazoon hin. The vegetarians can opt for tofu-stuffed potatoes, Chengdu style baby corn, broccoli Singapori.

A variety of noodles and rice are available to go with the curries. You could try the unpolished rice or the whole wheat chicken noodles. The jasmine rice, however, doesn't go well with the curries. Those with a sweet tooth would relish this festival, as the desserts are also available in a combination of three. So, you can taste a variety of ice creams like candied green chilli, honey lemon grass and fresh guava. Also on offer are natural jellies like papaya, sweet lemon and peach.

The menu offers a lot of variety in terms of the number of dishes per order, but that doesn't mean that all are equally good, so you may still opt for your personal favourite. According to Chef Halder, the food can be best enjoyed if it is had in the sequence provided in the menu. This would guide your taste buds in such a way that you will not encounter any crests or troughs. The concept of Degustation is a serious challenge to the chef, he says.

A meal for two will cost around Rs.2000.

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