by N.K.A. Ballal, Retd. Sr. Vice-President, ITDC

Our Prime Minister Modi has done the impossible. Recently, he managed to get the ceos of 47 Fortune Companies to come together for a meal with him at the Waldorf Astoria, New York. Just to name a few who were invited, Goldman Sachs, Boeing, ibm, Lockheed Martin, Citigroup, PepsiCo, PayPal, Cargill, Starwood, etc. The total worth of the companies under one roof that day was 4 trillion dollars. Wow, the agenda of course was to highlight the “Make in India” campaign and convince these companies to invest more in India.

The biggest headache for Modi’s managers was to zero in on the cuisine and the man to do it. When such global heavy- weights are together, the menu also has to be top class. Modi also insisted that it should be an exhibition of India’s rich gastronomical culture showcasing the different regions of this vast nation. The officials at last chose the celebrity chef Vikas Khanna, a household name in India. This gentleman, born in Amritsar, owns a Michelin Star restaurant “Junoon” in New York. He is considered as one of the best in Indian fusion food business. He has travelled all over India to the nooks and corner including our own Udupi and has integrated the local cuisine with his own fusion style.

Vikas looks like a film star, is a bachelor to boot and has a huge female following all over the world. Vikas and his team laboured for months to try out various combinations and give something unique to these guests who are used to the best of the world and make the evening memorable.

What is fusion cuisine? Personally, I have sat down having some fusion cuisine and not liked them. They are superb to look at but somewhere down the line the original taste vanishes and that is the reason I am not for it. Many a times I have had to come and have dinner at home after a sit down fusion meal. But anyway I am in minority and the whole world craves for these kind of dishes. Let us now have a look at the menu that was served to these esteemed guests:

Paneer-Ravioli, Mizoram black rice khichdi, Coconut rice creme brulee, Thandai chicken, Pomegranate sangria with tandoori pineapple, Coconut chutney mousse, Corn dhokla molten cake with berry compote, Seviyan cakes, Fusion modak and more. It is said that the modak recipe has been given to him by the legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar. I have not gone into details regarding the different pickles and papads served on the table. To ensure authenticity of the recipes, the ingredients were flown in from India. Several of the names are familiar like chutney but chutney mousse? Thandai is a milk drink made of badam and pepper and served specially during the festival of Holi in several parts of eastern UP. But a chicken dish made from this? Real fusion.

I really wish that these Moghuls loosen their purse strings after eating these exotic fusion meal. These recipes form a part of a book called “Utsav – A Culinary Epic of Indian Festivals” penned by Vikas Khanna. This book, weighing 16 kg, is a 1000-page Coffee-Table book. It contains 1000 recipes from 70 Indian festivals. This book has been published by Bloomsbury Publishing and is written with pure gold ink. A Collector’s Item, this book was presented to the US President Obama by Vikas Khanna after the above event. The cost of the book, anybody’s guess?

Coming back to India and our own Namma Mysuru, I was pleasantly surprised to receive an invitation from my friend Dr. Javeed Nayeem on behalf of an organisation called Anjuman -e-Hadiqatul Adab to attend an Eid Milan dinner on Sunday, 4th of October. Since I knew that there will be lots of speeches in Urdu, I wanted to give this event a miss. But on second thoughts, I attended the programme. For the first 45 minutes, I did think that I had made a mistake to come as I could not understand anything being discussed on the stage. But then Dr.Javeed sprang a surprise. He called a Urdu teacher, Lal Hussain Ilkal from Bijapur (now Vijayapura) to come and speak. Looks are deceptive and Mr. Hussain is a perfect example of that. I have attended a few discourses and it is for the first time I have come across a speaker who could fine balance between religions. What a speaker, having a complete command on Kannada language, proficient in Arabic, Gita and even Basavanna’s poems. It was such a joy to hear someone talk in pure Kannada with hardly an English word thrown in during his 45-minute discourse on the subject of religion without casting aspersions on any religion or language. The icing on the cake was the lovely vegetarian meal arranged by the hosts. The divide between the two prominent communities are too huge but your “alilu seve” to bridge the divide, Dr. Javeed, is very commendable. Thank you Dr. Javeed and your team.

Dwelling on the subject of vegetarian food, are my readers aware that the oldest and very popular vegetarian restaurant in the world, certified by the Guinness Book of Records, is in Switzerland and not in India. Surprised? The restaurant called “Haus Hiltl” was founded in 1898 by some German immigrants to popularise vegetarianism as a way of healthy living. This restaurant is located in Zurich’s Sihlstrasse district and has been visited by our own Morarji Desai among other celebrities. Imagine getting Indian thali, sambar-vada, palak-paneer, chutney and curries in Switzerland. Well, next time you venture to Switzerland, do not miss this landmark joint.

[e-mail:ananthballal@yahoo.com]

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / October 15th, 2015