HYDERABAD: They say there are three important ‘Cs’ in our life: choice, chance and change. One must make a choice to take a chance or our lives will never change.
Too heavy to understand! Right? Well, anyway who wouldn’t want to be spoilt for choices? Choices on the menu card are passé. The new fad is to have choices of chef! Thanks to Mercure Hyderabad, people can choose chefs and their signature dishes.
The chef series at Cayenne restaurant of Mercure offers choice of chefs and also cuisines ranging from Hyderabadi, South Indian, North Indian, Pan Asian and Western. The perks of being media personnel made us taste the best of all the cuisines and by all the chefs. Fasten your seat belts to know what was on our platter.
The Chefs include Chef Ganapathi master at Western cuisine, Chef Maniruddin serving Indian (Hyderabadi) cuisine, Chef Sahoo pro at Indian cuisine, Chef Satyanarayana specialised in South Indian and Chef Vikram offering the best of Pan Asian delicacies.
The steward offered me a frozen mango drink blended well with cardamom and garnished with a raw mango slice and I couldn’t help but sing rasilaa… aam in my mind. Just when I was enjoying my first mango drink, they placed a bowl with globule of rice.
Even before I could give the chef a puzzled look, they poured some magenta pink fluid.
The chef enlightened me that it was chawal with beetroot shorba. Well, my slow-motion video of it makes me crave for the soup. I never imagined myself relishing beetroot so much that I asked for more shorba.
Then came another star to fulfill my gastronomical cravings. I was served fried idli with lime pickle filling. The south Indian in me couldn’t be happier to discover that the most underrated idli could be given such a makeover. It remained the show-stopper.
I heard Pineapple rasam from the corner of the table and I jumped in excitement. There is no south Indian wedding that is complete without pineapple rasam. I wanted to taste the chef’s style and it goes without saying, the spices of rasam, tanginess of pineapple and the infusion of red round chillis were intact.
Ankuri Makkai Hara Pyaaz Ki Tikki was next on my plate. To explain it in local language, it was an exotic full moong dal ki vada. The green chutney complimented well. My main course had coconut rice with badami kofta and some cheese risotto. The desserts couldn’t get any better with Paan kulfi, Andhra Special Putharekulu, poached pear and some edible flowers.
Other delicacies included dishes like Murg Gulnaz, Matki Murg, Kothimir kodi, Khmer fish curry, SubzBadamiKofta, GuttiBeerakai Masala, Gongura Kodi Kura, under one roof.The ‘Choose your Chef’ series will continue till April. Time: 7.30 pm onwards