HYDERABAD: If you’re a lover of Middle-Eastern cuisine, over the years many restaurants have opened in the city to cater to the ever-growing demand. Capturing that frenzy over Middle-Eastern cuisine in the city, Tre-Forni, Park Hyatt, Banjara Hills has come up with a pop-up Levantine festival which promises to do justice to your love for the cuisine with its noteworthy offerings like a hot mezze platter, creamy hummus, hot falafels and more.
As we made ourselves comfortable amidst soothing music and light, Chef Abdulkarim Kurdieh who came to train the chefs at Tre-Forni during the festival says, “I am basically from Syria and have worked over 18 years in the culinary world. I love sharing my home cuisine with people from around the world and here to curate my signature Levantine dishes at the pop-up festival at Tre-Forni.” Chef Abdulkarim Kurdieh works at Syrah restaurant of Hyatt Regency Delhi and at present is at an all-India tour showcasing his work.
We started our Middle-Eastern journey with chicken soup with barley pearls. The soup was creamy and it made a perfect starting point. Next we focused on Cold Mezze Platter comprising of Hummus Beiruti from Lebanon, made from pureed chickpeas, tahini paste, lemon juice; Baba Ghanouj from Iraq which is a charcoal grilled eggplant salad with garlic, spring onion, parsley, tomato, capsicum and Muhammara from Syria, a mixture of roasted nuts, freshly chopped red peppers, onions, mixed with olive oil, pomegranate molasses. The mezze platter was served with freshly baked small round pita breads. Falafel from Syria, a mixture of ground chickpeas, onion, garlic, coriander leaf, deep fried with sesame seeds, followed next.
From the grills we tasted Shish Taouk from Syria. The boneless chicken thigh cubes, marinated in curd, char grilled, garlic chilli sauce was delicious. Next we had Kastalita from Jordon, which are lamb chops, char grilled, served with grilled tomatoes, onions, and mixed capsicum. It was absolute heaven with meat so succulent, almost falling off the bones. We ended our grill tasting season with Kibbeh Seekh from Palestine, which is minced lamb with onion, burghul, pine nuts, chilli paste, char grilled and garlic sauce.
Like any other tasting season, desserts were our final destination. We were spoiled for choice and choose three varieties - Muhalabia Rose Petal made of milk pudding, rose water, corn flour, pistachio, served with rose petal ice-cream; Baklava made from Filo pastry, stuffed with nuts and honey and Oumm Ali made from Pastry-crispy butter dough, milk, nuts and whipped cream. The stars of the entire dining experience were the Kastalita and Oumm Ali, both though very different in flavour profile, made our palettes sing.
The festival is on till March 19 and they are planning to make it a weekend fixture soon.