A piece of white paper and a ball point pen always remain by chef Veena Arora’s bedside. Most mornings, this Chef De Cuisine at The Spice Route, wakes up and hurriedly begins to write down new recipes. “It’s the freshest time of the day and my mind races with new ideas,” she says, laying out the table with seven new noodle dishes as part of the restaurant’s Noodle Symphony menu.
The meal starts with Arora’s signature dish called the Stir Fried Cellophane Noodles with Cherry Tomatoes and Scrambled Eggs. Reasonably good in taste, it isn’t the star dish for us. What we highly recommend is the Sen Krob noodles made of popiah, a Fujianese or Chaoshan-style spring roll skin. Every bite is a crunchy sliver of soya infused carrots, baby spinach and bell peppers.
After the first round of service is over, Arora walks back to the kitchen to prepare Kieow Tieow Kheow Waan (Thai rice noodles, wok fried with green curry paste) and we amble behind her. She throws in bamboo shoots into the wok and smiles at us from amid the hiss of steam. Within minutes, the dish is complete. It’s garnished with white pumpkin and crispy basil. “To cater to my vegetarian guests, I’ve added vegan meat in all the vegetarian recipes, made with konjac and soya.”
The menu also includes the popular Malaysian dish, Mee Goreng, as well as Kieow Tieow Naam clear soup with flat broad rice noodles and sliced chicken. Mildly spiced, it comes with Chinese cabbage, a floating wanton, beansprouts, scallions and crushed peanut flavoured with cinnamon. To spice things up, the Tom Yum Kieow Tieow is a good bet.
Most offerings are meant to be standalone meals, but we missed accompanying dishes. On the whole the promotion is a compact menu with interesting flavours, generous portions and chef Arora’s personal attention to each dish. Meal for two is `4,000 plus taxes. Available till August 31, at The Spice Route, The Imperial, Janpath, Connaught Place.