CHENNAI: Deepthi Parthasarathy Popular series Game of Thrones (GoT) is not just about war, incest and gore. While a common viewer of the show might not have picked up on the food that is served as per the geography of the city in Westeros, restaurateurs and bakers have spotted the special dishes and infused the flavours of the show in their dishes. City-based Coco Jaunt 1728 café and Sugar Base Studios have curated special GoT-themed menus, dedicated to the final season of the series.
Twist in the menu
“We are huge fans of Game of Thrones. I have watched the series nearly four times, so I know a lot of lines by heart. We actually wanted to start this menu last year, but I felt it would be more relevant now as the final season is here and fans can connect to it more,” says Rohini Chandrasekaran, founder of Coco Jaunt.
Snehithi Jambulingam of Sugar Base Studios calls the show ‘the best ever she has watched so far.’ “This is a tribute from my end. Cheesecakes are our specialty and I have come up with a hamper of six cheesecake flavours,” says the 26-year-old who supplies desserts to restaurants and also helps them conceptualise themed menus.
As we enter Coco Jaunt in Anna Nagar we notice that the café’s décor is dotted with vibrant colours and GoT references. “We were inspired to make this menu based on customers’ inputs. We took nearly three months to understand how we could connect the items on the menu to characters, GoT references, dishes from the series and our own twist with wordplay. The response has been great,” says Rohini.
The initial menu comprised dishes that only ardent GoT fans could devour. So Rohini made a few changes so that even a non-GoT fan would want to try out the dishes. “We had to modify a lot of dishes and remove a lot of ideas to suit all customers. For example, I made a dessert based on a scene where Daenerys eats a raw horse’s heart. I felt non-GoT fans would get disgusted by this, so I removed it,” she adds.
Of Dracarys and Starks
Coco Jaunt offers separate menus for vegetarians and non-vegetarians. It is a four-course meal. The menu includes Tyrion Wildfire Shot — a blend of Kiwi, green Jell-O and Sprite — Sansa’s lemon cake and the Bowl of Brown soup (both being actual meals from the series), R+L=J — based on the famous fan theory — where R is ricotta cheese, L is for leeks and J for jalapeno poppers; Oberyn’s Head — smashed baby potatoes and cajun seeds representing Oberyn Martell’s smashed head — and White Walker — crushed ice blended with sugar and a touch of blue colour. “One of our highlights is Dracarys, which is a grilled shaslik with extremely spicy naga chilly sauce. Daenerys Targaryen often says ‘Dracarys’ when she wants her dragon to spew fire. So, whenever our customers say the word ‘Dracarys’, our chef uses the blowtorch on the shaslik at their table. We recommend the customers to buy Cersei’s wine along with this, which is non-alcoholic sangria, made a bit sweet and served with apple pieces,” says Rohini.
Snehithi offers two types of limited-edition hampers. The first hamper is an assorted box of six cheesecake flavors, that match the features, colour, mood, and background of the famous houses from the series — Lannisters (Milo and Nuttela), White Walkers (Blueberry), Greyjoys (Intense Chocolate), Children of the forest (Mango & Passion fruit), Targaryens (Coconut & Salted Caramel), and Starks (Biscoff and Cookie Butter). The second is a Dragon Egg Hamper, which represents the three dragons. It has three chocolate eggs colour-coded and named after the dragons — Drogon (Dark Chocolate with Crispy Chocolate Cornflakes), Rhaegal (Milk Chocolate with Salted Caramel Sauce), Viserion (White Chocolate with Raspberry Sauce) — and two macarons with famous verses written on them — Lavender Macarons that reads ‘Winter Is Coming’, and Strawberry Compote Macarons that reads ‘Valar Morghulis’. Snehithi recommends the Milo and Nutella Lannisters cheesecake.
Food challenge
Rohini plans to retain a part of these curated dishes in their regular menu. They conduct yearly food challenges; the latest one being a challenge to consume Dracarys in a couple of minutes. Doctors are still being consulted, as the consumption of such a spicy meal could be dangerous to the customer’s health. “I came up with all the names and gave my ideas to the café’s co-founder, Senthil Egambaram. He made my ideas come to reality. We had a real challenge while experimenting with different combinations of ingredients,” she says.