Don’t know how and where all pairings began but somehow the Chinese breakfast of dim sums and local teas took the world by storm. From corporates to college-goers everyone has their affordable version of a good yum-cha, that’s Chinese for drinking tea, but in the context it is mostly used, it implies tea drunk with dim sums.
Yauatcha, a word which does bear a phonetic resemblance to yum-cha, is a food place specialised in just this. In fact, it is the one restaurant in Mumbai which still allows the city a certain sense of exclusivity over the capital, thereby making it one of the fewer than few reasons to attempt touching down in the traffic jam capital of the world.
I was in Mumbai recently—let’s just say love makes a man do many a crazy thing—and had the chance to explore this concept in depth. Dim sums and tea, not love. Well love too, actually, but that’s another column.
The place is big, like 200-seats big. It is a playground with tables in every direction, blocked off by the glass along the edge else they’d spill over onto a non-existent terrace. The kitchen runs the length of the restaurant. It wasn’t my first visit there but if I were to allow myself to be counted among their fairly frequent patrons from out of town, I can allow myself some pride in knowing what they are famous for. I didn’t stick to my original plan of dim sum-ming and tea-ing but then it wasn’t breakfast time this side of the hemisphere either.
The chef who started the place knows more dim sum recipes than positions in the Kamasutra and a true gastronome may find the former equally tantalising.
So how do they pair with tea, one may ask. Well, it isn’t always about the tactile economics of two dishes that should add up to anything commensurate. Instead, factors like ambience, the setting, the company, they all make a significant difference to our final perception.
That said, they did have a variety of teas on offer but, being in the mood for something more alcoholic, I preferred to experiment with sips more spirited. The team helped me out with new dishes that have been incorporated into their menu and, safe to say, the food is definitely the highlight of the place.
That said, the place is a tad noisy for my liking with decibel levels comparing to a soft pub evening almost. To me, that distracts from the food, but it lends to the ambience and that too is vital for any pairing. In Hong Kong, I’ve done dim sums in places where shouting for service would be inutile and it suffices to merely point at the passing-by trolleys and gesticulate.
If I haven’t made a point so far in this piece it’s because I am myself quizzically lost about what makes food pairings traditionally successful. A visit to Yauatcha was an attempt to understand that. Clinically speaking, I learnt nothing new, noticed nothing different. But something must be said about a place that feeds over 9,000 souls a month and that too in not exactly what one would define as a cafeteria.
I guess the mix of food, beverage, and service is a delicate balance and if garnished appropriately with a zestful dash of ambience, story, and setting, the place will have more than enough going for it to last longer than the current six-month life cycle that most places seem to have.
Speaking of which, I shall soon focus on the places that began well but then crash landed but till then, do share forth your list of must-try places. I’ve an appetite that refuses to be satiated.
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