When you feel like a warm, starchy meal
BENGALURU: Savour the traditional rice dishes of Spain and Italy at the Paella and Risotto Festival at My Fortune.
While Risotto is Italian and Paella is Spanish, both are made with varieties of absorbent short-grain rice.
These rice preparations are perfect for the monsoon season as they are soothing and healthy, says Chef Sachin Talwar. “They are starchy and since, rice is a staple food in South India, people are enjoying Risotto and Paella.” The restaurant serves them in combination with seafood and mixed meat as well. For starters, there is a platter with pita bread, hummus, assorted vegetables and tabbouleh made with broken wheat mixed with finely chopped parsley and assorted celery. It is served in a thali, an Indian accent to the festival. The tabbouleh tastes grainy with a tinge of bitterness from the parsley. The toasted pita bread has a crunch.
If you prefer something mushy and creamy, go for Risotto. Risotto Alla Promaveera is a vegetable risotto with seasonal veggies including carrots, broccoli and bell peppers, and cheese. This rice dish is creamy and served with garlic bread. Prepared with South Italy’s most famous rice arborio and cooked with proper rice-water proportion, the chicken risotto is starchy. Topped with fibrous chicken cubes, the rice has longer grains than its vegetarian counterpart.
Paella is a mix of ingredients such as saffron, green beans, pepper and tomatoes with seafood or chicken for the non-vegetarians. The warm vegetarian paella tastes more like Indian biryani as it is masaledaar, but it isn’t too spicy. It was a bit dry in consistency. The seafood paella looks appealing, bright and colourful. It has the right consistency, like Indian khichdi, topped with shrimps and salmon, and has a flavour of saffron.
For desserts, try baklava served with mango paste and mango yoghurt on a graphite stone. The sweet baklava is crunchy. The mango paste tasted of pure mango. With a few small mango pieces on the top, the yogurt is really good.
The Paella and Risotto festival is on till June 25.
Cost for two: Rs 1,500.