HYDERABAD: South East Asia is known for its extensive range of street food.
The sight of lines of skewers with hot sizzling meat and veggies made with local spices, at umpteen food stalls is a sight to behold.
But even as the Coronavirus has curtailed many a traveller’s plans to these food havens, one can at least enjoy some of their street food favourites here in the city.
Zega in Sheraton, Gachibowli, has a new Pan Asian Grill menu featuring Asian street food. Each dish is grilled in varied preparations and served on hot charcoal giving the food a smoky flavour.
Thankfully, it’s not overpowering, but sufficiently creates the drama of street food that most of us can never get enough of. The menu has an extensive range of seafood, red meats, chicken and vegetarian options to choose from.
While all the dishes we sampled tasted nice, the seafood array of lobster, octopus, calamari and prawns was particularly delicious and if you love seafood as much as I do, then these are a must-try.
Interestingly, there was no fish dish on the menu. All the seafood is sourced from Mumbai, informed the executive chef Sidharth Bharadwaj.
The calamari grilled in a lemon pepper sauce was a perfect combination of tangy with sharp pungent flavours of pepper.
Next, the mid-sized prawns served on skewers were cooked just right, with a hint of garlic. The smokiness from the grill further enhanced the taste.
The lobster meat cooked in a pepper sauce was delectable too. However, the pick of the seafood dishes was the octopus. Prepared in a basic sauce, it brought out the taste of the tender meat to perfection.
The grilled New Zealand lamb chops with roasted sesame chilli sauce was cooked to well-done, which made it slightly chewy; we would have preferred it medium-done.
However, the dish had a nice full-bodied taste to it.
All the chicken grills had distinct Indian flavours, and are a go-to for those that like the bite of Indian spices.
In vegetarian, the pick of the dishes were the broccoli and tofu, water chestnuts skewers with sambal and the cottage cheese skewers with chilli coriander marinade.
The crunchy water chestnuts paired with the sweet and spicy sambal and tofu was flavoursome, while the cottage cheese with coriander was an all- familiar taste of Indian food.
Prices start at Rs 450. The Asian Grill is available for dinners at Zega.