Sanjay Raina invites with so much love and cooks with so much passion that its hard to say no any place he calls us. So when he invited me to come to Paschim Vihar for the launch event of a Kashmiri Food festival, i said yes first and looked on Google Maps for the location later.
On the D Day i was careful about eating a light lunch to prepare for what i knew would be a memorable dinner. Battling the rush hour traffic which was complicated further with religious processions for Valmiki Jayanti, we reached over an hour late. We were, however, welcomed with a big smile and open arms like always. It was a small gathering and in the midst of food stalwarts i felt i had arrived in more ways than one :).
Some of the food i had eaten earlier at a Mealability event but there were some new things i wanted to try from the very large menu.
As a meat eater, the Tabakmaaz hits the spot just right and i love the cartilage bit in the middle which you can just eat up as well. The Nadru Churma is something that should be packaged and sold, its an amazing snack. I had to take additional helpings of that.
I accidentally ate a paneer tikka piece and was pleasantly surprised, it was delicious and unlike the Punjabi paneer tikka which i am not a fan off. I was looking away and speaking to someone when the server served me a piece and now i am glad he did and i ate it. There was absolutely nothing i wouldn’t eat again, all the food was delicious.
We were getting so distracted in the picture taking that Sanjay got an entire thali with all the items in one so we could take the picture and then go back to enjoying our food. So the thali you see in the pictures is NOT what i ate.
Oddly enough, my absolute favourite item was the Haak. Maybe its a sign i am getting old but it looked good and tasted great, it had bite and flavour. Not surprisingly we were told that Haak and rice is like the ultimate comfort food for a Kashmiri.
I didn’t know Sanjay’s background in singing so i was taken aback when he picked up the mic and starting singing as good as he cooks. His soulful sweet singing and the perfect Phirni was the perfect ending to a perfect evening.
For those of you live near the area or don’t mind the trek do visit Indyaki at the Radisson Blu for amazing food with excellent service. The festival will be on for another 10 days. If not, enjoy the pictures below.
Comments