Bonanza from Banares

THIS IS the flash card round. Here is the one, with Banares written on it. Answers like Varanasi, river Ganga, bathing ghats, silk saris and university are right on target. But food? Don't go into a tizzy if you haven't heard of a Banaresi cuisine. That's because there isn't one. Then what's this Banares food festival at the Ambica Empire, Vadapalani, all about?

The fest that will be on till April 9, actually features vegetarian Avadhi food. Then why call it Banaresi? The only possible reason one could think of was that the chefs came from a sister concern in Varanasi. There was Ganga jal also available for Rs. 57 a bottle.

The main feature of the dinner was the Banares Ghar ki Thali. There were a few other a la carte dishes too. The thali, which by the way is unlimited, had three types of breads, a peas pulao, three curries, one dal, one raitha, papad and chutney and two sweets - Raj Bhog and Jalebi with Rabri.

The aloo bhojpuri, paneer shahi and shabnam curry were quite nice. So was the dal. The Banares thali was certainly different from the usual North Indian or Punjabi thali. For Rs. 150 it was a value for money as every dish including the sweets are unlimited. The Jalebi and Rabri were so yummy that I had to have a second helping.

To try out the other dishes, we had ordered cocktail samosas and mushroom mutter curry. Five samosas though quite good, for Rs. 75 was a bit difficult to take in. The mutter curry at Rs. 100 was over priced. Not even fresh peas were used.

Samskruthi, the vegetarian restaurant where the festival was held had earlier held a temple food fest. With Ganga jal on sale the restaurant seems to specialise in 'food for moksha' there. This makes you wonder what the next event would be, doesn't it? Will it be a Kailash or Vrindavan festival?

MARIEN MATHEW

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