Choose your Chef!
The one-year-old Mercure Hyderabad KCP located in Erramanzil, the heart of Banjara Hills, has been doing some pretty innovative stuff with their F&B offerings since the day of launch. With some jaw-dropping live cocktail shaking and stirring showcasing at their launch to hosting global and regional food promotions, Mercure has been upping its act.
The latest ongoing promotion Five Chefs, Five Cuisines, (Western, North Indian, South Indian, Hyderabadi and Pan Asian) about showcasing the varied speciality cuisines of different chefs, executive chef, chef de parte, sous chef, and so on .
Choose your Chef has Chefs Ganapathi, who is a master of Western cuisine, Maniruddin with his Hyderabadi delights, Sahoo pro at Indian cuisine, Satyanarayana specializing in South Indian and Vikram offering the best of Pan Asian fare.
I decide initially to go with South Indian chef, but eventually end up trying a bit of each (except pan Asian whose chef has fallen sick that evening, but I make that good on another evening).
We started off with an unusual idli presentation, Podi (chutney powder) Crusted idlis, filled lightly with a tangy lemon pickle and tossed with a garnish of curry leaves and dried red chillies, served with the traditional accompaniments of sambar and coconut chutney.
Now, this was quite a shocker, a pleasant one of course, chatpata crisp outside and soft inside with the tangy lime pickle filling (just a slight smattering and not heavu duty) giving it the right punch! Loved it, especially with the fresh coconut chutney and hot sambar.
I chose Pineapple Rasam next, and that was equally delish, the fresh fruity tangy (again) flavours of pineapple blending perfectly into the rasam spices.
Ankuri Makkai Hara Pyaaz ki Tikki was the next entree, picked from the Indian menu, and it was nicely munchable and hot, lets say…
I stuck to my south Indian choice for main course: Gutti Beerakaya Masala (much like Gutti Vankaya or Stuffed Eggplant) along with a coconut rice, which was absolutely smashing! The ridge gourd masala
Coconut Rice or Kobari Annam
That evening, I skipped desserts as I had had a pretty hearty lunch too (at Chef Saby’s new restaurant) so I had resolved to come back and the opportunity came sooner than expected.
A few days later, I had to host a friend for lunch, so where do we go but Cayenne? This time, around I chose Pan Asian, while my hubby chose Western and the friend, who was a vegetarian chose South Indian.
There was Khow Suey with vegetables for me and pineapple rasam for the others. Khow suey was quite fabulous, creamy and aromatic, except that it had got a tad salty, but that did not come in the way of enjoying the coconuty-fragrant soup. I asked for more birds eye chillies.
The entree was honey-glazed lotus stem and chef Vinay was kind enough to ensure that the other choice Dry Cooked Crispy Shredded Lamb was served to us too. The lotus stem was perfectly crispy, sweet-salty in a nice addictive way! The lamb starter was a tad too crisp and dry for my liking, however.
My husband’s entree was a perfectly fresh and zesty avocado and palm heart salad, tossed with cherry tomatoes and crisp lettuce, the dressing a simple lemon-pepper-salt kind was deliciously adding notches to the taste! (Unfortunately, there are no pics to share!)
Honey Glazed Lotus Stem
Khmer (Cambodian) fish curry with rice was the main course served and it came with a yellow curry, much like a Thai yellow fish curry, fragrant with the aroma of herbs like lemongrass, kaffir lime and galangal.
Khmer Fish Curry and Rice
My husband had landed with a slow roasted chicken leg with broccoli and carrot puree, mashed potato and orange pepper juice. Though I didnt try it, his feedback was that it was quite good, and thats saying a lot as he is quite finicky about good food!
Desserts time and chef sends us an assorted platter of Putharekhalu (Andhra paper sweet), paan kulfi (absolutely superb as a cool mouth freshener, with the bite and flavour of the betel leaf interspersing with the iced kulfi, magnifique!
My hubby’s Western menu dessert was a Golden Poached Pear with Mascarpone Quennel, pistachio cream and orange caviar, which was in one word, divine!
Golden Poached Pear with mascarpone and pistachio cream
With hugely satisfied and smug smiles and tummies, we walk out of Cayenne, with happy memories of an afternoon well-spent.
(The festival is on until April 3rd at Cayenne, their in-house 24-hour coffee shop)
