Go Light & Easy at Tuscany
Tuscany, the Italian restaurant at Trident Hyderabad, with its cosy and warm ambience, has got a new summer menu and everything about it defines lightness, freshness and energy. Chef Manik Magotra, the executive chef of Trident Hyderabad is constantly pushing the frontiers of his creativity and this one is no different.
“We change the menu at Tuscany twice a year, in change with the seasons. This time around, we are focussing on the flavours and freshness of summer seasonals. The menu has been adapted by almost 70 percent, with some of the evergreens staying,” shares the amiable Manik.
At a preview table to which I am invited, there are a host of colorful and zesty fresh salads and a cold soup, to begin with.
We start off with Grapefruit, Toasted Hazelnut and Valencia Orange Salad, with a chilli lemongrass dressing. Very pretty-looking and tastes pretty neat in a fresh, light zesty way with the toasted hazelnut giving it a nice bite and crunchy texture. This is how it looked:
A Smoked Chicken & Rucola Salad garnished with saffron cheese spheres follows, and while I am not too fond of the rucola leaf, but I find myself irrestiblily drawn towards the saffron cheese spheres which are in one word, delish!
A cold soup follows: Carrot & Fennel soup with chilled orange sorbet and almond biscotti…this one is cool, refreshing and healthy to the core!
The orange and fennel soup is in one word, brilliant!
For main courses, there are lemon thyme fettucini, duck breast and toasted sesame risotto, of which I would like to speak about the risotto first. This was a dark-hued crunchy and creamy risotto, the stuff of which a good dish is made of. Loved it and this is how it looked
Since I am not particularly fond of duck, especially for the toughness and may I add the smell of it I would prefer not expounding much on it except that the plating was superb, especially the accompaniments, the pearl cous cous with pickled purple cabbage and orange glaze. I loved the cous cous too, it reminded me of our humble ‘sabudana’.
Duck Breast with Pearl cous cous, pickled cabbage and orange glaze
Lemon and Thyme Fettucini
The lemon and thyme fettucini was as good as it gets with a whole-hearted pasta, with the gorgonzola cheese adding an entire dimension and the walnut giving it an extra crunch.
Mango and blueberry pannacotta, with vanilla crumble…
The best is for the last, they say, and in this case the Mango and Blueberry Pannacotta (actually a vanilla pannacotta with mango filling plated with crispy oven-fresh vanilla crumbles and blueberry mousse) is truly spectacular, both in its styling and the taste. The pannacotta is fresh and wobbly, and the mango filling flows out lusciously as I take a stab at it, with the blueberry giving it that tangy edge. The vanilla crumbles are deliciously crunchy and this dessert ensemble is one of the best I have had occasion to sight on, and better still eat!
Sous chef Prafful Aina, who is noted for his creative desserts rightly deserves all the acclaim which comes his way.
