A Culinary Experience to Delight the Taste Buds

There is nothing like food to connect the world, cutting across borders, cultures and races. And with each country, and at times each city or town, offering a wide variety in terms of gastronomic experiences, food is something that spreads good cheer too. Underlining this was the recently held, and fascinatingly curated, fine dining event by Together at 12^th, an experiential fine dining restaurant, along with the famous Nadodi Restaurant of Malaysia, which showcased their authentic nine-course meal to let diners experience a transformative gastronomic journey.

Nadodi Restaurant, which is well known for its ‘nomad South Indian cuisine’, uses flavours and ingredients that South Indians contributed to the region’s culinary diversity when they were settling in the Malay Peninsula and Singapore. Chef de Cuisine Sricharan Venkatesh and Chef Vanshika Bhatia together with their team served amazingly conceptualised dishes with meticulously crafted cocktails with each dish for two days on September 13 and 14, 2019.

Together at 12^th believes in using local produce in a world-class way. It then combines traditional and ancient techniques of making food collected from across India and the knowledge gained by working all over the world to create innovative culinary spreads. As such, in the recent event, each of the dishes or drinks had unique flavours that at times brought nostalgia to the fore. Meanwhile, Akshar Chalwadi, head of the beverage programme and the co-owner of Mixologist at Together at 12^th joined hands with Nitin Tewari to create a special beverage menu that was perfected paired with the food.

Here’s a sample: mushroom and rose burger, okra with bajra roti, banana and barley koot, chicken salami with cured egg and pistachio, ragi sourdough and beet kombucha sorbet were some of the sumptuous dishes that were served at this exclusive feast. In cocktails, rasam distillate, a most revered drink by Nadodi, stole the show. It had fermented tomatoes with warm rasam. This drink was made of three different types of tomatoes to make the rasam and the leftover tomatoes were then used for fermentation of the drink. Smoked salmon, fennel and basil distillate with chilli oil was another such unforgettable drink.

Not only the dishes were a treat to the eyes but they were equally unique in their taste too. A cocktail drink of Jim Beam whiskey with tamarind and Earl Grey was served in a clay glass with a butterfly made of tamarind over it. As someone rightly remarked, there didn’t seem any need to go all the way to Kaula Lumpur when you could have the rasam distillate here in India. The meal was priced at two options: Rs 4,500 for the nine-course menu paired with non-alcoholic beverages and Rs 6,000 for the nine-course menu paired with cocktails or wine. In short, a wonderful evening that had the taste buds dancing with delight!