the kitchen espion: Visit to Awadh Food Festival at Seasonal Tastes,The Westin, Gurgaon.

I am always fascinated with cuisines like Mughal, Kashmiri, Kayastha and Awadh and never miss a chance to learn about these cuisines. So luckily i got an invitation by LINOPINION group to review the Awadhi food at Seasonal Tastes, Westin, Gurgaon into their two week long festival on this cuisine. As they say " You can always enjoy your meal with good company", I went with two of my best friends Shalini Pereira of All things nice and Nimi Vashi of Matrix life magazine. .

I was amazed to see the hospitality of the Hotel staff and Chef Deepak Bhatia and Masterchef Qadir Khan . We got to know the details of each dish by Masterchef Khan . With discussing Masterchef Qadir Khan, I got to know that Awadh Cuisine has been originated from Lucknow and completely different than Mughal cuisine. Unlike Mughal, Awadh cuisine use a handful of uncommon spices and cook the food in slow cooking process. Slow fire cooking lit the juices absorb into the solid parts of the meat. The major process of cooking is marinating meat which contribute the taste. Most of the Awadh food is cooked on Griddle or Tawa. Cooks are known as Bawarchis.

Dhungar, Dum, and Galavat are main process of Awadhi cooking. Dhungar means to give smoke to the meat or dishes. Dum is literally means to cook on slow fire with sealed Pot or Deg . Galavat is to tenderise the meat.

So we started our food with a glass of Thandai and Gulab Sharbat. I liked the Thandai better than Sharbat. In starters, we had Tandoori Bater ( Quail) , Subz Kababs, Gilautti Kabab, Paneer Tikka, Kakori Kabab. Kakori Kabab and Gilautti justed melted in my mouth . All spices were well balanced and so spice was overpowering with other spice. Bater was nicely grilled and the mint chutney was blending well with the bird. Next, we had Tandoori Raan which was well marinated with Gilavat before cooking. It was served with two types of bread with Cardamom and Aniseed flavour.

Main Course was served as buffet with Dum Dal,, Mirchi ka Salan, Murg and Gosht Biryanis, Nihari , with varities of papads Raita and Kachumber Salad and many more dishes for vegetarians.
I had Nihari at many places, but loved the Nihari at the festival. There was no trace of oil and the gravy was with all juices of the lamb bone . Lamb Biryani was tingling in my palate with mild spices and soft meat. All the dishes were well balanced with spices and with smoky taste ( Dungar)

As I have a Sweet Tooth, and there were varities of sweet dishes apart from Awadh cuisine , I preferred to stick to authentic Awadhi sweet, so picked Lauki Ki kheer, Badam ka Halwa, Jao ki Sai, Seviya Muzzafar, Khubabi ka Meetha and Phirni.
My sweet tooth could not pick the best among all and I enjoyed all the dishes.

If you want to enjoy and explore the Awadhi food with some fantastic Sweets, Do visit -Seasonal Tastes, Westin, Gurgaon . The festival is going on till 28th of Feb 2015.