Monday, April 21, 2014

CARE FOR THE LUNGI DANCE?


Park Plaza has been featuring variety of food festivals to familiarize its ever growing clientele with cuisine from different regions of the country and across the world too. This time round it is a ' Lungi Dance' Festival at New Town Café, the 24 hour Coffee Shop, for that special gastronomic experience which expands beyond just Kerala to the four Southern States during its ‘Lungi Dance’ food festival. 
Although this is a rather common theme with Southern restaurants, New Town Café’s advantage is its attention to change the menu every day, which makes it exciting even if you were to drop by each day till the festival lasted.

Executive Chef Dinesh Kapri, strongly believes that South Indian cuisine has a lot more to offer than the common fare provided by most South Indian restaurants and shares that the team decided to pick specific areas to base the food on, so the menu doesn’t lose focus owing to the fact that recipes and food habits can change every 10 km or so in our yummilicious diverse country. Therefore Andhra Pradesh is represented by Nellore, Karnataka by Mangalore and Kundapur, Kerala by Alleppy and the Malabar regions and Tamil Nadu by Chettinad food. A strong crowd puller at NTC has always been the buffet which is value for money and a sensible option for a varied sample of any fare. Specialty starters run the gamut from ‘Podi chapa’ (Andhra Fish fry) to Kerela style ‘Chicken coconut fry’, and Vegetarians would love the ‘Sajjige Baje’ (semolina, yogurt, chillies and curry leaves dumplings, deep fried), or the humble ‘Melagai Podi button Idli’ (baby Idli with gun powder).  The selection of main courses will please everybody; from ‘Kori Gassi’ (chicken Mangalore style) 
to ‘Mamidakkai Pappu’ (lentils and raw mangoes cooked with spices). On a more traditional vein, ‘Karimeen pollichathu’ (pearl spot marinated in tamarind, onions, chillies and ginger, wrapped in a banana leaf and grilled), is a lovely dish to accompany steamed rice. 
The ‘Brinjal Gingelly’ alias Spiced baby brinjals cooked in gingelly oil, peanut, copra & poppy seed salan is redolent with a heady aroma.
Excellent for sopping up the delicious gravy are ‘Appams’ or ‘Kal Dosa’.
The Biryani here is first-rate, served with ‘Mirchi Ka salan’ which is basically a peanut and whole green chilly gravy and ‘Dahi’ with chopped onions & green chilies. Share your desserts as all are gratifying, however the ‘Rawa Payassam’ stands out. End your meal with “Degree Kaapi’ (filter coffee).
 
FAST FACTS
New Town Cafe & Lounge, Park Plaza, B Block, Sushant Lok, Phase I,
Gurgaon
Tel: 91 124 415 0000
Timings: Lunch and Dinner
Price: Lunch Buffet @999 plus taxes & Dinner Buffet @ 1099 plus taxes
Festival Dates: 11th April until 24th April 2014