The GT Road spreads out the flavours from Kabul to Chittagong before its patrons, says Saimi Sattar
Afghanistan has been in the news, our thoughts and prayers for the past fortnight. When I walked in through the doors of GT Road restaurant, an Afghan, albeit, one who lived in a different time, was the person who crossed my mind. Sher Shah Suri, the founder of the Suri Empire, extended the Grand Trunk Road from Chittagong in the frontiers of the province of Bengal in northeast India to Kabul in Afghanistan in the far northwest. The precursor to the National Highways, which connect the major cities of India, eased travel along the route. But then, I digress from the reason that we were here — food.
The first thing that loomed into vision was a vintage-style car placed at the entrance. The swords, the knives and the guns that hung on the wall as well copper serving dishes make you step back in time and visualise yourself galloping down the dusty road on an Arabian steed. Snapping back to the present, I looked around and saw grills embedded within the serving tables, akin to a popular barbeque chain that is a hot favourite among the carnivorous tikka-devouring populace. I grimaced inwardly as eating three different kinds of meat dunked in one sauce with a slight variation does not add up to an ideal meal. Till the time the flavours are distinct and created to sync with the protein in question — where it is more robust for red meat, slightly less pungent for chicken but just enough to elevate its otherwise bland taste and just a basic marinade to enhance the usually mild fish flavour — I would rather stick to greens. However, I could not have been farther off the mark.
A lot of thought has been put into the way that the menu has been designed to be in tandem with the name of the restaurant. So, at any given time, there are dishes — starters, mains or desserts — from each of the places that the 2,600 km long GT road touches, on offer. And the menu keeps rotating so that if you happen to visit it twice, you can sample a different fare each time.
We began our culinary journey, for it can rightly be called so here especially, by digging into Bhetki maccher fry from Kolkata and Sarson jhinga from Amritsar. While the fish was succulent with a hint of lemon and black pepper, the sweet flavour of the prawns was perfectly balanced by the pungency of the mustard. Next up was the Kurkum mirch ka paneer tikka from Peshawar, which I bit into with some trepidation as my threshold level for the heat is nothing to boast off. But while the tang was intact, I did not find myself reaching out for a glass of water to take charge of the intense hiccuping which is my usual reaction to an overload of capsaicin.
I was feeling quite full, so rather than sampling a bit of everything from the main course, I dished out a spoonful of Khumb matar which was highly recommended. And then, another. And, one more. The creamy texture, the sweet-cheesy flavour and the well-done peas and mushrooms that practically melted in the mouth combined to make it the most perfect rendering of the dish. The hint of kasuri methi added an adequate amount of freshness to ensure that the dish was not cloying on the taste s buds.
Of course, the sweetest part of any meal is the dessert. We dug into the Pan ice cream and which maintained the equilibrium between its traditional origins and modern presentation. This was followed by amazingly crisp and thin jalebis paired with rabri... if ambrosia had another name, this would be it.
Satiated, I made my way home with the hope that I would undertake this journey on the highway of taste, again.