Chef Veena Arora’s winter menu is strictly for seafood lovers. Her South-Asian delicacies are prepared with essential herbs like basil and galangal that keep the body warm. She tells Divya Kaushik about conceptualising the menu based on seasons over the last 18 years
She has a secret trick to win her guest’s heart even before the food is served. Chef Veena Arora has lovely stories to share of her childhood days in a small town named Phathalung situated in the south of Thailand, close to the sea and the Malaysian Border and her eat out experiences. “I last went to Thailand one year ago and I am soon going to be there again. Whenever I am there I mostly prefer eating at street side stalls, after all that is what is famous about Thailand,” she said while we all waited for her delicacies that now form a part of her winter menu.
Ever since the chef has been at the Spice Route, the most famous restaurant of Imperial hotel, she has been working on different menus for different seasons and promotions. She told us that the idea of crafting the menu as per seasons, just like it’s done in fashion industry, came from the Imperial’s owner’s daughter. “I created the initial menu with South East Asian delicacies with another person who added some curries from Kerala. We were waiting for the response of our guests to that menu and therefore it was just kept as a soft copy until one day the suggestion came to do the menu as per the seasons. Since last 18 years I have been doing summer and winter specials. For summer season, I do a mango special. Every dish that is a part of that menu necessarily has a ripe or raw mango. A winter menu is all about sea food. But every year I try to add new dishes to my season special menus, though one can always find the hot favourites like the prawn salad,” she informed.
Chef Veena offered us some specialities from her special menu. The appetisers were thord mun pla — Thai fish cake served with sweet chilli dip and cucumber and prawn in a sarong — Malaysian style por pia skin wrapped prawns, flavoured with lemongrass, chillies and fried crisp. It was served with sweet chilli and plum sauce. The main course comprised yera mellagu, stir-fried prawns with Kerala spices, phanaeng pla, which was crispy fillet of sole served with phanaeng sauce and khao phad thalay, stir-fried rice with prawn and egg in Thai soy sauce. For the vegetarians on the table, chef Veena had her special dishes, which surely was commendable as she had to specially create the vegetarian versions to give the guests the flavour of her new menu. “The speciality of the winter menu is that every ingredient that goes into the making of the dishes here is perfect for the season. The herbs and spices I have used are known to keep the body warm. You would also notice that it is a healthy and a wholesome meal,” said chef Veena.
For vegetarians there was por pia chae: Thai style spring roll with vegetables, fried crisp and served with sweet chilli and plum sauce. It was followed by clear vegetable and silky bean curd soup, flavoured with fresh sautéed garlic. Even if you swear by seafood, our suggestion is not to miss on this soup. It is worth a try. The main course had stir-fried rice, khao phad chae with stir-fried silky bean curd and bamboo shoots in Thai basil sauce.
The menu offers a wide variety of dishes made from king prawns, squids and lobsters. There are also concept dishes like dhallo miris temperadu, devil fried squid rings with paprika powder, tomato and worcestershire sauce and phad phrik pla merk, wok fried octopus with chillies, green pepper, krashai and basil in Thai oyster sauce. The dessert section offers an option to choose from silky bean curd ice cream and a sticky rice dessert. The latter is surprisingly delicious with mild flavour of coconut milk.