Chef Suprabhath Roy’s new menu at Blooms, Eros Hotel, is a veggie’s delight. Generous portions of salads are served with dishes that are mostly grilled or baked. By Divya Kaushik
You should be in love with greens to enjoy this. There’s spinach, asparagus, rocket leaves to assure enough greenery on your plate. Cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, olives and a dash of cheese complete the presentation. Flavours are aplenty. Generous use of fresh herbs and sprinkle of olive oil not only add aroma to the dishes but make them perfectly fit for those looking forward to healthy indulgence. Executive chef at Blooms, Eros Hotel, New Delhi, Nehru Place, has come up with a new menu that is “healthier” and “has more variety.” Chef Suprabhath Roy says that the menu retains all-time favourites of his guests and some new dishes with minor twist are an addition. And there’s good variety for vegetarians. Chef says that “vegetarian food is gaining popularity and some foreign guests are also interested in vegetarian options. Also, since it is summer and we want to keep the food light and healthy, vegetables play an important role in the dishes.”
There’s smoked salmon served with sour cream, egg capers and onions, pan roasted Japanese quail with caramelised apple, rocket lettuce and orange vinaigrette and prawn beignets in the appetiser section. Chef offers us most popular ones from the list: bruschetta, calzone and croquette. For the non vegetarians bruschetta is served with a topping of marinated shrimps, avocado and fennel. We go for the vegetarian one, topped with goat cheese and cinnamon poached fig. We expected tomato or vegetable salsa as the topping but the use of fig did wonders to the well-known dish. “Since goat cheese has a peculiar flavour, a slice of fig adds a little sweetness and balances the flavours. It also makes our bruschetta different from the rest,” says chef Roy. The calzone is a take on the popular Mexican dish. Mix vegetables and cheese is stuffed in a baked covering. The crunchiness remains on the outer surface while the insides are juicy and melt in the mouth instantly. It’s served with salad. The only thing fried we are offered are croquettes. They are deep fried zucchini and mushroom barrels with marinated salad leaves, feta crumble and toasted pinenuts.
If you love to dig into salads then you will immediately fall in love with the chef’s collection here. There’s Greek salad, chef’s signature salad bowl that comes with fresh lettuce and herb mixed with caper berries, garlic croutons and you can add grilled chicken to it, too. Then there is rucola and blue cheese salad. It is a mix of fresh rucola and Danish blue cheese with poached pears and toasted pecan nuts.
The portion served is filling. Soup section has all classic favourites — chicken broth, pureed mushroom soup and roasted tomato and basil soup. “If you notice, we have incorporated most popular dishes from across the world in our menu. The changes made in the preparations are subtle and are done in such a way that the original flavours of the dish are not lost in the process of cooking. For instance, we have pumpkin and almond cannelloni. It is homemade pasta barrels filled with oven roasted pumpkin in roasted red pepper sauce.
Cannelloni is a famous dish, but it is the use of pumpkin that makes it different. Then there is ricotta tortellini with fresh mushrooms, asparagus, wilted spinach and tomatoes,” explains the chef. There are burgers, sandwiches, wraps and grill section to choose from for the main course. “We have introduced a new section called ‘soul food’ which offers a variety of comfort food and all time favourites like mac and cheese, mezze selection, Thai curry with rice and fish and chips among others,” informs Roy. Chef serves us vegetable pastilla for the main course. Pastilla is a traditional Moroccan dish, an elaborate meat pie known for its sweet and salty flavours. “It is traditionally served with pigeon meat. Duck meat, mutton or lamb can be used as a substitute. For the vegetarian version, I have used the filling of zucchini, almond and caramelised onions,” says Roy. While the dish is perfectly crisp, it can be too sweet for some palates.
After a diet full of veggies, some indulgence should be allowed. Keeping this in mind we gorge on chocolate degustation. The chef tells us that this is their signature dish, served on a plate like a round chocolate pie and chocolate sauce is poured in the centre of the pie infront of the guests. It is no less than a magic to see the pie absorbing chocolate sauce like a sponge. It is heavenly and is a must have for those who love chocolates. There’s also apple crumble with caramel fudge ice cream and warm chocolate brownie with orange caramel sauce to perfectly conclude your meal.