Short Read(For those on the go)
Radisson Blu, Kaushambi is hosting a Italian Food Festival with some authentic wood oven fired thin crust pizza and hand rolled ravioli. Must tryouts are the Frutti di Mare(Seafood pizza), the Three Mushroom pizza and ravioli along with the Pepperoni Pizza and the classic Ricotta and Spinach Aglonotti. The festival is up until 7th February 2016.
Long Read
Italian food is slowly but steadily finding a niche on the Indian palate. With robust flavours of tomatoes, garlic and herbs, the Italian cuisine is one of the few Western cuisines that leaves a palatable mark on our palate. One of the cuisines which has an Indian bastardized cousin, authentic Italian flavours are something that is still a rarity in our community. The pioneers of the cuisine were probably the luxury hotels which brought the taste to the North Indian palate, but as the world grew smaller and the average Indian started travelling outside, more and more stand alone Italian restaurants started to pop up. But most of these restaurants were determined by the demographics, thus the concentration of these happen to be in South Delhi. The trans Yamuna area has always lacked with authentic Indian flavours much thankful to the burgeoning Baniya community. Restaurants have been forced to change menus as the authentic stuff went out of the window, one of the biggest examples being Café Wink where Butter Chicken pasta rules roost.
So, the Italian Food Festival at Avatar, Radisson Blu Kaushambi comes as a breath of fresh air. Staying in Ghaziabad for nearly half a decade now, my searches for the clean cut Italian flavours have involved either baring long traffic jams or smelly underarms in the Delhi Metro. The festival is pretty clean cut, much as the Italian flavours. There are selections of thin crust wood fired oven pizza and some hand rolled ravioli.
In the pizza section, definite tryouts include the Lamb Ragu with it’s beautiful earthy flavour, the Pepperoni with the crisp pepperoni on top of a perfectly melted cheese, the Frutti di Mare with fresh seafood like prawns, diced sole and squid having the perfect juicy texture. The Garden Fresh pizza for the vegetarians is perfect with explosive taste of olives in the mouth. The freshly made pizza base made from authentic Farina and Durum flour which gives a perfect crunch to it. Each of these pizzas is gratinated with the trio of Bocconcini, Scarmoza and Pizza Mozarella cheese
Let’s move onto the Ravioli sections. Although you might just find good thin crust pizzas all over Delhi, the Ravioli is what you should attend this festival for. The Ricotta and Spinach Aglonotti is offset by the simple Arrabiata sauce with oodles of garlic. The Mushroom Fagittoni includes Button, Porcini and Shittake with an earthy, creamy sauce and the beautiful smell of truffle oil to accompany it. The Tomato Ravioli is also something that has to be tried out. The most essential part of these raviolis is the skin which dissolves with minimum effort on the tongue and the perfectly made sauces which does not confuse the herbs.
Rush on to Radisson Blu Kaushambi for an authentic taste of Italy Trans Yamuna but if you’re a lover of ravioli, rush here anyway. The festival is on till 7th February 2016.
