- Februray 28, 2013, Friday.
- A perfect way to end the month of love was to celebrate it with much love and passion. As far as I'm concerned, one of the things I love the most is India.
- Makati Shangri-La's Circles is going to open its special Indian buffet treat, "Delights of Delhi," to the public on March 3 until March 13, 2014. They flew in two chefs from Delhi Shangri-la-Eros, Chef Abhinandan Singh, and Chef Ajah Chauhan, who will be preparing the dishes themselves; take note, the list of dishes to be served are royal Mughal food. Fortunately, my food-blogger-and-good-friend Clarisse got invited to the promotion lunch meeting, and tagged me along since she knew I'd appreciate such an opportunity. Also, it was a good thing that this promotional event was scheduled today rather than next week, since the actual buffet would be opening next week, and I would be having my comprehensive exams as well (crossing all my fingers, and hoping that I'll pass.)
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| Thank you friend!! |
- We arrived at the China Room of Circles at almost twelve, and were seated after the preparations were almost done. The friendly people from Makati Shangri-la welcomed us, and interacted with us before Chef Abhinandan explained our food. He told us that the dishes were generally Mughal style royal food, which meant the dishes were most likely what the rajputs and shahs had during the 1500s to the 1800s. The Mughal empire is the empire/era responsible for the Taj Mahal and the further islamization and persianization of India. Many of those who were invited to the promotional lunch declined the invitation in fear of "Delhi belly," and the fear of spices. I would just like to make it clear that Indian food is spicy just because many spices were used to cook the food, but it doesn't mean that the dishes are spicy as in "hot." Not all spices are hot - some are salty like curry, some are aromatic like cinnamon, some are on the sweet side like nutmeg, and so on. The other bloggers and writers present realized this, and felt that those who declined the invitation missed out on a lot; all the dishes were spiced and marinated well, almost none of them were "hot."
- We had zaffrani paneer tikka (roasted cottage cheese with saffron,) turra kebab (chicken kebab) and shami kebab (lamb kebab) for our appetizer; I think these alone made me half-full.
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| Painted the Indian flag on my plate with red veggie chutney, white sauce, and green coriander chutney; I couldn't find anything blue for the chakra at the middle, so I just used the green coriander chutney. |
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| Appetizers with papadam. |
- The chefs served three kinds of salad - phalon ki chaat (tangy fruit salad,) chicken tikka salad, and aloo papadi chat (potato salad with some papad fritters.) To complement the salads, we were also served dal kali mirch ka shorba, or lentil and black pepper soup.
- Our main dishes included murgh shamina (white chicken curry,) jhinga dum anari (prawn with red curry sauce with a hint of pomegranate,) paneer haryali korma (cottage cheese with spinach, a relative of palak paneer,) subzi diwani handi (vegetable curry,) dal qurashi (yellow lentil, sort of like Indian risotto,) and dum lucknawe biryani (Lucknow-style chicken biryani.) To complement, we had missi roti and gizwani roti, typical Indian flat breads, but topped with some nuts and spices.
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| Chef Abhinandan. |
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| Out main course. |
- The better part of this rich and royal lunch was that we were also allowed to get food from Circles for free. Since the wonderful Indian food filled much of my tummy space, I took some shellfish from the seafood counter, since they seemed appetizing, and shot glasses of rose water for me and Clarisse from the Indian counter. The rose water, sort of like rose lassi, was a perfect partner for the mango-flavored-lemon-sprinkled-and-pistachio-topped shrikhand.
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| Rose milk from the Circles' regular Indian counter , and the mango shrikhand. |
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| A dab of rose water on my spoonful of shrikhand. |
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| Thank you Clarisse, and Makati Shangri-La!! |
- I had some tea with milk and sugar after our heavy lunch. I had been craving for Indian food for a while now, and all I could say was that all the dishes brought me back to North India, to the forts and mausoleums, where my Indian dreams came true.
Epilogue:
- I went to Robinson's Place afterwards to have dinner with my co-delegates from the ASEAN-India student exchange in 2012. They came to Manila from Iligan for a conference. Too bad the other Manila delegates were not available tonight. Gino, Hazielle, and I had Korean food for a change. Makchang is located at the Adricatico side of Robinson's Manila, right across the Department Store Adriatico exit. I loved the restaurant, but the waiters seemed high on soju; they were always loud, but they were amusing and the service was lightspeed!! (Now that's service!!)
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| With Gino and Hazielle. |
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