Amaranta: Getting fresh with coastal cuisine

The catch here is flown right from the coast to your platter in three hours flat; there is a dedicated chef each for the nine coastal regions on display; the style is unmatched, the authenticity exemplary and the intention ambitious. But when it’s Oberoi’s, all this is routine. Meenakshi Rao has a taste of this at Amaranta, lying comparatively unsung at the Group’s stunning Gurgaon property atop a deep blue water body that takes your breath away

As the chauffeur asks you whether its Mozart or semi classical you would like to savour on way to Sunday brunch, you know you are in for a soiree very different from others.

After all, you have just said no to Oberoi Garden’s rockstar coffee shop 361 Degrees, where people with ambitions need to be seen more and nibbling less at the global food on display on packed Sundays. Away from this phenomenon that has redefined coffee shops in India, lies a much less feted gem that this luxury hotel chain has opened in its effort to give Indian cuisine a place under the exalted Oberoi roof.

By all counts, The Amaranta is quite an ambitious, even audacious project. But that does not take away from its authenticity. It is ambitious, because it aims at instilling ocean food from coastal India to palates wedded to chicken butter masala. It is audacious because it flies the fresh catch from coastal India in a private jet twice a day, every day, to land it on your table within three hours of being netted! It is authentic because its flavours mix well with its subtlety and the chef is not queasy about doing the chilli in your dishes, something that’s rare considering most hotels go bland for foreign clients.

For me, the real stamp of this restaurant’s authenticity came across from its array of chutneys. There is no one who can do the chutneys like my paternal grandmother (all the way from Nellore in Andhra) used to. But what chef Rajiv Vatsyayan (from Benaras, if you please) brought across to our table was exactly as my grandmom would have concocted it. The troika of ginger, tomato and peanut chutneys,not to mention the mango, shrimp and carrot pickles, set the pace for all the fresh fish, prawns and crab cakes that followed.

The thing about Amaranta is that it is wedded to style in the same measure as it is to authenticity. Though coastal cuisine is largely oceanic, the vegetarian dishes are no move overs. The flavour of theennai kathikayi (Tamilian brinjal curry) came with of an endearing home-made touch, the pepper getting your palate just the way it should. The potato-drumstick curry was a something new for me but it went well with the appams.

However, it was the fluff they got into the sannas (traditional soufflé light rice cakes with a dash of sweet) that had me lauding. Sanna is a traditional Goan staple for Hindu and Christian festivals. At Amaranta though, they went well with the spicy Chettinad vegetable stew.

The flavoured breads were the tweaks for north Indians, as were the flavoured salts in olive oil to go with these special breads, but the real juice lay in the prawn biryani all the way from Goa, giving company to Bengal’s kosha mangso (the mutton melted in your mouth) and the Kanyakumari fish curry whose curry leaf flavour set it apart.

There is something to be said about Amaranta’s grill and curries because their allure keep you away from filling your stomach with a champagne or a martini which so mean brunch in other circumstances. Here, there is the experimental mutton chop which runs away with your taste-buds though the rechado(Portuguese for stuffed) spiced grilled prawns might as well have been stunned some minutes before.

Though the cafreal chicken skewers are something you must have had elsewhere too, the basil and lentilwada has you nibbling in right earnest.

I don’t have pork but I am told the vindaloos here are a runaway hit even though the chef admits this meat is still arriving slowly to northern taste. Ask him how he gets it so right when it comes to flavours, and you are told that the nine States (more Goa, Kerala, Tamil Nadu  and Karnataka than Andhra) on display here have a dedicated chef, each distinct to the region. That explains why the curd rice has in it the broken and thumped rice picked up from Kochi to lend added authenticity to the dish and why the tomato curry leaf raita smells so well of a Guntur kitchen.

And just for a break from all this traditionalism comes the pre-dessert chocolate and chilli cigars which are basically dosa batter rolled over choco beans. Kids will love it for sure though you might as well try out the payasam ice-cream churned specially for uniqueness.

For traditional palates, there’s the jiggery sweetmeat that is rich in flavour and soft to the core. Thepaan ice-cream has the Benarasi meetha patta freshly ground into the ice-cream along with battered fennel seeds. Yes, this has very little to do with the Malabar, Konkan, Andhra and Bengal cuisines that you were served just before the desserts started making their presence felt. At Amaranta though, it is the freshness of intent and the style of display (don’t miss the splash of colour streaked across your plate with every course) that makes it a towering effort to be real and honest to India’s 7516 km-long coastline.

Source: Sunday Pioneer, 31 March, 2013