We start our evening with the Corn and Avocado Soup that is enriched with soy milk, served chilled with a hint of wasabi. This is an underwhelming start to our meal because no particular flavour really stands out in this soup. But the salads that follow more than make up for the soup. The 3 Melon Salad features yubari (sarda in hindi), musk and watermelon drizzled with a slightly tangy plum dressing and purple shiso dust. Each mouthful is refreshing with the juiciness of the fruits heightened beautifully with the dressing. The Smoked Pumpkin Salad is served with seaweed, palm hearts, crumbled tofu and miso-mustard dressing. And I have had a version of the Tomato, Edamame, Ginkgo Nut and Konjac Jelly Ceviche earlier; I loved it then and I love it now.The tomatoes are cured for three days, lending them a sharp tartness that is balanced with the flavours and textures of the rest of the ingredients. Hiyayakko Chilled Tofu are chilled cubes of silken tofu topped with a citrus soy, momijoroshi radish, ginger and sesame seeds. I like the simplicity of this salad, but the ginger and radish is too strong for my liking. If it is for you too, simply remove some of it from the top, and enjoy the tofu with the citrus soy sesame dressing.
Then of course, there's a choice of sushi. The one that really stands out is the Mango and Avocado Cream Cheese Roll. Slivers of alphonso mango are used for this one, and mango and avocado is anyway a match made in heaven. It works quite well in sushi too. I avoid dunking it in soy though. There's a similar version with tuna too, but I prefer the former one. The Hanami Roll is a creative thick sushi roll with tuna, salmon, crab, yellowtail and cucumber. The highlight is the sakura dembu (sakura being cherry blossoms, and dembu or denbu being sweet, pink, fluffy fish flakes). This pretty-looking roll takes almost 25 minutes to make. Unfortunately, the cucumber overpowers the lovely seafood. Topped with creamy avaocado slivers, and drizzled with a rich unagi tare sauce, the Eel and Avacado Roll is good.
The sashimi of Scallop Carpaccio, with mentaiko cod roe, is served with wasabi soy. This would be a winner if only the scallop is sliced thinner. Then there's a choice of cold noodles. While salads and sushi are expected to be cold, this section makes it ideal for hot summers. I must warn you, though, that cold noodles may require an acquired taste. We have the Cold Hiyashi Tantanmen that is home-made Ramen noodles, served chilled with sesame flavoured pork broth, spicy ground pork meat and fresh seasonal veggies. It has nice subtle flavours, the pork is succulent and the best part is that they are cold. The other options include Chilled green tea flavoured buckwjeat noodles and thin angel hair noodles.
The icing on this menu is the dessert. Mango, Liquorice with Coconut Icecream includes a liberal serving of sweet alphonso mango dusted with sansho pepper powder. A wonderful end to a cool, summery meal. And options of cocktails like Sendai (vodka, fresh kiwi, fresh melon and lime), Plum Blossom (sochu, umeshu fresh plum and lime) and Umetini (sake, umeshu and gold leaf) are as refreshing as the food on offer.
The festival includes masterclasses as well. There is a Sushi Master Class on 28th May where you can learn to master the different techniques and delicate flavour pairings essential in creating authentic sushi with the chefs at Guppy.
28, Lodi Colony, Main Market, New Delhi - 110003.
Lunch 12 - 3.30pm; Dinner 7pm - 1am.
Rs 350 onwards; Prices Cocktails Salads Rs 350 each; Sushi Rs 650 onwards; Cold Noodles Rs 700 each; Dessert Rs 400.
