Sofitel Gujrati Food Festival - Tuskers Home-cooked Food in a Fine Dining Space Cooked by People Who Cook at Home

By Maneesh Srivastva @urbanescapades

 As usual, my punjaabi soul loves to experiment with food. Jaha food… waha hum! But experimenting means try once – soul doesn’t like it – step away. And so after a weird experience with gujrati cuisine, I have managed to stay away from it for over a decade.

Therefore when I got the invitation from Gitanjali at Sofitel to be a part of their Gujrati food festival organised at their all-vegetarian restaurant – Tuskers, I was curious. Curiosity killed the cat, and that cat was me.Before I take you to gujrat ki galliyan, let me take you to what goes into Tuskers. It was my first time there and from the first look, it is a fairly simple restaurant that could be sitting in any 5-star hotel. Peeling the layers revealed its true colors – the only fine dining fully vegetarian restaurant in the city. Not only is there food vegetarian, their cutlery & crockery is also vegetarian!! The specific stock for this restaurant has never even seen sight of meat. That’s how vegetarian they are. I didn’t check if they only hired vegetarian staff.

The environment:Ab chalte hain gujrat ki taraf. Awaiting – colors, vibrant surrounding, folkfare music, puppet show, mehndiwalis, achaar tasting counter and beaded dolls corner – all decked up in the lobby of the restaurant. It was slightly disappointing to see none of the serving staff dressed as gujju. But smart people nonetheless.
The food: The motto of Tuskers is home-cooked food in a fine dining space cooked by people who cook at home. If you get my drift! Hence 2 home-maker ladies were specially flown down from Gujrat to cook (or get it cooked) authentic cuisine. My panjaabi soul was laughing by this time – I was going to have vegetarian food that too gujju.
Gujrati food = everything sweet. Yes and Yes. And let me tell you how.

Main course thali (see picture) – Surti Dal (sweet), Sev tamatar (sweet), Beans and aloo (sweet). As much as I tried, I couldn’t get myself to like all of these. So while gujju’s wll revel in this, I seriously doubt saleability outside that boundry.
Now for the parts I liked. Make it loved – Bajra Vada (I asked for a repeat serving), Ringnanu ollo – Stuffed brinjal – Bestest of all. MUST TRY!
Passable – Methi dhokla (too dry), Toor kachori (very average), aam panna (lacked the punch), Undhyo (boring), Boiled rice (name says it all). Methi thepla is like methi parantha.
Dessert course – Aadiya Pak (sweet obv!) & Angoor ki rabri (sweet & thank god for that!). Both we nice enough. You can’t eat more that 2 spoonful of adiya pak – its made out of desi ghee – for real!
Overall – 2.5/5My panjaabi soul won and I still couldn’t develop a strong taste for this western cuisine. Maybe another try in next decade. Till then, where is the butter chicken!