Summer menu at Le Meridien , Gurgaon.

It was the superlative reviews that impelled me to try out the food at Le Meridien, Gurgaon. The executive Chef Tanweer Kwatra has many accolades conferred on him by one and all  .Honestly having heard so much about his mastery over the craft, I was almost worried of a reputation preceding him kinda scenario. It was with such raised expectations that I stepped into the plush lounge of Le Meridien, and onto Latest recipe- the hub of culinary action that afternoon- to try out their newly launched summer menu.

                                                                                     

The meal commenced with Quinoa and roasted pumpkin salad .The pumpkin chunks were roasted with their skin on giving it a chewy texture and its sweetness gelled well with the nutty flavour of quinoa. The fluffed up quinoa also imparted the right amount of crunch to this light salad. The Cabbage and onion salad did not taste anything out of the ordinary. If you thought summer and chaat don’t go together, then the Palak patta chaat will quash your opinion. The crispy fried spinach leaves with hara moth were the perfect combo of greens and this was topped with raw mango epsuma. The airiness and lightness of the epsuma lent that summery twist to this nutritional salad. Dahi ka cheela came with a side of mango chutney which brought back memories of childhood. I wonder what is it about mangoes that make me go weak. Coming back to the cheela the thick and creamy yoghurt filling raised the appetising value of cheela by many notches.

 I’ve saved the best for the last and that was the Okonomiyaki. It’s a Japanese pancake which uses cabbage as base, and Chef Tanveer‘s customised version incorporated corn to render a vegetarian pancake. One bite of the okonomiyaki resulted in an explosion of textures and flavours in my mouth and makes this one my personal favourite.

The gluttonous afternoon ended with some Mochi ice-cream, the pink and yellow colour palette by virtue of the strawberry and banana ice-cream filling enclosed in mochi was so girly and reminded me of teens ,1^st crush and all things nice. This was so delectable that I was tempted to ask for another serving thus overstuffing myself and with that ended my prettiest meal in a long time. Not that I am complaining about being stuffed especially when the food’s as scrumptious as the chef .For like Oscar Wilde I too can resist anything except temptation!