A Nawabi Experience – Hyderabad Food Festival @ Marriots

Hyderabad ! The city of history, food and simple living. I was invited by the Burrp team to dine at the Marriott Fairfield in Rajajinagar along with a few more foodies and food bloggers for the Hyderabad Food Festival

Let me start by saying it was an experience worth very second I spent there.  I have stayed in Hyderabad on and off for about 6 yrs and have had food at one many of their best places like the Nizam Club,Alham dullilah,places in Toli chowki but this was unbelievable in this splendour and the offering of food that went on for  miles. If you are a meat lover you will be in food heaven and even if you are not, you will still be in food heaven !! Both these sections of foodies are kept in mind and there is a lovely choice of food for them.  It started off with a warm welcome with a cold aampanna. Love these contrasts 🙂

What went down at the Hyderabad Food Festival?

After a session of the obligatory photos, we were then introduced to the chefs each handling an important aspect of the cuisine. Chef Manoj was flown specially from the Hyderabad Marriott.

We were then given foodie gyan on what goes into traditional Hyderabad cuisine and how it is different from Lucknawi cuisine.  Hyd cuisine uses much more spices as compared to Lucknow which uses very rich components such as cream, butter etc in large quantities. Hyd cuisine is more about the skillful mix of the local ingredients to create mind blowing experience on the palate.  One of the chefs whose family used to cook for the nawab of Hyd and still follows the closely guarded recipe that has been passed down from generations to him.

Some secret biryani ingredients…….Guess these ingredients if you can….Answers after the post

We were then given drinks of our choice (mine was a Chivas of course) and tour of the whole spread. The items we sampled were

Haleem – Unlike any haleem I have ever consumed so far both in my Hyd days and those got in Bangalore. This had a beautiful golden color that was exquisite in taste with all flavors blended to perfection.

Kakori kebab – Melt in the mouth soft and a revelation with every mouthful this was perfection at its peak

Pathar ka gosht – One of my favourite dishes since my days in Hyd, the mutton was nicely cooked and had a balanced spice

Nalli Nihari – Again one of my favourite dishes in mutton, I always felt the best nalli Nihari was made by Pakistanis. I used to have this in London and boy was it an addiction. I have never eaten such a fine tasting dish until this moment. It was just mindblowing

Shikampuri kabab –  Another melt in the mouth offering that didn’t even last for a minute, it takes your palate on a trip byond anything you have tasted

Lamb Keema khasta chop – Agar chop ho to Lamb Kheema khasta ka varna na ho !! Translating to if a chop is made then it should taste like this or it should not be made

Phaldhari Kabab – A veg dish and if I get veg dishes like this I will happily eat veg anytime

Tawe ki Machhi – Nicely spiced and cooked fish

Machli begam Bahar – I kinda lost track of this one but this was the macchi ka salan that was introduced and it was a salan unlike anything I  have ever ever eaten. Delish is an understatement.

Khorme ke kebab

Taatee ka godht – Barbequrd quail was an absolute delight and well spiced

Biryanis (Chicken Dum, Mutton Nawabi, Ande ka Dum, Nawabi veg and Aloo Ki Biryani)

I was so stuffed with the food that I just managed a few morsels to try the flavors of the 6 biryanis. Though it was the same kind of preparation the unique key components in each dish gave it a different flavor

Apart from these specials we also got to taste brain fry, liver fry and kidney fry. A different trip on a different scale altogether. Loved the brain fry. Kidney and liver was nice done and spiced well but unfortunately its not my thing.

It was not all hogging though. We also had a fun cookoff where were were split into three teams. The ladies team of Madraasi Deepa and Poojitha chose chatpata macchi. Pujitha did a red marinade while Deepa did a green one.

Our team with three members had Nameesh and Pratheek.  I went with the patthar ka kabab as I was always interested in its preparation. The stone slab was specially brought from Hyd and I could feel the heat emanating from the stone when I stood near it. We made a marinade of curd, garlic, salt, khus ki jad powder (used very little as it can be very strong and make the meat bitter), let it rest for about 10 mins and then put it on the hot slab. The sizzle of the meat was music to my ears

The third team was Arijit and Hari who made brain fry and kheema paratha. They did a good job of rolling those stuffed rotis I must say!! By this time  I was already a few beers down what with the heat of the cookoff….

Boy was fun or what!!

Here are all our dishes plated by the chef and another one of ours in closeup. Which one would do you like?

There was also a quiz, the award going to Arijit

We at last sat down for dinner and I had my last drink for the day a Long Island Iced Tea.  The lamb shorba was another exquisite tasting dish perfect for starting off.  I just picked at the double ka meetha and qubani ka meetha as I was literally dead eating….BURRP  excuse me.

All other snaps can be seen on the slide show above. Would also like to mention the Burrp app thats now available on Iphones and Androids. With a better interface and loads of offers everyday this is a must have for foodies who are looking at getting the best deals at the best of places

The Festival is on till 31 May, 2016 and priced at Rs.999/- plus taxes. Looking at the amount of food served this is foodie paradiso so what you waiting for???

By the way the two secret ingredients above is Paan ki Jad and and Khus Khus ki Jad

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