Anandomela at ROOH

We take a month to plan a webinar. Anandomela at ROOH took less than 2 weeks. The religious will say because it was dedicated to maa, it had to happen.

I am not religious. So, I will give it to Samrat for thinking of something this bold in such tough times. He was thinking of a food fest when restaurants are struggling to fill regular tables. I didn’t know him before this event and I am wondering how.

Next, one has to mention the zeal and conviction with which Sharmistha Mukherjee-Cheema pushed the idea. Running two restaurants and with her fingers in a third, she almost dedicated two full weeks to this. And how!

Though the idea of collaborating with other chefs is very foreign to us, Tanu had agreed within five minutes of meeting Sharmistha and Samrat. It was a fun thing to do and the thing to do given the pujo times under such circumstances.

With Äyandrali Dutta, Sneha Saikia and Ranu di, the team could not have been better suited to each other. Because as Samrat said, for a team to come together so fast and implement a tough plan was incredible.

You will expect friction, ego clashes, rabid fights over the menu and everything that can go wrong will go wrong. But it did not. The menu was decided with a week to go with things being added because Samrat wanted a menu big enough to justify the occassion.

There were winners right from the start. These dishes were brilliant ideas and thankfully, the implementation did justice to the ideas.

The dessert needs a special post. That will come later.

Sharmistha had done pop ups before. About Ayandrali, I had no idea. The only time I had her food was a leftover lunch and it was fab. Though she initially, proposed a bold fish and milk recipe, what ended on the menu is a gandhoraj fish that appealed to a wider palate. She pulled that dish and the chorchori with panache. If you have not had her chorchori, do send her a friend request. More than the food, what she brought is a whole lot of tashan and a candid camera into the kitchen.

Sneha’s multi-colored anguli pitha came with a novel combination. I am not a big fan of the pitha but both me and the PhD degree holder in Bengali sweetmaking, my dining companion, lapped it up.

Sharmistha made sure everything fell in place when it comes to her dishes. She was in the kitchen every second night and spent the most hours refining her dishes. The endless iterations of the nimki, the bhaja moong dal were spot on. Forgot to taste the dhoka in the melee.

Ranu di has been cooking and feeding people in multiple countries. Her dishes were satisfying to the core. The paturi was fine one, the khichuri and the ghee bhaat brought the comfort they were supposed to.

Tanushree Bhowmik’s dessert platter was the sole dish that represented Odisha. Sorry, there was the manji badhi too. From the saptapuri that was raved about to the mind boggling charanamrit sorbet to the rasabali with rabdi foam all showcase what she does best and is an underrepresented area – modern representation of old Indian desserts.

For me, Tanu’s driving license expiring just this month was a godsend. I had to drive madam around but in return got to gorge on the fantastic staff food at ROOH, have long chats with the award winning mixologist and be a part of the evening addas with Samrat as the dushto lok but generous host.

In the end, a hat tip to the kitchen staff at ROOH. The team is super young and bats real deep. There are no tail enders in that team.

As Pawan said this was the first food event post lockdown and is the right signal to and on behalf of the sector.

PS:- the menu was extensive, you can read about the other dishes in the attached menu card.

PPS:- Madhulika’s cocktails were as good on palate as their names were on the ears. I had the Dhitang Dhitang Bole that was a gin based cocktail and came with Jasmine buds and hibiscus infused syrup. Other options were a gandhoraj lemon and a tamarind infused one.