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| The Mesob Platter at Abyssinian, Chennai |
By Raul Dias
There’s no doubting the fact that India has, for the
last couple of years, been ensnared in the vice-like grip of a raging culinary
vortex that’s spewing out every conceivable cuisine trend that, we the diner,
are only too happy to lap up (pun intended!). Never mind how outré or over the
top they may be. Today, we may know our Peruvian ceviches from our Hawaiian pokés
and our Korean gimbaps from the now de rigueur Japanese gunkan makis.
But recently, there has been a whole new breed of restaurants cropping up around the country. Each representing a few hitherto unknown cuisines of Africa. Each hoping to break the Italian-Chinese-Japanese cuisine ‘hegemony’. And each making it their mission to make sure we acquaint ourselves with exotic eats like fluffy injeras from Ethiopia, jellofs from Nigeria and boerewors from South Africa, among others.
And while there have been (failed) introductory attempts made in the past with places like Ubuntu in Mumbai serving South African food, the recently shuttered Manny’s Square in Delhi doing its bit for Nigerian cuisine and even a short-lived Afro-Caribbean restaurant called Sue’s Kitchen in Bengaluru, the following are bold new places that are making valiant inroads onto the experimental Indian diner’s tabletop, straight out of Africa…
But recently, there has been a whole new breed of restaurants cropping up around the country. Each representing a few hitherto unknown cuisines of Africa. Each hoping to break the Italian-Chinese-Japanese cuisine ‘hegemony’. And each making it their mission to make sure we acquaint ourselves with exotic eats like fluffy injeras from Ethiopia, jellofs from Nigeria and boerewors from South Africa, among others.
And while there have been (failed) introductory attempts made in the past with places like Ubuntu in Mumbai serving South African food, the recently shuttered Manny’s Square in Delhi doing its bit for Nigerian cuisine and even a short-lived Afro-Caribbean restaurant called Sue’s Kitchen in Bengaluru, the following are bold new places that are making valiant inroads onto the experimental Indian diner’s tabletop, straight out of Africa…
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| Abyssinian |
ABYSSINIAN
Offering up a mindbogglingly large menu of Ethiopian delicacies from the teff-flour made bread called injera to the national dish of chicken doro wat spiced with the traditional berbere spice mix and a carom seed and olive oil cake called nech azmud, this six-month old Chennai restaurant in Alwarpet, has almost everything—including the low-slung furniture and ingredients—brought in from Ethiopia.
Offering up a mindbogglingly large menu of Ethiopian delicacies from the teff-flour made bread called injera to the national dish of chicken doro wat spiced with the traditional berbere spice mix and a carom seed and olive oil cake called nech azmud, this six-month old Chennai restaurant in Alwarpet, has almost everything—including the low-slung furniture and ingredients—brought in from Ethiopia.
Exotic appeal: The steak tartare-like raw tenderloin kitfo seasoned with the Ethiopian version
of ghee called niter, the feta-like
crumbly mitmita cheese and cardamom.
GREEN
ONION
While prima facie there may nothing remotely Nigerian to the look and feel of this Marine Lines, Mumbai restaurant, a glance at the menu will throw up myriad surprises in the form of the tomato-y jellof rice with a huge hunk of deep-fried chicken, served with fried plantain slices as accompaniments and the funky smelling, dried fish redolent goat onugbo curry, best mopped up with balls fashioned out of the log-shaped semovita fufu that’s flecked with pieces of okra.
Exotic appeal: Chicken egusi soup with bitter leaf, that’s thickened using melon seeds.
While prima facie there may nothing remotely Nigerian to the look and feel of this Marine Lines, Mumbai restaurant, a glance at the menu will throw up myriad surprises in the form of the tomato-y jellof rice with a huge hunk of deep-fried chicken, served with fried plantain slices as accompaniments and the funky smelling, dried fish redolent goat onugbo curry, best mopped up with balls fashioned out of the log-shaped semovita fufu that’s flecked with pieces of okra.
Exotic appeal: Chicken egusi soup with bitter leaf, that’s thickened using melon seeds.
FEZ
Straight out of a 1001 Arabian Nights in its décor and like its name alludes, this Moroccan and North African restaurant in New Delhi’s Chanaykapuri area is a repository for all things North African from its lamb tajine jazzed up with preserved lemons to its Tunisian stew served with cous cous.
Exotic appeal: The tajeh al-kamroon harissa-marinated prawns that are charcoal grilled and served with a walnut sauce.
Straight out of a 1001 Arabian Nights in its décor and like its name alludes, this Moroccan and North African restaurant in New Delhi’s Chanaykapuri area is a repository for all things North African from its lamb tajine jazzed up with preserved lemons to its Tunisian stew served with cous cous.
Exotic appeal: The tajeh al-kamroon harissa-marinated prawns that are charcoal grilled and served with a walnut sauce.
GALITO’S
For the last few years this QSR in Bengaluru’s Whitefield has been giving patrons a taste of South Africa and its neighbour Mozambique with is very popular peri-peri chicken, the kebab-like Afrikaner sosaties and the heart-y mealie pap soup that’s made with corn meal and flavoured with tomato and basil.
Exotic appeal: Chicken boerewors sausages served with the tangy bean-rich chakalaka sauce.
For the last few years this QSR in Bengaluru’s Whitefield has been giving patrons a taste of South Africa and its neighbour Mozambique with is very popular peri-peri chicken, the kebab-like Afrikaner sosaties and the heart-y mealie pap soup that’s made with corn meal and flavoured with tomato and basil.
Exotic appeal: Chicken boerewors sausages served with the tangy bean-rich chakalaka sauce.
BLUE
NILE
Run by the cultural wing of the Ethiopian Embassy in Chanaykapuri, New Delhi, eating out at this über-authentic Ethiopian restaurant cum café is both educational and palate-pleasing. The staff are on hand to guide you through the nuances of this North-East African cuisine that has its flagbearers the fluffy injera bread made from rice, teff or corn, the black lentil rich defen mesir and the begg tibs which is sliced lamb fried with onion garlic and fresh chilli.
Exotic appeal: A potent shot of salty, muddy Ethiopian coffee into which a few drops of niter (Ethiopian clarified butter) are added and served alongside popcorn.
Run by the cultural wing of the Ethiopian Embassy in Chanaykapuri, New Delhi, eating out at this über-authentic Ethiopian restaurant cum café is both educational and palate-pleasing. The staff are on hand to guide you through the nuances of this North-East African cuisine that has its flagbearers the fluffy injera bread made from rice, teff or corn, the black lentil rich defen mesir and the begg tibs which is sliced lamb fried with onion garlic and fresh chilli.
Exotic appeal: A potent shot of salty, muddy Ethiopian coffee into which a few drops of niter (Ethiopian clarified butter) are added and served alongside popcorn.
(A shorter, differently edited version of this piece was first published in the 17th April, 2017 issue of India Today magazine)
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