Column

Gastro Gnome

One of the most salient features of contemporary dining making a shift from traditional eating and entertaining is the demise of the entrée.

The very basis of the western course by course meal was the entrée, its very name smacks of a more leisured era when fine dining was just that, food was to be enjoyed course-wise in a stylised almost theatrical fashion.

The main courses would come served under silver-plated dome-like lid, which the maitre de would open with a flourish to the feigned astonishment of all.

This was classical dining at its best.Today apart from the Zodiac Grill and possibly Vetro no one bothers about such shows.

The trends in dining favour a more casual approach with an emphasis on what has often disparagingly be termed ‘finger foods’ such as sushi (cat food for the catwalk), dim sums, tapas, mezze, kababs, tempura, crudities and so on.

Amongst this plethora of snacky items, there is an increasing disdain for moving to the main course.So much so that the main course has now become almost marginal to the dining experience.

This is not just because of the decline of the formal restaurant, and the shift in favour restobars and lounges such as Shiro, Olive, Seijo and the Soul Dish, Zenzi.

These are places where the gilded youth gather to feast on bar snacks and listen to music as well as dance, the one thing they do not come to do is to demand a formal meal, although in many cases that is on offer.

The percentage of people who frequent the bar and nightclub without ordering a meal at the restaurant is very high.The demise of the entrée is also for other reasons.

The popularity of what originally was thought of as ‘starters’ has spread to even the more formal restaurants.Take for example Royal China, it has scored a major hit with its dim sum menu, so much so that whilst these are traditional served in the daytime (it being considered inauspicious after 6 pm), evening dim sums are the ‘in things’ now.

Other restaurants, with the unfortunate exception of The Golden Dragon, are taking note of this trend and serving dim sums throughout the day.

Middle Eastern Mezze has also acquired popularity. The mezze at the Souk at the Taj represents one of the best bargains in the city.It has a superb selection of salads, includes all-time favourites such as the fattoush, dips such as humus and baba ganoush, hot mezze such as kibbe and falafel.

These mezzes leave room for very little else and most diners stop at that.Italian food you may think is an exception, but not really.Most Indians see Italian food as consisting of pizza and pasta; both are considered starters and are not main courses.

In India historically it was very small elite who frequented the kind of restaurants which the grand hotels like Taj and the Grand in Calcutta offered. Most never ventured to such places unless there was some formal occasion. For them the thali was the bench mark. The genius of the Indian thali is that it offers everyone a whole range of taste, flavours, and textures to satisfy the most demanding of gourmets.

If you do not offer a thali, the next best things is for everyone to share the meal. This is practically impossible with a course-wise dining experience. Henry Tham, interestingly, decided to offer a plated Chinese menu taking cue from Singaporean restaurant My Humble House and soon found that this did not work.We are like this only.

Email: javed.gaya@gmail.com