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ShareThe manner in which restaurants claiming to serve exotic cuisines are springing up in the most unusual places can be quite disconcerting, rather like a bad rash. I was invited to a restaurant in Pune which purported to be a Greek taverna, the Galaxy Grill in Aundh.
I was more than sceptical, rightly so as it turned out. Greek food unfortunately has never had much of a following in India. I remember years back in Mumbai there was a restaurant called Plato's Plate which served some fairly basic Greek cuisine -- moussakas, lamb grills, salads and so on.
In Delhi there is the rather basic restaurant called It's Greek To Me at Safdarjung Enclave, and I have had some excellent dolmas there.
However to return to the dining experience in Pune, it scored around two out of ten for authenticity.The only thing they got right in the mezze platter was the tarasamalata (a cream salad made from dry and salted grey mullet mixed with garlic lemon juice, olive oil and bread).
The best I have had has been on the Bosporus, one chilly November day at one of the many Greek fish restaurants which boast the stunning view of possibly the most atmospheric capital cities in the world, Istanbul.
In Pune, everything else was less than mediocre, over-greasy koftas and a tasteless cucumber dip .
This wholly inadequate mezze brought back memories of an entirely delightful mezze thalia served by Greek restaurant in Sydney (Austalia has one of the largest Greek populations outside Greece), exquisite radish, pickled aubergines, amfisse green olives, succulent black kalamata olives, salty anchovies and cucumber slices. The brilliance of the chef is to balance the flavours and create a mélange of delights.
Greek cuisine is a great and much underrated one.Jane Grigson in her delightful book The Enjoyment of Food comments: "I realised that two thousand years ago and more, Greeks were drinking the same resinated wine and eating the same food...Greek chefs then had the same reputation that the French chefs have today -- Cook and Poet are alike; the art of each lies in his brain."
And it is for this reason that one finds that the sort of restaurants which churn out what passes for Greek food, plastic moussakas, the standard Greek salad and grilled meats do a disservice to authentic Greek cuisine.
The essence of Greek cooking is the use of the finest local ingredients,such as olives -- as Laurence Durrell described 'a taste as old as cold water"; the cheeses, the best come from Crete, an outstanding one being the Anthotyro, the salty feta (here I break ranks, Bulgarian feta is superior to Greek) and the delicious hallumi from Cyprus.
There is Greek honey from Hymettus and the most creamy yogurt you can have.The use of lemons including the preserved ones is delightful.In stews the Greeks use their most delicious oregano called rigani, much sharper and pungent than Italian version.The inventive use of fish, how octopus needs to be bashed on the rocks, how squid should be stuffed and the finest parts of the tuna.
And no Mediterranean cuisine makes lamb stews as subtle as the Greeks, with the exception perhaps of the Moroccan tagines. There must be some attempt to showcase this charming cuisine in Mumbai.
Email:javed.gaya@gmail.com
