Date: 24 Feb – 4th Mar
Venue: Asia Alive, DoubleTree by Hilton Gurgaon

There is travel and there is travel. We for instance recently had a sojourn at Ladakh. Not physically but in terms of gastronomy. Asia Alive at Double Tree by Hilton hotel, Gurgaon is holding a Ladakh Food Festival between 24^th February and 4^th March 2020. Truth be told, we were not very familiar with Ladakhi food. And apparently, we are not the only ones. As per Chef Spalz, who was roped in from Ladakh to curate the festival, even locals in Ladakh have forgotten Ladhakhi cuisine and have shifted to regular North Indian fare. Chef runs her café SOLJA in Leh, she would know. Now the problem with losing one’s food is losing an essential part of one’s culture. And that is a loss not only for Ladakh, but for everyone. But this discussion is for another day. As of now let us go back to Asia Alive and the Ladakh Food Festival.

The Ladakh food was part of the regular dinner buffet at Asia Alive. There was a separate set up where Ladakh food had been served. Starting from soup and salad to momos as appetisers to main course to dessert, we could see a common thread. The food had been made with simple ingredients including many unique cereals, cooked moderately and spiced mostly with local ingredients. For instance our dear old momo, which incidentally is “MokMok” in Ladakh, was served as entrée with 3 fillings – chicken, lamb and vegetables. All the three varieties were made with wheat and not white flour. Then were 4 relishes on the side – one homemade pickle was made of apricot kernel, theothers had tomatoes, cabbage, carrot, raddishand the last was a chutney made of red chilli paste of course. The chicken soup was clear broth cooked with barley! It was most refreshing. We also tried Leh Berry mocktail. This was sweet and sour and a great way to clear the palate before the real meal started.

The rest of the meal had lot of wheat, brown rice and barley in the dishes. The barley kheer was a surprise. We were reluctant to pick it. And although we are not big fans of neither barley nor kheer, we just couldn’t stop! A whole variety of grains and berries in every dish gave the meal a direction. In fact, there were two apricot desserts – one a compost and other a soft pudding. The compost was naturally sweetened and after ages, it was a riot on the taste buds. This used to be our favourite dessert at Gunpowder, the South Indian restaurant in Hauz Khas that could not survive the sealing drive. The apricot pudding, although apricot again, tasted different and stood easily distinguished from the kheer. There was Rose hip tea to sip with desserts. Chef Spalz had got the tea from her home in Leh and the dried buds looked like Oleander flower. It was most refreshing and helped to settle the food.

We have consciously not listed many dishes because we do not want to be the spoilers. All we can say is that it was not like any other meal before. It was simple yet special yet healthy and made us crave for more. As a result, it was after ages that we hogged but with no side effect.

This post would remain incomplete without a little description of the ambience at Asia Alive. Colourful Buddhist prayer flags hung from the ceiling and basket lamps replaced the typically glass light shades. Chef Spalz was wearing a beautiful silk dress – like an overlapping coat crossed with Anarkali and that she said was called “Kos” or “Guncha”. She accessorised the dress with a radiant smile. The service staff that evening also wore maroon overalls with a sash around their waist. They looked peaceful, somewhat like Buddhist monks in training. The overall mood was very festive and we loved the experience.

In the day and age of boring events that hospitality industry mostly forces out, Ladakh Food Festival was a welcome change – a big hit. Not only the food, it was a glimpse in Ladakhi life. Good job Swati and the Asia Live team! You set the bar up high (pun intended) there this time.

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