Venue: Zambar, Ambience Mall, Gurgaon
Date: 10 April 2016

Many parts of India celebrate New Year this week. In Punjab it is Baisakhi, in Bengal it is Nabo Barsho and in Kerala it’s Vishu. To celebrate this festival,  Zambar has a special platter on Wednesday 14th April – Sadhya (Banquet in Malayalam).  We were recently invited for a preview and saw it is a multiple course vegetarian meal. The menu comprised fritters, a variety of pickles, curries, brown rice, sambar, Sambaram (buttermilk) and some payesham (rice kheer). The food was served on a banana leaf. No spoons were provided and we were instructed to eat with our hands. Typical to any coastal fare, they served coconut water on the side.

The chef said the idea was to alternate among various tastes like bland to sweet – sour to spicy throughout the meal. Accordingly some of the preparations were simple, some sweet-sour like chutneys and some spicy (in moderation thankfully)!

They had three desserts – a fried dumpling and two varieties of kheer “Pal Payasam” and “Adda Payasam”. The Adda Payasam was deliciously sweetened with jaggery.

The food was light and quite the home cooked variety. Even after finishing the long menu over a period of an hour we were not sluggish and the insides were heaving sighs of relief. In fact a banana was placed on the side of our platter and we were told this was for aiding digestion.

The place had a traditional decor style with an artificial kettuvalam or houseboat in significance the back waters of Kerala. Soothing lights and waiter in off-white traditional Malayalee attire made the restaurant quite a haven even on a warm summer afternoon.

If you want to bring variety to your vegetarian diet during the ongoing Navratri, this place is worth an attempt. In any case they are serving special Navratri Thalis during these nine days of worship. While we didn’t try this we managed to take a photograph.

May the New Year usher in peace, happiness and a lot more interesting food for all.