Bon B'lore appetit

Bon B'lore appetit

The Hindu Business Line

An outsized appetite for life sees the city teeming with new eateries by the day.

Bangalore," comments an eminent Delhi-based economist who's visiting, "lives by its stomach. Its citizens seem to live to eat, not eating to live, to cite a cliché." She should know, as a foodie to boot.

Could that be true? Possibly, to judge by the dozens of glitzy new eating places that have opened in the city over the past five years. This is a city with huge disposable incomes among its under-30 earners, a cosmopolitan population, and an outsized appetite for life. An appetite that manifests itself through mega-malls with food courts, despite the crush of traffic. A sizeable expatriate population. And a hardcore home truth. That the well-heeled Bangalorean would rather eat out than in, even on an average day.

In response, the restaurateur community is turning experimental to match the city's hunger for table fare that whets its globetrotting spirit more ably than Kannadiga kitchen favourites like spicy bisibele bhath or spongy set dosa at the stand-and-eat fast food darshinis. That explains why Olive Beach opened on central Wood Street in November 2005, replacing Shanghai Moon, an above average Chinese eatery. Why did the Peking Duck give way to Mediterranean fare? Because Olive, a major Indian restaurant success story, chose Bangalore for its first southern foray beyond Mumbai and New Delhi.

Olive Beach dishes out classy Mediterranean fare, ranging from a lobster, crab and shrimp bisque spiked with cognac cream and anchovy oil to a duet of duck with duck leg risotto, pearled vegetables and clove-infused port reduction, from a spaghetti vongole with baby clams and smoked bacon to a chocolate fondant with licorice ice-cream with balsamic glaze. The dishes gain a leisurely, secret life of their own amidst pristine sands nestling by a bamboo thicket, in a lounge space that eases the stiffness out of fine dining. While the Olive experience tests whether the upper crust Bangalorean is ready for a groove rated among the world's top ten by the Conde Nast Traveller in 2000, other international kitchens and alternate cuisines beckon.

The evergreen Taj West End — where the jet-set who's who from Sting to Steve Waugh chose to stay — serves the globe on a plate with flair. By replacing its divine Thai restaurant Paradise Island, after a 16-year glitzy run, with Blue Ginger, part of an international Vietnamese cuisine chain. Amidst tall glazed ceramic vases in an oriental pavilion surrounded by water, tended by exquisite hostesses in traditional garb, the cuisine melds French colonial flavours, Chinese notes and spice route accents. Such as crispy calamari with plum sauce, stir-fried greens with garlic and even chicken curry in a clay pot, with sweet potato and aubergine.

Other hotels meet the challenge with savoir faire. In the recent past, The Oberoi has offered a Raj food buffet that served piquant crabs on the shell and roast potato salad dressed with sea salt and tamarind. Not to be outdone, the Leela Palace Kempinski imported outstanding Thai chef Chamlong Penthaisong to recast their pan-Asian Zen restaurant. With craftsmanship befitting food art, he serves stir-fried tender asparagus and shitake mushrooms enhanced by herbed bean paste, a nuanced red curry of roast duck with pea-sized Thai eggplant, crowned by a dessert of pomegranate-tinted water chestnuts, served with ice shavings.

But Penthaisong is not the only master chef whom Bangaloreans flock to. For The Oberoi's Rim Naam boasts of Thai master Donny Hemna, who conjures up divine dishes like whole black pomfret with a sauce of coriander roots, shallots, garlic and red chilli and Chinese kitchen wizard Anthony Huang, who once served an entire meal of irresistible momos at Szechwan Court.

At The Park, the choice of the trendier set, executive chef Abhijit Saha tweaks his London-based mentor Antonio Carluccio's brilliance into classic i-t.ALIA dishes like grilled king prawns with roast potatoes, artichokes and tomato or angel hair pasta with crabmeat, shrimp, lemon and dill. A performance that made Outlook rate him among the ten top Indian chefs in 2002.

But Bangalore's best big bites are not confined to the five-star zone. Some serious eating stakes its claim to fame at Sunny's, the redefined gourmet restaurant run by theatre director Arjun Sajnani and his partners, where spinach timbales with capers and lemon butter, Szechwan orange beef and Norwegian salmon escalope, lobster and red wine sauce are among the stars of the menu.

Other non-traditional options, besides the time-tested London fish and chips around the lamp-lit courtyard at The Only Place or the steak and pineapple at Koshy's with its old-world ambience? Perhaps the authentic fare at Soo Ra Sang in Koramangala, where Dr Eom Hie Yong (with a Ph.D. in Sanskrit from Chennai) serves sprouted green gram with mutton/seafood or kimchi, prepared steaming hot at the table, with delectable accompaniments like fried seaweed with sesame and spinach greens.

The list could grow, as each ardent food aficionado in Bangalore adds his/ her personal choice to the melting pot. As high-life restaurants teem into being each month, the Delhi economist may not be far off the mark.

For there's a genuine and growing buzz about restaurants in Bangalore. Lives there a foodie who disputes that?