Marwari Food Fest, Park Hyatt

How do you get excited by a Marwari Pop Up restaurant? Especially when everyone invited were hard core non vegetarians!?! Having had a Marwari bestie during my growing years, it is not new to me. But certainly doesn't rank up among my all time favourites. But one dish used to. Their home made rotis. While rotis at home were simple wheat, I've tasted various colours of rotis at their home. And long beans.

The Marwari food festival at Park Hyatt brought those memories back. Clearly, this is aimed at their in-house guests looking for home food! That is probably why it is hosted in their Dining Room rather than the flashy, modern, unbelievable Flying Elephant! Quaint, slow and peaceful Dining Room.

However, for me this is one concept that will be tough on a buffet. You can request for a thali served on the table and that is how we did it. Being a very homely food, I wouldn't want to get up and go for every course!

Simple dokhlas with chutneys and a beautiful mini samosas started the meal. Then the gravies and sides came along with the rotis. We started off the ubiquitous Dal Bhati Churma. Yum yum yum. This is so typical of Rajasthani and with Marwari taking a large base from there, we were happy to see this on the menu. Another surprise was the Sangri, a root vegetable that is very different and rarely seen in South Indian cuisine. A super yummy sangri and dhal bhati were good enough, but we were treated to a nice creamy gravy! And then the rotis that brought back those memories. Dessert was a fantastic, rich homely badham halwa. Not the commercial ones, but very similar to ones in my friend's home.

For a hotel catering to tons of business clients, taking a predominantly home cuisine and getting a Marwari wedding caterer to cook it up is a nice way of stepping up things!

The festival is on till the 24th of this month!!!