Day 2 at the Upper Crust Show

After all the fun I had yesterday, I was all geared up for Day 2! Being a Saturday, it was a little more crowded. All the women were making a beeline for the front row seats. By the time I reached for the 1^st cookery demonstration, the placed was packed. I did the next best thing, took the recipe sheet, sampled the chocolate hazelnut tart that was demonstrated by Kainaz Messman and then headed for the next demonstration that was half an hour later and got a seat with a good view of the chef in action.

The Rajasthani cuisine was presented by Chayya Arya of Chetana restaurant, a restaurant that has been dishing our authentic traditional food since 1946. They taught dal bati and gatte ka pulao. It wasn’t as good as Rajdhani’s but I was happy to learn that it’s not as elaborate; and I should make some myself.

The next demonstration was by Chef Maximiliano of The Leela. He presented some basil pesto minestrone, angel hair pasta with shrimp in a tomato basil sauce and an Italian spiced chicken with potato wedges. These didn’t impress me much. The Italian spiced chicken though was slightly better than the rest. I wonder how many of us from the audience would visit his restaurant after sampling these. This experience also got me thinking if authentic Italian food is really this bland (being used to hot and heavily spiced food, this was a trip to the other end of the spectrum). But then it probably is authentic, since the chef’s been in the country only for 2 years now.

The last demonstration for the day was by Chef Avi Biton from Israel. He made all his dished with onions, tomatoes, lots of coriander and zattar. This herb I discovered is mixed with lemon juice and sesame to make a seasoning blend. He made a salad with raw rawas. All the ladies first thought he was probably marinating the fish, but in fact he was going to serve it just like that! I learnt that when fish is seasoned with lime for a while, it pickles and tastes really good. Had I not known it’s uncooked, I would have probably not realised. Or maybe think it’s meant to be

eaten rare. Just as all the ladies with traditional mores shunned the thought of having raw fish, I was only too happy to grab some! (Thus I stuck to my rule of moving out of my comfort zone. Next step: escargots. Or no, it’s still makes me feel gross!). Oh, and I also learnt this wonderful aubergine dip: mashed aubergine, olive oil, whipping cream and zattar. Dip some pita in this and feel the creamy texture!

Overall, the cookery demonstrations today weren’t as impressive. Nonetheless, the highlight of my day was eating raw fish for the first time; and this is what is going to make it memorable.