I am fortunate to be a part of Ghee Rice celebrations on their 5th Anniversary last night, where I tasted some brilliant dishes and it was a brand new experience for me as I have never tried Keralite cuisine before.

Ghee rice started from a passion to enjoy good food in a surreal ambiance in Abu dhabi and now they have officially opened their doors to Dubai. During last night’s event I was familiarized with their latest fusion dishes through interactive and experiential tasting sessions. As someone who has never been to India, I always wondered how their cuisine must taste like especially Keralite cuisine. I was afraid that their food would lack flavors and I was just proved wrong by every single dish that I tasted last night.

Amuse Bouche:

Loved the chicken kunafe and its simplicity, the crispy coating protected lightly spiced chicken mince that just melted in mouth.

Salad Tasting Platter:

If this is how salads are done, I won’t mind living on these. The chefs nailed every salad on the plate. There was whole wheat, muttabel, quinoa and  fattoush. I can’t pick one because all of them were equally good.

Appetizers Tasting Platter:

The appetizers were absolutely spot on in terms of flavor, texture, presentation and combination. There was Inji puli prawn thats actually prawn cooked and dunked in thick tamarind chutney, curry leaves paneer, Mumbai keema, black diamond and Irani tikka. I vividly remember people went in awe of inji puli prawns the moment everyone tasted them.

Main Courses:

1. We began with the beautiful Rajasthani chicken lalmaas that was perfectly balanced with spices and the chicken was tender with subtle hints of orange color to it.

2. Keralian Fish mango curry:

This curry was densely yellow and tasted like whisper of a dream, the composition of spices in it remain unknown to me as I was unable to guess those but every element in this dish was lovely. I paired it with the naan paratha to enjoy it fully.

3. Malabar Erachichore: 

The servers untied a giant bundle of banana leaves to unveil this dish and the entire room was filled with aromatic rice. This was a comforting rice dish that tasted divine.

4. Le Cordon Bleu:

This is a famous chicken dish where you stuff a chicken cutlet with spinach and creame cheese and then fold it and cover it in egg and bread crumbs and voila! loved it here. Especially because it was a huge shift from classic menu here.

5. Penne Alfredo Pasta:

Speaking of a shift from the classic menu, there was penne alfredo pasta on the table too. And yes, it was beautiful. The Beschamel sauce was cooked to perfection with wilted mushrooms.

6. Australian Lamb shank dum pukht Biryani:

This was the main course that stood out like a champion for me because it was absolutely perfect and packed with bags of flavors, the lamb was falling apart on one touch and the rice were beautiful, each grain was separate.

Desserts:

For desserts, they served each one of us a dedicated platter with some amazing sweet dishes. It comprised of a gulab jamun, pistachio cheese cake, cheese kunafe, elaneer pudding, fruit creame and blueberry mousse. My favorite were the elaneer pudding and kunafe. Simply nailed the desserts!

Thank you once again for letting me be a part of your festive night Ghee Rice Restaurant, It was a pleasure tasting the new fusion menu.