Slurp.
Slurp.
My mouth was watering! The minute I heard of the British Curry festival with a British chef being flown down by the Hyatt Regency, Chennai, mouth watering took a whole new level! While the Chicken Tikka Masala is Indian, it is England's national dish! So, its not just the Kohinoor!
Having the dishes laid out on white cloth is a photographer's dream!!! That is an advantage if you're there for the press release. For a foodie who dabbles with photographs, it made life easy and all I had to do was click, click, click, keep the camera aside and wait for the Chicken Tikka Masala! Dining alongside great food critics like Geetha Doctor was special and the conversations were priceless, but I was waiting for the Hero, the Chicken Tikka Masala.
Like the 'Intro' scenes, the hero didn't come first. A rosemary lamb made its appearance. Nice and juicy, we had a couple of helpings. I was saving for the Chicken Tikka Masala. A chilly chicken tikka came along, but wasn't great. I was waiting for the Chicken Tikka Masala. Chef Special, Sea Bass with Cauliflowers came next. Fabulous would have been an understatement. The expectations were rising for the Chicken Tikka Masala!
The main course started and we had some fabulous dishes. The Chicken Country Captain, Lamb Shatkora and Prawn Balti were just fabulous! Some naan and rice and we were set. The bar was raised with these dishes and I was waiting for the Chicken Tikka Masala! Have a friend and fellow foodie who lived in the UK for ages and he was with me! I was waiting to taste it and he was waiting to relive his UK days.
And the hero came!!!! Not, Chef Mark Poynton, the man behind the festival, but the Chicken Tikka Masala!!! I took some bread, dipped it in the curry, closed my eyes, placed it on my tongue and waited for the orgasm! I waited and waited. It didn't come!
I looked at my friend. 'Hmmmm.....' he said.
I was like, wait, is this what you have been raving all this while?
He began his lecture. "In the UK, there are two types of Chicken Tikka Masala. The one that is made in restaurants and the one that is available in the supermarkets that you take home, heat and eat."
"So?"
"This is the second one. I am reliving my UK days. This is exactly how it tastes," he said.
"This tastes like Chicken Tikka jam," I quipped.
"This is how it tastes there," he said.
I stared at him.
"The ones in the restaurant taste a lot better," he said, still hmmmming.
I was done! I looked at Geetha Doctor. "Its different", she told a journalist from the UK. "Not sure, if I like it, but it is different", she said.
Luckily, Chef Mark Poynton arrived with a fabulous looking dessert, explained that it was baked yogurt and stuff like that and one spoonful of the dessert took away all the disappointment of the Chicken Tikka jam!
The festival is for another week and there is some fabulous fabulous curries to taste, but I love to hear what others think of the hero, the Chicken Tikka Masala.
Fabulous Movie, didn't like the hero!
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