Be it cheesy pav bhaji or chilled Faluda, the Mumbai Chowpatty Festival in Marriott brings the flavours and colours of Mumbai street food to Hyderabad, just the way it is. Decorated haath gadi (hand-carts) with vegetables hanging in the corners, black boards with hand-written menus and chefs dressed in white kurta-pyjama, Nehru topi and red kapda on the shoulder are sure to make you feel like a Mumbaikar walking along the Juhu beach.
Talking of street food from Bombay, one does expect the usual sweet sour vada pav with potato patty stuffed between the mint chutney-coated bun and Bombay sandwiches with extra cheese and sev topping. Apart from this, the food fair offers dishes very new to the Hyderabadis. “Everybody knows Dhabeli and vada pav. We wanted a mixture of both popular dishes and extremely new ones for the city foodies who are not familiar with Mumbai food. For the same reason, we have a different menu every day with a few dishes being repeated,” said Jomy Abraham, Director of Food and Beverages.
It is often said that five-star hotels and street food don’t go together, for the noise and bustling of vehicles is missed. However, besides the scrumptious dishes offered by Courtyard by Marriott, little details like the bikes being parked adjacent to the live counters and chaiwala cycling around the place with a kettle full of hot chai does some magic to bring the feel down to the city. While the menu mostly provides vegetarian dishes, Executive Chef Yogender Pal said that there was a conscious effort to include a few non-vegetarian items for the meat lovers. “We tried quite a few dishes before finalising a dozen of them. We also used in-house products especially for this festival and involved all the Mumbai-based Chefs from our team.”
The other things to be tried are the tawa pulao (biryani rice cooked with fried tomatoes, onions and capsicum)
Malpua (chopped almonds and pista garnished on a dark brown biscuit,coated with a paste of saffron, khova,ghee and sugar)
and Baida rotis (rotis with a heart filling of kheema masala and egg).
The festival will be available for dinner buffet. Average cost for two: Rs. 2,700. At Momo Cafe, Courtyard by Marriott. From 7 pm onwards.
Details: 27521222