Gokulam Park’s new chef launches an Indo-Sino street food festival

Yang rau chuan
Yang rau chuan

Life has come full circle for chef Mohan S Pillai. The Thrissur-based culinary maestro who began his career as a helping hand within Gokulam Park’s kitchen has just returned to the property after 14 years to take over as its executive chef. Having spent more than a decade travelling the globe and gaining knowledge at internationally-renowned spaces like St James (UK) — including coveted stints alongside Michelin-star chefs like Dieter Müller at The Wolseley—Mohan hopes to put his experience to good use at this business hotel. 

Bolly connect
As most of the city’s gourmands know, the budget hotel had almost vanished from the Kochi food scene’s

radar as it did not have an executive chef to guide its kitchens for almost a year. Its newly-appointed chef de cuisine believes that a new festival is exactly what’s needed to give impetus to Gokulam’s forthcoming culinary crusades. Over a steaming heap of jiaozi dumplings stuffed with minced chicken and served with a spicy red chilli sauce, Mohan tells me that he got the idea for his first-ever fete in Kochi from the 2009 Bollywood movie Chandni Chowk to China. 

“Starting today, our restaurant’s dinner service will be a buffet spread consisting of the best fare found on the streets of North India and China. This ranges from the ghee-laden stuffed parathas found in Old Delhi’s Paranthe Wali Gali to Shanghai’s banmain, which are handmade egg noodles with anchovies/meat served

in a steaming bowl of clear soup,” explains the 49-year-old chef, handing me a platter of fiery lamb skewers known as yang rau chuan. The melt-in-your-mouth texture of this Beijing-centric delicacy is elevated by a heavy-coating of cumin and chilli flakes. But not everything on this menu is piquant enough to make you want to cool off your palate with a glass of chilled lassi.

Regional favourites 
The Indian selections menu at this event reads like the greatest hits of North Indian street eats. Appetising chicken kebabs coated with diced multi-colour bell peppers served with a tangy chutney, crispy bhatura and chole, cream-drenched butter chicken, fluffy bhallas drizzled with sweetened curd and more.

“Besides an extensive selection of unique desi sweets, the festival will also feature live counters for chaat, parathas, etc,” shares chef Mohan. We’re just glad that something delicious emerged out of association with a distasteful Akshay Kumar film like Chandni Chowk to China.


 anoop.p@newindianexpress.com
@godsonlymistake

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