Seafood has its takers and then there are some! The world is divided between seafood lovers and haters and a small bunch of people in between who can’t seem to make up their mind. We, however, have always avoided menus heavy on crustaceans simply because they are such a mess to eat. Who would want to be caught making such a mess, hands covered in sauce, dirty napkins and a whole set of assorted cutlery just to access some scanty bits of, we’ll agree, delicious, but ‘is-it-worth-it?’ meat. Well, the meat is definitely worth it and we are now proud crustacean converts all thanks to The Crustaceans Feast Festival being hosted by C Salt at Sheraton Grand Chennai Resort & Spa.
We started off our journey into this festival with two crabby delights — a Peethala Charu from Kosta Andhra: a fiery crab soup or rasam or broth, call it what you may, that exploded on our palates; and a more Asian variant of a crab broth, simply called Crab & Ginger. Both the soups were brilliant ways to get our appetite going. As the sea breeze cooled us down after that fiery expedition, we were then served a Jumbo Prawn Avocado Salad and a Chilled Mussels Salad, and while the jumbo prawns were exactly what we’d expected, the mussels did need some getting used to.
We then switched focus to the three appetisers — Malabar Grill Prawns, Crab Xacuti and Chettinadu Nandu (crab) Fry. The Malabar Grill Prawns were beautifully flavoured and while the masala was a bit piquant, it didn’t take away from the natural sweetness of the prawns. The Crab Xacuti, a Goan favourite, was quite intimidating at first, considering we weren’t adept at using a crab cracker, but once we got a hang of it, the crab and our mouths were close to inseparable! We wolfed down the whole serving and then set our eyes on the Chettinadu variant. You would be pleased to know that the empty crab shells were the only remaining pieces of evidence on our plates after this ravenous indulgence.
Wondering if we really had space for maincourse, we decided to still try all three, as our eyes, as always, was larger than our stomachs. The Royalla Iguru, the Goan Crab Curry and the Travancore Lobster were served with steamed rice, appams and kal dosais. The Royalla Iguru (prawns) in a rich tomato-onion Andhra-style masala paired perfectly with everything, leaving behind the Goan Crab Curry that could have done with an extra hand of spice. Our meal ended with the perfectly-cooked Travancore Lobster served with a Moilee Sauce — that while absolutely indulgent and delish, should have not been the last dish we chose to eat. We were stuffed and how! We then patted ourselves on our backs as we wrapped it all up with a chilled Elaneer Payasam that is off-menu but highly recommended.
Meal for two: INR 5,000 onwards. Dinner only. At C Salt, Sheraton Grand Chennai Resort & Spa, ECR.
romal@newindianexpress.com
@elromal