Taste of the Islands

The Carribean Islands might just be a few tiny dots on the world map, but they have a lot to boast about, apart from their sandy beaches. For instance, there’s Calypso music and sports superstars such as Usain Bolt and Chris Gayle. Well, their cuisine cannot go unnoticed either. The Square, Novotel Hyderabad Airport has made arrangements in full swing to bring a slice of the Caribbean islands to the city every Friday until New Year’s Eve.    

Just as we arrive, a welcome drink of passion fruit mocktail with coastal spices such as star anise seed with a hint of cinnamon is served to warm up the taste buds for the Caribbean saga. As the ritual goes, Caribbean Chicken and Pumpkin Soup, which had strong waves of coconut milk, cilantro and ginger were served to meat lovers and the vegetarians were served mildly spiced Jamaican vegetable broth. While we were relishing the soup, the starters were served. The best picks from the starters were Sweet Potato Cutlet with Coconut Chili Sauce with the perfect balance of sweet and spice, vegetarian skewers in Puerto Rican sauce, crunchy fried Polenta Cheese Sticks, authentic Caribbean Jerk Spice Grilled Chicken, assorted seafood such as squid and anchovies in Caribbean sauce, Orange Pepper Scented Grilled Prawns and Cilantro Lime Kingfish.

Our attention gets diverted in a jiffy to pineapples of Caribbean. The tangy, sweet curried pineapple with coconut dressing was delicious. Next up was a ripe sweet banana, filled with some tangy vegetable filling that ruled the evening for being novel and inviting. It had varied flavours like sweet, sour, spice bursting with flavour. Roasted sweet potato salad with cashew nuts too managed to charm us. Besides these salads, meat enthusiasts enjoyed Caribbean Chimishuri beef salad and balsamic dressing and stuffed egg salad with dill scented potato mash. 

 As for the main course, we enjoyed Caribbean Chow with pineapple stew and the mildly spiced and salted Jerk Roasted Potatoes. As we come to the end of the saga, we were kissed goodbye with a plethora of desserts. Jamaican carrot cake with pineapple cheese frosting, which were distinguished in the platter. The explosion of varied organic flavours lingering on the tongue, leaving us with a tale to tell of this Caribbean night. 

Dinner buffet (only on Fridays). 
7 pm onwards. Price for two: Rs.1,499. 
Details: 66250000