Mahek restaurant offers unique Indian cuisine for Diwali |16 October 2017

The scent of unique Indian cuisine will engulf the Mahek restaurant at Coral Strand Hotel, Beau Vallon, for the occasion of the upcoming Diwali festival.

The restaurant will host a special flavoured Awadhi cuisine lavish buffet on October 20 and 21 to mark the occasion. The buffet will be from 7pm to 10pm on both days.

Awadhi is a rich flavoury aromatic cuisine from Lucknow, India.

People coming to the Awadhi buffet dinner will get the chance to taste various flavoured Indian dishes made from fish, lamb, chicken, prawn, different assorted flavoured souses and variety of nut souses, a variety of vegetables all of which will be accompanied by Bhelpuri, pani puri, dahi puri etc..

The buffet, which will be for vegetarian and non vegetarian, costs R650 per person and the price includes a welcome drink and the chance to take part in a raffle draw.

Since the buffet will be different on both days, this will give diners the choice of even coming back the following day to taste other dishes.

Some of the Awadhi delicacy dishes to be on the lavish buffet on October 20 are sakarandi neze se (sweet potato treated with cream, roasted cumin, red chili, mace & finished on the tandoor), Khatti meethi machli (a medley of sweet and sour fish), murgh tikka mirza hasnu (garlic flavoured cubes of chicken marinated overnight with mustard oil, lemon and aromatic species), Yakhni gosht pulao (cuts of tender lamb, cooked with finest fragrant basmati with a hint of saffron, cooked in dum stlye Lucknowi tradition), kachi machli ka salan (a delectable curry of fish in a golden hued masala with salan & mustard oil), subz katre masale (mélange of fresh vegetables preparation from the royal kitchen of awadi), shahjahani gobhi mussalam (medium cauliflower, wholly baked with saffron & cashewnut gravy), among a variety of other dishes.

On Saturday October 21 from a totally different buffet, some of the delicacy dishes will be Awadhi gosht biryani (cuts of tender lamb, cooked with finest fragrant basmati with a hint of saffron, in dum style Lucknowi tradition), Malai mawa jheenga (prawns grilled carefully with marination of rich aromatic composition of species, essence & herbs and finish with a smooth almond gravy), bhagare khatte meethe baingan (peanut, till seed, coriander, eggplant), kaliya amber (raw mango desicatted coconut, poppy seed gravy), masaledaar bharwaan bhindee (stuffed bhindi with home roasted species), also from among other dishes to be on display.

The desert will be carrot halwa, shahi takuda and ice cream.

Described as unique Indian royal cuisine, the dishes from Lucknow in the state of Uttar Pradesh, in India, will be prepared by experienced Indian chef Paul Joe from Chennai. Chef Joe has been working with the Coral Strand for the last six months. The 40-year-old has 21 years of experience in Indian cuisine and he has worked in various hotels in India and abroad. Chef Joe said that Seychelles is his first small island experience and he feels that the sense of culinary delivery is very unique. 

“Getting all the different types of Indian food here had been a challenge for me and I did it because I want the people here to experience the food,” said chef Joe, who plans to bring the various culinary tastes of vast India to Seychelles.