Marriott - Punjab Food Fest

I have proclaimed my love for Marriott more often than once on this blog. From the first time I was invited by them, to all the times I am invited by them to all the times I go there on my own, somehow among all the buffets and brunches in the city, the Marriott is the one place that I seem to find the most comforting. I have found the reason for this - the spread is just big enough, not the ones that are huge with everything being mediocre, but this is a big spread, just big enough to ensure that MOST items are good and a few outstanding ones. So everytime I am here, there will three of four outstanding dishes and a few good desserts that make the whole thing worth it.

So my colleague and me were here for dinner and we were welcomed at the Paprika by a number of colourful flags, a stringed cot, a milestone named Pindh and 'Balle Balle' music. This was a special Punjabi festival going on and most dishes in the menu were Punjabi. "We also have some continental food for our long staying room guests and we can make something if they don't like this, but typically till the 10th of March the food will primarily be Punjabi" is what we were told. "Of course, the menu keeps changing everyday"

Due to the 'daily changing menu' I did not get to eat the Butter Chicken or the Aloo Paratha, but what we did get to eat more than made up for that. There was this Amritsari Grilled Fish that was amazing and for a non fish lover, I totally enjoyed it. My colleague was raving about it all along, but there was this very simple, but very tasty Aloo as a starter that was amazing. The Tandoori chicken was nice and juicy, but I thought it was slightly low on flavour. We had some nice lassi, not the corn flour added and artificially thickened ones, but a the simple and nice lassi. We also got ourselves some spiced buttermilk that was awesome.

We were starting to feel full so we moved to the main course. They were very nice and offered to serve a bit of everything on the buffet menu on our table as a thali and what a thali it was!!! There was this Lahori Channa Minced Lamb - AMAZING. It was juicy, tasty, mouth meltingly flavourful all at same time. There was an Anda Sabzi that was nice, but the next best dish was the Rajma! Yes, the humble rajma was made to perfection - great flavour! There was white gravy, the name of which I forgot, but it was just as good as the rajma. We had all of this with a multigrain romali roti - yeah, multigrain, so it was not this super thin super big, but a thicker and less bigger type! It went well with all those gravies.

We were also served some biriyani - a rather simple one, but well spiced and tasted good. Since I am now the biryani expert, I asked for the chef and asked him "When did you add the tomatoes? At the first or after all the spices" I asked with full of (over) confidence. "There are no tomatoes in this biriyani sir" was his reply and a big BULB went off on my head!

We finished off with gulab jamun, rasagola and a ghee milk sweet. The dessert spread was smaller than usual, but we were too stuffed  to try out cakes or other things. There was a fruit jelabi that I so wanted to try, but spotted it last and was just too stuffed!!!

Marriott is always a 4/5 for me and is yet to disappoint me even once! I don't even know if this is authentic Punjabi, but the food was tasty, so I wouldn't care about the authenticity!

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