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Business News/ Mint-lounge / Features/  The sweetness of Canada in India
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The sweetness of Canada in India

A taste of what's ahead at the Canadian food festival

Canadian chef Louis Charest. Photo: Sgt Serge Gouin, Rideau Hall, OSGGPremium
Canadian chef Louis Charest. Photo: Sgt Serge Gouin, Rideau Hall, OSGG

While Mumbai’s been receiving its first scorching taste of summer, March in Canada heralds a far more temperate spring—there, the long winter has just begun to thaw, and the maple sap has started to flow. This is the season when sap is boiled in homes, and on a larger scale in traditional “sugar shacks", to be turned into syrup, candy and toffee (taffy).

The consulate general of Canada and The Taj Mahal Palace, Mumbai, have collaborated to bring the city a taste of that tradition with their week-long food festival, The Sugar Shack Experience, that starts on Friday. “A Canadian chef will always have home-made maple syrup, harvested from his own trees, in his kitchen," says Louis Charest, the culinary mastermind behind the festival. Back home, he’s the executive chef at the residence of the governor-general of Canada, preparing elaborate feasts for visiting royalty, heads of state and dignitaries.

Charest has created a menu of traditional favourites and innovative creations to highlight the natural produce of the region he hails from: With maple itself, there’s the maple potato rappie pie, a type of roesti in chicken stock that’s baked with a maple syrup glaze; maple taffy served over an ice-wine sorbet; and homely slices of eggless maple sugar pie. Cranberries, which are native to the Atlantic provinces, show up in the form of a delectable shortbread served with clotted cream, and a tangy preserve.

For vegetarians, there are baked beans with smoked sun-dried tomatoes; and a light French-Canadian split pea soup. Of course, the highlight of the buffet is its bounty of seafood: The Canadian coastline, which abuts the Pacific, Arctic and Atlantic oceans, offers up some of the finest catch in the world—from scallops, lobsters, crabs and mussels to halibut, sable fish (black cod) and salmon. Charest’s creations include cracked lobster with drawn butter; mussels mouclade frites, or mussels cooked in garlic, white wine and cream, served with fries; and garlic chilli crab over fried halibut masala in a fish and chips style. The beverages on offer include Berg Water, produced from icebergs around Newfoundland, Pumphouse Blueberry Ale, a blonde ale infused with the essence of fresh blueberries, and Kalala wines, from an organic vineyard in the Okanagan Valley.

For patrons in Mumbai, Charest has chosen to showcase his country’s culinary traditions, sneaking in a few Indian twists here and there. For instance, his prairie grain-crusted black cod is topped with a drizzle of garam masala sabayon, and the halibut is baked in tandoori spices. “The simpler the preparation, the better it usually is," he says, while demonstrating how to make a quick sabayon: whisking egg yolks and lime juice on a bain-marie. “Usually, you want to let the flavours of the ingredients speak for themselves, but it’s always fun to play around with a few spices too," he adds.

The Sugar Shack Experience is on from 22-30 March at Shamiana, The Taj Mahal Palace, Apollo Bunder, Colaba. The Monday-Saturday buffet lunch is 2,900 per person; expect to spend around 2,000 for an à la carte dinner. The Sunday brunch is 3,300 per person without alcohol and 3,500 with alcohol.

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Published: 21 Mar 2013, 08:33 PM IST
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