“A taste of India’

CEBU, Philippines - The Republic of India is the second most populous country in the world with over 1.2 billion people living across 29 states, from Andhra Pradesh to West Bengal. The country has seven union territories - from Andaman and Nicobar islands to Puducherry, including Delhi, the nation's capital. Indian states elect their own officials while territories are administered directly by the Union or central government.

When it comes to food, what we call "Indian cuisine" is the aggregate of all the dishes emanating from India's states and territories.

I had my first encounter with Indian food a long time ago. My father, who was a dairy farmer, would have newly born calves separated from their mothers a few hours after birth. The mothers were then milked, part of the produce fed to the calves artificially, and the rest of the cow's milk was sold.

During the first three days of lactation, the mother cows produced the kind of milk called colostrum, which no one would buy because it was tinged red. So my father would give it to his Indian friends. They made it into a kind of cheese, red colored and spiked with spices. A very strange tasting cheese!

Much later, while in Singapore, I had a wider exposure to Indian cuisine. I learned to love the fish-head curry. I also learned that Indian chefs' use only freshly grounded spices; the bottled curry powder is only for ordinary people, like many of us. It occurred to me then that it was going to take a lifetime for your favorite food writer to fully appreciate the true essence of Indian cuisine. And because reincarnation is not part of my repertoire of beliefs, I decided to limit myself to the one cuisine which takes only years to master, Chinese cuisine.

I heeded the invitation for "A Taste of India" at the opening of the Indian Food Festival of the Cebu City Marriott Hotel. General Manager Patrick Carrroll welcomed guests, together with Sales & Marketing Director Cleofe Albiso, PR Manager Charlene Go and Guest Indian Head Chef Alam Singh from Bangkok Marriott Hotel Sukhumvi.

I could smell the spices in the air while I was taking the photos and knew that some of my media friends would have difficulty with many of these dishes because of the hotness of the chilli peppers. I developed my tolerance for it by chewing bird's eye chilli ("kulikot") a little bite at a time, and have since been enjoying the chilli-hot cuisine of our neighbors like Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore - and India.

Appetizers were served, like the Hydrabadi Paneer Tikha, charcoal-grilled Indian cottage cheese and yoghurt; Punjabi Samosa, deep fried puff pastry stuffed with potatoes and green peas; Goan Tandoori Prawns, Rajasthani Pethiwadi Tikki, lentil stuffed potatoes kebab, asafetida and cumin, pan-fried; and the Kashmiri Murgh Tikka, tender pieces of boneless chicken, marinated in spices, grilled in, excuse me, an authentic Tandoor oven brought in by former GM Roy Abraham, who himself hails from Kerala, India.

Main dishes were the Murgh Makhanwala, with the chicken simmered in creamy fenugreek- flavored tomato gravy; Gobhi Aloo Tha Masala, cauliflower and potatoes in Indian herbs and spices. I sat to savour the Rogan Josh Kashmiri, which is pot-roasted mutton cooked in thick onion gravy with select spices, and the Hydrabadi Biryani, layers of Basmati rice sprinkled with fresh herbs, spices and saffron.

In a while, I was sweating like a marathon runner. I joined my media colleagues for some desserts in the air-conditioned comforts of the Cebu City Marriott Hotel Garden Café. It was such a wonderful relief!