What the Duck! Ambani wedding menu, served hot

The big fat Ambani wedding has taken place, with enough being said about the guests and their dresses at the pre-wedding bash as well. Wondered about the platter they were served at the regal palaces of the desert state. Here’s all the dope…

Grilled Lamb Loins

Would you like a crispy aromatic duck with pancakes, murg ka mokul, or a grilled New Zealand lamb loin, topped with pommery jus and garlic mash? Or maybe, a serving of Peruvian asparagus with the option of a torched hollandaise or herbed butter? 

That’s not even the tip of the iceberg, the fare served at the City Palace in Udaipur was curated by the best of chefs from Taj properties from around the country, with ingredients and raw meats flown in from various parts of the world to treat guests to a super special culinary experience. We got a whiff of the mind-boggling menu that tingled taste buds of guests at the big bash. 

Mera Sushi Hai Japaani

In the Ambani shaadi, do as the Japanese do! We weren’t quite done the usual sushis yet, and they brought out sashimis, this one being a delicacy that uses either fresh raw meat or fish, sliced into thin pieces and eaten with sauces. There was the spicy salmon roll, which was the closest you get to what you encounter at routine restaurants around town, besides the shrimp tempura roll, the scallop sashimi, yellowtail nigiri and the kani nigiri. The yellowtail variety of jackfish probably came from Japanese waters but we’re not sure of where the crabs crawled in from, into the kani nirgi! The maguro akami sashimi used of the most popular varieties of raw tuna fish.  Akami (pronounced ah-kah-me) is the leaner meat cut from the sides of this fish. You could also find smoked salmon and tobiko, flying fish roe (eggs) at the rice paper rolls station, in addition to black cod miso, a lovely seafood dish that’s baked to Japanese perfection.

Yellow Tail Nigiri

This Mushroom’s Cheesy

The double roti station at the wedding was nothing like the name conjures up. Not simple breads, but rusks and the finest of bakes topped with exotic varieties of cheese and mushrooms. Besides the Indian toppings, one could find gruyère and truffles temptingly placed over breads to make up the bruschettas. Gruyère is a hard yellow cheese that originated in the cantons of Fribourg, Vaud, Neuchâtel, Jura, and Bern in Switzerland. It is named after the town of Gruyères. In all probability, if you had a bite of this at the Ambani pre-wedding celebration, you had a taste of one of the finest and costliest varieties of mushrooms (truffles) that are unearthed by specially-trained hounds and retrieved quickly by their human handlers. 

Coming back to the cheesy stuff, the mezze bar and cheese counter — in addition to the stuffed olives, hummus and various mediterranean dips — served assorted cheese like camembert, bel paese (a semi-soft Italian cheese), chèvre, Robiola, provolone, manchego, and more, all flown in specially for the Udaipur spread. 

An Italian Job 

We were quite not over the debate of whether to order penne or fusilli with our favourite sauces for an Italian dinner and here came the Tagliolini. This, too, had its share of truffles. This variety of pasta is cylindrical, being paper-thin and measures less than 3 millimeters. Oh and for the lesser mortals, there were cup-o-noodles too! There was enough for the Mexican foodies to savour. What would Mukesh, the father of bride-to-be Isha, have said? Buen provecho!

Mushroom Truffles

That’s How We Roll in Asia…

The rice paper roll station had the vietnamese specialty being served with peanut hoisin sauce and a variety of fillings. Besides water-chestnuts (the humble singhara), you had a stuffing of asparagus and shiitake mushrooms — the latter being among the best known varieties of oriental mushrooms, sourced fresh, if you’re an Ambani. Else, available at around Rs 400/gram, if you’re an ordinary cook willing to pick up the sun-dried variety. Vietnamese varieties also included Pho, an aromatic rice noodle soup from North Vietnam and curries with ingredients like Louisania long greens, something you’d rather call an eggplant if you ran into it at the supermarket.  

The Thai pavilion offered dishes like the Phad prion warn tao, water chestnut and cashew in red chilli paste, vegetable Thai green curry, Pad Thai je —Thai flat noodles, and prawn Thai green curry. The accompaniments included Thai peanut sauce, tofu mushroom reduction, fermented bird chilli sauce, just to name a few. Since we were covering most of Asian, how could we forget Taj’s  Golden Dragon buffet? Chinese being served included truffle edamame and water chestnut dumplings, sticky rice, noodles and more. 

Yellowtail nigiri

Desi Delights

While most were spoilt for choice, the firangi guests were seen gorging on a shameless variety of Indian preparations on offer. If you took a bite from each paratha of the Paranthe waali gali counter, your calorie intake for perhaps a month would be done. The pulaos at the tawa counter had the spiced rice preparations topped with piquant asparagus, rajmah rasmisa, paneer lababdar and — again— truffled forest mushrooms kalimiri! Also on offer was an unscrupulous variety of dishes from the northern and southern parts of the country, including the quintessential Rajasthani fare; think laal maas, gatta curry, papads, chutneys and more — a complete buffet dedicated to each part of the country.

Sweet Endings 

Vietnamese soup noodle Pho

From assorted Indian sweetmeats to European desserts, this one had enough to satiate your sweet tooth, or to make up your dinner (not for the diabetics!). The petits gateaux had eight varieties of pastry — savarin with berries, strawberry pistachio tartlet, cointreau and chocolate, and more. There were nine types of verins — kahlua mousse, Greek yoghurt namelaka, verrine caipirinha; pralines, varieties of halwa, dry fruit barfis; desi ghee sweets, including the host state’s mini ghewar, five or six Bengali sweets, a couple dozen patisserie offerings, macarons and ice creams. 

I would perhaps need more than a year if I had to try each one of these!
Now where’s my takeaway dinner?