Tibet calling

Shikha Johnson composed this piece in her head, while gorging on a batch of succulent steamed momos at Café Seranya. She dashed off the first draft on a piece of tissue smeared with sauce stains.

Alright! So they finally realised how much I appreciate this thing called food. And that’s why I was asked to contribute to this column. (For those of you who can’t decide whether to trust my sermons on food can rest assured. What I eat shows on the outside. Really.)

My mum has mentioned it more often than she’d care to remember: one has to eat to live, not the other way round. My retort: as I must eat to live, I might as well enjoy every morsel of it. And guess what? My work requires that I come into close contact with cookery books by Master Chef Sanjeev Kapoor. Isha, Anupriya and Shefali strongly believe it’s a bonus for a confirmed foodie like me. Trust me, I know better.

So, delaying no more let me take you guys on a short culinary trip of Tibet. Yes I know, I know. Tibetan, Chinese, Thai… it’s all the same. Isn’t that what most of you are thinking? So did I, until the cute 20-something guy at Café Seranya handed me the menu card. But let me first tell you how I landed up there. My room-mate is quite an explorer when it comes to economy food, economy being the key word here. And so one day she happened to venture into this small, neat joint near the sprawling Infinity Mall at Lokhandwala. Afterwards she couldn’t stop talking about the place. So I decided to go check it out for myself. I did, only to be taken by surprise at how well the restaurant satisfied all parameters of a great food joint: yummy food, decent service, clean and affordable.

Cut to the cute guy with big, soulful eyes. The first thing about the menu card that struck me was its foreignness. I mean, I could barely pronounce the name of a single dish. So I opted for the safer route. I asked the sweet looking old man at the counter to recommend something interesting. He was more than happy to oblige. I had the Seranya Special soup and a serving of delicious steamed Momos for starters. Oh what bliss! Devoid of spices, yet so mouth-wateringly tasty. I felt uplifted. But the best was yet to come. My host had decided on a full course dinner for me on his own initiative. So while I thought he was giving general instructions to the cook, it was actually the order being placed… without my consent... in Tibetan.

Dinner was finally served. And what dishes: Lhasa Nyasa (a succulent lamb dish), Chicken Thukpa (Thukpa being Nepali noodles), special Tibetan sausages and a delightful prawns dish. There’s more for meat lovers here. After all, I am a proud carnivore. One has the option, however, to order dishes minus the meat without there being any significant changes in taste.

The flavour of the food continued to linger long after dinner was over. It’s perfect for people who can’t handle too much spice but still like a little zing in their food. A little nutmeg here, a whole anistar there… Oooh!

It was an extremely satisfying experience. And although the food was top class, the bill wasn’t astronomical. Café Seranya is sure to be in my list of favourites for quite some time to come. Highly, highly recommended.