Guppy by ai comes out
with a brilliant Hanami Summer Menu
and what’s in store in this menu is something completely different from the
summer menus of other restaurants. It focuses on cool vibes to beat the heat,
on fresh ingredients and vibrant colours, on well-balanced food with crunch,
crisp and surprise- summing up an immaculate menu of beautiful dishes. Expect
to treat yourself with some out of the box dishes and food that leaves you
awestruck.
The summer menu saw a masterclass with Chef Vikram Khatri before that. Everything from cleaning the rice
and cooking it, the technique of rolling rice balls in your hands, spreading
them out, using the seaweed for wrapping around sushi, the stuffing of veggies
and fish, rolling the sushi, use of sauces, was taught to us in this
masterclass. Chef made three different types of sushis for us as demonstrations
in the class, and we watched like little fascinated kids. We made both maki and
uramaki, and it was then our turn to make the sushis. Made a total of 3 sushis
and made both maki and uramaki, and earned ourselves a certificate that makes
us trained sushi lovers who can also manage to cook it (to put it in simple
words). These sushi masterclasses with Chef Vikram are held regularly at Guppy,
and whoever wants to get the knack of sushi making should put a blindfold on
their eyes and go for this without any second thoughts!! It’s the best sushi
class you will find with the most amazing hands-on practise too.
The summer menu started off with Corn and Avocado Soup. A chilled soup with such amazing flavours of
avocado. A pinch of wasabi is what the menu says you get, and that you do, but
the real dimensions of the soup change with a few drops of lemon in it. The
real surprise- it’s a chilled soup!! There are a few salads on the menu, out of
which the 3 Melon Salad is my
favourite! Being a sucker for watermelon, this one has watermelon and muskmelon
with a stupendous plum dressing on the side. Pour that over the salad and you
just go- WOW! The presentation too makes you smile. The Smoked Pumpkin Salad shines bright because of the delicious
miso-mustard dressing. It just binds everything together- and the elements are
a lot! Very fresh.
The Hiyayaki Chilled
Tofu, as the name suggests, is a chilled dish with the tofu not being the
silken tofu, and the flavour being dominated by ginger and citrus-soy. Soy
lovers are going to love this one; it’s like you can swim in the soy and ginger
amalgamation. Too good!
There’s a fair range of sushi in the summer menu, and the
most inspiring one for sushi places across Delhi should be the Mango and Tuna Roll. It’s mango all the
way in this one. A person can only imagine how mango would taste in a sushi,
but you need to come to Guppy and try this beauty to know how Alphonso mangoes
are bringing out the best of the best these summers!
The Eel and Avocado
Sushi Roll is another winner for me, but the gigantic delicious Hanami Roll is really what takes the
cake away. You get everything in this huge sushi- tuna, salmon, crab, cucumber,
yellowtail, black rice and white rice. You don’t even need to focus on your
favourite fish here, you just get everything!! Dip it in a little soy sauce and
wasabi and you’re good to be in a food coma.
You will also find sashimi in this menu. Sashimi Scallop Carpaccio with Mentaiko Cod
Roe. Melts in the mouth!
The main courses are all served chilled. You have meals in a
bowls that are so hearty and with so many things in them that you just feel
like a spoilt customer. My favourite is a tough choice between Cold Hiyashi Tantanmen which had ramen
noodles in a pork broth with pork meat and veggies, and the Hiyashi Samen- Japanese thin angle
wheat noodles with cucumber, crab sticks prawn, seaweed, in a ginger flavoured broth.
The ramen was loaded with flavour and tasted lovely with the babycorn and corn
kernels, and the wheat noodles were amazing with a mix of seafood. It’s a tough
choice to make, but both are exemplary. I didn’t like the vegetarian main
course option much- Hiyashi Tanuki Cha Soba, which were buckweak noodles
in a soy flavoured broth, tempura fritters and grated radish. A little less
flavoured than the non vegetarian options.
Dessert in this menu is a very simple, no fuss plate of Mango, Liquorice and Coconut Ice-cream.
Alphonso mangoes with coconut ice-cream, sprinkled with pepper dust (I mean
wow!), and with liquorice and sansho which is a Japanese pepper. I hate
anything to do with coconut, but this ice cream was nothing like I’d ever
tasted before if I try and recollect the last time I had a coconut flavoured
ice-cream. This wasn’t too sweet with a coconut smell and a weird coconut oil
taste, it had coconut in the texture, which was really good. And the pepper
dust with Alphonso mangoes took away all my apprehensions about the ice-cream
when it was all eaten together. A lovely dessert without any fuss created.
Simple and beautiful.
The Hanami Cocktail Menu had a decent variety to choose
from, and all very fresh. Sendai- a
kiwi based cocktail with melons, lime and vodka, was a treat for a kiwi lover
like me. The Cucumber Cooler was as refreshing as a drink could get. Fresh
cucumber with sugar, thyme and lime. Not too sweet, it’s bent more on the
refreshing side than the sugary one.
The menu is dominated by dishes served chilled, it is
curated behind the logic that says summers don’t call for hearty food which is
served hot, and I completely dig that. Your appetite vanishes with hot food,
your body doesn’t agree with hot food and you don’t even feel like eating a lot
of heavy stuff in summers. At a time like this when the temperature’s close to
hitting 50 degrees, Guppy really gives you a sigh of relief with this menu.
Enjoy your salads and sushis, your main courses and soups, and leave the
restaurant with a happy stomach. Chef Vikram has once again told you why Guppy
is a front-runner when it comes to Japanese cuisine in Delhi.
Contact: 01124690005
Address: 28, Main Market, Lodhi Colony, New Delhi
Timings: 12 Noon to 3:30 PM, 7PM to 1AM
Connect with me on:
Twitter: @sahibagursahane
Instagram: @thetastingfork
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