“GASTROSCOPY” , NEW DELHI CHAPTER 9: TRES, LODHI COLONY MARKET Haunted by my experience of Tres, where I dined on two occasions quite some time ago, it took the virtual ringing of church bells by self styled gourmets in celebration of the restaurant for me to return…and I did, a week ago, with two companions whose days are punctuated by dreams of good food…alas, to each his own! Let me mete out the praise before I attempt the punishment…there is a well constructed menu at Tres, better than those of its peers, which is clear and in possession of a traceable identity for its culinary offering. The offering itself is a skillful composition of ingredients presented in costumes and paired with accessories that are without affectation, but instead both tasteful and tantalizing for the taste buds …for example, a starter, or ‘small plate’ as is the new trend in semantics alone, of a “ Foie Gras roulade, toasted brioche, morello cherry-red wine compote and wine jelly”, and a main of “Pan roasted crispy skin fresh Scottish salmon fillet with linguine, braised Chinese cabbage and cucumber beurre blanc”, both dishes which we ordered, but which we did not quite applaud. The foie gras which was presented as two squares, or carres, of sliced pate de foie gras, and not a roulade which implies a technique of cooking and assembly, left me somewhat perplexed; however, if the pate was house made and not extracted from a tin, then the chefs do indeed deserve a mighty pat on the back for an exceptional quality of pate, the brilliance of which was flawed only by slices of toasted brioche which were much too thick, and a rather flaccid salad accompaniment…sadly the same flaccid salad accompanied the rest of the ‘small plates’ too. There was “baked artichoke hearts, lemon persillade and honey mustard dressing”, a tasty treat for a diner who is neither particular nor purist about his artichoke, the flavor of which is subdued by the persillade and drowned by the honey mustard dressing…next, a “smoked duck salad with whisky pancetta jam and walnut dressing”, which was good in terms of the quality of its primary ingredient, accentuated expertly by both the jam and the dressing, but if the duck is one that is smoked in-house and not withdrawn from a package, then this is a GREAT dish, to which the salad accompaniment should be erected with much more care……the last of our quartet of small plates was the “Duo of seafood sausages, Canadian scallops with avocado, red onions, cherry tomato salad-lime chili dressing”, a dish which calls for much more thought in its conception and execution : the seafood ‘seekh kebab’ (it is NOT a sausage) had a fulsome flavor and melting texture, the appreciation of which was interrupted visually by that same shameful salad, and gastronomically, by two overcooked and under seasoned scallops, the texture of which was not unlike that of rubber…… …….but the main course was where the punishment lay: the crispy skin salmon was just that, crispy skin, and nothing more, but alot less than its description: it was neither nestled as it should have been on a bed of flavorsome linguine, which on the contrary was merely boiled and even unbuttered, surrounded by a cucumber beurre blanc, which had been gravely injured by the absence of a viscosity which makes a beurre blanc what it is...the attempt at novelty by the inclusion of cucumber, is a failed attempt to say the least. Next, the “pan-fried ravioli of porcini, water chestnut cooked caprese style with roasted garlic puree and cherry tomato salad”, may be a verbose dish in its description, but one with a tragic poverty of skill, flavor and intelligence of assembly in its presentation. The ravioli were pan fried to an extreme which rendered them dry and doughy, the tastes of porcini and water chestnut vastly undetectable, cold slices of undressed mozzarella cushioning each ravioli… even the garlic puree was unable to save the dish, never mind the day...so tragic, it was almost comic! Finally the “lamb cooked two ways with ecrase potato, spinach-bell pepper infused reduction” which was just so completely mediocre: a chop cooked well enough, the second way of lamb both braised and somewhat battered, an acceptable mashed potato floating in a sauce that had been denied its reduction, and was without any attention to what is the most important detail of a good lamb dish….a sensational sauce! But, in spite of our quiet protestations, Tres had the last laugh as we ate our desserts, in anticipation of which we were bursting with both hope and greed: “molten chocolate Cabernet Cake with vanilla ice cream and salted caramel” and “chocolate truffle torte with pistachio cream and spiced fruits”………all I wish to say is that these were a nasty defamation of the character of chocolate and a cruel slander of its reputation………………………………………………………………..THE END
Posted on: Wed, 09 Oct 2013 06:20:12 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015