Last week I went to Pondicherry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puducherry) for Hidesign's (maybe India's best leather bags brand) annual new collection preview. We stayed right on the promenade, at owner Dilip Kapur's Promenade hotel, but on the first evening we went to have dinner at the very exclusive (and exquisite) Le Dupleix hotel. This is where the former governor of Pondicherry stayed, and the structure still bears some of the original cherry wood pillars from his original residence. But what really got me was the few pieces from Le Sage's personal tapestry collection adorning some of the corners! THAT's history!!!For dinner, we were a mixed bunch of journalists, the models and performers for the show, Dilip and his German wife Jacqueline. And the 4-course sit down dinner was an attempt to revive Creole-influenced Pondicherry cuisine (for those who don't know, this city was a French colony, and still has a very strong international influence. Auroville, an experimental township close to Pondicherry, is comprised mainly of foreigners, to promote "unity in diversity" - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Auroville). We were all sitting in the whitewashed courtyard of the hotel, under the motherly branches of a humungous mango tree.
So, all ingredients were purely Indian, but the flavours and combinations - completely and exotically a la Creole.
The vegetarian starter was a Mille Feuille (spelt on the menu Mille Fille - or "a thousand daughters", something never to wish to a staunch Indian, haha!) filled with a veg pancake and delectably baked with some cheese. I loved the interesting bean garnish. As a non-veg starter, a fish coated with unrecognisable spices was staring at us with an olive eye.
I relished the clear soup with delicate whole spinach leaves and barley boiled to perfection. Health food par excellence!!! Could have only eaten that!
As a main dish, I should have ordered veg - a delicious ratatouille served with an Indian roti. The vegetables were well-cooked but crunchy.
And for dessert, finally - a smoothe sago cream with coconut chunks - so perfect and so sinful. Well, I love creamy desserts, so maybe I am biaised...
But by far the best part of the evening was the impromptu performance by Honduras jazz singer Wanny Angerer. Far from a conventional beauty, she had everyone enthralled with her awesome voice and sensual dancing. Men watched her bleary eyed, and women wondered "is it the wine or what?" You can hear her sutry voice sing "perhaps, perhaps, perhaps" ("quisaz, quisaz, quisaz"), on http://www.myspace.com/wannyangerer
Website of Le Dupleix: http://www.nivalink.com/ledupleix/index.html
Website of The Promenade: http://www.nivalink.com/promenade/index.html
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