Middle East Calling

HYDERABAD: Feu recently hosted ‘Levantine Reverie’, a three-day exclusive menu inspired by the Levant regions — Jordan, Syria, Palestine, and Iraq. This special menu was curated by Chef Mohib Farooqui, founder of Accentuate Food Lab, in collaboration with The Hedonist. In a conversation with Chef Mohib Farooqui about the menu, he stated, “I was born and raised in Saudi Arabia, so something like this is very close to my heart — the Middle Eastern flavours.

This menu we launched last month in Aurangabad at my lab for the first time. ” Since both his parents are based out of Hyderabad, he said they prefer Hyderabadi food at home. When asked about his comfort food, he stated, “As a child, I used to think Hyderabadi Biryani was the best, which most of you think, but as I started working in the industry and moving around, I think I have grown to like Bombay Biryani more.

And I think the best biryani in the country is in Calcutta. ” As we were enjoying the ambience filled with the aroma of spices, Chef Mohib appeared with a snack: Salmon and Sumac, which had the flavours of garlic, chive, and labneh, as well as buckwheat pastry and sumac, which is sour in nature and nasturtium leaves garnished on top, which added some pepperiness. While we were still figuring out the ingredients, the second dish was served: Prawn Garlic, where prawn is wrapped in kataifi pastry, which is a delicate shredded phyllo pastry quite prevalent in the Middle East as well as in the Levant region.

It’s accompanied by some light garlic toumba and some preserved mango sauce with curry spices, which comes from Iraq. The next course was bread — Aish Baladi thickened oil dukkah, Aish Baladi, which is very similar to bread made of some sourdough, and it’s served with thickened extra virgin olive oil and dukkah, which is a blend of nuts and spices like fennel seeds, hazel nuts, coriander, and sesames. It was flavourful.

Moving on to Chicken sesame bar berries, it gave the flavours of grilled chicken on the out, with a touch of sesame paste, parsley and the sourness of soaked barberries. Bell pepper pomegranate feta course is a paste or a puree made of charred red bell peppers and snack yellow peppers with some pomegranate molasses, and the waffle tastes like feta cheese cream inside with some pomegranate seeds. Coming to the next dish, which chef curated exclusively for the first time, NZ lamb butternut lacto shatta, which is a shoulder of lamb from New Zealand that was cooked for about four or five hours, and then it’s flavoured with some bahareth spice and then it’s served with some lacto-fermented green chilli shatta, which is basically a hot sauce and was served with some kale and the butternut squash puree, which added some sweetness.

Coming to the sweets, Orange blossom raspberry made of white chocolate and orange blossom ice cream with crystallised pistachios and freeze-dried raspberries was refreshing. And on top, they poured a raspberry sauce, which added more to the flavour. Medjool date keylime pecan nut, reimagine the mamul cookie.

It is a childhood memory of the chef. So basically, it is dates with some cinnamon, some short cookie crumble, and pecan nuts, and to cut through the sweetness of the dates, they topped it up with a liquid cheesecake that was flavoured with some key lime. Lastly, 70% Chocolate Beetroot Aleppo pepper is a dark chocolate sorbet with pickled beetroot, and then there is a beetroot gel with coffee and added flavours of Aleppo pepper and sea salt.

It was deliciously styled with a chocolate cookie tuile, which was finger-licking. .