My trip to India - The Spice Route at The Imperial Hotel in Delhi

Gate of India - Delhi, India

I was recently in India, Delhi more precisely. It has been 14 years since I went there and I was thrilled to go back. 

Lotus Temple - Delhi, India

Crossing the street - Delhi, India

Food wise, I was very excited as I love Indian food, although I did not try the street food as I did not want to get sick and my Indian colleagues and friends told me to be extremely careful and only eat cooked food. I followed their advice and had some of the best meals ever, especially at Bukhara, a world famous restaurant serving incredible meats cooked in a tandoor (clay pot) oven. 

Street food - Delhi, India

Street food - Delhi, India

In the next posts, you will read about some of the most memorable meals I had:

Spice Route at the Imperial Hotel, Delhi (India)

Hallway of the Imperial Hotel - Delhi, India

The Imperial Hotel is one the fancier restaurants you would find in Delhi. As soon as you enter in the lobby, you are mesmerized by the fantastic decor. Walking in the hallway, you will find The Spice Route, considered by Conde Nast Traveler as one of the top ten best restaurants in the world. There, Chef Veena Arora crafted a menu that follows the route of spices from the Malabar Coast in Kerala through Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Indonesia to Thailand and Vietnam. 

Designed by Rajeev Sethi, the decor is hand painted with vegetable and flower dyes by mural painters brought in especially from a temple in Guruvayur, Kerala and furnished with antiques from South East Asia.

There, we tried the express lunch that was a tasting menu, which proposed vegetarian and non-vegetarian. I went for the latter.

Before our dishes came, they served us some papadam with various sauces, some of them very spicy and some sweet.

The spiciest one being the one in the bottom left that I truly enjoyed.

The first dish was composed of a Por Pia Chae or Thai style spring roll, served with a sweet chili and a plum sauce. On the left, was Yum Woon Sen Chae or Thai bean vermicelli salad with vegetables:

On the right, Laab Kai or minced chicken salad flavored with glutinous rice.

Then, came the soup:

It is called Tom Kha Kai, that is a traditional Thai soup made with coconut milk, vegetables, lemongrass and galangal (root similar to ginger).

After eating this delicious soup, we got our entree(s):

First was the Meen Varuval or crispy filet of sole flavored with Kerala spices. It was sitting next to some jasmine rice.

On the left was Kaeng Kheow Waan Kai or chicken cooked in Thai curry with pea and krob aubergines.

In the center was Pad Thai noodles:

And on the right was a Chef's special: stir-fried bok choy with shiitake and coral mushrooms, and a soy bean paste flavored with bird eye chilies. 

Last was dessert: vanilla ice cream with rambutan.

This was a wonderful meal, tasty and very flavorful, made mild at our request. After eating there, no wonder why some consider it one of the top ten restaurants in the world!

Enjoy (I did)!

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And Remember: I Just Want To Eat!