A Middle Eastern Table For Two!

Souk, the new restaurant at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Bombay, is Turkish, Lebanese, Greek, Moroccan, a little bit of the Arabian Peninsula, and some Persian. A table by the window is recommended, says MARK MANUEL.

TODAY itself, if you are in Bombay, and if you have not dined there already, make a reservation for a table at Souk. This is the Taj Mahal Hotel's gift to Bombay as part of its 100th anniversary celebrations. A spanking new restaurant on the 19th floor where the old Apollo Bar used to be. You cannot dine higher than this anywhere else in Bombay, not even at the Supper Club on the 35th floor of The Oberoi Towers, that restaurant has shut down for good. Poor Georgie (remember Georgie, he of the Hello Dolly and Those Were The Days numbers?) and his Sunset Revolution have nowhere to go now. The Supper Club was his platform. Wonder where he is playing.

But this piece is on the Souk, one of the three restaurants that the Taj opened last December, the other two being Golden Dragon and Masala Kraft. Which are more or less new and different avatars of the old Golden Dragon and Tanjore restaurants functioning from the same spaces earlier. Souk is brand new. So make a reservation to go there. The restaurant has 56 covers and is described by Executive Chef Hemant Oberoi, its presiding deity and the Taj's gift to gourmets in Bombay, as a fine dining eatery. The dining area is split up into two parts. The main dining is set in a high-ceiling space and has tables for two along the windows. This in an intentionally white, large and almost unadorned space. Then there is the characteristic elevated dining area which is a warmer and more comfortable space to be on, and which has a dark timber-stripped floor and sand stone pillars that appear to support the domed ceiling.

The walls are featured with grillwork that is lit from behind. Lights from the floor wash the sand stone pillars giving the elevated dining area a veranda-like atmosphere. This suits Souk fine because the restaurant was conceptualised as a terrace. The tables on the elevated area are set for what is popularly known as community dining. Souk also has a semi-private dining area recessed in a small pocket of space that is perfect for parties. Altogether, the ambience is of eating outdoors. However, I would recommend a table by the window. Happily, these are small tables meant only for couples. And all the tables overlook the Gateway of India and the vast Bombay harbour beyond. The view stretches all the way down the coast to Alibaug. During the day, if you go to Souk for lunch, you will be amazed and fascinated by the constant traffic using the sea corridor out of Bombay city. Those small motor-launches are all the time chugging around and taking tourists for spins around Butcher's Island in the distance. Then there are bigger ones that ferry passengers to Elephanta Caves at regular intervals. And, a stream of small and big motorised crafts plying to Rewas. Also the catamaran service doing the same journey but in lesser time. There are speedboats belonging to Bombay's rich and famous whom I shall not name here.

These boats dart in and out of the harbour, taking their owners to beach houses in Alibaug, or to parties on Arab dhows sailing in deeper waters. And near the stone jetty of the Gateway, dinghies belonging to the Yacht Club bob up and down in the sea. Occasionally, if you strain your eyes, you will see a submarine surface for air and then plunge to the depths again. Or an Indian Navy destroyer engaged in exercises on the Arabian Sea. At night, naturally, you cannot see the boats and ships, but the harbour comes alive with twinkling lights. And this lends a touch of magic and romance to the dining by tables near the window. Souk has an open kitchen that features a bread-making section, an open grille and a large rotisserie, which are among the more prominent kitchen equipment slotted in this space. Also featured is a glass rack displaying spices, olives, cinnamons, dates and other colourful and interesting ingredients that go into the making of Souk's wonderful menu. Now the food, ah! the food, it is very Middle Eastern and the menu is as large as it is vast. There are about 65 dishes. And the cuisines are Turkish, Lebanese, Greek, Moroccan, a little bit of the Arabian Peninsula, some Persian. I understand Souk's menu covers the food of some 70 restaurants in the Middle East. It took Chef Oberoi about a year-and-half of research to come up with this kind of menu. He travelled all over the Middle East, going from city to city, working with local chefs to understand and recreate authentic cuisines in his restaurant later, visiting people's homes to see what the traditional food was all about.

And then when returning home to set up Souk, he shopped around and picked up two masterchefs in Beirut. These two gentlemen are Chefs Issam Kurban and Ahmed Ammouri. It is Chef Oberoi's dream to set up India's first "Chef's Table" in Souk. This is a Western concept. The chef has a table in the kitchen area where he seats his special guests and feeds them the foods that they can see him preparing exclusively for them. Since the menu is so big, and since it is made up of several cuisines, I will not attempt to describe the food to you at all. Instead, I will say that whatever is on the menu is made out of ingredients and from recipes that are 100 per cent authentic. That is Chef Oberoi's guarantee. The spices are from Beirut and Dubai, the olive oil from Athens (not Italy, this is not an Italian restaurant), the wines and arrak from Lebanon, the coffee from Turkey, the tea from Morocco, the sherbets, again, from Beirut. And there are the two Lebanese chefs to deliver all this, plus nine Indian chefs, including Chef Sandeep Narang and Chef Oberoi himself with sleeves rolled up on massive arms that are expertly capable of cooking all 65 dishes on the menu. It is an outstanding menu. Chef Oberoi has not played around with the food to suit Bombay's palate. No compromises and no experiments.

Whoever dines there, talks about the experience later on. This is also a restaurant that looks after the vegetarians, there are about nine main course dishes and 12 mezzes. For your first visit I would recommend the Ramadan soup Harrisa. And the Samak Mquali or Dijaj Mquali. Samak is fish, whatever is available to Souk, the catch of the day, marinated with salt and pepper, ginger-garlic paste, turmeric powder, chilli, and baked. Dijaj is chicken, cooked in a tagine pot with the liver, olives, pickled lemon and spices. For dessert have the Baklava. Or the Kinaif, a thin vermicelli dessert stuffed with ricotta cheese, baked, and then garnished with rose syrup and pistachios. Plus Gava, the Turkish coffee whose Kenyan and Zanzibar coffee beans are slowly roasted then crushed with cardamom and saffron. Those are my recommendations. You may choose whatever else you want from the menu of 65 dishes. What else? Yes, the service staff under Restaurant Manager Ujjawal Bhimwal. An active and helpful staff of courteous boys and girls dressed up by Ritu Kumar in traditional Middle Eastern costumes to go with the character and food of Souk. The leader of this team is Food and Beverages Manager Ashrafi Matcheswala, smart, attractive and as savvy about her plates from Bauscher and crockery from WMF, both of Germany, as she is about the service provided by her team. And in case you are wondering what Souk means, I will tell you. A souk is an open-air bazaar or marketplace in a Muslim country.

Souk
The Taj Mahal Hotel, Bombay.
Apollo Bunder, Bombay 400 001.
Tel: 56653366.