The Tiffin Room at the Bonchurch Manor Hotel is an ideal location for this year’s Deepavali celebrations.
Shuba Rao will be presenting a wonderful menu of exquisite Southern Indian dishes including such items as Koli Kolambu, tender chicken cooked in spicy Tamilian style with poppy and cashewnut paste and Fish Dakshina, seasonal fish simmered in subtly spiced tomato and coconut sauce.
Deepavali (or Diwali) celebrations are a grand affair in India, as Shuba explains below, and Bonchurch Manor is no exception.
Last year we went along to enjoy the fireworks and the hotel was adorned in beautiful lights. It was a real picture and certainly somewhere we’ll be returning to again this year.
The freshly cooked, authentic food is excellent value at The Tiffin Room. The Deepavali menu is £23 per person for Friday night or £26 per person on Saturday night – which includes a firework display.
Whenever we’ve eaten at The Tiffin Room the food has been outstanding, but don’t just take our word for it, Clive Aslet of The Times said of The Tiffin Room “If the Michelin Guide cared more about proper food, rather than the degree of starch on the napkins, it would give Bonchurch a star”.
A pretty good accolade wouldn’t you say!
The Tiffin Room Deepavali 2008 Menu
Madhur Vada
Rice and lentil fried spicy batter originated in the small town of Maddhur, this is a popular snack sold at train stations along the Mysore – Bangalore route.
Onion Pakora
Crispy rings of onion deep fried in batter
Saagu
Freshly diced seasonal vegetables cooked in an original sauce from Karnataka.
Fish Dakshina
Seasonal fish simmered in subtly spiced tomato and coconut sauce.
Koli Kolambu
Tender chicken cooked in spicy Tamilian style with poppy and cashew nut paste
Potato Palya
Classic side dish from Karnataka
Okra Pachadi
Yoghurt and okra in a cooling salad
Selection of Indian Sweets
A selection of rich, creamy, high calorie sweets. Once a year only!
Shuba’s Memories of Deepavali
Shuba has been celebrating Deepavali, also known as the Festival of Lights, since a child when she lived back in India.
She tells us that during that “back home in India, every child, parent and grandparent looks forward to these few days of joyful mayhem. Families and friends visit each other, children are given new colourful clothes and jewelry and masses of fireworks are lit throughout the day.
“As a child, these few days were filled with eating the most exquisite sweets, of fun and games with my cousins and uncles, the good hearted teasing of the young folk by the old and lighting of fireworks from morning till I went to bed, at night.
“Having lived here long enough I have soaked up the English attitude to fire safety, I now worry about fireworks and wonder how I ever dared play with the fireworks as I did as a child. I remember holding a string of 50 and 100 firework bombs in my hand, swinging them round and round as I watched my long silk skirt billow out like a parachute, and listened to them explode in a cacophony of bangs. There was no fear of ever burning myself.
“During Deepavali, street side paths, public playgrounds are lit with explosions and fountains of light and strewn with the litter of burnt firecrackers. Walking on the street during this festival requires courage, nimbleness to avoid flying rockets and cotton wool in the ears. Somehow we knew how to duck. Saying that, there are considerably few accidents with fireworks in India and safety is not as great an issue there as it is here.”
This is a sponsored feature
Images: dhondusaxena, Spo0nman
