Saturday, June 18, 2016

A treat brunch and back to school

A Sunday brunch perhaps worth waking up for, that’s what the themed ‘Back to School’ brunch at Latest Recipe, Hotel Le Meridien, is all about.
Going back to school on Mondays, especially at the end of a joyful, long summer break can be excruciating. Sundays are meant to be no-cooking days for mothers after a hectic week. And for kids a day of frolic before the thought of Mondays give them the jitters.
The lavish spread at the brunch, the lollipops, candies and cakes, lot’s of fun, soft ‘live’ music in very thoughtfully created ambience gives a perfect start to a Sunday.
There’s a bustle in the restaurant by early noon. Families and friends sit around tables chatting, laughing. The children hover around the dessert station waiting to get their hands on the candies, lollipops and cakes. The brunch is a casual, open, easy affair; a perfect communal experience.
The school theme is evident right from the entrance of the restaurant where you have cut-outs of two children in their school uniforms, bags strung on their shoulders. Small blackboards with writing in chalk indicate the main dishes in the different stations. Drawings, paintings and even corrected examination papers give you the feel of a classroom.
Like a kid in a new school it takes some time to really make a choice from the rich and wide-ranging spread. And in the end you walk to the table not having much on your plate in the first helping. If you decide to start ‘conventionally’ with soup there’s a lot to choose – from baby corn, broccoli, zucchini, carrot, mushroom, basil murgh dhaniya sorba to African peanut soup.
Before fast forwarding to the main course spare a thought for the appetizers like chicken roll, beef cutlet, pazham puri and paripu vada. Or fill your plate with choice salads.
“Finding the right balance is the key when you spread out such a sumptuous brunch. There’s a demand for a range of options and we have tried to meet them. There’s a lot for kids like popcorn, candies, ice creams, sip-ups, cotton candy and the parents will not be disappointed either. We have retained the grills section, which I feel is extremely popular,” says J.P. Singh, Executive Chef, even as an airy, fluffy appam with crispy brown edges finds its way into my plate. And the vegetable stew was simply great.
Choice for the main course is between Oriental (vegetable noodles, fish in chilly garlic sauce, stir fried vegetables in ginger soy sauce), Continental (thyme scented slow roasted chicken, macaroni n’ cheese, ham and cheese quesadilla), South Indian (nadan meen curry, duck mapas, mix vegetable thoran, padavalnnangan mapas, kappa thalichethu, pavaika pachadi, pazham kalan) and North Indian (Dal miloni, aloo gobi, jungle murgh curry, handi paneer, ghosht biryani) with rice or rotis.
The ‘live’ jaffle, pasta, pizza, tandoor and chaat counters found a lot of takers, while kids hustled to fill up their plates with chocolate croissants, doughnuts, muffins and various kinds of Danish pastries.
There’s no better way to finish off a ‘lazy’ Sunday morning than indulging in choice desserts. And there was an amazing variety - chocolate and green tea cake, banana coffee duet, orange sable, almond lemon cake, raspberry pistachio opera, mango torte, Kiwi tart, coconut cinnamon roll, mango parfait, black currant soufflé, and hot gajar and orange halwa, simply delicious mawa apple peda, malai bhog, and mawa pista roll.
Sundays clear away the rust of the whole week, promising a great Monday and a happy week ahead. The brunch certainly does that but not sure if the kids would agree.
The unique Back To School themed brunch is open from 12 p.m. to 3 p.m. every Sunday till the end of this month.

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