Fabulous Immunity Boosting + Ayurvedic Food Buffet @ The Lalit Great Eastern Kolkata 🙂

Event: Cake Mixing Ceremony
Date: 16 Nov 2020, 4:30 pm – 6:30 pm

This year The Lalit Great Eastern’s cake mixing ceremony clashed with Bhai Dooj festival, the last day of our 5 days of Diwali festivities.

After wrapping up the festival at home, even while I was leaving for the hotel during the late evening hours, I fully well knew that the cake mixing ceremony was over, but just to honor my friend’s invite, I carried on.

Once I reached The Bakery i.e. the venue, meeting the team of hard core professionals and few other friends was lovely, but the fact that took me by complete surprise was the need-of-the-times buffet spread that adorned the serving tables.

Curated carefully after doing enough r&d and experimentation, the kitchen team had intelligently curated a buffet spread that was vegetarian, healthy, immunity boosting, tasty and ayurvedic.

In the strange world wherein we are forgetting the age old heritage food treasure which are apt for our body types and take pride in using foreign ingredients, that are difficult to pronounce or adapt to, a serious nudge is required to shift back our food focus and cooking techniques to what our grand parents and great grand parents used to indulge in and employ.

The food curator in me who is constantly doing r&d on food and authentic recipes was quite overwhelmed to see the buffet spread comprising of –

– Immunity boosting hot kadhas and cold shots instead of caffeine centric hot beverages and sugar centric mocktails.

– An assortment of nutritious laddoos sweetened with dates instead of artificially colored/flavored sugar rich desserts.

– Creativity over stuffing going wild for moringa moong dal chillas and not the usual dosas and wraps.

– An assortment of immunity boosting and anti-ageing chutneys instead of creamy or spicy dips.

– Fusion in desserts using charnamrit, camphor, chyawanprash and bhut jolokiya! This was really something beyond the usual imagination!

– 100% earthenware utensils for both heating and serving. Oh! What a lovely sight they made!

Below given is their complete menu for the evening –

– Kadha Station –

* Karkada (hibiscus)
* Pippali saunth
* Mint and spice

– Condiments –

* Mishri
* Taal mishri
* Cinnamon powder
* Tulsi leaf
* Lemon grass powder
* Honey
* Lemon
* Black pepper
* Rock salt
* Sendha namak
* Saunth powder
* Methi powder
* Saunf powder
* Moringa leaf powder
* Neem leaf powder
* Cinnamon stick
* Subza
* Flax seed powder
* Coconut oil
* Giloy powder
* Basil liquid

– Shooters –

* Giloy amla shots
* Aloe vera shots

– Action Station –

Moringa moong dal chilla

With Condiments:

* Chena, tisi masala
* Til, mitha aloo masla
* Chopped chilli
* Chopped onion
* Rajma, tulsi
* Soya keema, mutter, asvagandha

With Chutney:

* Neem, imli, gud ki chutney
* Kache aam aur kachi haldi ki chutney
* Curry patta, chane ki chutney
* Brahmi, gondhoraj ki chutney
* Triphala ki chutney
* Til ki chutney

– Under The Lamp –

* Ajwain patta, soya chaap
* Bajre ka khichda
* Lehsoon aur kachri ki chutney
* Papad
* Fried chilli
* Individual haldi yogurt
* Vadi

– Dessert –

* Panchamrit gulla
* Red rice, palm jaggery and dates risotto
* Camphor and tamalpatra smoked srikhand
* Bhutjolokia pickled, chocolate stuffed amla
* Pistachio chyawanprash baklava

– Ladoo Station –

* Batisha ladoo
* Ashtdhatu aur gondh ka ladoo
* Tissi aur till ka kasar
* Asthi poshak ladoo
* Ojas ladoo
* Probhujin (protein) ladoo

– Kesar Milk –

I opted to taste the following items –

– Pippali saunth kadha

– Aloe vera shot

A healthy take on both hot and cold beverages and a saving from sugary mocktails and cocktails.

– Moringa moong dal chilla stuffed with Til and mitha aloo (sweet potato) masala accompanied with Kache aam aur kachi haldi ki chutney

It was such a pleasant surprise to see a food counter with assorted stuffing and chutneys, all of which were healthy and the wrap in question was not a corn and flour based tortilla or rice and urad dal based dosa, but moong dal based chilla!

– Bajre ka khichda

It was gluten-free and filling.