From the streets of Asia

Zega at Sheraton Hyderabad is one of the more popular Pan Asian restaurants and amongst the options on extensive menu, dimsum and sushis are to die for. From authentic to fusion dishes, the menu traverses Thailand, Singapore, China, Indonesia, Japan and even the Tangra Chinese cuisine.

Employing the expert knowledge of Asian spices and the cooking techniques, Zega chefs have recently launched an Asian Grills menu in a bid to recreate popular street food culture. Even while one cannot recreate the vibrancy of the streets in a fine dining space, the grills are cooked using the best techniques and presented with enough drama, sizzling hot, literally. The choicest of meats are grilled on charcoal and hence the smokiness is intact, while the home-made sauces tell a whole new story as they use ingredients like peanuts, coriander, pepper, all-spice, lemon grass, galangal, sesame, soy…to create delicious sauces that lace the grills with flavours; the aromas tantalizing the taste buds and their mild to sharp notes striking a medley on the palate and giving a unique Asian character to even the likes of Newzealand Lamb Chops.

Each and every item on this limited period menu has been conceptualised after a lot of trials and the effort shows. High on the taste metre are the slices of lamb meat cooked on slow heat for over an hour and served after tossing it in five spice; the succulent pork ribs; grilled pineapple and chicken skewers spiked with Japanese spice mix Shichimi Togarashi; Gai Yang – Thai grilled chicken exuding the distinct aroma of the herbs and seasonings, and delicious to the last bite; grilled prawn skewer, just the way it must be – non-fussy and delicately flavoured; char grilled Octopus, a rarity in this part of the world; perfectly grilled Lobster laced with butter pepper sauce - the red pepper giving it the flavour minus the pungency unlike the Lemon Pepper Calamari that has the unmistakable notes of black pepper and garlic, which according to Executive Chef Sidharth Bhardwaj is one of the trickiest sea food to grill; that can almost be called the showstopper on the menu if it was not for the Pork chops tossed in the Chinese barbeque sauce Char Siu.

A special mention has to be made of the vegetarian grills. There are of course the veggie and fruit skewers, and the cottage cheese skewers with chilli coriander marinate; however, the crowning glories are, Thai spice stuffed soya chaap – a winner of an innovation and Trio of mushroom skewers – that features the button mushroom, shitake and black fungus with freshly made chutneys – peanut and coriander and the mustard to add the zing.

- RK