JAPANESE STYLE, INDIAN FLAVOURS

Apart from INJA in Delhi, a handful of chefs are bringing together their love for Indian flavours and Japanese techniques

- Avantika Bhuyan

One approaches the menu at INJA—a portmanteau for Indian and Japanese— with curiosity. It’s rare to see the two cuisines come together and the restaurant, which opened recently at The Manor—the former home of Indian Accent—in Delhi, doesn’t disappoint. The bold tapestry of Indian cuisine, backed by Japanese techniques and clean flavours, flows quite seamlessly on the palate.

Take the Lobster Rasam “Chawmaushi”. “Chawanmushi, a classic Japanese savoury egg custard, is prepared with a base of dashi, a seafood-flavoured broth. So, we replaced the dashi with flavours more relatable to the Indian palate. We make a clear lobster rasam as the base of the chawanmushi,” says Adwait Anantwar, chef-partner at INJA, the debut venture of Dubai-based Atelier House Hospitality. For the extra “rasam flavour”, he poaches a lobster tail in rasam-spiced butter and adds it on top of the steamed custard.

While INJA is, perhaps, the first restaurant to proclaim this merging of Indian and Japanese cuisines, a very small set of chefs have been bringing together their love for Indian food and Japanese techniques over the past couple of years. The idea is to create dishes that make sense to the Indian palate, while using refined techniques such as yakitori (skewering) and lacto fermentation. It would be wrong to describe this as fusion, for that can take gimmicky turns; rather, it is an elegant rendezvous of two very refined culinary repertoires.