You ordered the... what?

Tummus, Gourdess, Chawanmushi and Silver Berry Cake Indian menus are getting inventive. Here are 10 headscratchers, decoded

- Karishma Kuenzang

1 Smoked and Shredded Duck in Dry Bamboo:

Chef Alistair Lethorn of Aal's Kitchen serves homestyle Naga food in Goa. He makes the best of both worlds. The Naga dry bamboo, usually eaten in a fermented or pickled form, with duck. The strong flavours somehow complement each other, making for an unexpected North-Eastsmoked duck combines West hit.

2 Nopal Salad.

Order it for your ex. This traditional Mexican dish uses cactus. At Mezcalita in Mumbai, the nopal salad comes in brine, making it more nutritious and easy to digest. What does cactus taste like? Earthy green, mild. And no, there are no prickly bits. Executive chef Pablo Benitez loves its mild flavours.

3 Pine pine pine:

Prateek Sadhu's Kasauli restaurant, Naar, is in the middle of a pine forest. Naturally, edible pine needles ended up on the menu. Sadhu uses them to make salt. He also ferments them in sugar to make a honey-like syrup. It's sweet and acidic. He makes a pinenut ice cream, drizzled with the salt and honey. It's served as a pastry filled with pine cream. Hence the name.

4 Turnip Rajma Gogji: