Mahek's Punjabi food festival opens tonight (July 2)

Dance the night away with bhangra

Mahek's staff will create the Punjabi ambience

Indian restaurant Mahek will this evening launch its Punjabi food festival, Balle Balle, a first time combination of traditional food from the land of tandoor with the rhythmic food tapping bhangra folkloric tunes.

The Balle Balle gala evening will start at 7.00 p.m and guests will take delight enjoying not only the sumptuous gala buffet menu which promises much for Indian food lovers, but the whole Punjabi ambience to be felt in the restaurant as well as main dining hall of the Coral Strand Hotel.

All Mahek's staff will be wearing their Punjabi uniforms of kurtas and longis and the males will have on their heads turbans while the female staff are to have a special hairdo.

The buffet menu offers new discoveries of Punjabi culinary treasures of rich spicy dishes cooked in savoury creamy gravy such as lentils dumplings soaked in yoghurt and laced with tamarind sauce as appetiser followed by charcoal grilled chicken, chunks of job marinated in flavoured gram flour and for desserts flavoured reduced milk and vermicelli laced with toffee sauce, just to name a few out a of the wide selection of the mouth-watering dishes on offer. Hot plate specialities such as crisp stuffed potato with yoghurt, mint and tamarind chutney, chicken tikka wrapped in onions and capsicum and lamb kebab will be cooked live.

After dinner, clients can loosen up and dance the night away to the rhythmic bhangra music.

Punjab lies in north west India and beyond its carpet of fertile fields where mustard, wheat, maize, beans and peas are in abundance, it also has a host of culinary traditions that have taken the world palate by storm to the extent that two of its most popular dishes, tandoori chicken and chicken tikka masala are now favourite recipes in many parts of the world. Besides fish, mustard and dals, which are widely used in Punjabi kitchens, various dairy products such as dahi and ghee are also important parts of daily diet. Lassi, one of India's most popular cooling drinks is made from yoghurt, tempered with salt and vinegar and is of Punjabi origin.

To go with their fine cuisine, the Punjabis follow a very simple way of eating which is mainly a meal of vegetables and lentils eaten with wheat bread spread with butter. Meat is usually eaten with plain wheat bread or roti accompanied by nothing more than onions split open by smashing them with the fist.

Punjabis also believe in eating out of a brass thali using their fingers and drinking out of a 12-inch-long brass glass.  

The Punjabi food festival, which will run until July 31, is one that Mahek hopes will leave a lasting and memorable taste on its clients' palates.

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