Life, as the film says, is beautiful. There is food all around me, and though I want to point out that I eat with due caution (for my doctors read this column), I am always amazed at the kind of food that is available at our doorstep – or inside our house – these days. You call, and food comes.
There was a time when delivery meant tandoori chicken – or if we were really lucky, some Afghani chicken. Gone are those days. You want coastal food? Someone will deliver it for you. You want a variety of kababs? You will get them. Want some nice pork curry with bao? Just call.
Enhancing flavour
A few days ago, my young friend Pawan Hora told me about his client, a new food delivery outlet called Trial Box, which delivers various kinds of dishes – from different cuisines – to you. Its USP is “Hassle-free boxed meals”. I got a sample. And though I ate with care (hello, doctor!), I did sample some of the dishes – and came to the conclusion that Trial Box was certainly worth trying out.
The hamper consisted of something called Sufiana kabab, som tam salad, harissa chicken, grilled fish and oriental mu shu pork with pancakes.
I had the fish which had been lightly grilled, and served with a lemon-and-butter sauce. I just tasted the sauce, and thought it was excellent and went deliciously well with the mildly flavoured fish. What I wanted to taste – and will, one day – was the mu shu pork served with mandarin pancakes. The consensus at home (we had friends over, as always) was that it was simply delightful – with juicy tenderloin pieces cooked with rice vinegar, hoisin, shiitake mushroom, chilli oil, garlic and sichuan pepper.
I had the som tam salad, which was a nice raw papaya salad. The kebab platter consisted of Gochujang chicken chooza (essentially tandoori, but with some hot oriental sauces), double reshmi khas kabab and banno kabab (chicken cooked with ginger, garlic, cream, cheese, long pepper, rose petals, green cardamom and pathar phool). The African-Arabic dishes include harissa chicken – harissa being a spicy hot sauce prepared with chillies, garlic, coriander, lemon juice and some oil.
They have food for all occasions – breakfasts, full meals, starters, dimsums, gourmet boxes and so on. In the Indian bowl category, they have dishes such as gosht kuchchi yakhni biryani (Rs 230); the Spanish combo in the gourmet party box consists of Mexican scramble (omelette with chicken sausages and pepper) and Spanish egg pizzettes (Rs 699 to serve 4-5 people). The French boulangerie has baguettes, ham, sundried tomatoes, baby arugula and cheese (Rs 799) and the vegetarian Orient Box comprises Japanese vegetable croquettes, curried baos, mushroom, babycorn and tofu (Rs 749 for 4-5 people).
Right now they deliver only in Gurugram but will soon start delivering in South Delhi (Phone numbers: 01244601666 and 4601999). A meal for two should cost about Rs 500. I am told they have speciality chefs who are cooking all this for you. What more does one need? Just someone who can deliver the Polo mint or flavoured saunf, I suppose.