The spice route

They borrowed the techniques andstyles from every new group of invaders coming down the Khyber Pass and thenadded their own blend of spices and flavours. Zaica belongs to thiscategory. It’s the hearty but essentially plain food brought by theinvading armies who came down to India, cooking in their clay tandoor ovens andtossing their meats and rotis against the red hot walls of the coal-fired ovensand serving them with a freshly-prepared relish. Very gradually, as the armiessettled down, they discovered the spices for which the sub-continent is famousfor and added them to their Persian and Afghan style pillafs, or rice dishes,and discovered the many ways of using milk, boiling them in rich creamydesserts, curdling them into chunks of paneer, or creating a marinade for theirmeat and vegetable dishes. Did you know, for instance, that thebark-like curls of cinnamon were so rare at one time, that they were said to becarried by birds to build their nests, high up on the cliffs of a magical islandin the Indian Ocean? It sounds very much like the present day Andamans, butcould equally have been Serendib, or Sri Lanka as it was known at the time. Toharvest the cinnamon, the islanders had to send donkeys with chunks of freshmeat to tempt the birds. When the birds swooped down and carried the meat totheir nests, the weight would bring the cinnamon stick nests stumbling down andthe waiting islanders would quickly load their boats and leave. This is just oneof the stories related by Sinbad the Sailor in his marvellous tales of adventurearound the lands bordering the Indian Ocean.At Zaica, the ordinaryand the exotic exist side by side. It’s been planned very much like theold-style eating places opened by the enterprising community of Punjabiimmigrants who had to flee their homes after Partition, with a combination ofhome-cooked food, the black Ma-ki-dal for instance, the paneer tikka items andthe tandoor breads. They have added some interesting touches, a room, where kidsand adults can recline on long black leather chairs and amuse themselves withelectronic games, or special dining areas for small parties, not to mention asection devoted entirely to the kitty party crowd. The salad and cold buffetcounter itself looked inviting, but the piece-de-resistance should go to thebiryanis, fragrant with spices, that were being served. There’s a choiceof desserts. It was here that Zaica won hands down. The gulab jamuns, plump,grainy and dripping in hot syrup were lovely, but the creamy kheer was quite thebest I have had in a long time. The only downside to Zaica isgetting there. It is so awkwardly positioned on a busy road next to a fly-overthat you will need to take a Sinbad to get you to the place. Zaica, R K Salai,Opposite Chola Sheraton Hotel, Tel: 28113837