Category: dining

La Compagnia – A dinner with strangers

It’s a strange feeling to go for a dinner without knowing anyone on the table and coming back with a few friends in your kitty. Skeeter experienced the same at La Compagnia: A dinner with strangers.

The concept

A dinner at a pre-determined venue with a specially curated menu will be held each month in various cities: Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore and more… There are no +1s allowed. You have to be a solo diner. You’d be joined by other such diners and would gradually get to know each other over perfectly timed courses that give you ample time to befriend and network with others on the table. The table could have people who are new to the city, people who are looking for work-related opportunities, or just a cool bunch to dine out with and explore a new cuisine, perhaps.

Dinner with strangers is a concept popular in the West, which people sometimes organise at their homes. Yes, they open their homes to complete strangers and sometimes even throw in a new cuisine for everyone to sample. The possibilities are endless. It maybe a potluck, or a cookoff, it only gets as fancy as your mind.

The venue for the debut La Compgania table in Delhi was Guppy by Ai at Lodhi Road. We arrived to a neatly laid table with fresh flowers, sparkling cutlery and our respective name tags. As all diners arrived we took our seats and began the introductions. The table was a good mix of entrepreneurs, start-up funders, start-up owners, journalists and writers. We all happened to share the table with Marryam Reshii, a respected food writer/critic, one Skeeter personally adores. Conversations, food, and alcohol did rounds, not necessarily in any order. Sometimes, the experience precedes the food and this was one such event. For the uninitiated, Guppy is Skeeter’s comfort food place, where she’d hop in for some Rock Corn Tempura or a Udon noodles and mushroom bowl. They do some great cocktails too!  
The meal included Amuse Bouche, appetizers, cocktails, main course and a dessert platter. 
Damages:  Rs 1850 per head.
P.S.: This was one of the better organised events that Skeets has been to in a long, long time! 

Le Bistro Du Parc: A french bistro sits pretty in Delhi

The French concept of Terroir is embedded in every brick of the kitchen of Le Bistro Du Parc, a quaint bistro that sits pretty overlooking a park in Defence Colony. Skeeter has struck off another ‘to go’ place on her list by dining at this gem of a bistro. In Paris, everyone has their own favourite bistros where they hop in at ease, select from a limited menu, eat, talk, ponder, proceed. Repeat. The menu changes often and the chefs bank on the availability of fresh, seasonal produce. The basics of a bistro are home-style food, simple drinks like wine, tea and coffee and affordable prices. 
At Le Bistro Du Parc Skeets started her meal with the Organic leak and potato soup (Rs 350 ) with a blob goat cheese and few sprigs of dill. It was picture perfect, temperature perfect and tasted well, perfect! As against an Indian dish where a host of spices come together to lift the main ingredient to another level, in French food, you can get a taste of each ingredient individually.

Moving on to Skeeter’s main course and dessert together, she could not decide which of these stole the show for her. The Vegetable Tagliatelle with carrot mash and basil oil was part of a very pleasant surprise, for it was no pasta, but farm fresh, seasonal, organic, vegetables like carrot, yellow and green zucchini, peeled into strips and plated wonderfully to mimic Tagliatelle, cooked/steamed very lightly to leave the texture crunchy enough for one to bite in. The sweet scented basil oil peeped from between the vegetables to reveal itself and lend flavour to the dish.  Skeeter has never had a healthier dish at a restaurant. The portion size and the quality of this Vegetable Tagliatelle with carrot mash and basil justifies the price tag (Rs 500) absolutely. Skeeter will go back for only this one, on and on. That said, Chef Alexis Gielbaum at Le Bistro Du Parc told Skeeter that they change their menu frequently. So one is likely to go back at Le Bistro Du Parc for a fresh menu and more surprises. It is also commendable to note they have compensated vegetarians (for a limited number of dishes in the already small menu) beautifully by creating star dishes such as the one Skeets mentioned.

The Valrhona chocolate rocher (Rs 350) ended Skeeter’s meal, oh-so-lusciously that she can stay off chocolate for the next six months just thinking of this one. Go grab a bite!
Meal for two: Approx Rs. 1800.
Address: A 57, 58, 59, Moolchand Market, Defence Colony, New Delhi