Category: matcha

Guppy by ai, Summer Menu

This hasn’t been intentional but the last few posts have been around eating healthy and snacking healthy. This one’s no different. Top chefs are waking up to vegetables around them and are cooking up a storm with the most exotic produce. This is #trending in the world of gastronomy. Suddenly vegetarianism is cool and Skeeter can proudly say she was always cool! 
Guppy by ai has been revisited one too often: when Skeeter doesn’t want to cook, when she wants to eat out but eat light and healthy or simply put, when she simply wants to eat at Guppy by ai. Guppy by ai also has this amazing team led by chef Vikram Khatri and supported by chef Saurabh, that reinvents its menu time and again, presenting food that stuns the senses. Their use of vegetables, both local and exotic, mesemerises. Take the Sakura wood smoked pumpkin soup (Rs 250), which is hearty with a slight smoked flavour and comes topped with healthy, crispy pumpkin seeds that make all the difference. You get all benefit that this humble vegetable has to offer at a go: the fruit to the seed. I tried the Water chestnut and Tofu Motoyaki (Rs 400) with a little reluctance. What I got was the Japanese silken tofu and water chestnut baked in a rich sauce. I could nibble on it all day long. Umami in a bowl. 

The Seaweed and Mesclun salad (Rs 450) was up next. Young mustard, seaweed and fresh baby greens are served in tangy plum vinaigrette. Apart from the spectacular presentation and the sublime taste, the ingredients were a showstopper. Move on Nori, I got Tosaka on my plate. Yes! The wobbly tosaka seaweed (green and pink) tossed with other greens and a tangy plum vinaigrette made the summer outside so much bearable!
Salad was followed by some deep fried indulgence as Tempura was taken to another level with whole ladyfingers, nori and even coconut peeping out from the crunchy batter!

Oh and what is a visit to Guppy if you don’t try their red rice Sushi?

But what really had my heart was the Hiyashi Tanuki Cha Soba (Rs 750), the Chilled green tea soba served with scallions, chilled soy flavoured broth and bonito. The green tea infused soba noodles are served on a bamboo sheet resting on ice in an earthen pot. Some places also serve it on Zaru, which is a bamboo tray that looks like a traditional sieve. The scallions, chilled soy flavoured broth and bonito are served alongside. You take the noodles in an empty bowl provided to you, add the rest of the accompaniments to taste, hold the bowl up and enjoy! If you like simple flavours Hiyashi Tanuki Cha Soba comes highly recommended. If not, you could try the very flavourful Tofu and exotic vegetable curry rice (Rs 900).

The Matcha pudding ended my meal. I’ve had Matcha icecreams and Matcha is undoubtedly my favourite Japanese green tea, the other being Sencha. This pudding is made from Matcha tea powder and served with house made toffee sauce (Rs 350). Lots of Matcha powder is dusted over the pudding to make you go mmmmm… Trust Guppy by ai to come up with something as delicate as this. No other flavour overpowered the star ingredient, Matcha. Yet I could taste and relish all other elements this excellent pudding was made of.
(This review was on invitation. The views herein are mine.)

Guppy by ai – a weight watcher’s delight


If there is one restaurant in Delhi, I visit again and again, and again, it is Guppy by ai. For their vegetarian Sushi, ofcourse. The Japanese vegetable rolls at Guppy are a favourite and the fact that they now use black rice (which they source indigenously) for the rolls, makes them taste better and a tad nutty. A recent visit on an invite to taste their winter menu left me wide eyed. Their food is always spectacular, but what I’ve always appreciated about them is that being a vegetarian is no hindrance at this restaurant. They do full justice to vegetarian diners by coming up with a fair menu. Veg Sushi being an oxymoron for some, is a way of life for Skeeter. 
This time round, they had on offer a Nasu Dengaku inspired grilled aubergine. It is one of the better dishes I’ve tasted this year. It is their version of Nasu Dengaku. An aubergine shell is scooped out and filled with aubergine pulp, onion and cherry tomatoes cooked in miso. It is then baked and topped with crispy garlic flavoured panko. Panko crumbs are a favourite and when used well, they accentuate any dish dramatically. The mushy aubergine and the crusty panko made for an excellent textured combination. The sweetness of the cherry tomatoes came through well. This Nasu Dengaku version had me hooked till there was none left. A must try for those belonging to the ‘I hate bharta’ club. I washed it down with Akane, a winter special Guppy cocktail made from Vodka, beetroot, strawberry, sugar and lime juice. You drink your fruit, you have your superfood (beetroot), and you enjoy your dose of alcohol. A mixologist once told me that use of fresh fruits and vegetables in cocktails is the way trends are headed. After having Akane at Guppy, I am sure he was right. 



The other stars of the evening were a Beetroot and Plump Avocado tartare. Slowcooked, tender beetroot and avocado tartare in a citrus dressing. A weight watcher’s delight. I also had my usual fix of Sushi.

Blueberry crepes and seasonal fruit flambe made my dessert. Bite sized crepes filled with marshmallows, sitting besides a bed of seasonal fruit, in brandy and berry sauce and flambeed on the table. You can ask for a weight watcher’s version of this dessert and they will happily remove the berry sauce. 
Weight watcher’s please note!
Japanese food is known for its fresh, raw ingredients and is easily one of the healthiest cuisines served in restaurants. Pickled vegetables, light broths coupled with superfoods like matcha make Japanese food popular across tables world over. I am not sure of calorie counts and other stats, but the food I had at Guppy, could be consumed by any weight watcher and they’d walk out with a full tummy and a non-guilty gait. A superfood and fruit cocktail (read beets and berries), Sushi, salads, baked vegetables and loads of them, and a dessert sans a sweet sauce.  Wash it all down with a cup of Matcha, if you must. What more can you ask for? 

Yum Yum Cha, Select City Walk

Joining the Pan-Asian brigade of Diva Kitsch, Yum Yum Tree and others is a colourful cafe called Yum Yum Cha in a busy mall in Saket. To begin with, Yum Yum Cha takes Sushi and Sashimi from fine dining restaurants to a more casual, relaxed setting. The food is stunning and how they dole out such gratifying fare from a tiny space at Select City Walk mall, Saket is a wonder. Well, not really. What else would you expect when you get to know Yum Yum Cha is a product of the famous sibling The Yum Yum Tree? 
The 40 cover dining space is an open cafe done tastefully with colourful Japanese Origami dumplings, tea pots, geisha, slippers denoting casual dining, tea-pots and more. These symbols are also embroidered on napkins and on aprons of the ushers and would keep you visually engaged while you wait for your order (which won’t take very long).

While the Spicy Asparagus dumplings (4 pieces for Rs 245) with a filling of asparagus in satay sauce and Bok Choy dumplings (4 pieces for Rs 245) with vegetables and garlic, chilli are good, the star of the show is the Crispy Vegetable Cheung fun (Rs 385 for 6 pieces).

Asparagus tempura and Spicy avocado Sushi come at Rs 485 for 8 pieces. Club that with a nice drink and you have an afternoon meal. We tried the Black Magic and the Thai orange and Kaffir Lime fun bottles from the listed beverages. The drinks, however, were a little underwhelming. Some tweaking and intensifying of flavours would reap yummy benefits. The Crispy Corn cake (Rs 285) was topped with chillies and burnt garlic. Bang on flavour, pretty presentation, tweaked for the Indian palate (read spicy and full of garlicky goodness) this was a show stopper and comes highly recommended.
The sizzling basil & chilly sticky rice were served up beautifully in a hot stone pot in which it was assembled and cooked. The server stirs it up right on the table for an interactive touch and some fun on the table while you drool into a coma by aroma. The Paper Hot Pot based on Japanese Nabe will have the people on your neighbouring table stealing glances. We ordered the Ramen soup with noodles and it was pretty acceptable.
Your buck would really stop at the dessert. Do not order anything other than the world famous 
Icecream. For the uninitiated, Mochi is made from a  glutinous Japanese rice which is pounded into a desired shape and coloured suitably. The ice-cream comes filled in the Mochi. We tried the classic Matcha Green Tea which is a Skeeter favourite. The coconut and Jaggery Mochi is a sensational delight for those who like things a little sweet.

The service was good and a tad fast. It was heartening to see owner Prathna Tuli enthusiastically manage tables rather than leaving the task on the shoulders of their able staff.