Award Winning Chai Pani Offers Contemporary Tastes

Rajasthan, the land of kings, is arguably India’s most colourful state. Many restaurants have tried to reflect this in Rajasthani Festivals but none have concentrated purely on the unique cuisine of this historic state – that is until 2003, when sisters Jyoti and Sandhya Goenka opened Chai Pani in London’s Seymour Street.

Now, having won the prestigious award for ‘BEST VEGETATRIAN 2007’ presented by Pat Chapman’s Good Curry Guide, earlier this year and having established itself as London’s first and only Rajasthani Vegetarian restaurant serving traditional Marwari food from the Shekhawati region, Chai Pani is extending its homestyle cooking to include a sample of dishes from contemporary times.

Termed as ‘Jharokha’ (meaning ‘window’) Menu, it enables customers to get a glimpse of modern Rajasthan on a platter, using the same traditional Rajasthani ingredients, but blended with some other popular ethnic food items and cooked in accordance with today’s style and flavour.

‘Ker Sangri’ is a traditional Rajasthani desert bean and berry grown on bushy shrubs and dehydrated for year round use in cooking. The item is commonly featured in every Rajasthani menu and cooked using plenty of spices and dry mango powder that imparts a tangy flavour.

In the ‘Jharokha Menu’ ker sangri beans are judiciously blended with potatoes and spices to be made into ‘kofta’ balls served with a yoghurt based gravy. These depict a modern Rajasthani style of cooking instead of the normal paneer or vegetable koftas featured in other restaurant menus.

Similarly, the popular ‘Rajasthani gatta’ or gram flour rolls are delicately stuffed with cottage cheese and spinach to impart an exotic taste. Likewise, the rural millet flat bread or ‘Bajra roti’ is stuffed with spicy paneer and tomatoes to give it a modern flavour and taste.

To end the dining experience in style, customers get a choice of mouth watering desserts such as sweet gram flour balls or ‘bundi’ in saffron milk instead of the kheer or rasmalai which is found in every Indian menu. They can choose to have our traditional, tantalising almond pudding but laced with liqueur of their choice.

Chai Pani - where vegetarian means variety!

Chai Pani is located at 64 Seymour Street, London, W1.