Yin & Yang Food Festival @ Baan Tao, Hyatt, Pune

Want to experience the holistic balance of  Yin & Yang in your food? Head over to Baan Tao, the in house restaurant of Hyatt Pune  that has come up with an unique food festival – Yin & Yang. The Festival starts on 20^th July 2016 and is on till 10^th August 2016 for both lunch and dinner at Baan Tao. You must be wondering what is this Yin and Yang? In Chinese Culture it is believed that there are two basic forces that rule all that exists. These energies, Yin and Yang, are opposites that complement each other and there must be a good balance between them to bring in good fortune. How is translates into food is as simple as Yin is cooling and Yang is warming. It is as simple as Green tea is cooling, black tea is warm,  Crabs are cooling, shrimp are warm for the body.

#TheBTeam was invited for a preview tasting of the dishes and we surely were knocked out with the offerings here

The talented Chef Sunil Joshi has curated three set menus (1 Vegetarian and 2 non-vegetarian sets) around the concept that entails varied vegetarian and non-vegetarian salads, appetizers, soups, main course in addition to Jasmine tea, While I chose lamb, chicken and prawns as my proteins for the day, I did taste some of the dishes from the other two menus as well. Overall trust me you wont be disappointed here and the mélange of flavours that you will experience will linger on your taste buds for times to come.

The Drinks & Accompaniments

There were two the Yin Wolf made with cucumber, ginger and cranberry  and the Yang Mary that was a spicy twist on the Bloody Mary cocktail with a hint of cinnamon and star anise. My choice for the day was the Yang Mary, I can never pass up the spice

Pumpkin Crackers with Wasabi Peas served as accompaniments with the drinks there were Prawn Crackers too but they were gone in 60 seconds from the table to the tummy.

Amuse Bouche offerings of panko fried garlic prawns and a rice paper roll of veggies were served to stimulate the appetite before the meal

The Appetizer

The appetizers started with the green peas, spinach, truffle oil crystal dumpling. The dumplings were stuffed with baby spinach, fresh peas and truffle oil. A #MustHave But the Hatchew Latchew – silken tofu tossed in black pepper, red chilli, scallion and pepper was definitely the highlight (That is one big compliment, coming from a hard core non-vegetarian). Melt in the mouth tofu with a great balance of flavors, that will make you ask for more.

Have the Thot man gai,  a  preparation made of mince chicken, lemongrass, chilli, garlic, galangal and you will be transported to Thailand and if you love kaffir lime just like me, you will be in for a treat. Another one was braised wine butter garlic prawns, they prawns were cooked to perfection but I missed the garlic in them…

The Salads

For salads we were served the Kaisho, smoked salmon salad with rucola and the Rojak Buah, a malay fruit salad with a tamarind chilli dressing. Both the salads were uplifting but between the two i will choose Rojak Buah.   It was super refreshing fruit and the tang was rightly complemented by a light tinge of spiciness.

The Soups

We were served the Tom Kha Phak Soup which had flavors from coriander roots, mushroom, carrot, zucchini, cauliflower, beans, lemongrass, kafir lime and galangal. I found it a little too coco-nutty  for my taste, i thought it hid the subtle flavors of other ingredients in the soup. Thumbs up for presentation. But on the other hand the Sop Ayam, the Indonesian chicken soup was the perfect soup for a rainy day. A medley of chicken stock, somen noodles, kaffir lime and lemon grass and sliced chicken will surely make you go back for seconds…oh but wait there are mains still to go…

The Mains

Its always a thumbs up if it’s a  juicy pile of shredded lamb with a sticky Asian sauce and some kick ass basil chicken rice to go with it. You could’nt ask for a better main course #HighlyRecommended

The Desserts

We ended on a sweet note with three desserts… The first on up was the Cendol Ice…looked like a ice gola with but paired sophistically with fruit syrups, maraschino cherry, coconut ice cream, carnation and hot chocolate syrup. #MustHave  This was followed by the Chiffon Litchi Ice Cream Cake Slice Dessert, a combination of house made litchi ice cream with chopped nuts  and a fried chiffon cake. I am not a great fan of chiffon cakes but the  ice cream was to die for. But my favourite dessert was a simple Baked Yogurt with Frozen Berries. Silky smooth wobbly baked yougurt power packed with  blueberries & cranberries. #HighlyRecommended