A short drive to Dunfermline turned into a tour of India’s west coast, as Ellie Forbes sampled Dhoom’s latest tasting menu.
The apparent birthplace of chicken tikka masala, Glasgow isn’t short of Indian restaurants, with Mother India’s Cafe serving up some of the best street food I have ever tasted.
So it’s not often I venture far from home to get a taste of India.
But a recent trip to Dunfermline quickly turned into an incredible tour of India’s west coast, when I visited Dhoom to try out their latest tasting menu.
Since opening in 2018, chef and owner Dhaneshwar Prasad has been taking diners around India with his menus, from New Delhi to Kolkata.
The offering changes every six months, and it’s a massive undertaking for Prasad.
In his relentless pursuit of authentic flavours he takes a team of chefs to spend six weeks on the streets of a new region tasting the local delicacies before curating the final menu.
For his eighth menu, Prasad is bringing us to the bustling streets of India’s largest city, Mumbai.
The centre of the Bollywood film industry, with a vibrant and cosmopolitan atmosphere, Mumbai is famous for its food markets.
Dhoom is vibrant and colourful and does well to replicate the feeling of an Indian street market.
Prasad greets us as we walk through the door and seats us in our own TukTuk – instantly you feel transported.
It’s buzzing for a Saturday afternoon, a joy to see when often that tricky time between lunch and dinner can lead to a lull.
The ten-course tasting menu begins with a pre-starter of kala channa tikki, inspired by the famous Mumba Devi temple. The morsel is crispy and slathered in a tamarind sauce which has a delightful kick.
The starters appear rapidly, with the highlights including an incredibly succulent piece of chicken marinated in ginger, garlic, garam masala, with a hot chilli sauce from Chennai.
To my horror an ice cream cone arrives stuffed with savoury sweetcorn chaat which Prasad tells us is inspired from the Wankhede Cricket Stadium.
My initial fears are immediately quelled with the first bite – it’s spectacular. Yes, it’s fun and quirky, but it also tastes divine.
The schezwan fish is buttery and melt in the mouth. I worry the mulberry chicken tikka, which takes us to the silk farms of Mahabaleshwar, will be too sweet, but again I am proven wrong.
The plates are dotted with various sauces, all of which taste fantastic individually but make the whole dish sing when eaten together.
Before our curries we are treated to a Nagpuri Santra palate cleanser, inspired by the famous oranges of Nagpur.
For the mains, we choose a lamb curry from the Konkan region. The meat is soft and tender while the sauce is aromatic and spicy, without being overwhelming.
We end on a high with a king prawn moilee that is fragrant and mild, coated in a coconut based Goan sauce.
We relax over the feast which takes us around two hours to enjoy and is broken up by insightful stories from Prasad.
It’s hard not to have an overwhelming sense of joy when you eat his food, given how passionately he talks about it and knowing he has travelled extensively throughout his native country researching ideas to bring back to Scotland.
Dhoom offers more, much more, than your typical Indian street food experience, and I will happily leave Glasgow to enjoy it again soon.
Read more news and reviews on Scottish Field’s food and drink pages.
Plus, don’t miss the November’s issue of Scottish Field magazine.
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