Suggestions for Vegetarian Multi - Cuisine menu

[Rushina]

Okie I know that this topic shoud go in the general topics but I have put it here for the reason that I need Indians who are exposed to western cuisine but understand Indian food habits to advise me. I need to put together a vegetarian multi cuisine menu for a group of passengers travelling to South Africa. It needs to have some amount of Indian food in it but other food will also work like Mexican and Italian.

Any suggestions, advice on what to watch out for?

Rushina

[bague25]

Rushina

Does the group consist of Indians? From where? Why the multi-cuisine aspect? If you could give more background I could pm you some continental dishes.

[Rushina]

Sorry thought I mentioned tha, they are a group of well travelled indians taking a holiday. The property they are visiting has asked me to help put the menus together. The multi cuisine aspect because the groups that generally require vegetarian menus are also the ones that are sticklers for Indian food or Jain food, in this case they are okay with other cuisines (no chinese) as long as it is vegetarian. Vegetarian means no chicken stock etc.

Rushina

[Vikram]

Rushina, not sure I understand your query. Is this a group that's going to SA and wants to know what veg food options are available? Or is it one of those kitchen-tours where they take along their own chef and you're looking for suggestions for menus he could make? Or suggestions for the hotels, restaurants they might be visiting?

I don't need to tell you that Indian veg options of some kind will be available in most large SAn cities, though its not always that easy to access them - you might need to ask someone there to do some scouting around in the Indian areas for restaurants or caterers. It is my impression - quite possibly inaccurate, since when I was in SA I didn't exactly go around looking for Indians to spend time with! - that many SA Indians are now non-vegetarian, but then again I have distant Gujju relatives there who are strictly vegetarian still.

The plus side about vegetarian in SA is that the quality of the fruit and veg can be outstanding, especially in the Cape area. One could happily subsist on just the wonderful fruits and breads and pastries. Those vast malls that most SAns retreat into for their leisure activities also would generally have some places with decent veg options - I remember many Greek/Italian style cafes where you could certainly get excellent salads, veg pizzas and quiches and so on.

There are also excellent and stylish places like the Primi Piatti chain and local delis like Melissas in Cape Town or a place in Melville in Jo'burg called the Service Station, I think, where there were lots of very good ready to eat options with plenty of choice for vegetarians. On Long Street in Cape Town there's a small, cafe called Lola's which is vegetarian - not outstanding food, but a really cool and funky place. In Cape Town there is also a restaurant called Periamma's run by a very cool Indian woman who cooks a set menu every evening including lots of good veg basics, and presumably she could do more is warned in advance. And if they're willing to spend, then the really top end restaurants will all be able to provide good veg options.

Despite all this, the truth is it can get quite bleak for vegetarians. While the bf was living there, he went through a phase when he turned mostly veg simply in reaction to all the meat he was getting on a daily basis. At which point he was faced with one veg staple - butternut squash which he found being served up every lunch and every dinner, and if they could have found a way to give it for breakfast they would have. After a point he simply could not face butternut squash again!

Vikram

[bague25]

Sorry thought I mentioned tha, they are a group of well travelled indians taking a holiday. The property they are visiting has asked me to help put the menus together. The multi cuisine aspect because the groups that generally require vegetarian menus are also the ones that are sticklers for Indian food or Jain food, in this case they are okay with other cuisines (no chinese) as long as it is vegetarian. Vegetarian means no chicken stock etc.

Rushina

Are they lacto-ovo vegeterians? If yes, I'll pm you some suggestions

[bhelpuri]

they are a group of well travelled indians taking a holiday. The property they are visiting has asked me to help put the menus together. The multi cuisine aspect because the groups that generally require vegetarian menus are also the ones that are sticklers for Indian food or Jain food, in this case they are okay with other cuisines (no chinese) as long as it is vegetarian.

The "no chinese" stipulation should be read as a warning, probably an indication that the menu should be Indian by default.

We recently had a dinner for two vegetarian Tam-Brahm couples, not just well-travelled but settled in the US for over a decade. I figured we'd make Italian rather than desi.

It was a disaster. They were game, and tried to put a good face on it but it was tough to do so.

Turns out that they were unfamiliar with (and very turned off by) sun-dried tomatoes - one of the main ingredients of the pasta. And all four of them were suspicious of and resistant to mushrooms - the main ingredient of the appetizer. And that's after ten years plus of living in the US.

Thus, my instinct is to recommend that you stick to Indian or heavily Indianized dishes, unless this group tells you in advance - we eat mushrooms, we like pasta, we don't need rice every day, etc.