Seafood special

EVERY TIME I eat good seafood, I feel strongly about pollution and conservation. Having been bombarded with alarming reports about diminishing catches and over-exploitation of sea wealth, the thought that one will not be able to enjoy all these delicious food for long is depressing. Imagine a life without the sweetish, flaky crabmeat or the crunchy, pink shrimp!

It was the just concluded Seafood Carnival at the Hotel Shelter, Mylapore, that revived my concern for the environment. Attending the fest, one would never have guessed that this was the first such event held by the hotel. The menu had variety. It was a combination of Continental, Chinese, South and North Indian dishes. And in most cases, the food fulfilled the promises made on the menu.

Prawn on garlic toast (Rs. 50) was a good starting point for our sea voyage. The portions were generous. The soup de Camerou (Rs. 30) was barely average. But the Crab tostaditos ("crab meat with hot pepper dressing" said the description) made up for the shortfall. When a plate of tasty crab comes at Rs. 30, I never make the mistake of - thinking about how original or authentic it is. Who cares about those silly details? The spring onion, capsicum and sesame seed combo was yummy. We kept aside the empty plate in record time, considering how much work a crab dish involves is.

Moving on to the main course, the Chemmeen biriyani (Rs. 75) was tasty. Even better was the Pulicha yera curry (Rs. 200), which we had with soft, stuffed Aloo parathas (Rs. 18). Talk about national integration through food! The hot, sour tamarind gravy was lovely.

A word about the service. In spite of being very polite and attentive, the orders seemed to take a long time to reach the table. We had to wait a while even to get the menu card.

Our Macchi tikka (Rs. 75) reached us just when we finished our dinner, that too after two reminders. Since the fish was overdone and dry, we didn't miss much.

The Gajjar ka halwa (Rs. 35) was an excellent dish to sign off the night. Generous portions, liberally sprinkled nuts and right amount of sweetening made it irresistible. The second dessert Gulab jamun (also Rs. 35) was okay. The best part was yet to come. The bill. Rs. 643 after going through prawns, crabs and fish was a little hard to believe. Not that the servings were small. If Hotel Shelter continues to dish out good food at such reasonable prices, it cannot but be a major stop-over for food lovers.

MARIEN MATHEW

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