Live Like a Maharaja at the legendary Asha’s

What could be better than a royal meal at a legendary restaurant? Last Thursday, we decided to ‘Live like a Maharaja’ and embarked on a gastronomical journey that took us through the royal kitchens of India, all at our table. Located amidst the Pyramids @ WAFI, the very well-known Asha’s Restaurant famous for its contemporary Indian cuisine, has designed the ‘Live Like a Maharaja’ menu that offers a taste of a variety of food enjoyed by Indian royalty across dynasties.

While the menu showcases 14 dishes that truly take Asha’s innovative excellence in Indian food to the next level, we devoured 5 of these which left us feeling like kings. Read on to find out more about my royal dining experience.

    

Papad Basket

Here’s the lovely papad basket. A quintessential at every Indian restaurant, there was no way we could miss these at Asha’s.

This papad basket came with the classic green chutney, red chutney and picked mangoes.

Aloo Khusnuma

What’s all that deliciousness you ask? Well let’s say that was the start to our royal culinary journey at Asha’s. This delightful restaurant located in Pyramids @ WAFI is yet another form of artistic expression of the legendary singer Asha Bhosle. The restaurant is serving a special ‘Live like a Maharaja’ menu and this was our first course.

Served as a princely snack, this Aloo Khusnuma comes with tandoor charred potato barrels stuffed with a gritty mash of Paneer and dry fruits. Rich in flavor as well as ingredients, and melt-in-your-mouth with every bite, it gives you a feeling of Kashmiri dum aloo meets Malai kofta. Pomegranate garnish and a drizzle of mussalam gravy add a royal finish.

Kumbh Jhinga Lazeez

Did you know mushrooms and shrimps could complement each other so well?
Asha’s serves them in an utterly royal manner under its ‘Live Like a Maharaja’ menu where the name given to the dish brings about a very kingly appeal. Welcome Kumbh Jhinga Lazeez, a regal starter which is designed with deep flavors, enough to stir your soul into culinary exhilaration.

These button mushrooms, or the more regal sounding kumbh, are stuffed with a mixture of coriander, garlic and minced marinated prawns, which come together in such magnificence! This one was a real surprise, both in terms of ingredient combination as well as flavor.

Tangadi Kebab

I can’t stop dreaming about these. Even with my current throat issues, I would eat this up in a jiffy and not be a tad bit embarrassed about licking my fingers after. Because ladies and gentlemen, it is honestly very rare to find such deliciously lip smacking Tangadi Kebabs anywhere. And Asha’s restaurant happily served them to me on a royal platter.

First of all I would really like to thank the Executive Chef at Asha’s – Gaurav Kumar Mathur. He so intelligently designed our Maharaja experience to make sure we have the best of everything – vegetarian, seafood, and protein. We really felt we were being treated like royalty.

Coming back to these hot legs, well hot and spicy if I must, which exuded an opulence of flavor with their succulent meat and Lucknowi spice marinade. These drumsticks were lightly grilled on pan. And they were presented in all their hot glory with a side of potato mash.

At Asha’s they suggest this dish as best eaten with fingers, and that’s what we did. Although they didn’t warn us we could end up eating our fingers too! Highly recommended, this one’s a winner all the way – Tangadi Kebab at Asha’s people, go have it now!

Rampuri Paya Biryani

This one was definitely made for royalty. No authentic Indian meal is complete without a rice main course, which my non-Indian friends, usually is (and should be) Biryani. So it would be foolish to doubt a royal Maharaja meal to not have its own version of this world famous classic.

The Rampuri Paya Biryani scared me a little at first, only because I am not a fan of paya. But that was soon to change. This very authentic edition of the Biryani was prepared in an authentic Rampuri style.

What’s so different about it, you ask? This one features baby lamb that has been slow cooked overnight to make its meat most tender and decadent. Moreover, the fragrant basmati rice used in this dish are not cooked in just plain water. They are instead stewed in the very same lamb jus to make sure every grain is enriched with the flavor of the meat The mutton is further enhanced with saffron and raisin that spell out royalty and elegance with their very presence. And don’t miss the boiled eggs that add so much variety and character to this biryani.

If you are a mutton fan, like my guest for the evening was, there is no way you would want to miss out on this. While I loved the rice cooked in lamb stock, the meat really did possess a fall-off-the-bone texture, thanks to its cooking technique.

The biryani was served alongside a rich and creamy dal makhni and garlic butter naan.

Shahi Tukda

Desserts always find a way in every cuisine. But when it comes to Indian cuisine, they are a form of celebration. They say, the sweeter a dish, the happier the occasion. And the creamier the ingredients used, the richer the hosts. This Mughal delicacy is known to have been a royal favorite amongst Mughal emperors. Although we can’t bring them back to verify this, we trusted this claim simply by its name.

The Shahi Tukda, has the very word ‘Shahi’ in its name, which means royal or regal. And while the presentation impressed us greatly, the taste and creaminess that followed had us smiling with pleasure. And the emperors back them must have smiled too. It is essentially a bread pudding, which features fried bread topped with rich reduced milk and flavoured with dry fruits. Asha’s version had a small shot of rabri on the side which we poured over the decked up bread pieces to give it a soft, mushy texture. Enriched with pistachios and almonds, the milk was reduced to a thick creamy consistency, which was just right for it to seep through the porous bread.

We would have tried the Ghever too, but this had us feeling a little too full. And even though we love our Mughal history, we sure didn’t want to look stuffed like those emperors. Why not you try it and let me know if it was as good as the Shahi Tukda we had.

Asha’s

Location: Level 1, Pyramids At Wafi, Umm Hurair 2, Dubai, Umm Hurair, Dubai
Contact: 04 3244100