Winter has already begun at Trèsind
Every foodie in Dubai and every molecular gastronomy lover knows exactly where to head when the cravings strike in. Well, there isn’t anything I can possibly say about Trèsind that hasn’t been said before, except for reinstating the fact that this restaurant is the best Indian restaurant in Dubai when it comes to mixing food with theater.
I was invited to Trèsind for sampling their extensive Winter menu, and when I say extensive, well, I really wished we could have spread the tasting over 3 days – one for starters, one for mains and one for desserts!
All the dishes off their seasonal menu are created with so much thought, and so much effort has been put into curating not only their recipes, but the presentation as well, it makes you wonder whether they have chefs or artists working in their kitchen.
Read my blog post to find out all the lovely wintery dishes we sampled at Trèsind.
The chaat trolley at my Winter Menu tasting at Trèsind offered the molecular pani puri in Trèsind’s classic contemporary style.
Just love how those little blobs of molecular goodness just melt in your mouth.
Watch the video of the making of the molecular pani puri on my Insta-blog here.
That’s the salsa with an Indian twist. Starting off with some lovely tomatoes, this Indian-ized salsa is enhanced with garlic, roasted onions, pickled carrots and chillies. All of this is mixed well, ground and mish-mashed in a mortar pestle and served in the same alongside warm kadak pav (crusty bread), some creamy chickpea hummus and pickled olives.
This is a good equivalent of the zaatar pav I had during my first visit to Trèsind.
Watch the video of the making of the salsa on my Insta-blog here.
Here’s Trèsind’s winter drink Berry Blast, featuring muddled berries in a not so thick blend.
And then there’s the signature Trèsind presentation. On serving, liquid nitrogen is poured over the bed of ice to give it a freeze with lots of cool smoke.
Watch the video of the presentation of the Berry Blast on my Insta-blog here.
Trèsind’s wild mushroom soup, also referred to as the wild mushroom chai, is a truly soothing and warm concoction of mushroom soup presented in a tea-esque style.
Truffle oil powder replicates milk, while a combination of dehydrated shiitake, shimeji and button mushrooms act as tea leaves.
The tea soup in the kettle is made from premium gucchi mushrooms, making this blend every mushroom lovers’ delight.
You should definitely try this one. It’s totally worth it.
Watch the video of the mushroom chai in its making on my Insta-blog here.
Look at how beautifully these ingredients have come together to make the salad course – Baked Burrata with Coriander Pesto – from Trèsind’s winter menu so visually appealing. So neatly presented, it’s like a curated garden on that plate.
In the center is the baked Burrata cheese topped with coriander pesto and garnished with slim bread pieces.
The lovely garden-esque salad on the side comes with a mix of pretty greens, tangy cherry tomatoes and dense asparagus slices.
The salad gets even more interesting with a spray of Tomato shorba essence for that moist, slightly tangy, tomato-y, soupy flavor.
Highly recommended!
Among all the starters I sampled from Trèsind’s winter menu, this one was undoubtedly the best.
Aptly named Roasted Baby Corn Bhutta, the baby corn pieces were roasted on charcoal right in front of us. Giving you feels of road side bhutta carts in India, the corn pieces were fanned and flipped to ensure the perfect char grilled taste.
On serving, the classic lemon and butter wss replaced with a lemon butter sauce, and it was perfect spiked with their home made Peri Peri chaat masala. This was further enhanced with a side of sweet corn and baby spinach salad along with baby radish and micro greens garnish.
The baby corn turned out to be really tender with a hint of crunch. The Peri Peri masala really took the dish to a whole new spicy level. It was simply lipsmacking. I wouldn’t mind having more of these.
Try this!
Watch the video of the street styled baby corn bhutta on my Insta-blog here.
Another great refresher, the Lemon Lavender was the perfect thirst quencher. Presented on a wooden block in a lantern shaped glass with a jute handle, this drink blended lemon, lavender and mint into a coming concoction.
The rose just adds so much prettiness to the presentation, doesn’t it?
No one knows fusion quite like Trèsind does. How else would you explain a sea bass in a leaf?
The Sea Bass Patrapoda, as the name suggests, is cooked in a patra or leaf. Inspired from ingredients of South India, the fish is laced in a tomato and onion gravy, the flavors of which seep through the tenderness of the sea bass and infuse it with its piquancy. This melt-in-your-mouth fish is served along with creamy curry leaf chutney and crunchy dehydrated banana chips.
Watch the video of the unfolding of the leaf on my Insta-blog here.
These are ideally served as pre-starters in most Indian restaurants, but Trèsind is more of a non-conformist when it comes to following these set patterns. This is what makes the restaurant so unique and their dishes so exquisite.
The Banarasi Aloo Papad replicates tortilla chips or nachos in color and texture, and comes along with a white pea guacamole.
While the guacamole is none other than Mumbai styled ragda pattice mish-mashed as a dip (also one of my favorite chaats), the crunchy and crispy papad takes the cake.
Order this for a light snack to munch on.
Prawns. These are prawns. These are Butter poached prawns. And these are a part of Trèsind’s winter menu.
You know it wouldn’t be a tasting at Trèsind for me until prawns were a part of it. And when I least expected, they just decided to show up on my table. Just like that. All soaked up in butter that made them so juicy and crunchy and tender. And all covered in pickled masala and pimento peppers for that hot and spicy kick.
Now how often does it happen that your favorite meat and favorite spice come together to create one out-of-this-world dish?
It happens every day. Only at Trèsind. All you need to do is order for it.
Kebabs, such an important part of the Indian Mughlai cuisine, right?
But Trèsind has its own twist.
Inspired from Shivaji Nagar in Bangalore or Bengaluru, these mutton seekh kebabs are marinated with thick spices that make the meat so dense and tender. The twist however, is how the traditional mean or tandoori roti makes way for the thread like idiyappam the seekh kebabs are served with.
One of the most interesting and undoubtedly delicious combinations I have come across.
Murgh Zamin Doz, dum cooked chicken is a specialty in its own impeccable manner. Cooked over charcoal in an earthen pot, and served from that very pot on that very charcoal right to your table, this dish deserves a standing ovation for its sheer influence.
Much like the laal maas gravy, the meat in this winter menu special is cooked in its own juices and fats, making it absolutely tender such that it falls right off the bone.
To add a touch of fusion, potato mash is delicately set on the plate using an icing bag. And it’s oh so creamy.
Watch the droolworthy video of the of the Murgh Zamin Doz being scooped out of the earthen pot and perfectly plated with its juices and gravy on my Insta-blog here.
After downing all that goodness and prepping up for the grand main course, it was time to cleanse our palates with a creamy tangy delight.
The lassi sorbet at Trèsind, much like the former khandvi sorbet, is served in a rustic wooden bowl with a wooden spoon. The perfect marriage between the creaminess of dairy and tanginess of yogurt is highlighted with sweet peda crumble on the side.
Turn up the brightness on your screens because this, right here, represents everything Indian cuisine is all about.
Birbal ki Khichdi, encompassing flavors and cooking styles from all over India, is served with 48 different accompaniments. That’s right, 48!!! It would be crazy to name them all, I probably hadn’t even heard of some until I tried this out, but this, right here, is the star dish of Trèsind’s winter menu. I can’t stress how much I loved it and no matter how stuffed we were, this delicacy was just so irresistible, it kept calling out to us to have “just one more spoon”.
The concept of Birbal ki Khichdi is quite simple yet unique. It’s not something you would find just anywhere. That’s what makes Trèsind so brilliant. Khichdi, a simple mixture of basmati rice and toor dal or pigeon pea is consumed throughout the country, but each state, rather each household has its own style of preparing this classic. It could be the condiments, the spices or the garnishes they ads that make every khichdi recipe unique. Trèsind, very simply decided to combine all of that in one big pot.
As I mentioned, it’s pretty impossible to name all the 48 ingredients that go into this khichdi, you’ll have to try it to believe it. But on the top of my head, I can definitely say that this rice and lentil blend contains everything from green chilies, coconut, onions, ginger and garlic to lotus seeds, lotus chips, walnuts, lemon and gallangal. But this is not even half of the full show. They even add a very generous helping of butter and Desi ghee to give it a creamy, buttery, comforting texture. Makes you want to eat more and more and more.
If you haven’t been to Trèsind at all, now is the time to go. Just go!
If you are a regular at the restaurant, but yet to try their winter menu, I’m sure you are already making your reservations.
And if you’ve been there, done that, then leave a comment and let me know what you think of the Birbal ki khichdi!
Watch the video that runs through the making of this divine creation on my Insta-blog here.
This is art. Trèsind is art. The Trèsind chefs are more than chefs, they are artists. How else would you explain dishes like these?
Their dexterity is apparent in desserts like this Ghewar Mille Feuille. Topped with and layering pistachio mousse alternated with raspberries, this Rajasthani meets French pastry styled treat comes with a side scoop of rose sorbet.
And of course, there’s the artistic rose sorbet splash all over the plate, making it such a pleasure to look at.
I’m not a fan of pistachios, but the manner in which everything just comes together – the Ghewar biscuit with the right crunch, the creamy pistachio mousse, gold dusted tangy resources and the cooling rose sorbet – adds a chic finesse to this dessert, just how the French would like their pastries to be.
Jalebi, mmmm… Although neither me, nor my guest are big fans of this dessert, the sheer presentation and quality of ingredients that go into making a dessert what it truly deserves at Trèsind got us converted into Jalebi eaters. Very aptly titled Traditional Jalebi (per 100 gm), this dessert is actually presented on a weighing scale with weights on one side and jalebi on a thin butter paper on the other. So classic!
The last dessert, but in no way the least, was the Ghee Roast Kataifi Pastry. You could call it a bird’s nest lookalike, what with the twigs exuding dry ice smoke, and the egg yolk feel. But interestingly enough, this Trèsind innovation is a deconstructed version of the festive special Sheer Khorma.
Dulce Panna Cotta is layered over Kataifi pastry ‘nest’ and topped with saffron gel ‘yolk’, giving it a very sweet finish.
Our lunch at Trèsind was so filling, we were sure to snooze for quite sometime. And they made sure to send us off on fluffy dreams with cloudy paan cotton candy. I must admit, after all these visits to Trèsind, this part has always been my favorite.
Trèsind in one line for me would be: Its the presentation that draws you in and the taste that keeps you there.
