The famed Albert Cuyper Straat market was my first open air European bazaar experience in Amsterdam, with stalls of cheese, sausages and other goodies on sale under striped awnings, running down an entire straat (street).
Olive Beach, the City’s Mediterranean restaurant hosted a day long bazaar on similar lines recently. The focus was on food, with everything from home made jams, to organic vegetables on sale, in stalls set up to bring you a true blue European bazaar ambience. Manu Chandra the chef- de -cuisine of Olive Beach, the man behind the moment, unobtrusively sauntered around ensuring everything went as planned.
Handsome Gillan Divecha whose grandmother was Swiss, sold Gallianoz hand made truffle chocolates. He had an assortment of coffee-butterscotch, roasted almond, walnut truffle, rum and raisin and roasted cashew-caramel and the heavily prized Gallianoz liquor chocolates. “ I use a 12-year-old scotch and a top of the line brandy in my after dinner liquor chocolates.” Gillan sells specifically to corporate houses from his store on Rhenius street, but never refuses personal orders.
Californian prunes packed and imported from sunny California had a number of visitors at the tasting table. These dried California prunes could be used in interesting recipes like California prune cake, California prunes with fish kebabs and California prune kulfi with coulis. Amin Manjrekar the knowledgeable green fingers behind Green Fundas had a stall overflowing with fresh organic veggies. “I grow out of my farm in Srirangapatna and in the foothills of the Nilgiris and supply mainly to five star hotels,” revealed Amin.
Parsley, rocket lettuce, chives, basil, sun dried tomatoes and avocados spilled all over his table and judging from the crowd buying from his stall, Bangalorean’s are wising up to the plus points of eating organic.
Anu Lukose from the Colour Factory encouraged visitors at the Gourmet Bazaar to unleash the creative in them, making personalised mugs, cups, vases, platters, by just letting the artist in them run riot.
Petite Megha Arya a floral designer from Flower Box on Walton Road had her flower arrangements on display everywhere.
Garlands of chillies and garlic, strings of sausages and mounds of freshly baked bread filled the Olive Beach stall. Freshly rolled pastas with a choice of sauces were on sale and were tossed right infront of your eyes by the chef, for you to enjoy with your favourite drink at the bar. “The ambience is perfect,” said Smita Mathias and her friend Samantha, enjoying themselves, “ and I’m sure the stuffed tortellini we ordered will be yum too.”Cheese lovers had a huge selection to choose from including Feta, Brie, Camembert, Dutch smoked Monterey Jack among others.
