Fancy a goth menu?

Black isn’t the colour one would often associate with a culinary delight. This, however, is changing with chefs and eateries in the city introducing special menus featuring jet-black dishes for their patrons to experiment with. A rage all over the world, activated charcoal infused dishes are now adding earthy notes to favourite dishes, and what’s born is Gothic food culture. On a special goth menu, there is black buttermilk, black seekh kebabs and black pav bhaji to name just a few new dishes.  

The trend caught up quickly in the West, and their Indian counterparts weren’t too far behind to experiment, explains Jaskit Singh Dham, the co-owner and chef at Ticca Tikka. “I noticed the trend in continental dishes and was wondering if we could try something of this sort with Indian dishes as well. We have tried this with chicken and paneer tikka, as well as Goth black chaas,” he shares.

What does activated charcoal taste like, we wonder? “It is neutral in taste and has a funky colour. The composition of the marinade needs to be perfect for the dish to match the tone. We are now experimenting with charcoal biryani and black naan,” Jaskit says proudly.

It all started with Iice-cream cones and soon moved on to other palatable delights. In Mumbai, IceKraft has their own pitch-black cones. “We love the black colour in general, but we didn’t want to use any artificial food colouring agents. Hence, our chefs tried other options, and in activated charcoal, we found our natural colouring agent. It doesn’t add anything to the flavour, but it does have an interesting texture, says a chef from IceKraft.

Our next question is about how it works. “Activated charcoal is like water, and it mixes with everything. In our opinion, it attracts with its unusual colour and texture compared to the regular fare of ice creams,” the chef explains.

Chef Saurabh Modi of MasalaBar experimented with carbon pav bhaaji, and it was an instant hit. “Our take on one of Mumbai’s famous street food was where we infused diluted charcoal dust along with the bhsaji which gave it a very burnt look but tasted the same.

(Photo: Instagram.com/stomach_to_heart)

The pav was also black and was such right from the dough stage. So, what we have in the end is a round mini bun, skewered on a satay stick that is a hit with the patrons because it makes the food look different and click-worthy,” he signs off.