12 December,2010 12:25 AM IST | | Anjana Vaswani
Buy all the plum tomatoes and Mozzarella you want, it's not possible to create authentic Italian food unless you manage to source some passion. Here's what we thought of a meal ordered from SoBo's new veg Italian delivery service, Gourmet Town
Don Vito Corleone, the Godfather, has been shot. Turmoil is in the offing with an imminent battle for power between the five families that top the rungs of America's mafia. They are expecting a bloodbath any second now. But peep into the Corleone residence. and what do you see? Clemenza, cooking.
Care for some Jalapeno Poppers?
Peter Clemenza, caporegime of the powerful Corleone family, a man whose resum ufffd would literally be penned in blood, then goes on to show Michael, heir apparent to the Corleone legacy, how to cook meatballs. And the beauty of that scene in Francis Ford Coppola's interpretation of Mario Puzo's novel is that it doesn't even seem remotely implausible.
Food, after all, plays a big role in Italian life. Even American-Italian heartthrob Dean Martin used to sing about how boys from Napoli knew they are in love with you if, "the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie."
It's this very passion that's lacking in Gourmet Town's food. Armed with both, a stash of excellent recipes and know-how, proprietor Ravinder Singh, who previously worked with Little Italy, has to pull up his socks if he hopes to stay afloat in a sea of local competition.
With neither prior intimation nor apology, our Cr me Br ufffdl ufffde (which really ought to have been dubbed, 'Crema Brulatta', if they claim to prepare Italian food) was simply knocked off the order because, as Singh casually explained, "we ran out of it."
Of the items that were delivered, the Margherita Pizza (Rs 175) was good and the Jalape ufffdo Poppers (Rs 90) were delightful, though very heavy. The thousand-island-sauce that accompanied the poppers lacked imagination. A spicy berry-jam sauce would, instead, have been a welcome innovation.
The Risotto Con Asparagi (Rs 220), adequately seasoned, was a runny mess and the asparagus in it was over-cooked. With a bite of the Tiramisu (Rs 95) however, all was forgiven. Remarkably prepared, the dessert was perfect, starting from its appearance right down to the taste.
To place an order,
Call: 9167666282 / 9699767610
