GLUTTONY @ FARMER & SONS, KALA GHODA, MUMBAI

Nestled away in a quiet, bylane of Apollo Street in Kala Ghoda vicinity, Farmers & Sons is a new Italian eatery on the Mumbai gourmet scene. It was a little cumbersome to locate this place owing to the maze of lanes that run through this area. But, eventually with the help of Google maps my foodie friends and I arrived at our dinner destination for last evening.

Upon entering the place the first thing that strikes you is the rustic, woody ambience trying to bring the old world charm to a modern day café. A query regarding the name of the place raised to the owner of this café, Nico Goghavala immediately had him pointing to the fact that barring a handful ingredients that come from abroad, they source and use local produce only to create the various artisanal dishes at this cafe.

So, post a brief chat with Nico, we quickly got down to tasting the food. Here is a peek into some of the dishes that I enjoyed:

THE HEALTHY MUNCH
We ended up trying two salads. The WARM QUINOA, BROCCOLI & KALE one was  a yummy vegetarian salad. It comprised of the aforementioned along with a garnish of pomegranate, feta chunks and toasted flax seeds. All the ingredients were brought together by a flavorful honey mustard dressing. The non-vegetarian salad that we tried was the one comprising of GRILLED SEAFOOD, GOTUKOLA LEAVES & COCONUT FLAKES. Squid rings, sea bream, prawns and mackerel beautifully adorned the salad. Almonds, watermelon seeds added a nice crunch, coconut flakes add a layer of texture and rusty flavor while a tamarind based vinaigrette brought acidity to the salad.

THE SHARING PLATES
We tasted three dips – two vegetarian and one non-vegetarian. BEETROOT BORANI was a blend of beetroot with feta, walnuts and dill. Owing to beetroot, the dip had a sweet flavor. However, in my opinion the dip lacked seasoning. BLACK HUMMUS was the second vegetarian dip we tried and it had a lovely smoky flavor owing to the way the chick peas were treated and blended with butternut squash to arrive at a darker presentation of this popular dip. The non-vegetarian dip that we tried was the one consisting of BRAISED LAMB & SMOKED AUBERGINE. The lamb was beautifully cooked and was moist. However, the dish was slightly amiss as I felt the lamb served on a bed of smoked aubergine & pine nuts puree did not gel well with each other leaving my palate underwhelmed.

PITA POCKETS & PIZZA
ACRES OF GOODNESS was a vegetarian delight comprising of pita pockets made in wood fire oven and stuffed with quinoa, chickpeas and vegetables like zucchini, aubergine, red bell peppers and mushrooms. The sauce was a sweet and sour strawberry balsamic chutney.

One of my favorites of the evening was a vegetarian pizza called GORUS, which came adorned with arugula leaves, sundried tomatoes and a drizzle of bitter honey. The pizza was absolutely white owing to absence of the regular tomato sauce and presence of two types of cheese – Buffalo Mozzarella and goat cheese. The pizza base was soft and fluffy and the chef pointed out to us that they use miniscule quantity of yeast to prepare their pizza dough. In my opinion, the pizza had a very lovely earthy flavor and was the best representation of the theme and name of the restaurant.

DESSERT
I ended my meal on a sweet note with a serving of the BAKED CHOCOLATE TRUFFLE, FIGS INFUSED LIQUEUR & CRÈME FRAICHE. The cake was rich and the liqueur moistened it brilliantly.

Do try out this place and let me know of your experience.

Till then, HAPPY EATING…

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