Godhuli 01 - Taking Flight | Vande Mataram
WHEN? Tue, Aug 25th, 5:30pm
For our first dinner, we're flying to India. From the get-go, let's be clear on what this isn't: it's not the Indian food most people think they know. It’s not the food on the plates served by most Indian restaurants dotting the landscape across the US. What we are bringing you instead is something closer to the source, akin to the food enjoyed by thousands of families settling down for supper in the evening.
August carries particular meaning for India. Today, August 15th, marks the Indian Independence Day, gaining freedom in 1947 after almost 200 years of rule by the British East India Company and the British Crown. So it seemed fitting to open Godhuli by celebrating the richness of a culinary heritage that is rooted far deeper than what usually makes its way onto a restaurant menu.
One thing you’re probably asking: "How spicy is this going to be?"
Fair question! To be honest, traditional Indian cuisine should not mean unbearably spicy, especially since chili peppers were only introduced to India by Portuguese traders voyaging from the New World. Instead, traditional recipes rely on the nearly hundred spices that grow natively across the nation, like ginger, cardamom, cumin, turmeric, and black pepper (the very spices that drew in explorers and merchants from all over!). These are the backbone of Indian cuisine, used to build aroma, depth, balance, and character of each dish. And to answer directly: no, our menu will not include any chili peppers. We will be keeping it simple, down-to-earth, focusing more on flavor and aroma, and we want you to experience that difference.
On the itinerary.
Our menu for the evening will focus on Indian comfort dishes and a selection of regional classics.
We have:
a vegetarian menu and,
a non-vegetarian menu,
and for gluten-free, please select either menu, then email us requesting your meal to be gluten-free.
If you are reading this, it means the menu accounts for all allergies that you mentioned in your request to join Godhuli. If you wish to be certain, you can email us to clarify once again. However, please note that our kitchen is not certified allergen-free, so we cannot serve guests with serious, life-threatening allergies or conditions like celiac's.
The evening starts at 5:30pm with a traditional drink crafted to keep you cool in the scorching Indian summer, plus snacks that are usually served when guests come round to visit in the evenings. To spark dialogue, we will be showing a short video about the particular style of dish being served. The name is withheld for now, but as an introduction: this is a centuries-old culinary practice serving a variety of dishes, with each food item intentionally bringing a balance between the 6 taste profiles.
But here’s a preview to ignite your imagination and to tease your palate:
lentils tempered with cumin (veg menu),
tender paneer (both menus),
zesty greens,
delicately spiced poultry (non-veg menu),
rich hearty roast (non-veg menu),
cool creamy yogurt with a fun surprise,
something crisp and salty,
something sweet and syrupy
Tickets for Godhuli 01
Price range: $50.00 through $60.00
Some recipes get passed down because someone wrote them in a notebook. Others survive a different way, through memories, habits, and stories that aren’t recorded into a recipe: a herb that gets ground into today’s dinner because someone came down with a common ailment, a clay pot made by a local artisan that changes how something ferments, the vegetable that shows up on the plate simply because it grows wild near the home. And if you look closely enough at food traditions anywhere in the world, you start noticing humanity’s instincts showing up again and again. There’s fermenting, pickling, grinding grain into bread-like dishes, cooking slowly over fire…all in different corners of the globe, with wildly different ecologies and histories, but somehow the same ideas. That’s exactly the kind of pattern we love pulling on and love sharing with the world. And so, we humbly welcome you to our table.