Listicle: 10 new dishes to watch out for on Indian menus

Shillong chef Tanisha Phanbuh introduced Delhi baker Bani Nanda to soh shang or silver berries when they were foraging through the villages of Cherrapunji in Meghalaya a few months ago. Nanda, founder of Miam Pâtisserie, loved their mild sourness, ruby-red flesh and silvery exterior. She used them in a sweetened compote, adding vanilla, light cream cheese mousse, a sponge flavoured with Khasi lemon zest and a croustillant layer for crunch. The cake is surprisingly earthy and refreshing. And not too sweet.

Across India, homes cook gourd vegetables when it gets warmer. The veggies rarely make it to fancy restaurant menus. But chef Radhika Khandelwal of Fig and Maple in Delhi turned her own childhood dislike for gourds into a hummus that tastes like it’s made with avocado. She uses ivy gourd and snake gourd, available from April to September and its creamier than the chickpea version. Win win.

Ali Akbar Baldiwala, executive chef at Mumbai’s Slink & Bardot, does a version of hummus with green toor dal. He serves it with pickled grapes and bean sprouts in a Chinese-style Shaoxing style vinaigrette, garnished with garlic chives. Tummus comes with bajra tortillas, served with lots of ghee and dry peanut chutney. Get your millet fix, your dal fix, your Chinese, Lebanese and Indian fix, all in one.

Order it for your ex. This traditional Mexican dish uses cactus. At Mezcalita in Mumbai, the nopal salad comes in brine, making it more nutritious and easy to digest. What does cactus taste like? Earthy, green, mild. And no, there are no prickly bits. Executive chef Pablo Benitez loves its mild flavours.

At Avatara in Mumbai, chef Sanket Joshi turns the humble turnip into a fine-dining ingredient. It’s naturally peppery, with a hint of sweetness. Inspired from the traditional Kashmiri practice of cooking rajma and turnip together in a curry, he pairs a turnip galouti with a meatless rajma nihari, serving it on flaky Kashmiri bread Katlam. Light on the eyes and on the body.

It looks like a cross between a turnip and cabbage. It’s grown in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal. It’s hardly gourmet. But chef Sarfaraz Ahmed at Trèsind, Delhi, puts it into tacos, with a filling made from yogurt mousse and raw mango chutney to balance the veggie’s mildly sweet note. Caramelised walnuts and smoky sunchoke chips add crunch. It started off as a part of a pop-up menu, it’s so popular, it’s now permanent.

Chef Alistair Lethorn of Aal’s Kitchen serves homestyle Naga food in Goa. He makes the best of both worlds. The smoked duck combines Naga dry bamboo, usually eaten in a fermented or pickled form, with duck. The strong flavours somehow complement each other, making for an unexpected North-East-West hit.

If Japanese cuisine is your jam but South Indian food is your comfort go-to, try this menu favourite at Inja, Delhi. The steamed-egg custard is creamy and buttery, but gets a punch flavour with curry leaves. In it is a crispy lobster and drumstick marrow too. The mild flavours shine through the rasam, offering an unexpected kick.

Sounds like a breakfast slogan, but at Mumbai’s Sukoon by Joshi House, it’s actually a dessert. Chef Tanvi Shah’s take on a tiramisu uses chickpea halwa with cashew cream and coffee sourced from Chikmagalur. It looks like a tiramisu too. But bite into it and the texture of the halwa deliveres the note of surprise. The coffee caramel, made with coconut sugar, adds to the richness.

Prateek Sadhu’s restaurant Naar is practically in the middle of a pine forest in Kasauli. Naturally the edible pine needles he’s foraged have ended up on the menu. Here, Sadhu uses them to make salt. He also ferments pine needles in sugar to make a syrup that seems like honey. It’s sweet and acidic. Sadhu also makes a pine-nut ice cream, which is drizzled with salt and honey. It’s served as a pastry filled with pine cream. Hence the name.