As the pages of the calendar turned to the countdown month of 2023, AMPM completed six months of being in Kolkata. And to celebrate the occasion, the restobar collaborated with chef Avinash Martins from Goa, who brought to the table, coastal, regional Goan cuisine. For his first ever pop-up in Kolkata, the award-winning chef and owner of Goa's Cavatina had a five-course meal laid out with some innovations. My Kolkata takes you through the pop-up that was called ‘Taste of Coasts’, held on December 1.
The guests at AMPM enjoyed a welcome drink named ‘Coast to Coast’ — a gondhoraj-infused Bombay Sapphire with kokum syrup and ginger ale. It set the perfect tone as an appetising start for the food extravaganza that followed.
Course 1: The Poder Chronicles
As a tribute to Goa’s Poder community, culture and their skill of making Poie bread, chef Avinash Martins started off his spread with a Goan poie bread, which had similar textures to Pita bread and pao de quesso, which is a Brazilian cheese bread. The breads were served with kalchi kodi — a breakfast staple in Goan households, dungar eggplant (baingan bharta) and tamatar saar sala. The saar sala was a Konkan-style tomato curry with a sweet note of coconut, a punch of garlic, aroma of mustard and curry leaves.
Poie served with kalchi kodi — a breakfast staple in Goan households
Course 2: The fisherman and his bounty
Up next was a seafood platter that had an assortment of seafood in a Prawn Xec Xec Bisque, which had a flavour quite similar to prawn malaikari. Xec Xec is a traditional Goan coconut curry, which was replaced with prawn and served as a bisque. The dish was topped with caviar and teppal oil (teppal is a cousin spice to Szechuan pepper).
Prawn Xec Xec Bisque
For the vegetarian option, there was a Roasted Almond Horchata and a Xec Xec Naranja (orange) Confit.
Kolkata's award-winning chef Auroni Mookerjee attended the pop-up. Speaking about the spread, he said, “It is always a nice experience to see what chef Avinash does. I have been to Cavatina a couple of times and I love the food. It is also amazing how the east and west coasts of India have so much similarity. Even today, chef made a bisque with chingri muro, which is a very Bengali thing – since we love the muro and the ghilu.”
Course 3: A slice of my childhood
Bringing the freshness of the beach to the platter, this was a course dedicated to the chef's childhood memories. A Tender Coconut Carpaccio was served with drops of solkadi, saffron leche de tigre and aamras (mango puree). Solkadi is made with coconut milk extract, usually mixed with kokum, salt, and chilli-garlic paste for taste.
Avinash’s talent as a chef shines through in his presentation as much as taste, evident in his creation of the Tender Coconut Carpaccio
While Avinash managed the plates being served, he chatted about the dishes. During breaks, My Kolkata caught up with him to hear about the feedback. He shared, “The response has been great. I saw familiar faces from Goa, which was heartwarming. There were also newcomers, and they were surprised by the many layers of Goan flavours.”
The Goan chef also explained how his food goes beyond the typical idea of Goan cuisine. “People think Goan food is just hot and spicy, but it’s more than that. It has several flavour profiles, reflecting the diverse population in Goa.”
Course 4: Wholly Trinity
Aptly named, this course felt like a party on a platter, completing the tasting menu. The non-vegetarian platter was served with char-grilled tiger prawn that was smokey and flavourful, chilli ambotik (sour and spicy) butter sea bass (Goan Chonak fish) that was soft and has a melt-in-the-mouth texture, and a tender assado (barbecued) pork belly with assado au jus (barbecue sauce).
Tiger prawn, chilli ambotik, chonak and assado (barbecued) pork belly made up the non-veg platter
The vegetarian option had smoked jirem mirem mushroom pate galouts, burnt sweet potato and pine nut cannoli, cashew butter miso with black garlic fodi ash.
Course 5: Avo's secret Sobremassas
The concluding meal was chef Avinash’s selection of favourite desserts. The colourful assortment of dessert had an Alle Belle Neuri, which is a Goan pancake made with coconut and jaggery. It had a perfect crispy coating. There was also a baked bebinca with a crispy filo. A dollop of tender coconut cremeux was also served with a piece of chocolate. Blueberries and raspberries added a dash of colour to the plate.
There’s always space for dessert! At his restaurant Cavatina in south Goa, Avinash’s wife Tiz is the pastry chef
Cocktails by Bombay Sapphire
The bar at AMPM stirred up special cocktails with Bombay Sapphire. A sweet ‘First Fandango’ and a soothing ‘Susegad’ cocktail were the drinks of the day.
First Fandango was a saffron-infused Bombay Sapphire with tamarind, Orgeat syrup and tonic water. While the Susegad was a coconut fat-washed Bombay Sapphire with bebinca water and sparkling wine.
The sunlight filters through the glasses at AMPM on Park Street, creating a cosy, ‘susegad’ vibe
Restaurant speak
Rajan Sethi, co-founder, AMPM Kolkata, said, “The idea was to bring the coastal cuisine from Goa to Kolkata. We wanted to take forward the culture of collabs in Kolkata because people here appreciate food. We started with chef Avinash Martins, who was already excited to come to Kolkata. It was a good start to the culinary collaborations.”
Rajan Sethi, co-founder, AMPM Kolkata
The guests at AMPM relished the spread while chef Avinash also got candid with them as he relayed from the kitchen to the tables.
The line-up of tastemakers
Guests at the pop-up
City chefs, food writers, bloggers, and influencers, including members of Culinary Culture, were spotted at the tasting session. Chefs Auroni and Avinandan Kundu of Sienna Cafe were joined by Nolan Mascarenhas, a Goa-based food writer with a knack for cocktails, Anindya Sundar Basu and Madhushree of Kolkata Classics and Pikturenama, Rukshana Kapadia of Ammolite Ideators, influencer Avanti Jhunjhunwala and of course, the lady who facilitated the collab, Rini Chatterjee of Canary Yellow Media.
