JWM - Volume 4, Issue 1 - (Page 58)

DINE AND DELIGHT the baby lamb at Neel's, above, is a must for nonvegetarians. At right: chef Manuel oliveira of Arola produces the finest Spanish tapas in town. Below right, Arola at the JW Marriott Mumbai. while explaining their menu to the potential clientele, who were used to regular italian, chinese or indian cuisine, Sanchez and the co-owners of the table also realized the importance of including vegetarian dishes on their menu. as india and cities like mumbai are experiencing a high economic growth, indians and the expat population are going out to eat in large numbers. But many indians, especially those coming from mumbai's traditional business families, tend to be vegetarian, which also means no seafood. most of mumbai's restaurants are mindful of that, keeping nearly half of their menu vegetarian. NO-FUSS FINE DINING a 10-minute walk from the table is another nouvelle american restaurant, Ellipsis-a beautifully designed eatery, run for the last year by its 33-year-old chinese-canadian chef, Kelvin cheung. (Born in toronto, cheung grew up in chicago.) "i grew up in my dad's restaurants: full-on chinese, Hong Kong, cantonese food," cheung says. the idea behind Ellipsis is for customers to have a good time in a casual environment. there is a big bar space with comfortable couches and two levels of seating that offer a fine-dining experience, minus the white tablecloth. it is one of the few places in mumbai where one can eat fish tacos, pork belly buns, and chicken and waffles with maple syrup. Ellipsis also serves real beef J WM MAGAZINE 58 hamburgers and steaks, as opposed to the buffalo meat that is offered by most other restaurants. creating vegetarian dishes for the menu was a challenge for cheung. "as bad as it sounds, back home most kitchens will serve one or two vegetarian dishes," he says. But since he wants to be responsive to mumbai's large vegetarian population, half of the Ellipsis menu is vegetarian, under the headings of "Garden" (salads) and "Farm" (pastas). People have the choice of adding meats to dishes in those sections. "the restaurant scene here is so new that there isn't a proper infrastructure for supplies," cheung notes. "i haven't had bacon in three weeks." During the monsoon season that lasts from early june to late august, fresh seafood is not available in mumbai. the menu at Ellipsis changes every day, evolving around whatever cheung finds in the markets. CATERING TO THE CUSTOMERS at Suzette, the owners had planned to simply serve crêpes and coffee at their original Nariman Point location, but soon realized that the indians who visited this spot wanted more. to meet those expectations, the menu now includes salads and pastas, with several vegetarian options. But in the middle of the day at Suzette's second location in Bandra-Pali Hill, a neighborhood packed with mumbai's hipster population-young (cont'd on page 61) j w m a r r i o t t. c o m http://www.JWMARRIOTT.COM

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JWM - Volume 4, Issue 1

Jwm - Winter 2014
Contents
JW Experts
Contributors
Editor’s Letter
Distinctive Products, People, Ideas & Style
Songs for Travel
Well-Being
Food + Drink
Arts
The Portal
Going Global
White Out
Kissaten and Tell
Redefining Green
JW Experience
My Passion

JWM - Volume 4, Issue 1