POH: EATING ON THE EDGE
POH—Progressive Oriental House— Mumbai’s latest temple to culinary capriciousness, is the brainchild of the deceptively schoolboyish Aveek Chatterjee, 25. It meets all the three requisites for success in this hungry city’s chaotic culinary sweepstakes: a name that leaves you scratching your head, a chef who will try anything twice and a menu that is impossible to parse.
Chef Vikramjit Roy is an impatient kitchen chemist who sees no reason why anything should not be combined with anything else—once, anyway. He uses hardly any oil in frying, and no deep fat frying at all, with methods borrowed from molecular gastronomy such as dehydration, cryogenation and lyophilisation. The result is food that can range from sheer brilliance to utter non-starters.
But POH is there to be edgy, not comfortable; so unexpect the expected. Don’t go pale if your server turns up toting Sichuan pepper and poached apples with parmesan crisp and walnut ice cream. Or yinshaped half plates that get completed when the yang half arrives bearing an amuse bouche. The Asparagus Croissant evoked a few oohs and aahs. The Dehydrated Lotus Stem was reminiscent of paapri chaat, but with other tantalising tastes. One taster described the Corn Miso Mole—the worst dish by consensus—as Chyawanaprash with pepper. But the unchallenged winner of the evening was the Kerala Fried Red Rice, which featured teasing tastes that begged you to identify them.
The Yàodiàn Bar display, inspired by ancient Chinese pharmacies, has a back wall of pigeonholes stocked with Chinese herbs and ingredients. Their signature Gotouche cocktail, flamboyantly smoked and prepared at the table, was one of the finest— and costliest—cocktails I have ever had.
POH deserves applause for taking risks. But the flip side is an evening in a remarkable restaurant on a learning curve. Its creations often don’t taste as sumptuous as they look, and form often triumphs over function. But when Chef Vikram scores a direct hit, it is very direct indeed, often close to genius.
One direct miss is POH’s edible dessert menu. Made of edible paper and food-grade inks, we were encouraged to sprinkle raspberry powder on it and eat it. Don’t.