By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
The Millennium Seoul Hilton's Mediterranean restaurant Cilantro will hold an Indian cuisine promotion during the month of November.
To keep with the authentic flavors of Indian specialties, the restaurant has invited two veteran chefs from India.
The two, Mukul Sharma and Chintan Pandya, from the Hilton Towers Mumbai have vowed to offer authentic cuisine ― different from what diners here know as Indian food.
``What we will offer is really authentic Indian cuisine, something that ordinary Indians eat at home,'' Sharma said.
To many people here, Indian dishes consists of mainly Tandoori chicken and typical curries, but he said traditional Indian foods are simple and plain, much different from those well known as Indian dishes.
The promotion continues through the end of the month but the chefs will only stay at the hotel until Nov. 9. So they are now busy training the chefs and staff at Cilantro so that guests can enjoy authentic Indian dishes even after the two return home.
Although the home-style Indian dishes are simple, the chefs also emphasized that another characteristic of Indian foods lies in its variety.
``India is a huge country with very long history and cultural diversity,'' Pandya said. ``So the cuisine has been developed very differently, depending on regions, weather, religion and social class.''
They said that their cuisine diversity is so huge that they will only be able to produce a small part of it. They find it regretful that Indian foods have been promoted through just a handful of dishes outside the country and with some internationalized flavors.
``I don't think it's wrong that people enjoy modernized or internationalized Indian foods. But we just hope that they can also have a chance to enjoy more diversity in Indian cuisine,'' Pandya said.
To be faithful to their mission, they even brought 15 kinds of different authentic spices, which cannot be purchased here.
Over twenty dishes featuring the exotic flavors of India will be available. Additionally, to accompany their Indian meal, diners can choose a la carte beverages such as ginger milk and marsala teas as well as Indian desserts.
The lunch buffet is priced at 38,000 won for adults and 22,800 won for children under 12, while the dinner buffet is priced at 41,000 won for adults and 24,500 won for children under 12.
For more information, call (02) 317-3062.