Beat the winter with grills and stews, calamari crafted the Venetian way and shots of single-origin chocolateVenice on a PlateSpaghetti Kitchen at Select Citywalk turns into a Venetian roadside dhaba in the evenings, offering cicchetti (bite-sized food) paired with ombra, a slang for tiny glasses of wine. Bill Marchetti’s kitchen brings a little bit of Mediterranean with baked scallops with pesto butter (Rs 250), grilled peppered salmon (Rs 250) or a bocconcini with stuffed rice fritters (Rs 100). “With winter setting in, we have put emphasis on fried food. There are calamari, prawns, rice fritters and stuffed olives to choose from,” says Marchetti. You can pair them with a tiny glass of red or white wine for Rs 190. Meal for two: Rs 1,000Contact: 42658430Steak EverythingThe Smoke House Grill at Greater Kailash II goes all meaty, with Irish Angus Rib Eye steak, stewed in its own juices and served with Yorkshire pudding; grilled steak served with gorgonzola and peppercorn soufflé; German bratwurst sausages and Brazilian T-bone on a bed of sautéed vegetables. If you are game for something unusual, there are bacon-wrapped, braised lamb shanks with zucchini gratin and pistachio mash, pan-seared duck breast with honey glaze and grilled ostrich fillet paired with green tomatoes and sherry risotto. Meal for two: Rs 2,000Contact: 41435530Iron HotThe swanky Aqua at The Park is back with its barbeque. There is an ocean on the griddle, with bhetki, groupers and sand lobsters skewered right before you. “We will use saffron, paan ki jarh, star anise and Sichuan peppers to make the dishes warm for winter,” says chef Bakshish Dean. You can spike the evenings with jumbo scampi and salmon with Thai herbs, dig into pork spareribs with barbeque sauce or maybe indulge your fad for foie gras and mushroom glaze. Meal for two: Rs 2,200Contact: 23743000Equatorial WarmthAnd if these don’t please you, there is unusual Ecuador. The kitchen at Machan, the cafe-style diner at the Taj Mahal Hotel, is bereft of sauces and spice sacks these days. Instead, visiting Ecuadorian chef Gonzala Davila Trueba is attempting to introduce Delhiites to stewed meats, without the domineering flavours of powdered spices and crushed peppers, from the equatorial country. Since corn is popular, there will be chulpi corn, mote corn and sweet corn in most dishes. For winters, he recommends shrimp cebiche (Rs 625) that offers a bowlful of shrimps cooked with tomato sauce and orange juice along with a generous sprinkling of lemon, popcorn and chilli; chiriucho de pescado (Rs 795) that is breaded fish with sauce and Aguado de gallina (Rs 375) that fetches a platter of chicken and rice soup. There is even paella (Rs 625) skewed by the equator.Meal for two: Rs 2,000Contact: 23026162Bean there, drink thatChoko La at Khan Market and Basant Lok is ready to pour out some single-origin chocolates in balmy cups. The diner is rolling out five single-origin beans from Tanzania, Ecuador, Java, Arriba and Sao Thome that will be served in shot glasses. From Madagascar comes milky chocolate with a bittersweet aftertaste, out of Tanzania is a dark chocolate with robust flavours while the Javanese has caramel overtones in every sip. Meal for two: Rs 500Contact: 41757570
