Homage To Hummus

Part of Azulia’s surprise has to be its location. It overlooks the atrium of the grt Grand hotel in Chennai that caters to a typical south Indian Kancheepuram silk sari and shiny-white veshti crowd. As Quick Gun Murugan might growl: “Mind it, we are world travellers now and can broccoli with the best of them.”

Much of its success can be attributed to chef Joseph Chahine’s charm, both behind the open-plan kitchen and at the table. He tempts visitors with the most splendid starters that take you from Turkey to Greece, Morocco and Spain and back to Lebanon, his home country. You can start with goat cheese flambe or tiny cigars of minced meat. There are wonderful nibbles of prawns, fried calamari rings and chicken sausage to be dipped into bowls of tahini and hummus, or stuffed into parcels of pita bread. He produces aromatic bakes, lasagnes, moussakas and tenderly wrapped fish scattered with pine nuts, and when you are through, tiny gold fingers of baklava with Turkish coffee, or pears poached in red wine with figs on the side. Once you are addicted, Azulia will, like the sirens of the Aegean coast, call you back for more.