What’s Hot: In Amritsar, Japanese cuisine is getting popular by the day

Tryst with Umami

Japanese cuisine is making big inroads into the culinary capital of Punjab—Amritsar—with some modern Asian cuisine restaurants and hotels ordering exclusive Japanese food for the foodies. There is an elevated culinary treat at Shiso, which offers exclusive Omakase experience, a popular live dine-in Japanese concept, with rice wines and rice beer. At Grain by Elgin, a new addition to the menu is Black pearl dimsums, made with wild mushrooms and poppy seeds; black rice salad; Nori Spaghetti, made with popular Japanese ingredient Nori or black seaweed; Uramaki or the inside-out sushi, a traditionally popular dish in Japanese cuisine. For a bit of drama, we have Black Bun burgers, a Japanese twist to an essential fast food, using charcoal dough or squid ink. Le Meridien Amritsar’s Asian Bistro offers fusion tempura or complex sushi rolls, seafood buffet that is customised to suit your palate.

Raga & saxophone

Pracheen Kala Kendra’s 303rd Monthly Baithak at ML Koser Auditorium, Mohali, presented Priyank Krishna, a prominent saxophone player from Allahabad. Priyank, who learnt classical music at a young age from his father, Pt Ram Krishna, likes to combine the melody of gayaki with the intricacies of tantrakari, while keeping the effectiveness of the western instrument. He also plays the Indian bamboo flute with élan. Priyank began his recital with Raga Bageshri set to Vilambit ek taal. He later presented compositions in Vilambit and Drut laya, respectively. He concluded the recital with a dadra set to Raga Mishra Bhairavi. He was accompanied by tabla exponent Avirbhav Verma.

Of superstition

A horror-comedy, Punjabi film Akkad Bakkad Bambbe Bo Assi Nabbe Poore So explores superstitions widespread in society. Vaham and scams in plenty of ways, including ‘forward this message to 10 contacts to get good news’ to getting duped by fake babas, have been commonplace occurrences. At the film’s trailer launch, director Royal Singh shared, “When exploring vaham one had to be careful of not hurting the religious sentiments, so we have walked the road cautiously here.” Starring Gurpreet Ghuggi, Vikram Chouhan, Prabh Grewal, Gurpreet Bhangu and Gurpreet Toti, among others, it offers a message wrapped in a fun dose of entertainment. “As an artiste, it’s our duty to entertain, and if we can elevate society along with it, we must strive for that,” said Vikram Chouhan.

Akkad Bakkad Bambbe Bo Assi Nabbe Poore So releases in cinemas on January 17.