President’s Dinner on Day 1 of G20 Summit was all about celebrating millets
Take a look at the four-course all-vegetarian menu served to world leaders and delegates at the gala G20 dinner at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi.
The first day of the G20 Summit that was held in New Delhi on September 9 concluded with an official gala dinner hosted by President Droupadi Murmu at the Bharat Mandapam. 170 guests enjoyed a curated four-course spread spotlighting millets.
Read on to discover what was on the menu.
The menu began with an introduction of how, for all its diversity, India is connected by taste. After the welcome dinner on Friday featured a mix of popular North-Indian dishes along with a few global ones - think Roasted Almond Soup, Pasta Salad, Paneer Lababdar, and more - the dinner was proudly Indian with regional breads like Mumbai’s ubiquitous Pao and Kashmir’s sweet cardamom-flavoured Bakarkhani rounding up one of the courses.
One common thread throughout the four courses that celebrated the autumn season, though, was the humble millet; apt considering the Indian government is promoting 2023 as the International Year of Millets. There was a section in the menu explaining their importance and nutritional value as well.
For the dishes, local ingredients were given a modern makeover, perhaps to suit the palette of the heads of state and delegates from around the world. For instance, the first course ‘Paatram’ was a contemporary rendition of chaat, with foxtail millet leaf crisps topped by a yoghurt sphere and a spiced chutney.
The main course, ‘Vanavarnam’, had a jackfruit galette served with glazed forest mushrooms, little millet crisps, and curry-leaf tossed Kerala red rice.
Dessert, called ‘Madhurima’, consisted of a cardamom-scented barnyard millet pudding finished with seasonal fig-peach compote and ambemohar rice crisps.
To top off the dinner, drinks included Kashmiri Kahwa, filter coffee, and Darjeeling tea, a nod to three popular beverages of the country.
Of course, no quintessential Indian meal can be complete without the after-dinner treat – paan - and here, guests got to savour a chocolate version of the same.
(Sarah Khalkho is a Features Writer at the India Today Group.)