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Kolahoi’s grandeur, ‘laziz’ Wazwan at The Manor (Foodie Trail-Delhi)

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By Kishori Sud
New Delhi, Nov 26 (IANS) Piping hot and fresh galouti kebabs, crisp nadru (lotus stem) chips laid out on a simple serving plate, the main course served in beautiful taramis — intricately carved platters used to serve Kashmiri Wazwan. It was a culinary evening to remember.

Old World Hospitality has come up with a series of culinary pop-ups at The Manor here, with Kolahoi: Kashmiri Wazwan being its first. (Kolahoi is a 17,799 feet high mountain in Gandarbal district of Jammu and Kashmir.)

The restaurant has a simple interior. There is also a private dining area set up in regal style befitting the grand Wazwan repast — with orange cushions and low tables on which guests traditionally ate together from one huge tarami.

The Wazwan was originally for non-vegetarians but Senior Executive Sous Chef, Kolahoi, Vineet Wadhera, said options for vegetarians had to follow, “adapting to the changes in society”.

On offer is a nine-course meal comprising rice, nadru choorma, tabak maaz (deep fried ribs of lamb), seekh kebab, goshtaba, aloo bukhara korma, murgh roganjosh, haaq, nadru yakhni, phirni for dessert and kahwa, which is served from a samovar, for digestion.

Before sinking my teeth into the rich, wariya asal (beautiful in Kashmiri) food, I ordered galouti kebab and shikanji for starters. The delicate, melt-in-the-mouth galouti is a clear hero.

For the vegetarians, the restaurant also offers achaari paneer. The lemon twist added to the dish is what leaves an impression.

On to the main course and here rules the yogurt-based goshtaba, a dish which takes a lot of time to prepare, said Rajiv Malhotra, the Corporate Chef, Habitat World at Old World Hospitality.

“The most important part of goshtaba is the freshly-slaughtered meat. Goshtaba has very spongy meat balls… a texture that is very difficult to achieve once the meat becomes cold,” Malhotra told IANS.

The meat is thus pounded for long, and the heat generated by pounding in fact starts cooking it. “Pounding the meat is a very skilled task and normally done by wooden pestle. The complete procedure takes a lot of time with the expert at making this starting his day at 4 am,” he explained.

It is indeed heavy but so delicious that once you taste it, you pine to have it again.

The mutton served was a tad bit spicy and sour. The roganjosh was behtareen (amazing) as my Kashmiri colleague would describe it, because the play of Kashmiri red chillies and spices was perfect in every bite.

The tarami was served along with a few chutneys. The interesting one was the malai and walnut chutney. It’s white in colour and goes well with your kheon (food in Kashmiri). Among vegetarian dishes, the nadru yakhni — lotus root and yogurt, spiced with aniseed and cardamom — is the star.

FAQs:

Where: 77, Friends Colony West, New Delhi, Delhi 110065

Timings: 12 noon to 2 p.m. for lunch and from 7 p.m. till 10.30 p.m. for diner.

Price: Rs 1,295 plus taxes per person for the nine-course Wazwan and Rs 2,900 plus taxes per person for the 12-course meal.

(The writer’s visit was at the invitation of The Manor. Kishori Sud can be contacted at [email protected])

–IANS
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Casino Days Reveal Internal Data on Most Popular Smartphones

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CasinoDays India

International online casino Casino Days has published a report sharing their internal data on what types and brands of devices are used to play on the platform by users from the South Asian region.

Such aggregate data analyses allow the operator to optimise their website for the brands and models of devices people are actually using.

The insights gained through the research also help Casino Days tailor their services based on the better understanding of their clients and their needs.

Desktops and Tablets Lose the Battle vs Mobile

The primary data samples analysed by Casino Days reveal that mobile connections dominate the market in South Asia and are responsible for a whopping 96.6% of gaming sessions, while computers and tablets have negligible shares of 2.9% and 0.5% respectively.

CasinoDays India

The authors of the study point out that historically, playing online casino was exclusively done on computers, and attribute thе major shift to mobile that has unfolded over time to the wide spread of cheaper smartphones and mobile data plans in South Asia.

“Some of the reasons behind this massive difference in device type are affordability, technical advantages, as well as cheaper and more obtainable internet plans for mobiles than those for computers,” the researchers comment.

Xiaomi and Vivo Outperform Samsung, Apple Way Down in Rankings

Chinese brands Xiaomi and Vivo were used by 21.9% and 20.79% of Casino Days players from South Asia respectively, and together with the positioned in third place with a 18.1% share South Korean brand Samsung dominate the market among real money gamers in the region.

 

CasinoDays India

Cupertino, California-based Apple is way down in seventh with a user share of just 2.29%, overshadowed by Chinese brands Realme (11.43%), OPPO (11.23%), and OnePlus (4.07%).

Huawei is at the very bottom of the chart with a tiny share just below the single percent mark, trailing behind mobile devices by Motorola, Google, and Infinix.

The data on actual phone usage provided by Casino Days, even though limited to the gaming parts of the population of South Asia, paints a different picture from global statistics on smartphone shipments by vendors.

Apple and Samsung have been sharing the worldwide lead for over a decade, while current regional leader Xiaomi secured their third position globally just a couple of years ago.

Striking Android Dominance among South Asian Real Money Gaming Communities

The shifted market share patterns of the world’s top smartphone brands in South Asia observed by the Casino Days research paper reveal a striking dominance of Android devices at the expense of iOS-powered phones.

On the global level, Android enjoys a comfortable lead with a sizable 68.79% share which grows to nearly 79% when we look at the whole continent of Asia. The data on South Asian real money gaming communities suggests that Android’s dominance grows even higher and is north of the 90% mark.

Among the major factors behind these figures, the authors of the study point to the relative affordability of and greater availability of Android devices in the region, especially when manufactured locally in countries like India and Vietnam.

“And, with influencers and tech reviews putting emphasis on Android devices, the choice of mobile phone brand and OS becomes easy; Android has a much wider range of products and caters to the Asian online casino market in ways that Apple can’t due to technical limitations,” the researchers add.

The far better integration achieved by Google Pay compared to its counterpart Apple Pay has also played a crucial role in shaping the existing smartphone market trends.

 

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