Naar( fire) is created!!!

When I saw jars of ingredients brined and preserved with handwritten labels, I was convinced that I was at a place that uses ingredients available in and around their ecosystem to feed their guests.

Naar, a restaurant on the hills that creates dishes using Himalayan ingredients, is a game changer in the restaurant space. Be it a cocktail or a bar bite at the living room or the meal at the dining space, they all have that special ingredient that has a story,  a story about where the ingredients were sourced, what the significance of that ingredient is and how it was used. Quite a few ingredients on our plate and in our glass were sourced from a nearby place and how do I know it? Because every time the curious me asked Chef Kamlesh, “What is this leaf?” he would tell me about the leaf and point his finger to the greenery around the restaurant and tell me it came from there, he even walked there and got it for us.

The menu at Naar changes according to the season because some ingredients are seasonal, and when the food is focused on ingredients, it has to be seasonal.

I am an advocate of eating local and what I was thinking is the fact that we buy expensive caviar when we have a beautiful variety available in our own country. One of the dishes we had at Naar was trout roe/eggs/caviar served on banana custard with a dash of banana honey. This was my most favourite dish, and Naar is at the trout belt of India, they have made the best of this ingredient. While the fish was used to make the dirty toast, the roe was used to blow my mind. The dirty toast had our very own sourdough bread,  the Ladakhi khambir bread made using bansi wheat.

Can we Indians use trout roe over caviar? I will leave this as food for thought for people in the industry.

Another highlight ingredient for me was the cactus. I remember seeing these cacti in Goa as a child who wandered through the then quiet parts of South Goa. I would have not thought in my wildest dreams that I would have a broth made of cactus. I know, I know,  Mexican’s use it extensively, but in India, I had it for the first time.

Every dish at Naar has a story about its ingredients and everyone at Naar narrates the story beautifully, because they know,  since they work with each ingredient with love and passion, with an intention of giving the best to their guests.

How would I like to rate my experience at Naar? Well, a few things that matter to me and the way I look at food and experience: first, of course, the ingredients, the way the ingredients are loved, nurtured and harvested (this is not easy according to me), since in the hills there is a new discovery every once in a while.

The way the menu is curated, keeping the ingredients as the hero, and how a guest feels about it, whether it’s a dish or a cocktail.

The place/location,  this one is an absolute winner and couldn’t get better. We started at the living room that served us drinks and little somethings made with love and cuteness.

We moved to the dining room for our main course,  it felt like my maternal home where we would sit around the kitchen to have every meal.

The most important part of the experience: whether you are at the living room, the dining room or the restroom, each one of them overlooks the mountains. We were lucky to have a glimpse of snow-capped mountains. Now this, for me, is a complete dining experience.

Chef Prateek definitely has Naar (fire) in his belly to have built something so beautiful and unique for everyone to enjoy.