Sakshi Nath, who runs Tresind along with her husband Bhupender, has always wanted to open an Indian-Okku restaurant. Antonie Robertson / The National
Sakshi Nath, who runs Tresind along with her husband Bhupender, has always wanted to open an Indian-Okku restaurant. Antonie Robertson / The National
Sakshi Nath, who runs Tresind along with her husband Bhupender, has always wanted to open an Indian-Okku restaurant. Antonie Robertson / The National
Sakshi Nath, who runs Tresind along with her husband Bhupender, has always wanted to open an Indian-Okku restaurant. Antonie Robertson / The National

Indian flavours get the cool treatment in Dubai


  • English
  • Arabic

Liquid nitrogen is not normally what you expect to see when you go out for an Indian meal.

But at Tresind Modern Indian restaurant at Radisson Royal Hotel in Dubai, the complimentary starter is the deconstruction of Indian street food pani puri, in which a bubble of coriander and mint water with tamarind gel is shaped into miniature semolina balls using liquid nitrogen.

This avant-garde cuisine is an example of molecular gastronomy, which means using scientific principles in cooking to come up with new creations.

The term was coined in 1988 by the late Oxford physicist Nicholas Kurti, and was popularised in the United Kingdom by Heston Blumenthal, whose TV series features exploding chocolate gateau.

Tresind is the UAE’s first Indian molecular gastronomy restaurant.

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“In Dubai, you talk about Zuma, Toku, and Okku restaurants – they’re all innovative, and they’re all Japanese”, says Sakshi Nath, 40, who runs Tresind along with her husband, Bhupender Nath, 43.

“I always wanted to open an Indian-Okku restaurant.

“If the Japanese can be so innovative, why not the Indians?”

According to Mrs Nath, all the items on her menu are signature dishes, as they are all special in some way. But some are more inspired by molecular gastronomy than others.

One notable creation is the Modernist Chaat Trolley, which for Dh70 gives diners a live demonstration of three types of chaat by one of their chefs, bringing liquid nitrogen to the dining table to convert the batter into delicate solid spheres of dhokla.

“We use big terms like molecular gastronomy and liquid nitrogen, but the idea is not just to have something to talk about but to bring the flavours together. It has to be tasty.

“I cannot expect my guests to come back otherwise,” says Mrs Nath.

It has been a roundabout route to fine dining for Mrs Nath.

She started her career in fashion design.

After she married Bhupender in 1996, the couple moved to Lagos to start a frozen fish company, and Mrs Nath also opened a fashion boutique in the city.

The pair then moved with their two sons to Dubai in 2008, setting up the UAE’s first freshwater fish farm in Ras Al Khaimah two years later.

Although their fish businesses earned them a steady income, the Naths had always dreamt about opening their own restaurant. “Dubai seemed like the right place for the modern Indian restaurant we had in mind”, says Mrs Nath.

The couple tried initially to bring in a franchisee for their restaurant (the cutting edge Mumbai-based Masala Library) but they parted ways before the restaurant was launched.

“Initially, we planned the interior design of the restaurant according to the franchisee name and had to follow their guidelines, hiring a local construction company and designer to do the work.

“We think the design company has now closed down, because we really had a tough time getting the work done from them.

“We still have a snag list of things not yet finished that we’re working on, such as a problem in the light system.”

Now no longer beholden to a franchise, the Naths had the opportunity to create their own brand and menu for their new restaurant.

“In the 20 years since we left India, wherever we went in the world, we didn’t like to go out and eat Indian food because it’s very fattening. “Instead we’d have Chinese, Japanese or Thai,” says Mrs Nath.

“So it was very important to us that our restaurant would serve healthy Indian food.”

The entrepreneurs did not want to limit the clientele to the Indian community, so she decided not to give the restaurant a typically Indian name.

“My kids’ second language was French when we were in Nigeria. ‘Tres’ means ‘very’ in French and ‘Ind’ is short for India, so it basically means ‘very Indian’.

Every Indian state has its own cuisine, and Tresind tries to bring all different states’ food together under one roof.”

As well as creating the brand, Mrs Nath oversaw the marketing of the restaurant.

For years, Mr Nath had been heavily involved in running their frozen fish company, but the food business was something very new and different for Mrs Nath.

“Setting up a restaurant takes a lot of time, but my husband was also busy looking after our business in Africa.

“It was very challenging for me, because my two sons were not used to me being away from them for so long.

“I’d always been at home when they came back from school.

“Now, I sometimes leave home at 10.30am and am not back until 7pm.”

After seven months spent preparing, Tresind had a soft launch in October and a grand opening a month later.

Shortly after opening, the couple brought on board a new and innovative executive chef, Himanshu Saini, who left Rohini Dey’s Latin-Indian fusion restaurant Vermilion in New York to come work for the ­couple.

Along with cooking up modern Indian dishes using new techniques, the chef has been giving some traditional Indian dishes an Arabic twist.

“We have channa pindi hummus, a chickpea dish from northern India made into hummus and served with zaatar. And chicken shawarma kulcha, which is tandoor-cooked bread with a stuffing of shawarma chicken.”

These efforts to appeal to a more international crowd have not borne fruit yet.

“People come to the restaurant more because of word of mouth, and the kind of circle we have means most customers are Indian.

But we want to cater for the whole international community. Hopefully we’ll achieve that soon,” says Mrs Nath.

So what do customers make of their modern spin on classic Indian flavours? “The feedback has been fantastic,” adds Mrs Nath. “I met a lady who was at Tresind for lunch and came back again for dinner.

“When I see that kind of response, it gives me a sense of satisfaction to know that it’s all been worth it.”

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ONCE UPON A TIME IN GAZA

Starring: Nader Abd Alhay, Majd Eid, Ramzi Maqdisi

Directors: Tarzan and Arab Nasser

Rating: 4.5/5

RESULTS

Light Flyweight (48kg): Alua Balkibekova (KAZ) beat Gulasal Sultonalieva (UZB) by points 4-1.

Flyweight (51kg): Nazym Kyzaibay (KAZ) beat Mary Kom (IND) 3-2.

Bantamweight (54kg): Dina Zholaman (KAZ) beat Sitora Shogdarova (UZB) 3-2.

Featherweight (57kg): Sitora Turdibekova (UZB) beat Vladislava Kukhta (KAZ) 5-0.

Lightweight (60kg): Rimma Volossenko (KAZ) beat Huswatun Hasanah (INA) KO round-1.

Light Welterweight (64kg): Milana Safronova (KAZ) beat Lalbuatsaihi (IND) 3-2.

Welterweight (69kg): Valentina Khalzova (KAZ) beat Navbakhor Khamidova (UZB) 5-0

Middleweight (75kg): Pooja Rani (IND) beat Mavluda Movlonova (UZB) 5-0.

Light Heavyweight (81kg): Farida Sholtay (KAZ) beat Ruzmetova Sokhiba (UZB) 5-0.

Heavyweight (81 kg): Lazzat Kungeibayeva (KAZ) beat Anupama (IND) 3-2.

The%20specs
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ESSENTIALS

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.

The hotels

Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.

The tours

A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages. 

UK-EU trade at a glance

EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years

Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products

Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries

Smoother border management with use of e-gates

Cutting red tape on import and export of food

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Book%20Details
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Mubalada World Tennis Championship 2018 schedule

Thursday December 27

Men's quarter-finals

Kevin Anderson v Hyeon Chung 4pm

Dominic Thiem v Karen Khachanov 6pm

Women's exhibition

Serena Williams v Venus Williams 8pm

Friday December 28

5th place play-off 3pm

Men's semi-finals

Rafael Nadal v Anderson/Chung 5pm

Novak Djokovic v Thiem/Khachanov 7pm

Saturday December 29

3rd place play-off 5pm

Men's final 7pm

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UK%20record%20temperature
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Key facilities
  • Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
  • Premier League-standard football pitch
  • 400m Olympic running track
  • NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
  • 600-seat auditorium
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  • An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
  • Specialist robotics and science laboratories
  • AR and VR-enabled learning centres
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Sole survivors
  • Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
  • George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
  • Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
  • Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
What is graphene?

Graphene is extracted from graphite and is made up of pure carbon.

It is 200 times more resistant than steel and five times lighter than aluminum.

It conducts electricity better than any other material at room temperature.

It is thought that graphene could boost the useful life of batteries by 10 per cent.

Graphene can also detect cancer cells in the early stages of the disease.

The material was first discovered when Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were 'playing' with graphite at the University of Manchester in 2004.

Fire and Fury
By Michael Wolff,
Henry Holt

Pakistan Super League

Previous winners

2016 Islamabad United

2017 Peshawar Zalmi

2018 Islamabad United

2019 Quetta Gladiators

 

Most runs Kamran Akmal – 1,286

Most wickets Wahab Riaz –65

Gender pay parity on track in the UAE

The UAE has a good record on gender pay parity, according to Mercer's Total Remuneration Study.

"In some of the lower levels of jobs women tend to be paid more than men, primarily because men are employed in blue collar jobs and women tend to be employed in white collar jobs which pay better," said Ted Raffoul, career products leader, Mena at Mercer. "I am yet to see a company in the UAE – particularly when you are looking at a blue chip multinationals or some of the bigger local companies – that actively discriminates when it comes to gender on pay."

Mr Raffoul said most gender issues are actually due to the cultural class, as the population is dominated by Asian and Arab cultures where men are generally expected to work and earn whereas women are meant to start a family.

"For that reason, we see a different gender gap. There are less women in senior roles because women tend to focus less on this but that’s not due to any companies having a policy penalising women for any reasons – it’s a cultural thing," he said.

As a result, Mr Raffoul said many companies in the UAE are coming up with benefit package programmes to help working mothers and the career development of women in general. 

Roger Federer's 2018 record

Australian Open Champion

Rotterdam Champion

Indian Wells Runner-up

Miami Second round

Stuttgart Champion

Halle Runner-up

Wimbledon Quarter-finals

Cincinnati Runner-up

US Open Fourth round

Shanghai Semi-finals

Basel Champion

Paris Masters Semi-finals

 

 

WRESTLING HIGHLIGHTS
Bawaal%20
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The burning issue

The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE. 

Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on

Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins

Read part one: how cars came to the UAE

 

Sly%20Cooper%20and%20the%20Thievius%20Raccoonus
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDeveloper%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Sucker%20Punch%20Productions%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPublisher%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Sony%20Computer%20Entertainment%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EConsole%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20PlayStation%202%20to%205%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%205%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
Traits of Chinese zodiac animals

Tiger:independent, successful, volatile
Rat:witty, creative, charming
Ox:diligent, perseverent, conservative
Rabbit:gracious, considerate, sensitive
Dragon:prosperous, brave, rash
Snake:calm, thoughtful, stubborn
Horse:faithful, energetic, carefree
Sheep:easy-going, peacemaker, curious
Monkey:family-orientated, clever, playful
Rooster:honest, confident, pompous
Dog:loyal, kind, perfectionist
Boar:loving, tolerant, indulgent   

The%20specs
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%206.5-litre%20V12%20and%20three%20electric%20motors%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E1%2C015hp%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E1%2C500Nm%20(estimate)%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Eight-speed%20dual-clutch%20auto%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Early%202024%0D%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh2%20million%20(estimate)%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets