HAVE YOU SEEN wedding docuseries The Big Day on Netflix? Do you remember the episode in which the bride and groom host a sustainable, mustard-themed wedding at a picturesque fort in Rajasthan? Well, we recently visited the property — Alila Fort Bishangarh — that’s located about 200 km from Delhi and 72 km from Jaipur.
The way to the fort is through the Bishangarh village, which makes you wonder if time stood as still as the 243-year-old edifice that guards it. When you spend a day at the erstwhile warrior fort, you realise how much it leans on the surrounding rural life. Alila sources most of its ingredients from the farms next to it, from the vegetables to the grains. Our welcome lunch at Haveli, a Mediterranean restaurant next to the infinity pool, was proof.
We started with the Bishangarh Pickle Salad, which combines salad regulars like watermelon, cucumber, feta cheese, olives and balsamic dressing, with seasonal farm vegetables, burnt chillies and kalonji (nigella seed). Next was a flatbread made of nachni (finger millet) and wheat, topped with creamy spinach flavoured with pesto, roasted broccoli and chilli flakes. Taco shells made of rajgira (amaranth), besan (chickpea flour), and methi (fenugreek) followed, with a filling of corn fritters, wild mushrooms, toasted seeds and chillies sourced from Mathania in Jodhpur.
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The burst of flavours was enhanced by the mix of grains on the table, the heat of the Mathania chilli cut by the freshness of farm vegetables. We ordered just the right dessert to conclude the sensory pyrotechnics: A pear poached in tea sat on a caramel crumble, just like the fort erected on a granite hill. It was served with homemade ginger ice cream, which complemented the main dish, just like how the village beside it supports the fort.
After lunch, we chose to stay back for a swim in the rain, with the fort watching over us from a friendly distance. High tea was served by the time we got out of the pool and digested some of the lunch. As we sat under the shamiana to dry off, we sipped piping hot tea served in cutting chai glasses, and gorged on tomato and cheese tarts, spinach pakoras, vegetable puffs, dal kachori, and chutney-cheese sandwiches. Our favourite munchies, however, were chickpeas roasted in jaggery. This snack even accompanied us during a jeep ride across the surrounding lake and farms.
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After witnessing a stunning pink sunset from the fort rooftop, we sat down for dinner at their aptly titled open-air restaurant, Nazaara. As we did a recce of the food on display in the buffet, the containers got our attention. Rajasthani delicacies like dal-bati-churma, kadhi, govind gatta curry, paneer khada masala, farm fresh bhindi, yarkhandi meat pulao, murgh mirchi korma and laal maas were placed inside earthen cooking pots planted in a huge cauldron of sand. The chef explained that the food is 80 percent cooked and then slow-cooked in sand, as per Bishangarh's traditional sand baking technique. No wonder, the flavours hit differently, even for those of us who've grown up on Rajasthani food.
Our favourite meal, however, was breakfast the next day at Amarsar, their primary restaurant. A much-needed departure from the endless but average breakfast buffets at most hotels, Alila treated us to its signature millet thali: bajre ki roti served with its group of BFFs — mint raita, jaggery, home-churned white butter, garlic chutney, buttermilk, turai ki sabzi (ridge gourd curry), and wheat halwa garnished with dry fruits. It was a sumptuous affair and surprisingly, didn't weigh too heavily on our stomachs. There was ample appetite left for us also to try other local delicacies like the mirchi bada (green chilli fritters topped with coriander and tamarind chutneys), the kadhi kachori (dal kachori dipped in Rajasthani kadhi). They also borrowed a chutney-laced dhokla from Gujarat and a Bishangarh set dosa from the South, in which masala dosa was stacked like the majestic structure that hosted us.
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We ended our staycation with a quick lunch at Madhuveni, their cosy bar and lounge. The staff was kind enough to fetch the signature mushroom risotto from Amarsar, which we relished with a spicy, potent Picante. It served as the perfect antidote to the buttery treat on the table, with a dash of goat cheese to make it even greasier and yummier. As we bid adieu to our food coma, driving down the hill in a buggy, we couldn't help but turn around and marvel at the grandeur of the fort, which, despite its pedigree, doesn't mind taking a helping hand from the village, and the millet fields that keep smiling at it from yards below.