Curated cuisine hits high notes at Lost In Time

There were food carts and trucks aplenty at the Lost in Time music festival, and a curated dining experience as diverse and considered as the festival’s line-up and layout, with a few standout pop-up restaurants offering up a variety of dishes that were both visually stunning and tasty.

At Mystic Thai, Restaurant Manager Visswa Kumar oversaw every dish that left the kitchen to ensure that diners could feast with their eyes before it even reached their lips. The Lady Musgrave Road-based restaurant rolled out a special menu for the day, and he shared that since they traditionally offer all things Asian in terms of Thai, Japanese and Indian food, they created a melting pot of flavour for the day.

“We usually mix cuisines like Indian, Thai and Japanese all together, so for the festival, we know what Jamaicans enjoy, and so we created dishes with this in mind. We have butter chicken and massaman curry served with rice and naan. The curry is from Thai cuisine, while the butter chicken is Indian. Next is Tandoori lemongrass shrimp with pineapple and satay chicken with samosas, so all of our offerings today are a fusion of Thai and Indian cuisine,” said Kumar.

Mystic Thai, he stated, has been at the festival since its first year, and with each staging, has seen the number of patrons who flock to their tent grow larger. “They love everything, so there is no standout or most popular dish, as they say whatever we cook is mouthwatering. So they start with the appetisers like the vegetable samosas and move on to the butter chicken on the skewers. With the samosas, they especially love it as they say, instead of having Jamaican patties, they call these Indian patties, as the potato and peas filling topped with the tamarind sauce goes over well,” he shared.

TOP-TIER

Stush in the Bush has built a reputation for upgrading vegetables from mere side dishes to the main course. They did not disappoint as their offering at the festival was top-tier. According to co-proprietor Christopher Binns, their food is always fresh, but more importantly, it is also fun. “We are known for our plant-based, sexy vegetarian meals, so today we start with an eggplant okra, which is a fish steak done without the fish, of course. The eggplant is the base, with some nori thrown in there to give it that nice fish flavour. And then we transfer to a plant-based beet and fetta burger, so the burger is made from beetroot and homemade almond fetta plus herbs and spices,” shared Binns.

Outlining the farm-to-festival offerings, he shared a menu that blends rustic charm with creative flair. “There are some nice fresh greens from the farm and then cho-cho fries, which are spiralised cho-cho done as fries, our homemade marinara sauce or sweet and spicy ginger sauce. The burgers are all grilled on the charcoal barbecue to give them that nice, smoky flavour, topped with the edible flowers. And our sweet ending has a dark chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganache sprinkled over that with Mama Walker’s banana preserve, which is nice, sweet and comforting,” he said.

STUSH IN THE CITY

Their planned downtown location is still in the works, with a small delay owing to Hurricane Melissa. “Our downtown location is still coming and was moving at a really great pace, and then a lady named Melissa came by and gave us a kiss, and now the farm in St Ann is still recovering from that kiss. So the setback for the Kingston location happened, but we are now outfitting it and hoping we can kick off by April, so we are really looking forward to blessing up downtown,” said Binns.

Over in the VIP section, Chef Brian Lumley sought to create a one-of-a-kind three-course stage-side culinary experience for diners who wanted to enjoy both the show and good food simultaneously. His first course featured an ackee and salt fish wonton with sweet chilli mayo and mango chutney glaze, while the second had lobster penne alfredo topped with tomato bruschetta and garlic bread. Those with seafood allergies were not excluded, as he offered chicken to replace the lobster. The third course involved stimulating diners’ sweet tooth with a coffee no-bake cheesecake, topped with exotic fruits, which rounded out the sumptuous meal as the dessert.

Alexa Von Strolley’s Tooskies Kay also curated a special menu for the event.

nicola.cunningham@gleanerjm.com