From aloo tikki to malpua: Trump attends lavish banquet hosted by President Kovind

US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump were treated to a lavish dinner by President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday in the last leg of his packed two-day visit to India.

President Kovind and his wife Savita Kovind received the American visitors at Rashtrapati Bhawan outside Durbar Hall, where the Ashoka-era Rampurva Bull statue overlooks Rashtrapati Bhavan’s forecourt.

Trump and Kovind sat at the North Drawing Room for talks before the US president and his family met all the guests at the Ashoka Hall.

Before the dinner started, the US president and Melania Trump met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, vice-president M Venkaiah Naidu, Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla and other Union ministers at Rashtrapati Bhawan.

They also met chief ministers of Karnataka, Telangana, Assam and Haryana respectively—BS Yediyurappa, K Chandrashekar Rao, Sarbananda Sonowal and Manohar Lal Khattar.

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Music composer AR Rahman and chef Vikas Khanna were also present at the dinner hosted by the President.

US president’s advisors, daughter Ivanka Trump and son-in-law Jared Kushner, were also present at the dinner.

Dinner menu

A fusion dinner menu was served at the exclusive state banquet hosted in the historic Banquet Hall.

Around 100 guests, including the US President’s entourage, sat for the dinner served on silverware.

Before the main courses, the state banquet started with an amuse-bouche made from orange covered with peels of golden leaf and sprinkles of golden dust.

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This was followed by an Indian entrée of aloo tikki with palak papdi. The two items have been picked to showcase India’s vibrant street-food. The soup was lemon coriander shorba. Morels, a delicacy, was used to prepare dum guchi matar, which was followed by dum gosht biryani and deg ki biryani (for vegetarians).

It also had wild Atlantic salmon and fish tikkas with Cajun spice, the US version of garam masala, sprinkled on it.

President Trump is known for his love for meatloaf, steak with ketchup, even McDonald’s burgers. As beef is out of the question, Rashtrapati Bhavan chefs are offering him an alternative: raan ali-shan.

Goat legs are marinated for at least 12 hours and grilled for the dish. A rich rogan josh gravy was available to those who want some with the grilled meat. Dal Raisina, a signature dish of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, was also served.

The elaborate menu, with both vegetarian and non-vegetarian dishes, was not heavy on Indian spices and some came with ingredients popular in American homes.

As the US President is known to have sweet tooth, the dessert menu had three options: Malpua with rabri, hazelnut apple pie, and vanilla ice cream topped with salted caramel sauce.

The banquet will be wrapped up in less than 90 minutes. The US president is scheduled to depart for the US at 10pm on Tuesday.