An Extraordinary Lunch Date For Your Diary

Eoin Higgins is eager to celebrate the Indian festival of Holi at Pickle, where a very special lunch menu is in the making.

With Ireland’s most critically-acclaimed Indian chef, Sunil Ghai, taking care of kitchen duties and an interior that apes, in a subtly kitsch way, India of the 1970s, Pickle – with its equally smiley name – is a joyous, casual celebration of punchy, innovative, North Indian food. No DayGlo sauces here, and not many of the usual suspects on the menu either, the place has, understandably, been a big hit with Dublin punters since it opened.

This month, Pickle celebrates the Hindu spring festival of Holi, an ancient celebration and one of the biggest festivals in India. Also known as the festival of colours, Holi is celebrated with throngs taking to the streets to throw powdered dyes at each other. After pelting everyone with colours all day, people clean up to meet family and friends for relaxed dinners and feasts, sharing and enjoying specific dishes. What’s not to like?

The Holi lunch boxes at Pickle will feature the typical sweet dumplings, gujiya, spicy puffed rice masala bhel, Rajasthani flaky mathri biscuits, slow-cooked, melt in the mouth Bhopali gosht, unleavened tawa parantha, coriander chutneys, samosas, and a special homemade mango pickle made to Sunil’s mother’s recipe – she was the pickle-maker for the household and the restaurant is named as a tribute to her, an acknowledgement of her influence and his roots, and a mark of respect for the homemade and the authentic.

This year Holi falls on Monday, March 13, and the Holi tiffin box will be available at lunchtime from March 14-16, and is a snip at €14.50. If you are into your Indian food, I highly recommend making a bee-line for these unique dishes, while they’re available.

43 Camden Street, Dublin 2, 01 555 7755 picklerestaurant.com