Salted lemon, watermelon, chaat masala & soda — Trishna London
Nimbu pani (lemon water) is the original Indian street drink — a glass of pressed lemon juice with water, salt, and sometimes chaat masala, sold from roadside carts across India for 10 rupees. Trishna in Marylebone, one of London's finest Indian restaurants (Michelin Bib Gourmand, known for its extraordinary coastal Indian seafood), elevates this drink with watermelon and Two Cents soda — a premium artisan soda from Bangalore that has become the cultured soda of India's modern cocktail scene. The chaat masala (a blend of amchur, cumin, coriander, black salt, asafoetida) turns the drink from simple citrus to complex Indian street food in a glass.
Black salt (kala namak) is the key flavour — it has a distinctive sulphurous, eggy quality that sounds off-putting but tastes essential. Don't substitute regular salt. Chaat masala varies by brand — MDH is the most commonly used. Fresh watermelon juice should be used within an hour or it oxidises. Two Cents soda is available at Indian grocery stores in the UK and online at Ocado.
One of London's most celebrated Indian restaurants, Trishna is known for extraordinary Keralan-influenced seafood and an exceptional cocktail programme. The bar team draws on coastal Indian botanicals — coconut, raw mango, curry leaf, kokum — to create drinks that feel as considered as the kitchen's cooking.
Visit trishnarestaurant.com