Archive for the ‘Food type’ CategoryAfter many months of (mostly) budget accommodation and sweltering heat, Andy and I decided to treat ourselves to three nights of luxury at the Taj-run Savoy Hotel in Ooty, Tamil Nadu. Cool air, horlicks, hot water and badminton, the hill station town was a lovely indulgence towards the end of our time in India. While our hotel cost more in a single night than most of our other accommodation combined, the friendliness of the staff, and the beautiful grounds and room made it worth every penny. Best of all, the hotel offered a “cooking demonstration” run by the restaurant’s chef. We were a little worried by the”for ladies” stipulation on the website, but fortunately that was no bar to Andy participating. Taj hotels are well known for their superior food, and after our great experience at Masala Kraft in Mumbai Andy and I were keen to learn from one of the company’s chefs. The class turned out to be the highlight of our stay.
The Executive Chef, Lok Shahi, was very friendly and accommodating. Assisted by chefs Samodra and Nathan, he happily agreed to run the demonstration at 7pm so we could eat the results for dinner, even though this was just on the cusp of the restaurant’s busier dinner period. We were asked in advance what we’d like to see demonstrated, and specified only that we wanted something vegetarian and South Indian. Even with such meager instructions, the team of Chefs came up with the perfect meal - two vegetarian Nilgiri curries, hailing from the wider hill district of which Ooty is a part.
The first dish was a Nilgiri Kai (mixed vegetable) curry. With Ooty’s cool climate making it well disposed to growing vegetables, it was no surprise to see a dish laden with fresh spinach, carrots, cauliflower and beans.
The vegetables were quickly sauteed, then seasoned with salt, tumeric and an onion and cashew paste. Splashes of milk and water completed the dish, leaving it smooth, creamy and not all spicy, a perfect complement to our second curry.
The next dish was a hearty red kidney bean curry called Avavai Uthaka. It had a typical South Indian spice base of mustard seeds, red onion, turmeric, chili, salt and ginger.
Fresh tomatoes and red kidney beans were added to the spice mix and cooked quickly on a high heat. The result was a filling and fiery dish, perfect for a cold Ooty night. To round off the meal, the chefs made gassu doti, a flat, fried bread with grated potato mixed through the dough. It was delicious eaten with spicy chutney, also made in the Savoy Hotel restaurant.
The skill of the chefs meant the whole demonstration took no more than half hour, leaving us plenty of time to savour our meal amongst the colonial charm of the Savoy Hotel’s dining room. If you ever get the chance to take a Taj Hotel cooking demonstration, grab it with both hands!
The South of India is a big area with a mix of climates, culture and habitats. The food can be equally heterogeneous, making use of locally available ingredients and paying homage to the south’s diverse historical influences. Amidst the variety, however, there are some classic South Indian staples that reappear again and again on the menus of cheap, cheerful and busy local restaurants all throughout the region. Most South Indian dishes were completely foreign to me, not having made the journey to most Australian menus like their North Indian counterparts. Luckily vegetarian restaurants are plentiful so I could take a plunge into the culinary unknown, secure in the knowledge that whatever came out of the kitchen would be delicious and meat free.
The dosa, a large savoury pancake made from a fermented batter of ground rice and urad dal that is cooked quickly on a grill, is ubiquitous in the South. The most common kinds are plain, butter, onion and masala dosa (potato and onion cooked in spices) although some restaurants are more inventive and will add different combinations of vegetables as a filling.
Dosas, like many South Indian dishes, are served with dal or sambar (a soupy tamarind flavoured dish) and a cooling coconut chatni.
The masala dosa…a dish worthy of potatoes I could easily eat a masala dosa a day (and if multiple universe theory is correct, I bet somewhere, sometime I do). However, with just three weeks in the south I reluctantly limited my dosa intake to allow time to try some of the other dishes on offer.
Another mainstay of South India food is the idli. Idlis are bright white steamed dumplings also made from ground, fermented rice and urad dal batter. Generally you get a couple per serve, along with sambar or dal and chatni, and they make a delicious, light breakfast.
One of the things I love about Indian food is the range of different savoury snack foods. A classic Southern example is the vada. Vada look like a doughnut, only they are made from lentils or potatoes and are savoury rather than sweet. They are a very cheap option, and so pop up frequently on restaurant menus and railway stations.
Perhaps because all English menus have to transliterate the name of menu items from Hindi or Tamil, or because of differences between local dialects, I often found that the spelling of dishes on menus varied significantly. Oftentimes I could take a reasonable guess at what we were ordering, but on occasion we were surprised to order the same dish under completely different names. So it was with the dahi vadai (otherwise known as thair vadai). This is a vada served in yoghurt and sprinkled with chaat masala. It’s not an unpleasant dish, but the combination of fried lentil doughnut in yoghurt was a surprise and a bit much for my delicate breakfast palate. I thought it would be a one-off order until the vagaries of transliteration led me to try it again.
One of my favourite discoveries in the South was uttapam or uttapa. These reminded me of an omelet, but were made with rice flour, urad dal and sometimes coconut milk, instead of eggs. I loved uttapam for breakfast - they were satisfying without being too greasy like omelettes and came with different fillings, like tomato, onion, and chilli. Definitely a dish I’ll be trying at home where they can be a great vegan alternative to the omelet if you use oil instead of ghee.
South India has a much heavier reliance on rice than the North, and consequently bread plays a lesser role in South Indian food (although still an important one). However, one popular type of bread is paratha, a flat bread cooked in a pan and eaten either plain or stuffed with a filling. While it is prepared in different ways, the plain version is recognisable by the streaky, layered look and texture which comes from the way the dough is rolled out. Paratha with chatni and dal was often one of the cheapest options on restaurant menus and made a great, light snack.
Pongal or kichdi is a sticky, clumpy rice and lentil dish, flavoured with spices like mustard seed, black pepper, cumin and bay leaves. It’s eaten for breakfast with sambar and chatni is the ideal comfort food with a reassuringly bland taste.
While there are plenty of fast, tasty South Indian foods to try, the best way to sample the food in each region is to order a thali. These tend to come with more rice than their North Indian counterparts, and usually have two - three vegetable curries, two or three soup-like dishes, dal, plain yoghurt and a dessert. While we tried a lot of thalis, no two were ever the same and we generally found that the curries used in the thali would be from the area so it was a great way to get a snapshot of the local specialities. I went to India salivating at the prospect at North Indian curries, but left a convert to South Indian food. Cheap, fast, fresh and tasty, South Indian food is a vegetarian’s delight.
V Rating: VVVVV Norway is famous for fishing, fjords and vikings. Local delicacies include reindeer and elk. Cheese is sold in a tube in three flavours: bacon, prawn and ham. As vegetarians, we prepared for the worst.
Against this backdrop, we were surprised to hear about a vegetarian restaurant called the Vegeta Vertshaus in the University district of Oslo, about a five minute walk from the central square. Vegeta Versthaus has the impressive distinction of surviving in carnivorous Norway since 1938, making it one of Europe’s oldest vegetarian restaurants.
Vegeta is an unassuming, relaxed restaurant with friendly staff and pretty stained glass lights.There is a large buffet with a selection of salads, hot foods, pizza, fruit and fried patties. If you’re hungry, the small or large plate is a good option because you can help yourself to all of the buffet food, plus come back for fresh fruit. We had the large plate (just Kr10 more) and were very full at the end.
The salad buffet included beetroot and apple salad, potato salad, a cold lentil and tomato salad, hummus and avocado mousse. I kept up my daily potato quota by munching on potato patties and potato bake, but there were also mini samosas, noodle bake, a lentil curry, and ratatouille. Our local guide (Andy’s brother Tim) assured us that Kr130 (A$26) was very good value for a restaurant meal in Norway, where the average price is about A$60 per person. I’m still struggling with the concept. If you’re on a budget, Vegeta offers a good sized bowl of soup for Kr48 (A$9) or with bread for Kr54 (A$11), or a plate of mixed salads for between Kr50 - Kr80 (A$10 - $16). They also offer discounts for pensioners and students (10%) on part of the menu. All in all, a great refuge for hungry vegetarians in Norway.
V Rating: Super V Iku is a successful chain of healthy vegetarian takeaway restaurants. It’s like the Sydney vegetarian equivalent of McDonald’s. Only better.
I recently hopped in the buzzing queue in the food court in the MLC Centre at Martin Place. Laid out in front of me in all of its macrobiotic, organic, gluten-free options glory, were salads, rice balls, wraps, soup, hot casseroles, pasta dishes, and dessert. I felt healthy and virtuous just looking at the food. Despite the myriad temptations, I couldn’t go past the takeaway mixed salad for $8.50. There were ginger noodles, steamed vegetables, white beans with mixed seeds, beetroot and cabbage in a vinegar dressing, and sesame brown rice, topped off with the house specialty creamy tahini dressing. The salad looked and tasted spectacular, and although it was a filling meal it didn’t leave me with a sleepy carbohydrate low come 3pm. The Iku menu changes weekly, though you’re always guaranteed of finding favourites like black rice pudding. Most stores open from lunch until dinner, but the central city outlets servicing the white collar crowd shut by 4pm. The size of the resturants (and opportuniy for eating in) varies. The Darlinghurst store is very big, Glebe has a peaceful courtyard, while the MLC Centre is just a counter operation within a busy food court. Iku also has a catering business, and distributes a range of food (including the aforementioned creamy tahini dressing) throughout health food shops. Iku doesn’t flaunt its vegetarian credentials, selling itself on the health benefits of its food, rather than its meatless menu. It’s a godsend for vegos and vegans who want a quick, tasty and stress-free lunch, and proves once and for all that vegetarian food can be sexy.
V Rating: VVV Hickson Road in Walsh Bay has morphed into a mini-theatre strip, with the Sydney Theatre Company and Bangara Dance Theatre calling it home. It’s the kind of area where you drop by before a show, looking for quick, cheap food, not demanding the best quality but needing to eat something to stave off hunger (and loud stomach noises) during the performance. But thanks to the area’s industrial past and knockout harbour views, quick, cheap food is not easy to find.
Fortunately, there is one restaurant that caters to the theatre crowd. Its name is the Walsh Bay Cafe. You probably wouldn’t guess this from the “Chinese Cuisine” sign hanging out the front. That’s why I’ve helpfully posted a photo here.
The small inside room is surprisingly cute and modern, with vibrant red tablecloths and bold Chinese character wallpaper. The restaurant is BYO, and you can scoot next door to a bottle shop if you’re after wine with your meal.
Walsh Bay Cafe offers 12 vegetarian choices, including Chinese classics like salt and pepper tofu, ma po tofu, garlic baby spinach and tofu and snowpeas in black bean sauce. We tried the stir-fry vegetables and noodles, along with a tofu and vegetable stir-fry. The dishes weren’t going to set the world on fire, but they came quickly and had a fresh, healthy flavour.
Afterwards we ambled across the road to the Bangara Theatre to see a Sydney Writers Festival event on China called “Is Communism All Bad?” The main speaker on the panel was Diane Wei Liang, a Chinese author now living in Europe who was a student activist in Beijing during the Tiananmen Square protests. There were some fairly sobering observations about the state of democracy and human rights in China, mixed with optimism for the future. Diane’s description of how Tiananmen Square unfolded inspired me to read her autobiography, The Lake With No Name. Having only seen Western reporting on Tiananmen, it was fascinating to read about it from the perspective of someone who was there. Wei describes how the protest grow from a spontaneous outburst, to a youth-fired mass movement, to a violent end when the army entered the Square. Definitely food for thought as we plan our trip there at the end of the year.
V Rating:VVV When I first moved to Sydney there were two Chinese restaurants that our friends consistently recommended: BBQ King and Golden Century. Part of their cult status came from their late night hours (the mercy of not having to eat McDonald’s after a night out!), but the food was also rated highly. BBQ King became a regular haunt of mine, but until last weekend I’d never been to Golden Century. Even though we were eating on a Sunday night, I’d taken the precaution of booking a table for our group of six. This meant we could glide elegantly up the escalators to the first floor restaurant and away from ground floor room with tanks of seafood hovering in the water, moments before death. The large upstairs room was packed. Big round tables of people were eating noisily. Battalions of staff patrolled the floor. Catching their eye was a challenge, but our table saw it as part of the experience and didn’t mind. Despite being a seafood restaurant, Golden Century still has 12 vegetarian mains (excluding dishes that come with oyster sauce or meat). We started with a vegetarian san choi bow, which wasn’t on the menu but the restaurant was happy to prepare it. The waiter who served this dish was impressive - he doled out six helpings of the filling in three seconds flat, and perfectly estimated the amount for each person.
For mains, we tried the salt and pepper tofu, which had more than a touch of chili.
I was fascinated by the king mushrooms with braised vegetables. These huge mushrooms were like flanks of meat served over the vegetables, and had a soft yet chewy texture. They didn’t have a strong flavour and absorbed the salty sauce well.
The heavenly braised 4 vegetables was the last dish to arrive, but worth the wait.
At the end of the meal we were served two complementary plates of sweet biscuits, nicely rounding off our eating experience. So did Golden Century live up to its hype? It’s a different experience to BBQ King - the surrounds are more plush for starters. I thought it had an interesting selection of vegetarian dishes that went beyond ‘mixed vegetables in x sauce’, ad infinitum, but it is a seafood and BBQ restaurant at heart (for example, our waiter questioned whether we meant to order two vegetable mains, assuming he’d misheard). You will find plenty of cheaper Chinese restaurants in this area, and probably won’t notice a great difference if you stick to vegetarian food rather than the signature seafood and BBQ dishes. That said, Golden Century was a fun experience and I would go back again.
V Rating: VVV BBQ King is not a obvious choice for vegetarians. First, there’s the name. Second, there’s the string of burnished red roast ducks hanging in the takeaway section of the restaurant. Third, there’s the automated 3D wall decoration where chefs with giant cleavers rhythmically pound the necks of poultry. But vegetarians shouldn’t be put off by this carnivorous exterior. Secure a seat in the meandering, two-storey restaurant, and you’ll see a healthy 13 vegetarian options on the menu (excluding vegetarian dishes with oyster sauce). The salt and pepper tofu rates amongst some of the best in Sydney - the salt and pepper coating is not too heavy, but still well-seasoned, and the tofu is soft enough to melt soon as it hits your mouth. The garlic baby spinach is not for the faint-hearted, but who’d have it any other way. When I went last week I tried the round, brown Chinese mushrooms and braised green vegetables for the first time, which I enjoyed Is BBQ King over-priced? Sure. Is the service bad? Laughably so. Is the decor old and faded? Of course. But this doesn’t mean you won’t have a good time. BBQ King is a Sydney institution. The food comes out fast, it’s open late at night, the location is ultra convenient and the meals taste good. The last two times I’ve been there I’ve seen this guy and then these guys looking right at home as they chowed down on a meal. It’s just that kind of place. |
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