Archive for the ‘Veggie Friendly Restaurant Reviews’ CategoryRajasthan, a state in North-West India, is a popular tourist destination thanks to a Mughal-era legacy of fairytale palaces and spectacular forts.  These days popular North Indian dishes overrun local menus, but the occasional restaurant still reserves a section for Rajasthani dishes. Make sure you try them. The food is unique and in run-of-the-mill restaurants is often more tasty than the better known dishes on the menu. Rajasthani food is an interesting case study in a regional cuisine that has been shaped by local environmental conditions. The western half of the state lies in the Thar desert, and even the eastern side is relatively arid compared to the fertile south of India. Because of the dry climate and lack of water, Rajasthani food makes little use of vegetables and rice - the staples of much Indian food - which are not easy to grow in the region. In their place, Rajasthani food relies heavily on grains and pulses.
In Jaisalmer we tried a delicious Rajasthani thali (tasting plate of small dishes). The main curry was dumplings made with gram (chickpea flour). It came with dahl, and a second curry of a local bean (ker) in a masala sauce. Although we were given a small amount of rice, the main accompaniement was baira roti - a malted bread cooked over a fire.
We had a second opportunity to try Rajasthani food in a small Bishnoi village called Salawas outside of Jodhpur. The Bishnoi people are vegetarian, and believe in living in harmony with the natural enivornment. They are relatively poor, and live very simply in small houses.
Our lunch consisted of ground millet roti, a local bean called “ker”, a rich, milk based dahl and a strong lemon pickle. The meal was spicy, but refreshingly free of oil and rich spices compared to standard North Indian curries.
In Udaipur we had a final opportunity to try Rajasthani dahl and gram flour dumplings. To be honest, I couldn’t pick the difference with the dahl, but the dumplings were lovely - very soft and not heavy as I thought a flour dumpling would be. Rajasthani food is relatively spartan compared to the North Indian curries that are so popular around the world. While I can’t see it catching on internationally, the food is definitely worth trying on a visit to Rajasthan, and is a timely reminder that living off locally appropriate food can be a delicious and environmentally sound experience. In Australia, vegetarian restaurants are so rare they’re novel. In India, vegetarian restaurants are so normal they’re commonplace - but that doesn’t stop you from having some very novel vegetarian experiences. We began our Rajasthan trip in the capital, Jaipur, a thriving place dubbed the ‘pink city’ for the rose and salmon hued buildings in its old quarter. While I loved Jaipur’s monuments, some of our most memorable experiences involved eating.
On our first night we ate in a restaurant called Om, which I’m sure must have the distinction of being the only revolving vegetarian restaurant in the world. The menu was extensive and interesting.We ordered palak paneer, dum aloo (potato dumplings in a spicy tomato sauce) and seasonal vegetables cooked in dry curry spices, served on a sizzling hot plate. For accompaniments, we tried the kuchumber salad, mixed vegetable raita, rotis and pappadums.
The food was adequate, but did not quite live up to the sophisticated surroundings (or the glowing recommendation in our guide book). The dum aloo sauce was very creamy and rich, and the dishes were so hot that the spiciness eventually overpowered the flavour. Still, the view over the city was wonderful, the surroundings were plush, and the service was very friendly. And did I mention the restaurant revolved? The next day we went to another renowned Jaipur vegetarian restaurant called LMB. Unlike Om, LMB sits right in the middle of the busy old city amidst small market shops selling colourful cloth, tourist souvenirs and traditional Rajasthani shoes. LMB is part of a hotel. You enter through a bakery and fast food area dominated by a large glass counter filled with brightly coloured Indian sweets. The restaurant is off to the left hand side. Unusually, it’s in the centre of the building so there are no windows (hence the fire-like glow to my photos). There is a slightly formal atmosphere to the room, thanks to the swirling 1950’s style plaster decoration that adorns the roof, and the highly professional waiting staff in white jackets.
The food at LMB was delicious; some of the best we had in the North. Still recovering from dinner, we ordered a small lunch for three of paneer tikka (cubes of paneer marinated overnight, then roasted in the tandoor oven and served with a mint chutney), a dahl fry, and a starter of aloo chatpatta (spicy, crispy potatoes squares served with garlic chutney and masala). The paneer was firm and well-cooked and not too oily thanks to being cooked in the tandoor. The tikka marinade soaked the paneer with flavour, enhanced by a squeeze of fresh lime. The aloo chatpatta was also delicious, and extremely good value given it was the same size as our “mains”. While we didn’t try anything from the Rajasthani section of the menu, I suspect it would be authentic and tasty. Our final vegetarian experience took place just outside of Jaipur at the “Chokni Dahni” village. Chokni Dahni is a model traditional Rajasthani village established on the grounds of a hotel complex. For a set fee, you gain entry, a full vegetarian dinner, and access to all kinds of traditional rajasthani cultural activities that would be frustrated by OHS issues in Australia, like camel rides, dances performed on nails, and child acrobats balancing high up on huge poles. I went semi-reluctantly, and only after finding out that it was aimed at Indian tourists. Needless to say, I had a great time. As soon as we arrived we were ushered into the eating hall by staff, who were very keen to make sure we didn’t go hungry. There was nil danger of that. We were seated on the floor with a small cube serving as a table placed in front of each of us. There was no menu or introduction of the food. Instead we were each given a round tray, with four bamboo dishes on one side, and two clay cups. Within 30 seconds of being seated waiting staff bearing big vats of food started to emerge, and began filling our tray and bowls thali style with mysterious items of food. The food was delicious, and very different in flavour from other Northern Indian food. We were served a vegetable curry, flour dumplings in sauce, dahl, rice, pappadums, rotis, pickles, curd, a lentil mash with ghee, and super sweet desserts. Trying to finish the meal was a Sisyphean task - as soon as you emptied a bowl a waiter came along and refilled it.
Sure, it looks manageable now… but this is just the beginning. Â When we were finished the staff invited us to the back kitchen where we saw rotis being cooked over hot coals, and pappadums being quickly fried in hot oil. The following morning we had to leave the Pink City for Pushkar. I’m sure I left Jaipur five kilograms heavier than when I arrived - but it was worth it to experience some truly unique vegetarian restaurants! From the beginning of our trip, Andy and I were looking forward to travelling in India, not least because India is home to many of the world’s vegetarians and some fabulous vegetarian food. We started in the North, flying from Kathmandu to New Delhi for a trip taking in Agra and five cities in Rajasthan. North Indian food is characterised by curries, baked tandoor oven delights, and bread. Vegetarians will not struggle to find food - pure veg restaurants abound, and most other places stress in their advertising that they serve both ‘veg and non-veg food’. Whether you eat in a veg or non-veg restaurant, the menu will include a long list of vegetarian curies. I was surprised to find that many of the curry dishes were familiar to me from Indian restaurant menus in Australia. Curries broadly fall into two categories: wet and dry. Treatises could probably be written about the differences between them (mmm, what a job), but my layperson’s take is that wet curries are served with a sauce (sometimes called a ‘gravy’) while dry dishes are cooked in a spice mix (masala).
A dry curry… Some of the most common vegetarian curries are plain dahl and dahl fry (dahl with fried onion and garlic), aloo mutter (peas and potato curry), stuffed tomato (usually just one - not so good if you were planning to share), egg curry, mushroom tikka masala and navratan kurma. Paneer dishes are also popular. My favourite Indian dish, palak paneer (paneer in spinach sauce) was a mainstay of most menus, and paneer butter masala was also popular.
…and a wet curry. I also liked the dumpling curries, particularly malai kofta and Kashmiri dum aloo.
Malai kofta North Indian cooking is famous for tandoor dishes, which are cooked in a large clay oven filled with hot coals and then covered with a lid.
The wonderful tandoor oven While meat tandoor dishes are most famous in the West, there are some great vegetarian options including tandoor mushrooms, paneer tikka, tandoor potato stuffed with raisins, or tandoor cauliflower. These are usually marinated, sometimes stuffed, and then cooked on a long skewer in the tandoor.
Succulent tandoor mushrooms… how could you not love them? One of the distinguishing features of North Indian food compared to South Indian food is the lesser emphasis on rice and the greater use of breads. There is naan (cooked in tandoor ovens), roti (smaller pieces of baked bread), chapati and pappadums. Paratha is a popular breakfast dish of fried bread served plain or stuffed with fillings, like potato or paneer, and eaten with fresh curd and pickles.
Freshly cooked pappadums Condiments are key to Indian food. Pickles, chutneys, onions and curd or raita are all common accompaniments and will sometimes be brought out along with your meal.
It was hard not to be impressed by the spread of vegetarian food on offer in Northern India, although the quality and freshness of food varied wildly. I loved trying some of my favourite dishes from home (which tasted quite a lot like they do in Australia, to my surprise), as well as new favourites like tandoor mushrooms and dum aloo. Already, our time in India was off to a good start. Update: A reader has just pointed out that I have a bad habit of posting about food without including recommendations for where to try it. North Indian food is (obviously) ubiquitous in India, but the best restaurants I found were: Zaffran Address: In the Hotel Palace Heights, D- 26/28, Connaught Place, New Delhi-110001 LMB Arriving in Nepal from Iran and the Middle East was like entering another world. Suddenly we were back in Asia, surrounded by rattling green and yellow tuk tuks, women in colourful saris, and cows meandering up and down city streets. We only had five days before we had to be in India, so we decided to visit just two towns and save a trek until next time. Our first stop were the fertile hills (I would call them mountains) ringing the Kathmandu Valley. Next we headed to the Nepalese capital, Kathmandu, and instantly stepped in a traveller’s microcosm filled with internet cafes, bars, and all manner of shopping opportunities. Wearing jumpers and feeling rain on our skin felt amazing - you never realise what small pleasures you will miss once you start travelling. But another delight was being back in a country where vegetarian food was plentiful. While vegetarian food is easy to come by in Nepal, vegetarianism seems less common than in India despite Nepal being a Hindu republic (with some Tibetan Buddhism thrown in). It’s less usual to see vegetarian or pure vegetarian restaurants advertised, for example, and talking to Nepalese people I got the impression that there was some flexibility around what was required of practioners. It is, however, sobering to realise that many people in Nepal are vegetarian by necessity. The staple Nepalese dish is dahl bhat served with rice. In many poor households, dahl bhat is the only food that the family can afford to eat.
A highlight of any trip to Nepal is eating momos, Tibetan steamed dumplings stuffed with chopped vegetable and served with a delicious tomato chili sauce. Vegetarian versions are easy to find on almost every restaurant menu and make a great, healthy snack.
Curries are also a common feature of Nepalese food. It’s usual to eat a large amount of rice (to fill you up), supplemented by small curries based around a fresh vegetable ingredient and some spicy pickle or pickles. Some Nepalese restaurants offer thali sets with complementary refills, which are a great way to try different Nepalese food.
We had only a short time in Nepal so unfortunately we could only try a limited amount of Nepalese food. A highlight of our trip was eating at a restaurant called Thamel House in Kathmandu. Thamel House specialises in traditional Nepali and Newari food, including many dishes that you won’t find in other restaurants. The restaurant is in an atmospheric 100 year old house, originally built for a wealthy family. There is a choice of seating areas, but I recommend the top room where you sit on the floor and eat from small wooden tables, nestled under a sloping, cosy wooden roof. Thamel House’s signature meal is a vegetarian (and non-vegetarian) tasting menu, however we found the extensive list of dishes and price too daunting and opted instead to order from the standard menu (you may have to request this). Each dish was delicious. To begin we were given a complementary starter of lightly sauteed fresh mung beans and lentils. The beans had not been fully boiled beforehand, so they were still quite fresh and hard to the bite. We followed up with a lot of smaller dishes, including beautifully steamed momos filled with fresh vegetables, ginger and garlic, a delicious, creamy, black lentil dish called dahl makhini, and sliced mushrooms cooked in a creamy, garlic sauce.
The fried potatoes cooked in traditional spices (Alu Tareko) were one of my favourite dishes, but I also enjoyed  an entree of a green spinach like vegetable quickly cooked with spices.
We finished the meal with some complementary shots of a Nepalese rice wine (similar to saki) and a fragrant rice pudding. Walking through the streets of Kathmandu I saw three or four vegetarian restaurants. I didn’t see one that was Nepalese however - they were all Indian or European-run restaurants serving world food. It struck me that Nepal’s spirituality attracts a lot of people sympathetic to vegetaranism - even if Nepalese people don’t always share this belief. V Rating: VVVVV In Old Jerusalem you witness a religious experience every five seconds. As an atheist I saved my revelation for Village Green, a vegetarian restaurant located just outside the Jaffa Gate in the bustling heart of New Jerusalem. In normal circumstances, Village Green might have left a lesser impression on me. It’s a friendly, brightly lit restaurant with an upmarket cafeteria vibe. Diners select their food from a bain marie of “world food”, with a choice of soups, hot pies, pizzas and quiches, and a wide selection of salads and hot dishes. All food is freshly made, and there are many healthy options.
But times were not normal on the day we visited. After taking a hungry eight hours to cross the 90 km border from Jordan into Israel, and deprived of vegetarian staples like tofu for many months, Village Green was a like a mini miracle.
Andy and I each choose a slice of brown pastry pie - curried vegetable for me and spinach and tofu for Andy - to start our meal. The pastry was delicious although the fillings were a little bland. However, kudos to Village Green for using a vegan pie crust. We also each loaded up a plate with food from the salad bar and hot dishes. I loved the tofu cubes lightly stir fried in soy sauce, but this may have been partly because it was the first hint of soy bean to pass my lips in months. The roast potatoes and fresh brown lentil salad were also highlights. I thought the prices for the hot food and bain marie dishes were steep, (but maybe everything is expensive in Israel). On later trips we tried the vegetable soup and curried Indian soup (I would call it a dahl). Both were light and pleasant, if not super flavoursome. Better to stick with the bain marie food, in my opinion. If by some miracle you aren’t full after your first (or second) course, Village Green has a wide selection of tasty looking cakes and slices. Beer, wine and juices are also available, but the price of the alcoholic drinks is enough to make you think twice. Village Green isn’t trying to break culinary ground, preferring to offer a good spread of reliable world food vegetarian standards. But after months in the Middle East, this may seem innovative enough. Now that Andy and I have left the Middle East and Iran behind it’s time for a confession: we spend four secret days in Israel. One consequence of the tensions in the Middle East is that some countries, such as Syria, Lebanon and Iran, will not allow entry to people with an Israeli stamp in their passport. We managed to enter Israel via Jordan without getting a stamp, but didn’t write about it on our blogs until after we had been to Iran for fear of jeopardising our visa application. Andy was initially unsure about visiting Israel, but I managed to convince him with a singularly compelling argument: Israel is a vegetarian friendly nation.
Judaism has a number of rigorously laid out dietary rules which determine whether food is kosher (i.e. permitted to be eaten). One of the most fundamental rules is that meat and dairy foods may not be eaten together. In many instances this is also interpreted to mean that the same food utensils may not be used to prepare both meat and dairy dishes. Our first stop in Israel was Jerusalem. In a city so redolent with religion, it was hardly surprising that restaurants strictly observed kosher rules. Often when we entered a restaurant we would be met by a waiter, then asked if we would like to sit in the meat or in the dairy section (even better, sometimes we were also given the sub-choice of smoking or non-smoking). The dairy section had a meat and shellfish-free menu, making life very easy for vegetarians, if not vegans. Some restaurants took this a step further by only offering dairy or meat based food. While not always of the best quality, the dairy restaurants at least took the stress out of finding something vegetarian to eat and meant that we had a choice of food for dinner. We spent our last day in Israel in the carefree city of Tel Aviv. While we weren’t there long enough to experience the full range of restaurants, it seemed as though the dairy and meat prohibitions were less frequently observed, with many restaurants not segregating diners.
Another facet of Israel’s vegetarian friendliness is the popularity of felafel. As a devotee of Yummba, the delicious, vegetarian felafel store in Bondi Junction, I couldn’t wait to try the real thing in Jerusalem.
Felafel in Israel is different to felafel in the rest of the Middle East. The felafel balls are a lighter colour and softer to eat. The pita bread is stuffed with different types of delicious pickled vegetables, along with fresh salad (or sometimes instead of it) and hot chips are also added to the roll by default. I tried a couple of different felafel places, but found them disappointing. The felafel balls weren’t as well spiced as Yummba, the bread was not as soft and fresh, the hot chips were a guilty pleasure but are unnecessary when the filling is good, and the dips were not as flavoursome. Perhaps Yummba is not authentic, but if so I think it’s better than the real thing. While we only had a short time in Israel, I thought it was a fascinating country and gave us a welcome opportunity to eat a plethora of vegetarian food. I first heard of Sharjah, Dubai’s neighbour and the cultural capital of the United Arab Emirates, two months ago. I had no burning desire to go there on our world trip, but as Sharjah was the hub for the Middle East’s excellent budget airline, Air Arabia, we had no choice but to stop there for a night on the way to Nepal. One of the great things about visiting a place you didn’t know existed is that you have no preconceptions or expectations. Yet for some so unprepared, we had remarkable good fortune and a good time. Our first stroke of luck was to be befriended at the airport by an Iranian-Canadian woman who had recently moved to Sharjah. She and her husbad kindly offered us a lift to city centre, and when they heard we were vegetarian recommended that we eat at a vegetarian restaurant called Kamat. Coming from the Middle East (and having done no research about Sharjah), we were surprised and delighted that there would be a vegetarian restaurant there. What we hadn’t banked on was the large Indian migrant population. Many people come to Sharjah and Dubai from India and Nepal to earn money to support families back home. Lacking Dubai’s profile, Sharjah has much cheaper housing and so many workers live there and commute to jobs in Dubai. The large Indian population has led to a flourishing Indian restaurant industry. The biggest surprise came when we reached Kamat and drove around the block to find a park. Not only was the area filled with Indian restaurants, the bulk of them were vegetarian. Seeing so many vegetarian signs proudly displayed next to the more typically Middle Eastern kebab stores was like entering a parallel universe.
Kamat was a revelation. The menu was extensive, covering the gamut of South and North Indian vegetarian food. We ordered stuffed tandoori mushrooms and vegetable pakoras for starters, and a palak paneer for mains. The stuffed mushrooms came out first. I was away from the table when they arrived, and I returned to find Andy profusely thanking the bemused waiter and congratulating the restaurant on making the best food of our three month trip. He was right: the mushrooms were divine. They were fresh and barbequed in a succulent, dust red tandoori marinade. Because they were baked the outside baste was not too oily, and crunched lightly with each bite. Inside each mushroom was stuffed with a light, creamy spinach mixture which added flavour to the dish.Â
The vegetable pakoras were also good, with the vegetables still springy beneath the light, deep fried casing. The palak paneer was pleasant, with a brilliant green, thin sauce, but paled a little in contrast the other superb dishes.
At the end of the meal the attentive waiting staff brought us a beautiful tray with mixed sugar coated coriander and aniseed digestion aids. It was a lovely end to one of the best meals of our trip (including the many Indian meals we’ve since had in India!)
Sharjah may not have the glamour of Dubai, but it’s worth considering as an alternative stopover for the amazing food, friendly people and cheaper accommodation options. Kamat details: Address: King Faisal Road, Sharjah |
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