Dumplings in West Footscray and more tasty tidbits from around the traps

Sorry for the super long time between drinks, folks!  I have been really busy, and there are only so many things a girl can eat.  Although I did have a chuckle at this - it's pretty much my life!

Heh heh heh!

Anyway, I thought I'd make you a nice concentrated missal of all the goodies I've been chowing down on in the last couple of months.  Firstly, a shoutout to Tien, proprietor of Dong Que, hands down one of my all-time Footscray faves.

Dong Que do awesome coleslaws, from a prawn and pork with lotus root to this 'un, beef jerky with green papaya.

Their signature dish is bun ca thang long or turmeric-marinated fish served with lots of dill.  It's a northern Vietnamese specialty, related to bun cha Ha Noi (more on that later).  It's so popular that when you step into Dong Que, the air is redolent with gorgeous floral dill almost all the time.  To eat, you make a little DIY salad with noodles, herbs and fish.  If the supplied stinky anchovy sauce is too much, don't be shy to ask for the standard nuoc cham mam!

Dong Que were one of the stops on this year's Rickshaw Run.  I volunteered over a few sessions, as did the indomitable Kenny and Bennie from Consider the Sauce, as well as a number of FFB readers (big shoutouts to Chris, Mark, Jenny, Carolyn and Eve!)  We even had an awesome couple who had moved into Footscray barely a week before and liked what they saw so much that they signed up to volunteer too.

This is Eve who writes Conversation with Jenny who, despite her sylphic frame, managed to haul my ever-expanding person around one evening.  Thanks Eve!!  Footscray got some star power that night too with HaiHa Lee (next to me in the rickshaw), a long-time local resident and actor with many credits including Bed of Roses and Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries.  Her and partner Pier's go-to Footscray joint?  Not usual suspects Hao Phong or Sapa Hills - it's Tra Vinh!  Instant cred!

In other news, one day whilst roaming about, I found this little gem on the "other" side of Sunshine (near Dragon Express).

They sell gorgeous Polish cakes (I think by the slice) and plum jam donuts, plus take-home meals just like Babcia used to make.  (I had a Polish friend at school and I remember her mother pinching the skin on my forehead and saying, "STILL ROOM FOR MORE PIEROGIS!"  I think that's where my problems started.)  You can read more about Roli Poli over here at Pretty Wak by Amie Batalibasi, founder of Footscray's Colour Box Studio.

And while we're on the subject of dumplings, West Footscray's newest eatery opened just a few days ago!  It's called Magic Momo Kafe and it's the baby of Ravi (above).  Given the name, the four momo varieties are only a tiny part of the menu, which ranges from a big breakfast, to burgers or calamari and chips.  Everything is well priced, especially kids' options - from memory, pancakes with ice cream are about $4.

These chicken momos were yummy, the mince inside juicy and spiked with herbs, ginger and onion.  They can come simmered, steamed or fried, and Ravi said the steamed option is the most traditional.  We didn't get so lucky with the vegie version, which had collapsed somewhat.  Kenny and Bennie had better luck - theirs looked a bit plumper.  But surely all sins should be forgiven in the first week of opening!  (Magic Momo are at 588 Barkly St, West Footscray.)

What Magic Momo Kafe also have is a dizzying display of Indian sweets including four varieties of one of my faves, cham cham, which is almost like an eclair with a lightly-cooked gulab jamun-like exterior and a fudgy filling.  (It's the pink one above.)  They're all $2 each.

In other West Footscray news, Rino at Vari's Fruit & Veg has started offering seasonal organic fruit and veg boxes.  There are two sizes, $35 and $60, and you need to order by Wednesday for Saturday pickup.  He read me what was in both sizes and it's a very impressive amount of fresh organic produce.  You can also get eggs, and while I was there, Josh (aka, "the boss") and mum from Seven Hills Organic Farm came to drop off that week's order.  Boxes can also include Sourdough Kitchen bread (which Vari's actually sell fresh every day) and organic juice.  Call 9689 1491 for more deets.

West Footscray was pretty devvo that Andres and Shannon of Besito decided to hang up the arepa press, for family reasons.  The old site of Besito is currently under construction and is going to be the third Melbourne branch of Chawla's Indian.  According to their website, "Chawla's cream chicken was born not to die".  Yum, I think?!

Cookbook Watch - Indian Cooking in Sweden

These days, I rarely buy cookbooks in physical shops anymore. I research, then order online. And I get some review copies from publishers, too. But this book really caught my eye, and before I could help myself, I paid for it and left. (well, I did start to look up the price online, but couldn't get a good connection. Besides, you should support local book shops!)

So, what is this? An Indian cookbook, called "David Batras inte så tråkiga indiska kokbok", which translates into "David Batra's not so boring Indian cookbook". Is David Batra a well known chef, you ask? He is not. He is however a well know Swedish comedian, so when he promises a "not so boring cookbook"... He delivers.

Apparently, he cooks a lot in his spare time. His dad is Indian and this book is filled with David's own favorite recipes. Some are from his dad or his aunt, many are his own take on Indian classics. All are quick(-ish), and can be made with ingredients found at almost any supermarket.

Photos are pretty, and plentiful. I've read half the book and already planned next weeks menu. So, in short: two enthusiastic thumbs-up!

Butter Chicken Tikka Masala

There's a small restaurant near my gym. They have various Indian dishes, but by no means a full menu - and some sushi. I've always had the same thing - Butter Chicken Tikka Masala. It's just tender chicken in a smooth, mild, red sauce, with rice and maybe some toasted cashews on top. Tasty, simple.

And not that hard to make at home. I used a recipe from "50 great curries of India", and while I'm not entirely happy with it, it's good enough to blog about. A word of warning though - this is a very mild dish. If you want more spice, by all means, add it.

Also note that my measurements differ a little from the original - as usual, I can't help tinker a little with the recipes I use. (The original had even less spice, by the way. )  I also left out fenugreek - didn't have it.

Please note that you have to start well in advance, to drain the yogurt.

Butter Chicken Tikka Masala
serves 3
500 g chicken, boneless (I used one breast and two thighs)
400 ml yogurt
5 garlic cloves
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
1 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp coriander, ground
1/2 tsp cumin, ground
1/2 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 lime, juiced
2 tbsp neutral cooking oil

For the sauce:
700 g fresh tomatoes
70 g butter, cold
2 tbsp cream
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp garam masala
salt

On the night before you plan to cook this, drain the yogurt. I simply put it in a coffee filter and let it drip off any excess liquid (lots!) overnight.

In the morning, mince the garlic and grate the ginger. Mix this into the yogurt along with chili, coriander, cumin, garam masala, salt and lime juice.

Cut the chicken into large pieces and toss with the yogurt marinade. Cover with plastic, and refrigerate for at least a few hours.

Also, prepare the tomatoes in advance - you want to blanch them and peel them. Easiest way is to cut a small cross into each, and drop them into boiling water. After about a minute, move them to a bowl of cold water, and when they're cold enough to handle, simply slip off the skins. Mash the tomatoes with a  potato ricer, or a fork. (Or just use a blender, I'm sure that's easier.)

When ready to cook, cook the chicken in the oil, on medium heat. Meanwhile, cook some rice, and bake some Naan if you feel ambitious. (I did!)

For the sauce, cook the tomatoes on medium heat for about five minutes. Add the butter and the spices. When the butter has melted, add the cream, and season with salt and more spices if you'd like. Immediately pour over the chicken and serve.

The book warns you not to make the sauce in advance - it's meant to be served right away. Otherwise, I suspect the butter might cause it to split.

I Just Can’t Get Enough

There are some foods, some dishes, that I feel I could eat to infinity - dishes where I lose all self control.  Or at least, I don’t want to stop eating, and making myself put on the brakes requires a great deal of discipline. Usually salty crunchy things fall into that category; for instance, I could eat Doritos until I turn orange, but the other foods that put me in a state of compulsive gorging followed by a state of gleeful shame are less obvious. These foods may include, but are not limited to, mashed potatoes, spaghetti carbonara, uni (Well, I’ve never actually had the opportunity to eat my body weight in uni. I’m guessing I’d get my fill faster than I think), chicken fricassee, sausage biscuits, my mom’s cream of mushroom soup (I could drink it like a milkshake), pimiento cheese, tomato sandwiches, burrata, buttermilk pie, Cadbury Creme Eggs (made myself sick eating four in a row) and vichyssoise (made myself sick on that one, too), and pan gravy. I can power down some gravy. And I don’t need it to be on anything, either.

Some of these foods come from my childhood, but just as many don’t at all. Some are sweet and some are salty, some are solid and some are liquid. I don’t see a particular profile or pattern in them at all. That’s what is so interesting about all of us. And what’s so fascinating about food.

Recently, like a bolt of lightning, a dish zapped into my head from my childhood. It was from the era of my mom’s ‘experimental and/or ethnic food phase’ - I’d say this was the late 1980s. We called it Anuradha Rice. I remember exactly what it tasted and looked like, but I couldn’t recall its story or what the recipe was at all. So I called Mom.

When she used to work at an art gallery back in Richmond, she had a co-worker that had recently moved, with her husband, from India. Her name was Anuradha. My mom, Harland and Leslie - all Anderson Gallery people - were all going through this ‘experimental and/or ethnic food phase’ together and thought it would be really great to learn about some of Anuradha’s favorite dishes from home and how to prepare them here. Or rather, how to prepare them in Richmond, Virginia.

I don’t know what, if any, other dishes came out of these cooking classes, but I do know that one in particular stuck in our kitchen. It was a rice dish with some sort of yogurty-ness on top. No one ever found out the actual name for this dish, if it had one, so it has always been Anuradha Rice. My mom, Harland and I ate it all the time, especially in the warm months. It seems like it would be a side dish but it was our meal. And I tell you what, I could have eaten a mountain of it.

After finding out about the dish, and a loose version of how to prepare it, I set to finding the ingredients so I could go about bringing Anuradha Rice into my house, here in LA. When I was searching for the mustard seeds, I was chatting on the phone with Heather. I told her I “was trying to make a rice dish that mom used to m...” At which point she cut me off and stated, “Anuradha Rice!” That shows you how much of a staple it was back then.

I’ve made it twice in the past few days, both versions came out perfectly. The main reason for that is it is a breeze to make. Not only is it a cinch, but the ingredients are easy to find and inexpensive. It’s a bright, fresh, clean, velvety and incredibly satisfying dish. The simplicity of the ingredients and the way they marry perfectly together is uncanny. The smooth, cool yogurt with little crunches of cucumber on top of the warm, soft rice with the teeny-tiiny pops of the mustard seeds make for an eye opening journey in temperatures and textures. My mom came over to visit today and is literally eating a bowl of it while I type this.

So, I recently noticed that I have a lot of new readers of late, and I would love to get to know y’all. I was thinking it would be fun to get some dialogue going between us. After going through my brain and digging up all of those edibles I just can’t get enough of, it made me exceedingly curious to find out what everyone else’s may be. So, please, leave me a list of yours in the comment section. And who knows I may have to try them out to see if they get tacked on to my list. Because, really, all I need is one more thing I just can’t stop eating!

Anuradha Rice

Serves 4 as an entree
Serves 6 as a side dish

Ingredients

For rice:
2 cups Basmati rice, cooked and cooled to room temperature
1 ½ tablespoon mustard seeds
1 ½ teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon oil or ghee

For yogurt:
2 1/2 cups plain yogurt
¾ cup red onion, diced
1 large (or 2 medium) ripe tomato, chopped
*1 cup cucumber, peeled and chopped
1 large clove garlic, minced
½ cup cilantro, chopped
Salt & pepper to taste

Directions

*Toss chopped cucumber in a small bowl with ½ teaspoon of kosher salt, and let sit 10 minutes. This is to remove excess water from cucumber.

Place all ingredients for yogurt mixture in bowl and mix well. Set aside in refrigerator.

Heat oil (or ghee) in wok or large cast iron skillet. Add mustard seeds and cook on medium-high until they begin to pop. Be careful not to get hit in the eyeball by hot, oily, popping mustard seeds. Cook until a few of the seeds have popped, but don’t worry about popping them all.

Add the cooked and cooled rice, add turmeric and stir well. Once rice is mixed well with the oil and mustard seeds, and heated through with the littlest bit of crisp remove from heat.

Portion rice on to plates and top with a generous amount of the yogurt mixture and serve.


Printable recipe.


One year ago: Yerp: Part 7 - The End
Two years ago: Great Balls on Tires
Three years ago: Baked Tomatoes with Goat Cheese, Fresh Herbs & Hazelnut Breadcrumbs

Indo-Chinese zaniness at Pandu's

You know those stories of ghost ships?  Not only spectral vessels like the Flying Dutchman, doomed to sail the sea for all eternity, but ships that are found drifting with their entire crew having vanished without a trace.  For a long time, Pandu's was my ghost ship.  It used to inhabit a bare-bones little spot in Buckley Street in the strip of shops now demolished for the rail link.  Mr Baklover would insist that it was a restaurant, that he had seen people inside eating, drinking and making merry.  Yet every time I drove past it would be empty, and though I craned my neck I could see no signs of life.  "You're going mad!" I told my long-suffering husband.  "There's no restaurant there!"

Very happily I was proven wrong when Kenny checked out Pandu's, reporting an exciting Indian-Chinese menu at prices guaranteed to make even the saltiest sea dog grin from ear to ear.  It closed down and again thanks to Consider the Sauce, we learnt that Mr Pandu would be taking up new deluxe digs where the old Western Mart had been on "Upper Barkly" (if you like).

It was a long time coming but Pandu's is finally open.  It's quite quirky inside, with pimpin' cream lounge suites almost levitating on tinted wooden blocks instead of legs.

There are lots of little nooks and kind of "private rooms".  I can totally see a Bollywood dance scene happening in here, with the star crooning on the table while big wok flames jump out of the kitchen and a flash mob of bodacious Indian babes start grooving seductively.  As it stands, though, the only sound is the hum of the kitchen extraction fan, and the lack of colour makes it feel a bit like a bunker.  With some art or other decoration on the walls and a banging sound system, there's great potential here for a very cool hang-out spot.

Indian Chinese is the result of Chinese restauranteurs in India adapting their cuisine for local tastes.  According to this quite authoritative article from CNN Go, the Chinese Hakka community has been resident in Calcutta since the 1700s.  Thus began the authenticity acrobatics which see migrant communities all over the world begin to adapt traditional recipes for local palates.  As author Sanjiv Khamgaonkar puts it, "Quick to figure out that Indians love spicy, oily preparations, the Chinese merely masala-fied and greased their cuisine into a glutinous, winning combination".

Source:  www.chingssecret.com

That's extremely matter of fact (and rather unappealing) but it's essentially Indian Chinese in a nutshell - take (sometimes vaguely) Chinese recipes like battered chicken and fried rice and add Indian flavours like curry leaves, spices, tomato, chilli, plus a generous helping of soy sauce.

An example at Chilli India, CBD

Oh, put those eyebrows down!  I know it sounds horrible, but I am a big fan.  Aangan in West Footscray do great Indian Chinese like gobi Manchurian - battered cauliflower florets in a dark, almost sticky sauce with onion and green capsicum, and Chicken 65 - battered chicken tossed with an intense, spicy red sauce, cashews and glistening green curry leaves.  Aangan are known for their Indian Chinese and it's what you'll see many Indian customers enjoying, rather than what we might see as "the classics" like butter chicken and Rogan Josh.

Cashew milk, $3.95

But anyway - onto Pandu's!   A liquor licence is in the works, so while waiting we imbibed this homemade cashew milk.  Holy Bolly(wood), this was delicious.  The honey drizzled down the sides mixed with the cardamom-scented, slightly frothy milk for a cooling taste sensation.

Szechwan chicken, $10.95

Just after we ordered, the sweet waitress came back and asked if we wanted our dishes "with sauce".  "Well, yes," we replied, thinking without sauce we might just receive a plate of battered chicken, not unlike KFC opposite.  This was a big mistake as instead of those wonderful intense, reduced sauces I'm used to, our Indian Chinese morsels came in a lake of glutinous sauce.  This Szechwan chicken was quite nice but the sauce - very thick tomato - was overpowering.

Cauliflower Manchurian, $8.95

Likewise the gobi Manchurian, battered cauli in a moat of sweet brown sauce, lacked that intense flavour punch I covet.  Moral - make sure you have your choices "dry" or "without sauce".  Check out Kenny's more successful visit for how your dishes should look.

$11.95

Sometimes I want something but I can't order it because I can't bear to say the words.  The very hip "magic" falls into this category - it's a double ristretto in a 3/4 cup and is quite a lovely drink (especially for single origins) but every time I try to say, "I'll have a magic, please", the hipsterese jams in my throat.  Likewise, don't you sometimes see things on a menu and have such a giggle that you simply have to have them?  Ladies and germs, I give you SEVEN JEWELS OF PANDU'S.  This Indian-style fried rice was delicious, each separate grain dusted with turmeric and other spices, and nestling amongst them crunchy almonds, fresh pops of colourful capsicum, juicy egg and nutty nuggets of well-fried chicken.  Yummo.

So unfortunately our Pandu's experience wasn't as good as it could have been, but that was probably our fault for not investigating what "sauce" entailed (it's probably served like that because they figured we were having rice and wanted to have lots of sauce to wet the rice - a really southern Indian thing to do).  "Indian barbecue" is coming soon, plus the liquor licence.  Good on you, Captain Pandu, and looking forward to climbing aboard your love boat again soon!



Pandu's Indo-Chinese Restaurant
351 Barkly Street, Footscray
Phone:  0468 378 789


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Mishra's Kitchen

On quiet-as-the-proverbial Wembley Ave, the Bollywood tunes sing sweetly down the empty street, and you can't help but be drawn in to Mishra's Kitchen.

This sandwich bar by day morphs into an Indian restaurant at night.  Inside, the decor is slightly functional but still belies a loving touch.

Chef Sanjeev is the personality behind Mishra's Kitchen and he is full of smiles, whether busy at work in the open kitchen or checking that everyone's happy at your table.  A smartly-dressed young waiter gave us attentive, friendly service.

Onion bhaji, $5

Onion bhaji to start.  I found these a bit dull - I prefer the more freeform style of bhaji/pakora that, say, Indi Hots do.

Samosa, $5

These samosas were nice - love the authentic touch of ajwain seeds in the dough - but they were big and, for me, too substantial for an entree.  More like a light lunch really.

Alu baigan masala, $10

Top marks for this eggplant and potato curry, the potato perfectly tender and imbued with spices, the eggplant silky with glistening black skin, all in a rich red sauce.

Butter chicken, $12

Great butter chicken too, not too buttery and with rich tomato flavour.  I may or may not have hoovered up the leftovers for breakfast the next day.  One great thing about Mishra's is all the menu items have codes as to whether they are gluten- and/or lactose-free.

Shabnam curry, $10

This mushroom and pea curry was well made with fresh vegies but was very rich, not from excessive oil or butter but from coconut cream.  It was a little too much for me but if you were hankering for a creamy curry, this would wrap you up like a fluffy blanket.

Special of the day, $12?

This was the chef's special of the day, a chicken and vegie curry in a coconut sauce, which I think was the same sauce as the mushroom curry above - an unintentional double-up on our part.  Delicious but again, rich.  I am keen to try more of the tomato- and/or vinegar-based curries like the eggplant and potato above.

Rice, $3

Tender basmati rice, each grain separate...

Plain naan ($2) and garlic naan ($2.50)

...and winning, proper tandoori naan, big discs puffed right up like woodfired pizza, providing contrast between crackled top and chewy bottoms.  Spy the tandoori oven in the earlier kitchen pic, skewers dangling promisingly above it.  I think the naan prices are really fair - hate paying $3.50 or more for one soggy garlic naan at other places.  

We only really skimmed the surface of the menu and somehow managed to unintentionally miss the entire tandoori section.  I had four kids with me and felt like I was playing that carnival game where the gophers pop up out of holes and you have to bash them down with a squishy hammer - averting crises left, right and centre!  To this end, the butter chicken was a hit (pun fully intended).

I'm keen to try the Goan fish (with ground coconut, tamarind and whole spices), the vindaloo with garlic and green chilli and even the kormas, with an almond-based, white sauce.  The serves seem bigger than other Indian restaurants and the prices are great - $10 for veg curries, $12 for meat and $14 for seafood.  Next Indian takeaway night, I'm here - parking is a snap to boot.

Thanks to Kenny for the company and the great tip - check out Kenny's visits here and here!  Also thanks to Melissa who wrote to me, saying: "Thanks for creating your blog and celebrating the west!  My partner and I went to Mishra's Kitchen at Wembley Ave, yarraville last night.  Best indian in years (since the Carlton Curry House uni days).  Great food, prices and a chef that is passionate about his food, sharing and the community feel."



Mishra's Kitchen
18 Wembley Avenue, Yarraville
Phone:  9314 3336
Open Mon-Sat 11am-3pm (lunch menu) and 5pm-10pm (Indian dinner menu)


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Chicken Curry-Indian style

 a straight up Chicken Curry recipe.  my go-to sauce when i want something rich, warm and spicy.  i don't know how 'authentic' it is, being that Newport Beach is not the mecca of Indian cuisine...and i have not yet been to India, but it does the deal when craving something with a good deep garam masala curry flavor, not that boring yellow curry that i grew up with.  i do have another great curry recipe, but this one is so easy with no frills, no creamy coconut or yogurt sauce...just good curry.

the chicken is tender, the curry sauce is tasty, it's easy to throw together and it freezes well for reheating. i've made it quite a few times and always change up a little something, but i finally wrote down the basics.  you could easily add a little coconut milk or some plain Greek yogurt if you wanted to make it a creamy style curry.

 i'm not big on carbs so i usually serve this with some steamed cauliflower, but this would be a fabulous main dish over some basmati rice, cous cous or maybe wrapped up in some naan...even a soft flour tortilla or some pasta if you're feelin' like some fusion.

NOTE...i've made this with extra firm tofu as well.  one time i cubed and sauteed the tofu in a little olive oil before adding to the curry mixture.  the second time i just added it in cubed.  always drain and press your tofu before using so it will absorb all the flavors.  i just finished some that i had frozen and it was delicious...not quite as saucy but still very flavorful and didn't separate as some sauces might.

CHICKEN CURRY... INDIAN STYLE

2-3 Tbsp olive oil

1 large onion, diced

1 clove garlic, small dice

1-2 jalapeno, small dice (remove seeds if you can't handle the heat)

1 Tbsp grated ginger

1 1/4 lbs skinned boneless chicken thighs cut into large bite size.

2 cups chicken stock.  homemade or low sodium

1 Tbsp Madras curry

2 Tbsp Garam Masala curry

1 tsp Mexican chili powder (use your discretion)

zest from 1/2 lemon

a squeeze of lemon juice, more or less to taste

cilantro or parsley for garnish

salt and pepper to taste

saute onion, garlic, jalapeno and ginger in olive oil until onion is just translucent

add spices, stir in for 2-3 minutes to wake up the spices...until fragrant

add chicken and stir

add broth and incorporate all

let simmer until chicken is cooked through

curry sauce should thicken a bit.

add a bit of zest and a squeeze of lemon

taste for seasoning.  probably needs salt at this point

zest lemon and sprinkle parsley/cilantro over and serve.

Chilli India

Billy and I got very excited recently about the "Supper Market" opening in the basement of the new Westville Central development.  We began daydreaming of the clang of wok sang on huge, blackened wok, great licks of flame being thrown in the air lighting up the faces of the hawkers, the scent of wok hei rising up the escalators.  After a minute I raised my eyebrow though.  "Um...  I reckon they mean supermarket."

Well, at least I have Chilli India.  Tables crammed into the tiny passageway leading into Melbourne Central, buzzing late at night, it's as close to an authentic hawker centre I'm gonna get anytime soon!

The only eat-in area at Chilli India is sort of outside, yet under the covered walkway.  It's packed with students, smoochy couples and big families tucking into silver-trayed thalis.  As we sat, there was a non-stop, steady stream of hungry people queuing to order at the register.  You can still have friendly, efficient table service and they will bring you booze from the main Chillipadi next door.

Right next to the register is a huge flat-plate BBQ where this rockstar chef whips up dosa and freshly-made roti before your beady eyes.  MMMMMMM!

The drawcard here is not only the freshly-made Malaysian-Indian street food but the biryani.  Commenter Make Best West had informed me that the biryani at Dosa Hut is far from the real deal and indeed "the worst biryani I ever had.  I can say that because I hail from the land of biryani (Hyderabad) and this place is making a mockery of such a beautiful cuisine. Authentic biryani is light in spices and has a nice balance of important ingredients such as yoghurt, mint, lime and golden-coloured fried onions - none of them could be found in this version.  This lame version was floating with chillies, cloves, star anise, cardamom, cinnamon and less-meat-more-bone cheap meat."

Special Hyderabadi dum biryani (chicken)

I am always up for being corrected and when the suggestion is this good, I am profoundly grateful.  This was a very special biryani.  The rice grains are totally separate, non-greasy and underneath are pieces of supremely tender marinated chicken.  I still detected hints of spice but it did indeed have a lemony fragrance.  It came with pots of sweet raita and an almost peanutty sauce.  As we sat, waiters brought out brass pot after brass pot of this obvious crowd favourite.  The chicken could get a bit bony but the flavours were all there.

Chilli chicken

I love Indian-Chinese food - it is a total mindf**k.  Confronted with battered meat or vegies in sauce that looks like bland suburban Chinese food, your head says no, but your heart asks, "Why does it taste so bloody good then?"  Indian-Chinese takes the battered nuggets and thick sauce of "bad Chinese" and switches it up with heaps of chilli, tang and spice in true Indian style.  This was delicious, really spicy and zingy with green onion and ginger.

Vegetable avial with plain roti and roti Chenai

Avial is a very southern-style curry with fresh vegetables, coconut and yoghurt.  This was delicious with fresh, tender broccoli, beans and carrot.  The sauce was thick and creamy but not naively, suburbanly so and highlighted with curry leaves and mustard seeds.  The breads were fantastic - the Chenai was flakier, more pastry like while the plain was like a well-fried chapati.  I find it very hard to eat roti now unless it has been made fresh in house.

I know the Chillipadi brand often divides opinion quite sharply but I thought this meal was fab.  Everything was fresh, cheap and tasty, it had a real buzz and we had great, friendly service.  I might be cynical about the soon-to-open "Supper Market" but Chilli India is a great street-style option in the meantime.

Chilli India

Menzies Alley, Melbourne Central
Phone:  9669 3866

Hours:  Mon-Tues 11am-3.30pm, Wed-Sat 11am-3.30pm, 6pm-10.30pm

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