Currying flavour a success
Saturday, 29 May 2010
THE WRAP
Little India Bistro and Tandoor, 4 Alexandra St, Hamilton, phone 07 838 1620, www.littleindia.co.nz
Service: Fastidious, polite and charming.
Food: Delightfully addictive and value for money.
Bonus: The dinner menu is also the takeaway menu and Little India will cater on location.
"Curry" is a word invented by the British. In fact several hundred years before the Raj adopted Indian cuisine, curry was already starting to be a "thing" with the Brits. While it's an anglicised version of the Tamil word khari, curry has become the all-in-one word for a spicy stew across a number of cultures. In England, though, it is such an enduring hit that recently chicken tikka masala - the British derivative of the Indian tikka which doesn't traditionally end in masala (or sauce) - has been named a British national dish.
It's hardly surprising curry is adored in a country with such a cold winter, because as soon as it gets chilly here we find ourselves making a pilgrimage to our favourite curry restaurants. Thankfully Hamilton is blessed with a few. You can be assured your favourite curry will be on the menu at most Indian restaurants. This can be a comfort, considering Indian favourites have, I suppose, gone through years of development, rejection and ultimate public choice to be featured unanimously.
Even though the cuisine of northern India differs from that of the south, chances are you can have both in one sitting. So it's like comparing apples with apples really and you get what you pay for. Our favourite hole in the wall takeaway is cheap and cheerful, substituting silverbeet for spinach in the saag dishes and cheaper cuts of meat like hogget in the rogan josh. But for less than $10 we're not complaining. Then there's Little India in Alexandra St which has always been a standout. There's enough panache here to ensure that even if you are picking up takeaways you feel reasonably special. The service charms, the curry is good, the rice falls grain by grain from the fork and anything cooked in the tandoor has that lovely smoky, spicy taste that just can't be achieved unless you thought ahead and installed a tandoor in the home kitchen. On Sunday when we visited, the wind whistled down Alexandra St and only the brave were out.
Winter's here, we thought, battling first-day colds and hankering for some chilli to blow the demons away. Anything to liven the tastebuds.
Little India's wine/beer list is better than most and while I think the Astrolabe pinot gris may have been a little sweet for the curry we ordered, it went down easily enough. First up samosas, served pyramid style, two per serve ($5.50). Potatoes, peas and cumin, flaky pastry and delicious.
Malai tikka ($13), marinated in yoghurt, white pepper, crushed cashews, cheese, spiced, cooked in the tandoor, rolled in fresh coriander and drop-dead gorgeous. The great thing about curries is they are made to share. We have lamb jalfrazee ($18), notably created during the days of the Raj and cooked with spices, red peppers, coconut milk and tomatoes, and it is tender and delicious; and malai kofta ($15), a vegetarian specialty.
We also munch on paneer, mixed with nuts and spices, fried and served in a spiced cashew sauce.
Nice. A little light on the kofta, but perfectly medium hot. The vegetable kulcha ($4), a fresh and pillowy naan stuffed with vegetables, paneer and spices was good too.
Dessert? A mango kulfi sounded tempting and proved delightful.
A pyramid of mango ice cream, with a texture that suggested ground almonds on a sponge base, was the perfect palate refresher to a meal enjoyed.
By LOUISE BELAY - Waikato Times
