“We’re going to dinner with Trissa and Dan” I tell Mr NQN one evening and then mumble “It’s Indian French” and then scamper off quickly before he can ask me to clarify. No such luck “Whaaat? Did you say Indian French?” he asks incredulously. *Gulp* “Yes” I answer. “Well I hope it ends better than the last fusion restaurant we went to” and I can’t help but agree.
Inside it’s vivid oranges as Dan points out as he’s wearing a bright orange shirt too. There are oranges in a bowl, orange lights and there’s also a touch of the Old Raj in one corner with gilt edged tables and chairs. The menu sounds tempting so we ask the waitress what she recommends and she decisively reels off 4 entrees and 4 mains.
Green pea cappucino
Our amuse bouche is a light green pea cappucino which is deliciously earthy with a light touch of Indian spices.
Cumin Infused Trout Confit $16
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If I ever were in a position to give a restaurant an award for Best Name it would have to be Posh Spice in Newtown. For I am speaking about a restaurant, not the emaciated fashionista ex Spice Girl perched on increasingly vertiginous shoes who only has a fleeting familiarity with actual food.
The entrance to Posh Spice advertises Bollywood Dancing on Friday and Saturday nights and the colourful fuchsia walls and staircase lead to a very nicely outfitted restaurant – one that is adorned with plasma screens playing Bollywood videos, wooden carvings and all things chicly Indian.
The other Posh Spice. She wasn’t there by the way.
Cameron, my husband and I are dining using the Eatability two for one main discount (now finished but keep an eye out for it should it appear again) where feeding two famished men fresh from sailing all day is paramount. We order four mains-the three restaurant specialties, as well as the Spinach & Cheese Naan and the Peshwari Naan and a selection of sides for $6.50 (Katchumber: chopped tomato and onion salad; mango chutney and Raita: cucumber and yogurt).
Aishwarya Rai mocktail $6.50
Given the intriguing names in the cocktail menu like Sex in Mumbai, Slumdog Margarita and Sachin Ballbanger, I start with the Aishwarya Rai, a ginger ale and grenadine mocktail. My husband and Cameron go for the Salty Lassis ($4 each). They’re similar to the Ayran drinks and not too bad although my husband admits he prefers Mango Lassis.
Complimentary appetisers
Our complimentary appetisers are made of deep fried bread, spread with three types of cheese (a mint cheese and two others), battered and deep friend.
Gosht Mirch Ka Salan: Lamb $19
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Ashiana’s is what we call our old favourite, our standby. With our family in law of vegetarians and vegans its a hard task to find a nice place that will cater to everyone without making the omnivores suffer or have to listen to false exclamations of “There’s NOTHING vegetarian on the menu” (*sigh* honestly, I wonder if they just like saying that). In the heart of Manly, just off the main Corso, Ashiana’s is full of rich maroon and red tones and gold and a trail of tealights leads you up the stairs to the main restaurant.
Ordering Indian is fairly easy, we omnivores share our dishes and the rest do their thing. I am in the mood for tandoori chicken and fish tikka as the weather is hot and a curry doesn’t really appeal to me. We order a slew of dishes with the European waitress. She seems to understand what we’ve ordered but as we later learn, she hasn’t quite got the dishes down.
Delhi Special Chaat $7.50
Our meals come quickly starting with an unusual fried pasta-like dish, Delhi Special Chaat -fried ravioli shaped pieces are coated in a tangy English chutney style sauce. Unusual and vinegary, perhaps too vingeary for my taste but I am not a huge fan of vinegars.
Tandoori chicken (full) $18.50
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I have a riddle for you: what do you do if you have a crowd of vegans/vegetarians some of whom eat like a horse, you’re in the Eastern Suburbs/Inner City of Sydney, and they want to be fed for under $15?
Answer: Take them to Maya!
Everything on Maya Indian Sweets menu is vegetarian and a lot of it, except items with dairy, are vegan so vegetarians and vegans are really spoilt for choice here. Despite its name, Maya Sweets doesn’t just sell sweets, it also sells a range of hot dishes with dosais, thali, uttapams and tasting platters. Indeed my favourite item there and our first order for the night is the Thali “Punjabi” tasting plate, an enormous stainless steel rimmed plate with a selection of 4 curries, raita, pickles, rice, 2 roti breads and a dessert ($13.90). There are also two other Thali tasting plates to choose from. Tonight we’re in the mood for something different so its the mixed sizzler plate with a Til ka kebab, Paneer tikka, a samosa and a naan with mint yogurt ($12.90).
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Every couples of months or so, we get together with friends to have what we informally call one of our “World Food Nights”. This entails cooking the cuisine from the nominated country, dressing up in national clothing and listening to music from that country. So far the countries we have subjected to this treatment are: England, Germany, Sweden, and Southern USA (where we’ve made good use of Nigella’s “Trashy” chapter in Nigella Bites). Kazakhstan was ruled out as we couldn’t acquire any of the ingredients.
We decided that an Indian night was in order and just the ticket for some warming curries. We provided the booja mix (2 kinds), Dahl, home made Roti Paratha and a “Bollywood Glamour” Chai cocktail. Another couple brought Butter chicken, Raita, an Indian version of Twisties, Onion Paratha and Pappadums while another couple brought rice, a large box of sweets and some samosas from Maya Indian Sweets. The sweets were rich and interesting and I don’t think I’ve come across an Indian dessert or sweet that I haven’t liked. The sweet selection deserves a separate post of its own detailing each and every flavour.
Armed with some borrowed saris from kind friends and sister in laws and a lot of safety pins, we wrapped and wrapped and wrapped ourselves up in our saris in what we hoped was an accurate approximation of a sari (we did follow instructions but its hard!). Although this time we didn’t have any Indian music, the combination of food, incense scented candles, Indian themed flatware, Indian cushions, bowls and bindis adorning our foreheads was, what we hoped, an authentic salute to India.
And I’ll spare you the pics of us in costume!
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