Showing posts with label bread pudding. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bread pudding. Show all posts

India Palace (Dubai)


Sometimes, just sometimes, I feel sorry for people who travel with me. Visiting another city means an opportunity to try new restaurants, indulge in other cuisines, and taste something different from what we have at home. So, while visiting Dubai, I had three requests to try Emirati cuisine, local Indian food, and non-fancy shawarma.

After a couple of days of ‘friendly’ reminders, an opportunity finally presented itself to have Indian food in a residential neighbourhood. We would be visiting a friend of my travel companion (“M”) and after begging for something Indian, she suggested Indian Palace: the restaurant has an extensive menu, it’s delicious, and it’s ‘safe’ for our foreign stomachs.

Set in a strip plaza, off a highway, the large flashing signs and ample parking spots brought me to an area of Dubai that already felt homier. Things weren’t opulent and glitzy. Don’t go expecting valet services, although you can still get a car wash from proprietors lugging buckets.

M wasn’t kidding when she said there’s a lot of choice at Indian Palace… it took forever to get through the menu and settle on four dishes. We decided to start with the tandoori lal jhinga (AED69) or a skillet of grilled shrimp marinated with herbs and tandoori masala. It’s a simple but tasty dish, although I would have liked more of the kashmiri chillies, noted on the menu, for something spicier.


The dum ka zafrani murgh (AED42) had more pizazz. Pieces of chicken were cooked with a saffron almond sauce in a sealed pot. The nuts were finely ground, so it adds a creaminess to the gravy as well as a light nuttiness. It’s a dish in the same vein as butter chicken, but without the tomato sauce and heaviness, so you don’t feel bad having seconds and thirds.


I could have an entire order of the murgh biryani dum wala (AED44) to myself. At Indian Palace, they cook the rice in a vessel covered with bread, creating a dome that seals in juices so the biryani is moister and remains hotter than normal. It’s aromatic and flavourful, two things I was craving that evening, so this dish fully satisfied.


The biryani had everything the dal tadka (AED22) lacked. The lentils may have incorporated a bit of cumin and garlic, but otherwise was flat and boring, hardly adding a dent of taste to the rice or naan.


For dessert, the shahi tukda (AED19) was a nice change from the typical sugary choices. To clarify, the rabdi (a saffron and rose water syrup) the rectangles of dense bread sat in was, of course, sweet. However, the sweetness was controlled, and the slivers of pistachios added a nice savoury crunch.


At the end, the meal starts and ends the same way: with a golden vessel filled with things to taste and try. In the beginning, it’s filled with chutneys and pickles to smear onto crispy papadum. To end, it’s filled with licoricey seeds, sugar, and fenugreek to calm the stomach and promote digestion. Finally, the tastes of India I hoped to experience was at last checked off the list.  


Overall mark - 7 out of 10


How To Find Them
 Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
 Address: Al Garhoud, Near Le Meridien Fairway

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____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System

  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!

Chubby's Jamaican Kitchen (Toronto)


For being such a multi-cultural city, Toronto is sadly devoid of non-fast food Jamaican restaurants. While I have no objections with having a huge stuffed roti or plate of jerk chicken for $10, I also like to enjoy the food slowly, with friends, and preferably with a drink in hand. Enter Chubby’s Jamaican Kitchen, where there’s plenty of drinks to be had and food to share.

You can’t go wrong with any of the likkle bites, such as the saltfish fritters ($12), each two-bite pastry lightly packed with plenty of fish in a deliciously hot crispy crust. The miniature Jamaican patties ($10) arrives four to an order: two tasty curry turkey ones incorporating the right amount of spice and tons of gravy along with two vegetarian coconut patties, which after the turkey feels a bit plain. Nonetheless the pastry is great and the filling heartier than the typical frozen variety.


If you like scampi shrimp, Chubby’s pepper shrimp ($16) incorporates a base of garlic butter then adds scotch bonnet chili sauce to make it fiery red. They’re juicy and flavouful where you’ll definitely feel the heat, in a bearable way.


The slow-baked jerk wings ($16) were a sizeable portion and great for sharing. With a sticky dry rub made from honey, scotch bonnet dust, and lime zest, the spice slowly builds on the tongue and leaves a light burn to remind you it is jerk. While the wings were enjoyable, they should be cooked less as the chicken was bordering on dry.


There’s also a variety of jerk offerings for mains. Having had the chicken wings, we opted for the jerk pork ($17), which arrives as two cuts: a fried pork belly and a grilled buckeye loin. Surprisingly, the leaner loin was the moister of the two; the pork belly so overdone that it was chewy. Chubby’s smartly pairs the meat with sautéed seasonal vegetables, a mixture of kale and collard green that’s just cooked until wilted with bits of kale stalk added for crunch. This is one dish where the vegetables are just as good as the protein.


My favourite dishes were the saucy ones with rice. The curry chicken ($16) contained bone-in pieces boiled until tender in a flavourful light curry sauce. A bowl of jasmine rice accompanies the curry with papaya chutney and shaved coconut if you want to make it tropical, I just liked it plain. While not pictured, the Caribbean veggie stew ($15) was rich and satisfying, where the pumpkin and sweet potato helped thicken, coconut milk made things creamy, and the corn and beans added texture.


With a ton of sides to choose from, a large group is ideal so you can mix and match: the rice and peas ($5) actually contains red kidney beans and goes nicely with the jerk pork, Chubby’s slaw ($5) has a great vinegar base and cools any spice, the fried okra ($6) is surprisingly large with the bigger pieces split in half so there’s no sliminess, and the jerk tempeh ($7) reminds me of a hearty mung bean side, great by itself or with curry.


The rum and raisin bread pudding ($10) got me so excited that I forgot to take a picture of the dessert. Cut into cubes and then deep fried, the dessert is crispy on the outside and soft and cinnamonny on the inside. They’re like hot delicious beignets with a warm caramel sauce and cooling vanilla gelato.

While it’s best to go to Chubby’s Jamaican Kitchen as a larger group, the circular tables are so small that you can hardly fit anything else if everyone orders drinks and the hot sauce is placed on the table. We had to ask the staff to take away the tea light and strategically place items on our seats to allow the food to fit.


Nonetheless, we managed and enjoyed our dinner. Perhaps it’s the environment, sit on the second floor and you’ll feel like you’re transported to a Caribbean destination: the skylights let in the sunshine, while the slowly spinning fans and tropical décor give you a lazy feel. Everything, is gonna be all right.

Overall mark - 8 out of 10


How To Find Them
 Location: Toronto, Canada
 Address: 104 Portland Street

Follow me on twitter to chat, be notified about new posts and more - https://twitter.com/GastroWorldBlog
____________________________
Gastro World's Grading System

  • Anything under 5 - I really disliked and will never go back
  • 6 - decent restaurant but I likely won't return
  • 7 - decent restaurant and I will likely return
  • 8 - great restaurant that I'd be happy to recommend
  • 9 - fantastic restaurant that I would love to visit regularly and highly recommend
  • 10 - absolute perfection!


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