Nsh Out - Eat like a Bombay Local

I’m a huge fan of Indian buffets. When it comes to ethnic cuisine, I always run into the problem of too many choices, too many things I want to eat, and not enough sampling platters to try them. Clearly, I don’t run into this issue at a buffet. Typically, Indian restaurants will run a weekday lunch buffet, but dinner is a normal menu. This runs true for India Kitchen in Manchester, with the exception of Wednesday and Sunday. Wednesday nights, they run a special Bombay Chat dinner buffet and at about $15 per person, its worth a trip.

The first thing of note about India Kitchen was the lack of Caucasians. Everyone working there was Indian and so was most of the clientele. Families filled the booths and the chatter around the restaurant was in Hindi, always a good sign. My dining partner and I hit the buffet. My first stop was the sauces and chutneys, arraying them before us on the table. They offered (from left to right) mango, mint, tomato, cucumber/yogurt, tamarind, and coconut. The mango was almost candy sweet, and the coconut had some cardamom which gave it a savory taste. Our favorites were the cucumber yogurt and the tomato, the former having a cooling effect (which was needed, the cuisine was certainly true to an Indian’s palate of heat) and the latter providing a richness and depth a flavor to some of the starches on the buffet.

As usual, I start with a little of everything, then go back to what I liked for round two. The small bowl to the left was filled with a lentil-based soup, enriched with carrot, bay leaf, and onion, it was a water based (rather than cream) soup but felt hearty and filling. The paneer (farmer’s cheese) was served in a tomato-cream sauce, not dissimilar from the tomato chutney. The cheese was firm and asked to be consumed with naan or topping rice.

 On a second table, they featured pati puri. Oval, hollow, rice puffs about the size of a small egg are dunked into a bowl of chutney, thinned to a soup consistency, then quickly tossed into your mouth. I had this popular street food when I was in New Delhi. India Kitchen had both a mint and a tamarind dipping soup. But the buffet wouldn’t be complete without chicken. Both kinds of chicken were cut into small, bone-in pieces. The first sat atop a bed of vegetable rice, fairly unadorned, but the second sat in a spicy, brownish red sauce that was perfumed with curry, cumin, paprika, and more masala mixed spices I couldn’t identify.

For dessert (included), we sampled the galub jaman (fried dough balls swimming in a honey syrup), this iteration being browned more than usual, giving more of a molasses flavor, and mango ice cream. The mango had been pureed and the ice cream felt more like a custard or thick yogurt, the mango flavor and color coming through.

Overall, a wonderful (and filling) dinner. It’s always a pleasure to try new places, especially when you have someone to appreciate it with you.