Eat Like Ushi

Bukhara is a restaurant institution such that it has included accolades of best Indian restaurant in the world, best restaurant in India and the Top 50 San Pellegrino Asia restaurants list (peaking at #26 in 2012). I had a tough time deciding between ITC Maurya's two outstanding restaurants (the other being Dum Pukht, which has also been in the SP Top 50 and rivals Bukhara in terms of foodiness) but after the Bollywood Masala challenge, Bukhara won out. The article I found online that included all the top end Delhi restaurants on my list (http://www.traveller.com.au/india-the-battle-for-delhis-bellies-36qux) influenced my decision of what I wanted to order - raan and dal.

Despite having a booking, it seems it's more a matter of waiting for a table after you arrive. During this time, the bar is open to serve and a quick glance at the cocktail menu lead to two delicious combinations - Dilli High 5 and Spice Route. Soon after a table was ready. The menu imprinted on two wooden boards is presented.

Whilst waiting for the food to arrive, I couldn't help but wander around and watch the chefs at work through the transparent screen especially the large kebabs hanging high and the enormous dexterity required to manipulate a large naan.

- Naan Bukhara (Rs. 1525) – the waiter insisted this was only for 6-8 people but I just wanted to have one on the table. It was huge with some crisp edges and some soft breadier parts. Definitely not the best naan I've had but it was fine to eat with the other dishes and create little sandwiches. I ate about half of it myself;
- Sikandari Raan (Rs. 2925)(whole leg of spring lamb, braised in a marinade of malt vinegar, cinnamon, black cumin, red chilli paste & finished in the Tandoor) – a nicely spiced, seasoned salty flavour with soft juicy meat. It could have been more tender but was certainly acceptable;
- Dal Bukhara (Rs. 795)(harmonious blend of black lentil, tomatoes, ginger & garlic, simmered overnight on slow charcoal fire, finished with cream & served with a dollop of unsalted butter) – what an incredible dish! The lentils had been smoothed into a creamy smokey buttery product that was so rich and luxurious. Sensational. A whole different universe to the dal makhani from other places.

Coriander sauce was nice and spicy and tangy and acted like the Indian version of tzatziki in a souvlaki binding the ingredients together.

The meal was extremely memorable considering how long I had been anticipating it, the reputation of the restaurant, the luxury of the hotel and the heavenliness of the Dal Bukhara. 

Next time I would order small breads and thus a variety of them and pick something else instead of the raan (unless I had a group of people to share this and kababs with).

The two food places in this post aren't actually at Rumah Adi (which is a guesthouse and convenience store in Amed) but are stalls located a short two minute walk down the road. There's also a restaurant front that is known for babi guling, but on this occasion they had sold out already and the meats in their stall were happily attracting flies.

Luckily these two other places were around as options. One shop makes gadogado to order with rice pyramids cut up from freshly de-twined packages and the ingredients are assembled on top. It was the most authentic gadogado tried throughout Bali (of around 12 altogether) and was tremendously satisfying. Additionally their deepfried jackfruit or ladyfinger banana fritters were sensational taking advantage of the natural sweetness of these tropical fruits. Throughout all times of day people would walk or motorbike (to/from work) and load up.

Around the corner, a man served chicken noodle soup with a very strong soy-flavoured (possibly MSG) broth.

As cheap and as local as it gets.

ITC Maurya was the last booked hotel for the 2 week India trip. This was intentionally done as the Malaysia Airlines flight home at 12pm didn't allow for a transfer from Varanasi by plane or train (and considering the trains were all delayed >10 hours there was no reliability on estimated arrival times) and also because I wanted my last meal to be at Bukhara or Dum Pukht.

I had a really great deal at ITC Maurya known as the 'Winter Special' which included a free massage, free breakfast and 20% off a meal. Unfortunately I contracted Varanasi-belly at approximately 5am and spent the next few hours in the luxurious bathroom. It also meant that I wasn't able to enjoy the full extent of the 5-star buffet breakfast on the ground floor at Pavilion.

There are 3 breakfast options to choose from - the full buffet at Pavilion and two smaller selection buffets that compensate you with high-level views.

The Pavilion buffet has a team of chefs in a circle station who cook fresh noodle and egg dishes to order. Surrounding them are a collection of curries and fried items as would be found in typical Indian hotel breakfasts. Western options also made an appearance with baked beans, bacon, breads and pastries, smoked salmon and antipasto. In my debilitated state I stuck to fresh yoghurt, soy milk, muesli, seeds and nuts and fresh & dried fruit.

If I ever return to Delhi, I'll be staying at ITC Maurya and will certainly relish a second attempt at that breakfast.

Anantara is simply one of the most luxurious hotels I've ever seen. The prices reflect this, but luckily the Mr. & Mrs. Smith website allowed a cheaper booking (approx. $250-350 per night) to enjoy the luxury. Considering the reputation of Seminyak for being nothing but beaches and Australians, choosing a nice place where the option of staying there and not moving seemed reasonable.

There are very good restaurants and massages nearby, the beach is directly in front and the view isn't bad either. On the contrary the infinity pool (or more private pool) is lovely, those decks include table service for drinks and cocktails, there is an ice-cream cart (!!), the gym and spa have lovely views from the top floor and luckily the Anantara restaurant also serves excellent food.

The buffet breakfast is one that my buffet-obsessed brother had told me about for months as he recalled the different stations as well as the all-you-can-order menu. All guests staying at the hotel have breakfast included or for outsiders the cost is Rp. 25000 ($25). It's a high price for Bali so ensure you intend to spend enough time there moving from breakfast onto brunch.

Firstly there are several stations with which to pick up things and decorate your plate. The variety changes each day but starts from small dishes of fresh salads (such as rojak), martabak, chicken soup and moves onto the bakery section (including cronuts which I'm happy to have tried but never again), multiple cereals and yoghurts, fresh juices and a large bread section. You can also finish off with a colourful decorative selection of kue (desserts).

However there's more. The breakfast menu has a multitude of Western and local dishes cooked to order. The hash browns were the only Western ingredient I craved and they were delicious - crispy, hot, well seasoned with soft pieces of potato within - just perfect. Kway teow, chicken congee, mie goreng, nasi goreng were all upmarket local renditions. One of the most exciting was the 'Bacon & Eggs' which was braised pork belly & potato curry, crispy paratha, fried egg and chaat masala salad. It reminded me of the well-known breakfast roti at Tom Phat in Melbourne.

Overall one of the most relaxing and varied breakfasts I've had, filled with Western and Indonesian options. If I ever stay in Seminyak again, it will be at Anantara.

One of most highly mentioned places in Jaipur is Handi. The clinching factor ended up being Vivek Singh's recommendation (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/asia/india/10664858/Jaipurs-best-restaurants-by-Vivek-Singh.html) of it having the most authentic laal maas around and to eat it with roomali roti. I never ate at Cinnamon whilst in the UK, but it was certainly on my radar so I'd trust his opinion over random reviews.

It was a short Rs. 70 auto-tuktuk from Rawla Rawatsar there. Although it was only about 1km on Google maps, the sheer traffic (animal, human and auto), wet roads and general excrement meant the buzzing exciting scoot through town was necessary. The guesthouse owner and driver knew the place immediately - it's well known and rightly so. Parking out the front the first thing you notice is the wafting aroma of chargrilled meats luring you in.

Inside you'll find the bread man making continuous amounts of naan piled up in a basket. It's a beautiful human-type of machinery at work.

- Banana Lassi – fruit chunks embedded in blended diary and necessary for the impending tongue burning;
- Onion-Garlic Naan – outstanding version with visible garlic and onion pieces embedded and painted with butter. Delicious and the best I've ever had;
- Tandoori Platter – tandoori chicken (tender succulent leg, slight burnt crisp outside), seek kabab (glowing red soft mince), shammi kabab (fried chicken), chicken tikka (slightly chewy), mutton tikka (succulent tear apart with strong meat flavour), galouti kebab (minced mutton in a smooth mix);
- Jaisalmeri Laal Maas – an extremely hot curry with red chilli, green chilli and tabasco. It was flavoursome and reminded me of vindaloo. The waiter warned me it would be hot and my tongue, mouth, face, eyes and ears felt it;
- Roomali Roti - a thin wispy bread for the curry;
- Gulab Jamun - sweet but I honestly can't remember. The chilli burnt the memory out of me.

There are so many good looking dishes here from the grilled to the curries. I don't think I'd order the laal maas again as it was too painful to be truly enjoyable (unless I could get them to spice it down for me). Perhaps the Handi Meat or Handi Mutton Biryani next time.

Sometimes you crave a big pizza all to yourself. The last time for me was back in 2013 when I got a 20" (half bone marrow/spring onion/watercress and half pork belly/chimichurri/smoked onions) all to myself at Homeslice at Seven Dials near Covent Garden or the Georgian khachapuri (cheese, cheese, cheese) in St. Petersburg a few months later. On those occasions despite the more unusual ingredients and my greed, I could only finish half each.

Tonight was another of those pizza moments and Arte seemed a good choice. I'd read about it and the menu seemed conventional and nice, albeit a little expensive. Once I went inside the small home business I saw how large a family pizza is and the prices made sense. The small and medium are significantly smaller so don't really seem good value (unless you can't bear the thought of eating day old pizza - shame on you).

- Calzone Traditionale - a huge calzone filling a family sized box with thin pieces of ham (not smoked or cured), tomato, an occasional basil leaf and a load of molten mozzarella;
- Prawn Pizza #1 - 6 high quality prawns (cut in half to form 12) on a thin pizza base topped with cheese and a nice tomato base. Garlic was a listed ingredient but although I chewed through a few granules I couldn't detect any of the flavour;
- Garlic Pizza - very thin crispy like flatbread rather than pizza base with a few chunks of garlic. Prefer much more garlic, some butter and a little burning. Disappointed overall.

The pizzas were decent quality but I did feel slightly unsatisfied (not dissatisfied) at the end. Given the other local options are Domino's and Crust (which I don't mind actually), this is a clear step up above in quality.

My favourite pizzas of all time (other than the simple fresh passata and buffalo mozzarella in Rome) have had anchovies or capers or speck or proscuitto. So I think I probably just like much heavier seasoning/salt with my pizzas. I still have half a calzone, 3/4 family prawn pizza and half a small garlic pizza left. I'll easily get through it and it should satisfy my pizza needs until I decide to recreate Franco Manca's recipe for the 2nd time.

In the area of Hauz Khas, one dinner option seemed more unusual than the rest. Rosang was the first place I had read about that specialised in North Indian cooking. Specifically the food is from the 8 North East states and the owner from specifically Manipur where India borders China and Burma. As a result the owner looks what I'd call Asian rather than Indian. Similarly she thought I might be from North India. How quaint.

Two types of homemade sauces with experimental recipes were served for dipping. The vibrant colours and flavours contrasted each other well. My favourite was the red sauce made from ghost chilli and tomato. It had a smokey characteristic that I wrongly guessed was from paprika. It imparted a sweetness overall. The dark sauce was an unusual combination of black mustard leaf, gooseberry juice and chilli. It had a sourness overall.

- Sougri-Mahi - a sour red type of tea made from a flower ground into powder with jaggery and green chilli. Unusual;
- Pork Spare Ribs (marinated in house special blended herbs & spices accompanied with raja mircha chutney) - looked red and vibrant. The outer shell was crispy but unfortunately it and the meat lacked seasoning. It was also a very very fatty rib meaning most of it was wasted as bone and fat;
- Iromba Insang (assorted seasonal vegetables curry with fish paste) - Fish paste, potato and seasonal vegetables combined to be similar to a basic fish-based soup. A thumb-sized ghost chilli segment made this the spiciest dish on the menu and wow it had intense painful tongue-burning capacity;
- Ngatok (no oil fish curry with indigenous spices & aromatic herbs from the region) - ghost chilli, fish with a lot of bones, tomato and North-Eastern flowers and spices that don't have English names. I was assured the yellow colour was not from turmeric;
- Chaak Hao (Manipuri red rice)

The food was much closer to Asian as well with hints of basic homestyle Chinese and South East flavours. It was a complete change to the 2 weeks of butter, ghee, cream and curries. Overall the food wasn't as incredible as I hoped for but it was a different experience at least and made me curious to try this cuisine again.

The host was exceptionally nice. She sat for 20-30mins for a chat and explaining how she has been highly recommended and reviewed, selected to cook for festivals and in hotels, is finally going on a holiday now that her children are older, and will hopefully expand one day to USA. I wish her the best of luck.

Varanasi TA #2 is Dosa Cafe. It was a quiet evening and slightly chilly. From the inside seats you can see locals, tourists and cows wander past. It's an unsual restaurant in that it specialises in lots of different types of street foods. Each type of street food has a lot of different options from basic to what I can only describe as attempted fusion.

In any case each serve is small, meaning you can try one of each.

- Masala Vada (savoury fritter prepared with chickpea dal & spices, deep fried) - nice salty and satisfying snack;
- Vegetarian Idli (savoury cake from steamed batter of fermented black lentils & rice) served with coconut sauce & sambar - I think the fried version would have been more my taste as the steamed version was similar to a very bland type of Asian bao;
- Masala Dosa (fermented crepe from rice batter & black lentils) stuffed with mashed potato, ginger, garlic, carrot, green peas, onion, tomato, peanuts & spices - the restaurant namesake is a large, thin crispy triangle of pastry. It was fine but looks more impressive than it was satisfying to me;
- Cheese Spinach Sweet Corn Uttapam (thick pancake cooked in batter) topped with fresh spinach paste, sweet corn, cumin seeds, ginger & mozzarella cheese - this Indian pizza was actually quite nice. A thick, soft, doughy base with nice toppings of your choice.

Next time I would order probably one of each of those again, except the idli would be a fried type and a different dosa just for the textural variety. I wanted to try upma also (thick porridge cooked in ghee) but I think I'd been over-ghee'd and this would tip me over.

The last thali in India needed to be a good one. Since I was in Varanasi of which the restaurant recommendations are relatively limited, I had to resort to Tripadvisor. All the websites that listed Varanasi restaurants recommendations essentially exclusively list high-end luxury hotels all of which are near the train station. The only thali place is Niyati at #5 which is also conveniently near Dashaswamedh Ghat. Actually considering that is the most popular and largest ghat, I'm not surprised all the high TA recommendations are near there. Anyway, I digress...

What was odd was the two shoeless boys that served us. Clearly this was new to them as evidenced by the timid approach and general muteness (they could speak). The owner came out occasionally and told us they were his children aged 14yo and 16yo. Honestly I think they looked more like 10yo and 12yo max. I don't want to promote childhood labour but hopefully my tips got to them.

- Banana Lassi - quite nice with thick chunks of banana which I liked. There were sugar crystals which in hindsight I should've asked them to withhold;
- Masala Chai - simple spiced chai;
- Garlic Naan - I think I had developed a taste for intensely garlic naan. This flavour was much more subtle and coated with butter, and texture was firm and chewy. Not the best but a filler;
- Special Thali (mix veg curry, aloo jira, dal fry, rice, papd, curd, pickle, butter chapati, paneer curry & sweet) - each thali ingredient tasted was good but the standout was the potatoes. I don't know how they cooked them but they were seasoned, buttery and spiced in flavour, and slightly firm and fluffy in texture. One of the best I've ever had.

I'd gladly go back for the thali, especially those great potatoes. There's a very minute possibility I got sick from this food (although to be honest I'm sure it was the Varanasi street food).

Deep amongst the stalls and bustle of Seminyak likes Warung Murah. It wouldn't ordinarily have appealed to me except that my brother insists it is his favourite warung from previous trips to Bali, and once he finds a place he likes to eat at on holiday, he goes there 2-3 times per day. He had been waiting the entire trip to take me there. Apparently the place is well reputed amongst expats and surfers.

The concept is slightly different to your typical warung. Essentially it's a display buffet and you ask the staff to pile up your plate with as much as whatever you want. They determine (assumably by sight and experience) what you to charge you.

The food is cheap, good and there's a great variety of vegetables, fish and chicken. The biggest benefit is you get a bit of everything rather than having to stick to one meal. Can't argue with that!