Restaurant Review: IMBISS, off Hill Road, Bandra West

I came across IMBISS (or is it Imbiss, like any other regular name? I don't know) categorised as 'Hidden Gem' on Zomato. With a tagline like 'The 'Meating Joint', the rave reviews on Zomato AND THE FACT THAT A MEAL FOR TWO WOULD COST RS 600 I couldn't get there soon enough.

And I COULDN'T get there soon enough. Correction- I wouldn't have been able to get there if it was not for the most excellent of apps, the superhero of helpfulness, the king of customer satisfaction- aka Google Maps. Tucked into a tiny lane off Hill Road, IMBISS can easily be skipped from most dinner plans, simply because its just not visible.

But once you put yourselves in Google Maps' reliable hands, you easily find your way to Carnivore Heaven. Located on the ground floor of a residential building, IMBISS is cosy (read: small) restaurant with a small paved yard in the front, lit with fairy lights. The yard (or more prosaically, the small space in front of the building) slopes gently downwards, giving you a lopsided dining experience, if you sit outdoors.

But who cares about tiny benches and stools and slope-away floors when the menu boasts of schnitzels and sausages, ribs and roasts- most of them under Rs 200? The most expensive dish on the menu, baby back pork spare ribs is listed at Rs 375. It is incidentally also one of the most raved-about dishes in Zomato reviews.

Agent J and I, however, went with the other dish that was lauded by foodies- the Signature Sausage platter.
 
Priced at Rs 180, this dish features 8 sausages, ranging from small cocktail ones to big snags. What was remarkable was that every sausage had a distinct flavour and taste- from the Indian-ish spiciness of the cocktail chicken sausage, to the hearty smokiness of the big pork one. There was a mild, cheese-studded chicken sausage and a pepper-spiked pork one. Some were very soft, others were toothsome with a nice bite to them.  Such a playground of tastes and textures! Yum yum.

For the next dish, we asked our server for a recommendation. I must take time here to mention that the server young yet knowledgeable and showed a sense of ownership about the menu and the place that was heartening to see. He first recommended the ribs but cautioned us they could be fatty. When we demurred, he suggested trying one of the daily specials- grilled pork tenderloin, saying that the portion was small and manageable. We decided to go with the recommendation and what a good decision it was! A small serving of pork loin, grilled till well done and a soft -yet-firm texture. A plump sausage on the side, along with super smooth mashed potatoes and lightly sauteed vegetables- beans, carrots and peas. All swathed in a brown sauce- not the British brown sauce (as I had fretted it would be, with its sweet vinegary undertaste) - but  salty, savoury and flavoursome, more like a jus or gravy.

Since Agent J has a healthily restrained appetite and not too great a love for meat. So we stopped our culinary explorations after these 2 dishes. However, while I was not hungry anymore, I COULD HAVE made space for some schnitzel, had I a kindred soul (or stomach) for company. Sigh.

Anyway, the 2 dishes that we DID feast upon cost us a total of Rs 470. Try eating for that much in any other fancy Bandra West eatery that serves 'Continental' food!

The menu is littered with interesting eye-catching items like fried duck egg, pickled quail eggs,  Bavarian meatloaf, Bratwurst, duck sausage and so on. Am definitely going to be back- for culinary research, of course! ;)

The Local: the purposely-grungy pot of gold at the end of a treasure hunt

Did you know, in these egalitarian times, there are places that are 'members only'? Where the golden doors (in this case, an unmarked anonymous cream-coloured door) open only for those select few who have IT?

The IT in question is the password, and the patience/coolness to hunt for the entrance to The Local. Yes, there is no signage or visible clues to locate the entrance -  but along with the password, they do give you directions that are just about enough for you to begin the hunt. And once you locate it (not giving any spoilers!), punch in the password, the innocuous door unlocks and you enter with a sense of achievement. Made it! 

The Local has an urban-grunge vibe, with its dim lighting, quirky wall murals, a speckled mirrored wall and the naked electric bulbs fixed into a lattice of tubes and pipes reminiscent of the classic Mad Scientist's laboratory.  The music is fun, wait staff is friendly and polite, the bar is generous and the menu eclectic. They also have interesting off-menu specials listed on the blackboards on the walls. As Agent J and I made ourselves comfortable after placing our order for drinks and kheema pao, I remarked that the only things left to make The Local perfect in my eyes were WiFi and charging points at every table (my iPhone devours battery charge like a glutton!) And guess what? Right below our table was a charging point (my hungry iPhone was soon gulping down electricity) and there was free WiFi too! Smiles all around. :)

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​Our drinks came by quickly enough but the kheema pao took so long that we were left wondering if the kitchen was busy chasing down the goat who would yield the mutton for our kheema. But before we could grow too antsy, our smiling server came over and apologised for the delay , explaining that the kitchen was busy with prepping for the busy Saturday evening. Score one for the service!

The Kheema Pao, when it did reach the table, made up for its fashionable late appearance. Juicy, tasty kheema topped with a fried egg and a little side serve of fresh onion, capsicum, tomato and mint leaves and a fat wedge of lemon. The kheema had just the right amount of spice and bite and the pao were soft, fluffy with burnished golden-brown tops gleaming with butter. Yummy without being too adventurous. 

We asked our server to recommend our second dish, and he suggested the Smoked Chicken, a blackboard special. The chicken showed up in record time, and was delicious too! A roulade of chicken breast slices, stuffed with chicken mince and served with gravy, mashed potatoes and steamed veggies, this was a classic Sunday Roast kind of dinner. The mash was scrumptiously buttery and smooth, the veggies steamed just-so (not mushy at all!) and the chicken was soft and juicy. And the gravy, flavoursome with a gentle chickeny-peppery taste, just amped things up to a whole new level. 

The Local hosts karaoke nights on Tuesdays and Thursdays (so the little signboards by the bar proclaimed) but they opened up the karaoke system on the Saturday that we were there. By then, the place was heaving with cool, well-dressed, hip young folks eager to grab the mike and ruin some of the loveliest songs of the decade. Oh well. You cant have everything in one place!

Kitchen Experiments: Phirni-cum-Rice Kheer

Throughout my childhood, I mercilessly rejected rice-based desserts. Don't get me wrong- I LOVE rice. To distraction. (And weight gain, but that's another story) But rice was indelibly stamped on my mind as raw material for sterling savoury dishes- regal biryanis, delicate pulaos, down-to-earth khichadis and the ultimate comfort food, dal-chawal-pickle. Sweet rice was a strict no-no.

And then came my life-changing visit to Sagar Sweets during Ramzaan a few years ago. One spoonful of their creamy, just-set phirni and I was a convert. So much so that I even tried recreating it at home. Repeatedly.

I now have a version that I adore and which is vouched for by family and friends, so I have no qualms in sharing it here.  My version is a cross between rice kheer (more liquid, made with whole grains of rice) and phirni (almost-solid, made with ground rice). I use different flavourings as per my mood but this one here is a crowd-pleaser.


Ingredients:
1/4th katori or 2 heaped tablespoons Basmati or any long-grained rice
700 ml full-fat milk
Sugar, as per taste
Chopped pistachios, almonds and cashews (the more, the merrier!)
Seeds from 3-4 cardamom pods, crushed
2 teaspoons cinnamon powder (use Sri Lankan cinnamon, its quite mild and meant for desserts)


Process:
Pour the milk into a heavy-bottomed saucepan and heat it on a low-medium flame.

Wash the rice and let it dry thoroughly ( I didn't have patience, so I dry-roasted the rice till it was dry)
Reserve 1/3rd of the rice as whole grains and add it to the milk as it heats
Grind the remaining rice in the coffee/chutney grinder very briefly (2-3 pulses, max) till a coarse, gritty powder is formed. Do not over grind.

Add sugar to the milk and stir the milk as it comes to a boil. Dont let the rice grains stick to the bottom of the vessel.
Once the milk comes to a boil, lower the flame, add the rice powder, most of the chopped nuts and crushed cardamom.

Stir frequently till the milk thickens, say about 25 minutes after adding the ground rice. Halfway during the process, add the cinnamon powder.
Pour the kheer in a serving bowl, let it cool down to room temperature and then refrigerate for 4-5 hours.
In this time, the rice particles will have swollen with milk to form soft nubbins with just the right amount of bite.The final kheer/phirni will be thick (but not set like a pudding), creamy, not too-sweet and with faint echoes of cinnamon.
Serve chilled with a garnish of the remaining chopped nuts.

Note: If you have the unglazed earthenware bowls/dishes that phirni is traditionally served in, pour the phirni in these shaloow bowls and then reefrigerate. The earthenware will leach out the moisture and 'set' your phirni.

Cookery School: Mirchi Thecha

Often we have to make do with boring veggies like lauki (bottle gourd), kaddu (pumpkin), tondli ...you know, the type that have no discernible taste or texture of their own.  The wallflowers of the vegetable kingdom, shying away from the limelight occupied by the potatoes and tomatoes and cauliflower and capsicum and their like. Or we find that we are faced with a subzi we just don't like- bhindi or baingan or spinach.

In such situations, to the rescue comes this cracker of a side dish- that sets the palate humming, adds sparkle to any insipid meal, and even easily steals the limelight from popular favourite dishes like mutter paneer. What takes the cake is that it needs just 4 ingredients and 10 minutes to make!

This super recipe was taught to me by Agent J's Mom- a terrific cook with a treasure trove of recipes that I am determined to learn. So here goes:

 Ingredients:

• 10 big fat green chillies - the kind used to make mirchi pakoda
• 2-3 normal green chillies (optional, for amped-up heat)
• A head of garlic
• Oil
• Salt

Process:

• Lightly grease a griddle/tava with oil
• Place the chillies on the tava, and place that on a low flame on the gas hob.

 

• Be sure to cover the chillies with a domed cover, this will help soften the chillies as they roast, rather than letting them char

 

• While the chillies cook, peel some garlic cloves. Do not use pre-made garlic paste or pre-peeled garlic as far as possible- freshest is bestest, for maximum punch! Ratio of chillies:garlic is approximately 2:1 , but its really up to your taste.
• As soon as you hear a sizzling sound from the tava ( approximately 1-2 minutes) turn the chillies over and let them cook on the other side, under the cover.

 

• Once the chillies are softened and slightly charred, remove their stalks (and seeds if you want a milder version), chop them up and toss them in a mortar with garlic and salt. Pound everything with the pestle  - don't bother making it too fine, its meant to be slightly chunky and rustic.

 

Voila- Your magical tastebud-reviving thecha is ready, in under 10 minutes!

Tips:

• Some chillies are hotter than others, so adjust your garlic:chilli ratio accordingly, else you'll land up with an inferno on your plate!
• It's impossible to taste-test chillies beforehand.If you DO end up with too-fiery thecha, just add some oil and mix through.  It will take the edge off the heat and give a more rounded taste.  An alternative to oil  is to add a few peanuts and pound them up with the thecha to make it milder, but I personally don't like this idea- am skeptical that peanuts with their distinctive sweet nutty flavour will interfere with the BURST of chilli-garlic spikiness of the thecha.
•  The heat is at its maximum when the thecha is just-made. It slightly dampens down over a day.
• You can pre-make the thecha and use it as a cooking aid- use it to add oomph to dals or add it to plain paratha dough or thepla dough to add a bit of zing!
•  This thecha can be stored for 2-3 days in the fridge and for longer in the freezer- but seriously, the fresher, the better. So make it in small quantities and consume ASAP