Well..I guess the title says it all...
As you all know by now, I love LOVE Indian food. Therefore that love causes great passion when writing about my experiences in an "authentic" Indian restaurant. Mind you..one can be passionately angry...
I will start at the beginning. Like most food experiences, our most beloved dishes stem from child hood dreams. South Indian Cuisine (here on abbreviated as "SIC") is one of them for me. As a child, my family and I would go to the restaurant every Monday, dubbed "Dosa day", without fail. Crisp hot "Indian crepes" would come out of the kitchen accompanied by tangy and spicy "Sambhar" (lentil soup prepared with vegetables and spices, the key ingredient being Tamarind), coconut chutney and spiced potato stuffing. I'm sure my fellow Indian's would agree that this is one of the most popular and beloved dishes in all of India...and that if anyone messed it up, they would be cursed into eternal fires of food hell.
Unfortunately, SIC is rare to find in Geneva - there are only 2 restaurants I know of that serve SIC. In my never ending quest to find my beloved Dosa, I was delighted to discover on BuyClub that "Taste of Madras" was one of these restaurants. I was so excited and jumping for joy, I almost bought 3 vouchers - I couldn't wait to have my fill of delicious Dosa! Remembering that I was not in India, I promptly reigned myself in and bought just one...thank goodness!
Now let me be clear, this resto is not pure SIC. The menu is dominated by North Indian dishes (hereon abbreviated as NIC) and has a healthy smattering of SIC. Our voucher allowed us to order a starter, main course, 1 naan, and 1rice per person - not bad! With no SI starters on the menu, I ordered my favourite, "Vegetable Samosas". I really don't think I need to explain what this is. It is one of the most divine and popular finger foods ever invented. It is meant to wake you up and zap your taste buds to life. Along with this, I ordered chai because I was cold. I couldn't wait to eat my hot spicy samosas with my cardamom infused chai...rrrr. Now for a combo that is meant to inspire such wonderful words, imagine my disappointment when I discovered that the samosas and the blasted chai both tasted of (for lack of a better word) nothing..I mean....NOTHING. Both looked and smelt great...that's where the buck stopped.
Next came my Dosa, whooping for joy when I saw it arriving, it looked.....deflating.... Dosa is meant to be a delicious and healthy dish, mine was soaked in Ghee. Once again, the "masala" part of it tasted of NOTHING. Honestly I think it was the same stuffing used for the Samosa. The "Sambhar" didn't even look like Sambhar let alone taste like one. In fact the star of the dish was the coconut chutney. Having waited and hunted for so long to find decent Dosa, I was feeling murderous and wanted to choke the chef "death by Dosa" style.
To ease the heartburn from the "Crazy Dosa", I wanted to extinguish my anger with sweet, delicious, comforting dessert. If you have been to enough Indian restaurants here, you know by now that you need to ask which dessert is made in-house (sadly it will never be the Gulab Jamun - so NEVER order it). The waiter suggested their in house Kulfi. Kulfi is Indian ice-cream. What is the difference? Kulfi is denser, creamier and usually comes in typical flavours native to India - Rose, Mango, Cardamom, Pistachio and Saffron. The most common, and the one which graced our table was a cardamom infused luxiourious beauty. It tasted every bit as good as it looked (finally).
Would I go back...maybe...after a long conversation with the waiter, I discovered that the chefs are from South India and specialise in SIC but not in NIC...my poor husband who had burnt butter chicken and dry Naan....I suspect that the resto is good for NIC vegetarian food only. I will try and report back :)
As you all know by now, I love LOVE Indian food. Therefore that love causes great passion when writing about my experiences in an "authentic" Indian restaurant. Mind you..one can be passionately angry...
I will start at the beginning. Like most food experiences, our most beloved dishes stem from child hood dreams. South Indian Cuisine (here on abbreviated as "SIC") is one of them for me. As a child, my family and I would go to the restaurant every Monday, dubbed "Dosa day", without fail. Crisp hot "Indian crepes" would come out of the kitchen accompanied by tangy and spicy "Sambhar" (lentil soup prepared with vegetables and spices, the key ingredient being Tamarind), coconut chutney and spiced potato stuffing. I'm sure my fellow Indian's would agree that this is one of the most popular and beloved dishes in all of India...and that if anyone messed it up, they would be cursed into eternal fires of food hell.
Unfortunately, SIC is rare to find in Geneva - there are only 2 restaurants I know of that serve SIC. In my never ending quest to find my beloved Dosa, I was delighted to discover on BuyClub that "Taste of Madras" was one of these restaurants. I was so excited and jumping for joy, I almost bought 3 vouchers - I couldn't wait to have my fill of delicious Dosa! Remembering that I was not in India, I promptly reigned myself in and bought just one...thank goodness!
Next came my Dosa, whooping for joy when I saw it arriving, it looked.....deflating.... Dosa is meant to be a delicious and healthy dish, mine was soaked in Ghee. Once again, the "masala" part of it tasted of NOTHING. Honestly I think it was the same stuffing used for the Samosa. The "Sambhar" didn't even look like Sambhar let alone taste like one. In fact the star of the dish was the coconut chutney. Having waited and hunted for so long to find decent Dosa, I was feeling murderous and wanted to choke the chef "death by Dosa" style.
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| Masala Dosa |
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| Cardamom |
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