Thursday, March 17, 2016

BABU JI (Modern Indian Food)

UWe read about this with great reviews so we wanted to try it.

Located in East Village in NYC where there are many hip and trendy interesting places to eat.

This claims to be modern Indian food.
There were some misses with our order.  My friends and I have traveled to India - with me just about over a year ago.

We started with crispy appetizer filled with tamarind sauce and cream.  That was good.
I know it's modern Indian food - but the first one we did not like which was highly recommended by our server was the cauliflower.  

Our imagination was running toward dreaming for it to get to our table.  But like a nightmare, one look and we said "what's this?".  After one bite, it tasted like sweet and sour pork with lots of dough and the cauliflower hidden in it.  It was literally covered with sweet and sour sauce.  I did not even finish my bite. We had it returned . They were nice about it.

Next thing we did not like was the Dahl.  
It was too saucy.  We hardly touched it.  It was like eating a glass of thicker sauce. 
Saving the night was my friend's butter chicken. But for that price - for that amount, a bit pricey.  It may look mushy but it actually tastes good and buttery.  Most people like butter chicken dish. This was done well but nit much chicken pieces for the price.

The shrimp curry sauce was good but the shrimp was a little over done.
Another expensive dish that was alright but not as good as the butter chicken, was the duck.  The size of the leg and thigh was as small as a small chicken fryer or almost as small as a Cornish hen's leg and thigh for $26 with sauce. 
Above was our basmati rice which we liked.  The garlic naan (not in photo) was excellent as well!  Hooray! It was well seasoned and over buttered - but I loved it that way.

If I ever go back, I will try the lamb next time - but I don't know why it is so expensive.  If the tip were already figured in every order, then I can understand the high price.  There are some who do that now.  You see when the price starts getting up there, your expectation start going up higher.  And this is a case I feel.

BABU JI
175 Avenue B
New York, NY 10009


Wednesday, March 16, 2016

SALAD ART

Contemporary cooking is all about presentation of food besides flavors.  I take the plate like canvas and arrange vegetables available in my refrigerator.

Instead of tossing all the various vegetables I have to make salad, I have arranged them on my white plate to combine certain colors to get together or separate them.
To the left, I used sliced fennel and flowers.  Top right, opposite the fennel are  thinly sliced rainbow radish which I bunched up and balanced the pink on the left.  I used the yellow cauliflower or the one color that is not common to any of the vegetables on my plate to the center with the darkest colors on one side.  The dots you see is balsamic vinegar glaze which could be the dressing for the vegetables except for the arugula which already has dressing.  I like plating my food to excite the palette and change the mood on the table.  It is like a three dimensional painting.