- 2 days ago
Bon Appétit meets chefs Meherwan Irani and Lucas Sin in Jackson Heights, Queens, as they prepare to eat their way through the menu at Angel Indian. From pani puri, samosas, and tandoori chicken to butter chicken, biryani, Peshwari naan, and gulab jamun, they taste their way through Punjabi classics, Indian street food, curries, breads, and desserts to find the dishes worth ordering again.
Meherwan's cookbook: https://cna.st/st/OkvG9gt
Lucas's cookbook: https://cna.st/st/sbXBD4Q
Meherwan's cookbook: https://cna.st/st/OkvG9gt
Lucas's cookbook: https://cna.st/st/sbXBD4Q
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🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hello everybody! Steve Marwanarani here in Jackson Heights, Queens at the legendary
00:04Angel Indian restaurant known for their Punjabi cuisine. And we're gonna order
00:08one of everything. You know him, you love him, the co-host of Street Eats, the one
00:13and only chef Lucas Sim is gonna join me. Just two guys that love to eat and today
00:18we will feast.
00:24So we're in a Punjabi restaurant in Jackson Heights, Queens. I mean this is
00:28sort of probably the Mecca for every Indian that wants to come and find you
00:32know sort of traditional Indian cuisine. And most of Indian cuisine in America has
00:37been Punjabi. Butter chickens, hot paneer, dal makhani. These have become ubiquitous in
00:42the Indian sort of like lexicon of menus but they actually are all Punjabi.
00:46So a couple of rules. First rule is you need to eat one of everything. It's the
00:50name of the show. We're gonna order everything on the menu. We're making an
00:53exception today for dishes that have different proteins. So it's lamb
00:58biryani and there's chicken biryani. We're only gonna go for one of them. Second rule,
01:02one bite of everything. We may have to break this rule. The third rule is that
01:06all of the sides are up to us and the order through which we tackle the menu
01:10also totally up to us. At the end of the shoot, after we've eaten everything, we're
01:14gonna give out some awards. We're gonna name some favorites. You hungry? I'm always hungry. I mean
01:18seriously. I'm so hungry. There's a disconnect between my stomach and my brain. All right. Let's see. We got one,
01:23two, okay. One, two, three, four, five, six pages.
01:26Let's start with the veg apps and then we'll go from there. You got it.
01:31My favorite feeling in the world is when food appears and you have no idea what you're doing at. What
01:35it is.
01:36You know it's gonna be good deep down inside but you don't know how it's gonna be good. Right.
01:39You're sitting on top of the roller coaster. You're looking down. We're gonna start with what we consider the
01:43choc part of the meal which is the sort of puffy crispy thing. That thing's breaking my heart. Like that
01:47is so wrong that it's gonna
01:48plate. Why? Because it's supposed to be handed to you by another human being that
01:52just made it, dunked it, did all the work and you just gotta stick it in your mouth. So what
01:55you're having right now is called pani puri. Puri is the little puffed up UFO
01:59looking thing and the pani is the two waters you're gonna put on the inside. It
02:03looks like there's some mung bean, probably some chickpeas and potatoes. And you're
02:08gonna put some of the mita pani, the sweet chutney in there first. And then you're
02:12gonna drizzle in about twice as much of the thinner water, the tikka pani, the mint water. Okay.
02:18And now you're gonna pop that whole thing in your mouth and eat it in one
02:20bite. Cheers. Cheers. One bite.
02:25Yum. Okay. All right. I'll take back everything I said. That's delicious. There
02:32are no eating experiences in the world that are snack appetizer type of things
02:36that have this much liquid in it. Just water. Like this is a crazy thing. It's a
02:43crazy thing. Most street food is crazy. Wait till you try that. Yeah. So this is a
02:46variation on that. The difference is instead of the thin liquid, it's piped
02:49with yogurt. Okay. Also the chutneys, the green chutney and the the sweet chutney, but
02:54a thicker version of the green chutney. Sure. So you're gonna have sort of this
02:57like almost like a yogurt puff. Think of it as a savory eclair. What's a crispy yellow
03:01bits on the top? Ah, say it. So there's extruded chickpea batter, hair thin, fried noodles.
03:07Oh, cool. It's chickpea noodle. Mmm. That's so good. It's heavier physically. Right. And it
03:18coats your palate. In our restaurants, we call this SPDP. Uh-huh. Save. Yeah.
03:24Batata, potato, dahi, yogurt, puri, the crisp. Save, batata, dahi, puri. SPDP. It is what it is. It is what
03:31it is.
03:32Papadam. It's usually complimentary and it's, it's, you know, it's like the bread on the table. Great.
03:40Dender Dishu. What's the dry spice rub on top? Yeah. So it's their version of a chaat
03:44masala with a little bit of red chili powder. Chaat means to lick your fingers and you'll see chaat
03:48masala. Basically, it's so, it's like finger licking. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The last of the chaats is
03:52actually the coolest in my mind if they do it right. Uh-huh. It's bhel puri. Bhel literally means
03:57like, it's, it's the closest Indian word we have to salad. Bhel means to like, just
04:01mix it up together. Okay. It's puffed rice, like onion, cilantro, peanuts, wheat
04:06crackers, that little save, this stuff over here. Yes. Uh-huh. And then it's dressed again
04:10with the green chutney and the tamar chutney. Okay. I wish it was crispy. That's a problem
04:18with the dish, right? And that's, well, it's not the dish. It's the problem with this. Oh.
04:23It's put on the table in a bowl. As versus the guy in the street, taking all the ingredients,
04:28mixing it, mixing it up, putting the chutneys, paper towel. Here you go. You're right. Jeff,
04:32what are we drinking here? Ah, the fresh lime soda. Now here's the crazy part. In India,
04:36you got to specify fresh lime soda sweet or fresh lime soda salty. It's a little salty though. It's a
04:43little
04:43salty. It's sweet and salty. It's like the ranch water, the Pocari sweat, the Gatorade,
04:48the electrolyte thing. Exactly. This is the energy that we needed. You see the stuff floating around
04:52there? Yeah. A little bit of cumin powder. Oh, cool. Moving on to fried crunchy crispy thing.
04:57Let's hit the pakora. Looks like they're onion pakoras. Give me some, hit me. A little bit of a barbecue
05:01sauce. Yeah, exactly. A little reddish going on in there. Okay. But it's probably tamarind.
05:10Mmm. This with chai in the afternoon on a rainy day is one of the God's perfect snacks. All right.
05:16And now the grand dame of Indian street food. The most recognizable appetizer, so to speak,
05:22right? Exactly. It is samosa. Here, I'll split it up for you. Thank you. If you were to eat
05:26everything at Angel, you probably don't want to start with the samosa. No. Stuff with potatoes.
05:32Potatoes. It's a starch bomb that's going to go off your stomach. Yummy. You like it? Chopped mashed potato
05:40inside of a fried dumpling. Of course it's delicious. Relative to the textural
05:46variants in one bite. That's an experience that blows your mind. Right? Yeah. That's why I have
05:49no samosa on my menu. Oh, yeah? Well, blow your mind, man. Right. I'm sure people were asking for
05:54it at Chai Pani. They're like, why is the samosa? We actually get accused of not being Indian enough.
05:59Yeah. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Yeah. All right. Now, this should be interesting. They call it
06:03gobilasuni and it basically says cauliflower with garlic. Uh-huh. India shares this massive border with China. Yeah.
06:09So just like you have Tex-Mex. Yeah. Yeah. We have Desi Chinese. Yeah. It's the general
06:13sous of Indian food. Right. Gobi is cauliflower. And uh, less suni means garlic. So it's going to be
06:18garlicky. Mmm. Sweet sour. If it's called garlic cauliflower, this is less garlicky than I expected.
06:24Yeah. Yeah. It's not that aggressive. Yeah. This looks delicious. I'm excited about this.
06:28This is not tofu, people. This is paneer. It's essentially a very simple farmer's cheese. It's very
06:32similar to ricotta. So he claims this is made in house. So let's go for it. I mean, the outside
06:39seasoning is really... It's delicious, actually. Yeah. So this should be tandoori seasoning, which
06:44is weird. That's like, saying, calling something a tandoori masala tandoori seasoning, it's like
06:47It's like a wok seasoning. Yeah. Yeah, wok seasoning. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Exactly. Yeah.
06:51Which is anything. It's gonna be anything. But most people get that it's gonna be red. Yeah. It's
06:56gonna have a little tang to it. Right. It's gonna be yogurt based. Yeah. I want to go back and
07:00try one more just to see,
07:01like, did I miss something? But I think the beauty of this whole one bite thing, I love this,
07:06is that you're kind of deciding with... Yeah. Yeah. You're making a regular restaurant into a tasting
07:11menu. It's that first impression. Yeah, that's right. It's kind of fun. It's kind of fun. Lucas,
07:16what do you think? Winner? Pani Puri. Pani Puri. No question. Number one. Number one. Number one.
07:19All right, chef. This is just the veg portion. Got the meat apps coming. Meat apps are coming next. Let's
07:23do this. Let's go.
07:27Oh my gosh. Jesus. That smells so good. Initial reaction? I'm seeing bread.
07:35That's new. Different types of relishes. I mean, for a country that is predominantly vegetarian,
07:40we do our meats pretty well. Yeah, sure. I mean, that's why we're in a Punjabi restaurant. Right.
07:44Because the further north you go, the meats. Many Indians are vegetarian, so much so that even having
07:48the non-veg mixed in with it is offensive. So in many restaurants in India, you'll actually have a
07:54non-veg dining room and a veg dining room. And I've been in kitchens where the kitchens divvied up.
07:58This is quimapau. Pau. Yes. It's a Portuguese word for bread. And it's a Portuguese provenance.
08:06Exactly. So is it sort of like a brioche milk-bready? Yeah, yeah. It's like a Hawaiian roll,
08:10basically, like a sweet roll. So this is ground lamb. And in America, we're so used to everything
08:15coming already pre-made as a sandwich. If you grew up in a culture of flatbreads,
08:19even your risen breads, you just treat it as if it's a flatbread. So you just tear a hunk off,
08:24dip it in there, pop it in your mouth. You're ambitious with this one bite. Is it? Really?
08:28Well, I mean, like, that's a bite. You're starving, chef.
08:31Here you go. Oh, thank you, sir. Thank you. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.
08:39So yummy. That's delicious. For an American, they would say
08:45chili, sloppy joe, right? Basically. Fine ground, but really deep flavors.
08:50Sits with you. The butter is incredible. The fats are talking to each other.
08:54That's fabulous. It's got some heat on it. All right. So this is basically an egg version of that.
09:00So under burji, there's a spiced egg scramble. We do not know how to scramble eggs in India.
09:04Yeah. Like we just cook the out of them. The concept of curds just doesn't occur to India.
09:10Overcooked eggs have their spot. They oftentimes can soak up a little bit more flavor.
09:16Agreed. I mean, I see onions. Maybe there's some green chilies in here.
09:19Yeah, there should be onion, cilantro, green chili. The yellowness comes from turmeric powder.
09:22There's probably a little bit of chili powder. It should taste a little fresh and herbaceous,
09:25too, but we'll find out. Cheers.
09:26Cheers. Mmm. So good. That's delicious. I actually think it's better than the meat one.
09:34It's better than the meat one. The herbaceousness plus the turmeric seasoning. You taste the egg,
09:42you taste the fat. Oh, that's so good. Oh, man. I should have taken a bigger bite.
09:45Really good. That's delicious. Wow. That's my favorite thing I've had so far.
09:48Okay. Good. All right. So we got those out of the way. Let's go fish. Let's go fish.
09:52So it's, it's essentially, it's very close to the masala that you put in tunduri chicken,
09:58but you're going to fry this. So the ingredients are slightly different. You put spices in that are
10:02not going to burn. Right. In oil. Oh, I see. And then mix in a little bit of cornstarch for
10:06this,
10:06but let's find out. It's yummy. That's yummy. It's not, you know, roll your head,
10:12eyes back in your head. This is, what you see is what you get. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. You kind of
10:16know what it's
10:16going to taste like, and it did exactly that. What's, what's calling you? Is this an invented dish? Yeah.
10:21Dude, it's called chicken PB35. I'm pretty sure it is. This does not go back to the Mughal Empire.
10:29All license plates in the Punjab start with PB. I think I heard somewhere that the 35 references the
10:34region. Right. Within Punjab, you know, that this came from. Patankot or something like that. I see.
10:39This looks like a delicious boneless chicken. I'm sure it's going to be tasty. I hope it's tasty.
10:42It's where the chef is from also. Oh, it's where the chef is from. Thank you.
10:49Quite yummy. Quite yummy. Reminds me of that, the Indo-Chinese thing we're talking about.
10:54But better. The Indians and the bell peppers. Yeah. It's not that sweet. Nice and savory.
10:58This is slow cooked to where the gravy thicken and thicken and thicken until now you got like a dry
11:02chicken coated in it. This is very cool. This is not typical yet. I don't think you'd be able to.
11:06Well, if it's from his hometown, it's probably a more of a, like, I don't know, traditional dish for him.
11:10Yeah. To keep on the theme of chicken, it looks like we have some gorgeous grilled chicken. It
11:14looks really beautiful. Talk to me about it. It's such a terrible way to cook chicken. You're
11:18sticking in chicken into a 900 degree oven and hoping it comes out juicy and moist. I love the
11:24flavor. Don't get me wrong. And when it's done well, it's beautiful. But I'm like, surely 2,000 years
11:29later, we can do better. Mine's yummy. Flavor's great. The spice clings right to the edge. A little bit of
11:37that char.
11:37Char. That's yum. Yeah. Very yum. Okay. I'm breaking the rules one more time. I'm going to try
11:41a piece of the dark meat. Maybe one of the solutions for a tandoori chicken is only ever to make
11:44it with
11:44dark meat. Leg quarters. Yeah. Last but not least, if somebody were to ask me, what's the last thing
11:50you want flashing through your mind before you pass away? I'd be like, hopefully I see kebab. I love
11:56see kebabs. And I feel like in America also, when you say kebab, somebody's thinking of a chunk of meat.
12:00Right. But in India, when you say kebab, nine times out of 10, somebody's, it's going to be ground up
12:05meat.
12:05Right. Pretty much, it's the sausage without the casing.
12:12Mmm. It's aggressive. I don't even know what the type of spices I'm tasting in here are.
12:16I taste achari spices in there, which are pickling spices. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely.
12:21Okay. I'm not imagining that. Yeah. I like it. I love it. So, what are your favorites, chef?
12:25Ah. You don't mind. I know. I think we're both going to say number one. The egg burji. So good.
12:31Scrambled eggs, nice and tender. Onions, chili, just really well balanced. A perfect example of
12:36like overcooking eggs is okay. Yes. Yes. This is just the appetizers, but we're warming up for our main
12:41courses, which are going to begin now. God have mercy on our souls.
12:47Here are the vegetarian mains. Between the entrees and the appetizers, the crew demolished
12:52all of the food that was left over. It was kind of scary watching them go at it, actually. But
12:56none of it was left. None wasted. How delicious it all was. I mean, this looks good too. This is
13:00just
13:01part one of a wave of the vegetarian entrees. I thought it was all the vegetarian entrees. Should we
13:06start with a bed of rice as? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just to cushion the fall when it hits the
13:13stomach.
13:13Okay. So Limca, thumbs up. Indian Coke, Indian Mountain Dew.
13:22Good. Ah, God. Well, so thumbs up is different from Coke. I mean,
13:25it's got this sort of spiciness to it, and it's got smaller bubbles. You know how everybody loves
13:30topo chicken because the bubbles are smaller? So I'll find the thumbs up bubbles are smaller. Yeah.
13:33And there's like this weird spiciness to it. We all joke it's like the taste of India. I'm going to
13:37serve you some sag paneer. Thank you. So the paneer is the cottage cheese. It's the cottage cheese we
13:42had in the appetizer round. Pressed milk. Yeah, but you can tell it's cubed differently to hold up.
13:46Is this spinach? And it's spinach. It is not cloying the way that blended baby food spinach. And they
13:53put a lot of cream in it. And this is actually quite delicious. Very mild. Nice and light.
13:58Mutter paneer. Mutter paneer. This is a classic. Yeah. The sauce here looks creamier.
14:06Yummy. Yummy. Really? Very yummy. Yes, yummy. I misuse and overuse the word yummy. But usually what I
14:13mean when I say yummy is there's a sort of guttural comfort food childish deliciousness. And you want an
14:17involuntary response. Yeah. Yummy is a good one. Mmm. That is delicious. Yummy. That sauce is
14:23fantastic. Yeah. Mmm. Balanced. Nice amount of heat. Alu govi. Alu govi. Potatoes and cauliflower.
14:30Another very traditional homestyle meal. I like that they kept the florets large. And this should
14:36really taste very rustic. There's no cream. There shouldn't be any butter. Okay. What is that?
14:46Fruity acidity thing? Man, this is not my wheelhouse. I was going to say underdeveloped compared to. Yes.
14:53What can I say? I'm picky. Okay. All right. Let's go to the next one. The alu govi is just
14:58potatoes and
14:59cauliflower. This is potatoes, cauliflowers, and other vegetables. Deluxe. Including paneer. So it's
15:05basically deluxe alu matur. Amazing. Premium alu matur. Oh, 100% more developed. It just ties it
15:12together. It seems to have a little bit more substance. More substance, more robustness. I like
15:16that. How do we use the bread? Like, what is the approach? Good call. This is? Tandoori roti,
15:22which is basically roti with the most basic of our flatbreads. You know, the tortilla, if you will,
15:28of Indian cuisine. Just cooked in the tandoor oven instead of on a griddle. Look at the bubbles.
15:34And this I'm the most excited about. The peshavari naan, which is from a particular region that's
15:39renowned for breads. Well, it's basically, like, probably looks like dried fruits. You know, like,
15:44tutti frutti type. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I wouldn't be surprised if there's a little bit of
15:47coconut also in there. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Clearly it's a sweet bread, so are you eating it with
15:51everything else? No, I mean, you can, but I'm going, like, I want to treat this as its own bite.
15:55I think
15:55we're going to, we may have a dark horse here. Cheers. Cheers. Yummy. So good. It's so good.
16:05Just a little bit of that green grassy sort of. A hint of fennel. The coconut. God,
16:10that's a great bite. Licorice. Yeah, exactly. Oh, my bad. My bad.
16:18Four. He broke the bite rule, dude. Five. I mean, I see eggplants, right? Yeah, yeah.
16:24How do you pronounce the eggplant? Bangan. Bangan? Bangan. So we're at the part of the meal now
16:28where usually if you were at a bar, we'd be having eight drinks in and starting to get a little
16:32slap
16:33happy. I'm feeling a little food drunk, just a little slap happy. I love the eggplant dish. It's a
16:37little bushy. You're right. It's a little bit bitter, but I think the taste is quite nice. Yeah,
16:41but let's get round two. Okay. Okay. Veg entrees part two.
16:48Is this like a trilogy we're going to be working on? Three types of dals. All very
16:52emblematic of the region of Punjab. So dal tharka is the simplest homestyle dal. Tharka is basically
16:58spices bloomed in oil and then poured over the top to add seasoning to basically a liquid.
17:08So comforting. I had a green chili. Did you get one? Yes. Damn. I know. I'm cheating.
17:12I'm cheating. I'm cheating. So good. The yellow lentils, nice and chunky. It's so yummy.
17:18Good call. What is this one? Okay. Juzdal makhni. Makhni literally meaning butter. Yeah. So let's take that
17:24and put a ton of butter on it. Yeah. And some cream and some fenugreek, but it's different lentils.
17:30Oh, the little, these little black ones. The little black lentils. So they're heartier and the smokiness
17:35of that wood charcoal fire as it's dying down is supposed to enter this. So delicious. Oh,
17:42the sweetness from the butter and the cream. And then the pop and the texture that remains almost
17:48like little seeds, right? Just a little bit of bite. Bite to it. Exactly. This is one of my wife's
17:54favorite dishes to order at Indian restaurants. And it's excellent here. Really good. And this last one.
18:00This is rajuma. Kidney beans. Yeah. And just a heartier version of these two.
18:09See the difference in the flavor. Yeah. First and foremost, the butteriness of the kidney bean.
18:14You bite into it and it's just sort of like match potato consistency throughout. I mean, honestly,
18:20this is the first one where I'm really... All three of them are fantastic. Awesome.
18:24Fantastic. Awesome. What is the green? Is this cilantro? Cilantro, onions, there's ginger bits in there.
18:29Yeah. That is absolutely fantastic. More bites on him, by the way, if you're tracking.
18:34They're not bites. Bindi masala. Classic okra. If done right, makes okra delicious.
18:39What's this red sauce on the top? Like, is there a... Tomatoes. So bindi is okra. So I wouldn't be
18:43surprised
18:43if they flash fried it. Made a masala separately and then assembled it with a quick toss in the pan.
18:48I think we do roti. I haven't had it yet. I think we do roti. Yeah, let's do a little
18:50roti. Awesome.
18:53It's yummy. I really like this. I mean, I'm actually going to... No. Yeah. Work. Yeah.
18:57Not in there. There's no way this is the best vegetarian. No, no, no. It's not. Next to the...
19:01No, no, no. I was saying I'm going to take some notes in terms of like a preparation.
19:05I would go makhni one for me. Dal makhni. For me is my favorite. Yeah.
19:09This is a must order for me. Every time I go to an Indian restaurant, this is the best I've
19:14ever had it.
19:14These three things are revelatory. I mean, it's the... All three of them.
19:17The slow cook, the technique. Wonderful. The bite even on lentils. Yeah.
19:21And we're in the Punjab restaurant, so it makes sense to give props to...
19:24I like the way this guy thinks. That's the vegetarians. The non-vegetarians are next.
19:30Is it talking to you? You can hear it. You can hear it hissing?
19:33You can hear it hissing. So, non-vegetarian mains. But first and foremost, this is a choli patura.
19:40Right. The chef's special, we decided to rotate that in. Yeah, this is the puff daddy of...
19:45I mean, it looks that way. Both in addition.
19:47So, this glorious UFO of wheat is a patura. It's a classic Indian puff bread.
19:52That it's not just wheat flour with oil that's then fried to puff up. They add a little bit of
19:57milk,
19:57and they add a little yogurt. So, it makes the bread stretchier like a naan, but also puffed up and
20:02fried.
20:02And it's that stretchy quality that makes it a great vehicle for scooping up some of this choli.
20:08Amazing. And the choli is just essentially or chana masala, chickpeas.
20:12The tomatoes, a little bit of crumbled paneer.
20:15Crumbled paneer. One bite.
20:16One bite. One bite.
20:18Let's see.
20:19This is a little sweaty.
20:20Mmm.
20:21Mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm, mmm.
20:23So, mmm.
20:24I can't believe we have any umms left in us, but that's an um.
20:27The stew itself, the chickpeas, the garbanzas.
20:30Fantastic.
20:31Fantastic.
20:32So light, but tangy. It's an excellent bite.
20:35It's not like any of the other breads that we've had. It's so light.
20:39And despite deep frying, it's not greasy at all.
20:41Exactly.
20:41It's amazing.
20:42Barely any grease in your fingers. Yeah.
20:43It's really hard to make. Like, you really actually have to know what you're doing.
20:46Practice, practice, practice. Yeah.
20:48There's condiments with this bite.
20:49Oh!
20:50So, I think we get a mulligan, and we got a do-over.
20:54Hit me with a little piece of, yeah, there we go.
20:56A little bit of pickle.
20:57A small piece of pickle.
20:58And hand me a green chili.
21:00All right.
21:00And what I'm going to do is essentially chase the bite with the green chili.
21:04Usually, the chaser is the less unpleasant part of this.
21:07Why is the chaser the spicy?
21:10My mom will always have green chilies on a plate next to her.
21:13And she will occasionally take a bite in between.
21:15And it's almost like a palate cleanser in an unpleasant way.
21:22Oh, I actually understand now.
21:24It's a three-act structure.
21:26But let's go with butter chicken next.
21:29Yeah.
21:29The color is from turmeric?
21:32No.
21:33No, it should be from the tomatoes.
21:36Oh, I see.
21:37One bite.
21:38One bite.
21:40There's a reason why this is everybody's favorite Indian dish.
21:44Number one export from India.
21:46Absolutely.
21:47In gravy form.
21:48It has to be butter chicken.
21:49Yeah.
21:50It's so, it's rich, but it's approachable.
21:53So I'd say let's do the vindalut first.
21:55Okay.
21:56What we should be tasting is a peppery vinegary sauce.
21:59This is one of those dishes when people boldly proclaim that they love spicy food,
22:04they'll say, I love a good vindalut.
22:06Uh-huh.
22:08I taste a little bit of the pepper that you were talking about.
22:11I taste a little bit of the spice.
22:12It does not overwhelm me.
22:13We're ordering everything on the menu.
22:14We made a promise.
22:15Right.
22:15Even things that don't make sense on the menu.
22:17Tell me why land vindalut doesn't make sense.
22:18It's from Goa, one of our southern provinces.
22:22And this is a Punjabi restaurant.
22:24Right, yeah.
22:24But I totally get why it's on the menu.
22:26Buna gos.
22:27I've never had this before.
22:28So Buna means roast.
22:29It's the Hindi word for roast.
22:30Mm-hmm.
22:31So it's a roast meat dish.
22:35Mm-mm.
22:36Okay.
22:37Now it's really good.
22:38Yum.
22:39That's yum.
22:40Whenever you see the splitting of oil, I love because it means that you've built this sort of gorgeous curry.
22:45And you can see the color in the oil.
22:46And then the other thing about this dish then is it predates the colonial exchange.
22:49Uh-huh.
22:50No tomatoes.
22:50Oh, I see.
22:51You see?
22:52That explains it.
22:53Yeah, and that onion base with the fried onions and that, mwah.
22:55The lamb rogan josh.
22:56Lamb rogan josh.
22:58All right.
22:58So rogan josh traditionally is made with sort of like cuts of meat that have a lot of bone
23:02and marrow in them.
23:03Mm-hmm.
23:03And also with a lot of fat around it.
23:05And when you cook it low and slow and that layer of fat that rises to the top that just
23:09coats it,
23:09that's the rogan.
23:10Yeah.
23:13Mm.
23:14Oh mama.
23:16I think that is very yummy.
23:19That is delicious.
23:19Despite the appearance of that sheen of oil, it is not greasy.
23:23Yummy.
23:24Richness to it.
23:25And that sort of like marmalade-like quality of the onions that have been just cooked down to nothing.
23:28And then it's just, again, the oil.
23:30Yeah.
23:30Yeah, that's fantastic.
23:32We're breaking down the non-vegetarian entrees into two sections.
23:36This is the first one down, second one coming.
23:41How you doing, chef?
23:43I'm doing pretty good.
23:45I'm increasingly less excited about new food hitting the table.
23:48Right.
23:48Yeah, I'm starting to feel it a little bit.
23:51I got a little sweat going here.
23:52Some food sweats happening.
23:55Absolutely.
23:55But here's the thing.
23:56I know how this is all going to taste.
23:58Uh-huh.
23:58And some part of my brain is still like a child excited.
24:01Good.
24:02Like it's like ice cream.
24:03It doesn't matter.
24:04Yes.
24:04So chicken madras.
24:05What's chicken madras?
24:06So curry leaves.
24:07That tells me that it's definitely from the south.
24:09Uh-huh.
24:09I can smell coconut.
24:10Uh-huh.
24:10I can smell mustard.
24:11Do I smell mustard oil?
24:12Do you smell mustard oil?
24:13I see mustard seeds.
24:14Mustard seeds, yeah.
24:14So we got a little bit of mustard oil and we got some useless garnish.
24:18Amazing.
24:19Let's try.
24:22This actually reminds me a lot more of a Malabar style curry.
24:25Mm-hmm.
24:26Than a madras style curry.
24:27Malabar madras, you know.
24:29No, I don't know.
24:32So this is mean moili.
24:34Well, it's a moili.
24:34And a moili is a very simple, aromatic, coconut-based curry.
24:39And mean means fish.
24:40And it's very traditional.
24:42And the fish will add flavor to the curry.
24:45Whoa, it's sweet and creamy.
24:47That's actually a delicious moili.
24:51The fish is so tender.
24:53Flaky and beautiful and tender.
24:55I didn't expect a fish curry to be one of my favorite things.
24:58So what's going on with the prawn?
24:59Okay, so that is prawn chatinad.
25:01Chatinad is also a region from India.
25:03And their style of cooking is very aromatic and peppery.
25:11The shrimp is nice and snappy.
25:13It's a good cook in the shrimp.
25:14But the curry is very mild.
25:16This is a hard one.
25:18And it just does not hold up to the prior.
25:21Yeah.
25:21I wonder if it's an order issue too.
25:23Now we move to the great state of Rajatthan.
25:25Lalmas is there, which literally translates to red meat.
25:28It is traditionally goat, cooked really slowly with a lot of red chilies.
25:34And somewhere the rogan of the goat, the fat of the goat, and the red chilies make the sauce.
25:41Oh, excellent.
25:42And they did leave some bone in.
25:43Yes.
25:44Yes.
25:44I got a little bit of rib on mine.
25:46Huge fan of bone in.
25:47Oh, Indian butchery is, I can't even describe it.
25:50It's a travesty.
25:54It's cut the meat off.
25:55We'll just take a clear and cut the off out of it.
25:57Shards of bone flying left and right stuck in the meat.
26:00That is very, very tasty to me.
26:03Can you taste the almost chalky nature of dried chilies?
26:07It's the dried red chilies.
26:09Oh, I see.
26:09That are essentially broken down to the cooking process.
26:12We are at the end of our curries.
26:15Lassi.
26:16Lassi.
26:17Salty.
26:18Salty.
26:18The drink of Punjab.
26:20Cheers.
26:21Milk.
26:21Yogurt.
26:22Yogurt.
26:23Sometimes cut with a little bit of buttermilk.
26:25And sometimes sweet, sometimes salty.
26:27Yeah.
26:27Salty is traditional.
26:28Awesome.
26:29Think of it as like a, you know, drinkable raita.
26:31Yeah.
26:31Cleanses the palate.
26:32Sure.
26:32Settles the stomach.
26:39Not something I grew up with.
26:43Lots of cultures have a salted buttermilk drink.
26:46To me, it feels like something I also won't drink growing old.
26:52Okay.
26:53I normally order sweet lassi.
26:55Yeah.
26:55I just felt like we should get the classic authentic Punjabi lassi.
26:58We'll count it as a...
26:59It's sort of like a power yogurt power aid situation.
27:02The look on your face, man.
27:04You're like, you really wanted to be polite about this.
27:07And some part of your brain is like, this should be delicious.
27:09Yeah, yeah, yeah.
27:10All right.
27:10But hey, it cleansed the palate.
27:12How about that?
27:13Yes.
27:13And it sets us up for the biryani.
27:15It sets us up for the start of the show.
27:17Signature dish, right?
27:17The start of the dumb means a breath.
27:19Because when you crack it open and release the steam, it's the life for the breath,
27:24the air of the biryani releasing itself.
27:25So, which implies that it's cooked under pressure with a lot of steam.
27:29Oh, I see.
27:30So, sealing it in with this bread.
27:32Chef, do the honors, please.
27:33I will do the honors.
27:35So, we're going to cut around the edge.
27:40But you don't cut it all the way around.
27:42So, you can peel it back.
27:45And.
27:47Wow.
27:47Look at that.
27:48They're really good.
27:48What a beautiful.
27:50It's a layered dish.
27:51Then you've got layers of rice, fried onions, mint, saffron water.
27:55Whoa.
27:55The meat, goat meat.
27:56It is a dish for royalty.
27:58And I love it.
28:00It's one of my favorite things in the world to eat.
28:01When I land in India, the first thing I'll order at the hotel.
28:04Biryani?
28:05Biryani.
28:052 a.m.
28:06Yeah, yeah.
28:07And it's okay at this point to mix everything.
28:09Yes, absolutely.
28:10Cheers.
28:10Cheers.
28:14Mmm.
28:16Sweet.
28:17Rose water?
28:18That's what it is.
28:19The flavor profile is excellent.
28:21Having said that, it's hard to nail.
28:23I mean, you're sealing the bloody thing.
28:25Yeah.
28:25Putting it in the oven and praying to the gods of Biryani that it comes out fine.
28:28I mean, it's like, you know, it's like trying to do a souffle.
28:30I like this dish.
28:31I think from a presentation perspective, I do really love this dish.
28:34Of course, it was good.
28:34And the biggest surprise to me is when you open it up and we start stirring it and you get
28:39that
28:39little bit of that aroma of that rose water or the saffron or whatever, that floral quality.
28:44I thought that was quite special.
28:45One more round.
28:46The three desserts.
28:47Okay, we can do this.
28:49We can do this.
28:51We can do this.
28:51I have full confidence.
28:52I feel like I've got Stockholm Syndrome.
28:54Like, I just keep coming back for more.
28:58Okay, this is the fanciest I've ever seen Indian desserts.
29:02It's the Indian bonito flake, you know?
29:05I think I'm starting to hit my limit.
29:06I think I'm...
29:07I think, but I mean, thank God this is the end of the line here.
29:09I know.
29:09And we have a little bit of...
29:10Chai.
29:11It's unsweetened, but...
29:12A little bit of sugar is usually needed, right?
29:14Is any of this familiar to you?
29:16Um, it's all quite familiar to me, except for the cheese dumpling.
29:19Then let's start there.
29:20Okay.
29:20It's called rasmalai, and it's a cheese dumpling,
29:23soaked in our equivalent of almonds, a creme anglaise.
29:27Uh-huh.
29:27Except it's a thinner creme oil.
29:28Is it?
29:29It's yellow from the saffron, pistachios, and it's cooked down.
29:33So it's sort of like a condensed milk quality, but really thin.
29:36Understood.
29:36Yeah.
29:39It's saffron-y.
29:41It's very saffron-y.
29:42It's not too sweet.
29:43And it's kind of milky.
29:45Yeah, the dumpling by itself is quite savory.
29:46Mm-hmm.
29:47Um, and the only thing giving it any kind of sweetness is the, uh, the malay, the cream.
29:51Yeah.
29:51Rice pudding?
29:52Rice pudding.
29:55Yummy.
29:57Standard.
29:59I think this is, uh, appropriate rice pudding.
30:02A pretty, pretty, pretty, yeah, it's, it's not too, wait, is this bite too?
30:09Solid.
30:10Okay.
30:10B-plus.
30:12And then probably the most iconic Indian dessert of all time.
30:15Gulab Jawman.
30:15Yeah.
30:16I mean, how ironic that basically, uh, fried donuts dunked in sugar syrup is the most iconic.
30:21Cardamom, usually, sometimes saffron, sometimes rose water.
30:25This is the last bite.
30:26This is the last bite.
30:27This is the last bite.
30:29It's over.
30:30Free at last.
30:34It's the best dessert by far.
30:36It's gulab jawman.
30:36It's like a gulab jawman.
30:39And I love that it's warm.
30:40It just makes it less greasy, right?
30:43Because it goes down easier.
30:44It's just, it's the Krispy Kreme donut of India, you know?
30:47Like, it's got the glaze, it's soft, it's warm, you know?
30:49It's a little bit too sweet and maybe a good-
30:51Always a little too sweet and just a little too greasy, but people love it.
30:55I love it.
30:55It's no question for me, this is the best dessert of the round.
30:58Yeah.
31:05Okay, so we've thought about it for a little while.
31:07We have some favorites.
31:08Our number one favorite, our grail, is...
31:11We quite, we wept, we talked about it.
31:13Dalmakni.
31:14Dalmakni.
31:14Dalmakni.
31:16Exquisite.
31:17Absolutely the best ever.
31:18So the Dalmakni is the slow-cooked black little lentils with lots of cream,
31:23lots of fenugreek, lots of butter, slow-cooked.
31:26Those little pops of lentils, really, really nice.
31:28And you can get it at so many Indian restaurants,
31:30but I don't think you can get it at anywhere else.
31:33As good as we had it today.
31:34Yeah.
31:34Our second category is the next time.
31:37So what are we going to order the next time we're here?
31:38We're going to order the egg bhurji the next time we're here.
31:41Oh, so good.
31:41The bhurji pav, andapav, egg pav, whatever you call it.
31:44God bless you.
31:45Yeah.
31:46Thoroughly spiced eggs, thoroughly cooked eggs,
31:48but not overcooked in a way so that they're just dry,
31:51but they're deeply flavorful.
31:52Comes on that beautiful butter roll.
31:55Oof, so good.
31:55I would also give it the prize of most unexpected dish.
31:59Yes, absolutely.
32:00The last one is the hidden gem.
32:02The hidden gem is the dish that you only know about
32:03because you ate through the entire menu.
32:05Hallelujah.
32:06There's no way we would have picked this thing
32:08if we didn't order everything in the menu.
32:09It was that peshavi naan.
32:11It was just absolute mind-blasting, as they say in the business.
32:16I did not expect anything about that dish to taste the way it did.
32:19And it always is going to sit underneath the butter naan,
32:22the garlic naan, the paratha.
32:24Of course.
32:24So you're not going to think about it,
32:25but that little bit of coconut,
32:26you expect it to be cloyingly sweet,
32:29but that little bit of fruitiness and sweetness
32:31and the nuts and the fennel just really complement everything else.
32:34It was the only thing I ate in between takes as a snack,
32:37was the nut.
32:37That's how good it was.
32:38And I think I got nine bites into that one, too.
32:40How are you feeling?
32:41I'm at my limit.
32:41I'm full.
32:42I'm perfectly full.
32:43I am full, but I'm not in pain.
32:45So it's about five in the afternoon.
32:47This place is about to get packed for dinner,
32:49so we should head out soon.
32:51This was so much fun.
32:52Thank you for coming to New York City.
32:54Absolutely.
32:54Thank you for having me,
32:55getting to show you a little bit of our cuisine.
32:57It was so incredible.
32:58It was absolutely sweet.
32:59I had so much fun.
33:00Oh, I know.
33:00We're just fanboying over here because,
33:02you know, this is what we do.
33:03Chef, what are you doing for dinner?
33:06What are you going to do for dinner, Lucas?
33:08I'm thinking ramen, maybe.
33:10Oh my god, this man's an animal.
33:16I'm thinking of her Jose.
33:16If you're a Wirtschaft, my father says,
33:17I had sex or whatever.
33:17you're a oneopic husband who knew if you hadn't discussed it.
33:17Oh, I didn't believe so.
33:17You might get up with the character.
33:17It's a different thing that he never missed and asked.
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