How do you write about dinner when the best dish came after dessert and after all the people who came for dinner left? Three starters, four gravies, three types of bread, a small dessert platter, goodbyes and every-body-leaves later, came a small plate with four small pieces of heaven on earth! The King-who-loved-the-kebab who ordered his cook to come up with this dish when he lost all his teeth, I hope didn’t get it softer than this, because, that would have gone the wrong way down to his lungs! The Galouti kebab was on this special ten-day menu, but wasn’t on the set menu for the night. So after everybody left, we asked for a portion of Galouti and boy, we were glad. It was soft, melt-in-the-mouth and instead of the tiny roti, if it had been served on a saffron naan, it might just have been unbelievable, but even without all that, this was a winner. Winner by a long long way! You have to eat this to believe it and I need to find out how long this has been cooking, but by the time we finished, the chef was nowhere to be found! This wasn't Galouti kebab, this was Galouti Butter!
So Beyond Indus, the Indian restaurant at Taj Club House has brought down their chef from Bangalore who heads the Masala Klub at West end for a Masala Klub festival in Chennai. Essentially, Masala Klub is supposed to be a healthy take on Indian food. Me being me, the rebel wellness doctor whose patients eat cheese, chicken and all of that during detox and weight loss, I didn’t buy the ‘healthy stuff,’ about steamed vegetables going into curries as healthy. The evening started with a unique pain puri with a smoked pineapple ‘pani’ and an excellent starter platter which had nice grilled sea bass, a super soft and juicy chicken kebab and a nice palak pappad kebab.
The second course wasn’t as impressive.The four gravies - the Patiala mutton curry was very average, the water chestnut and lotus stem curry was quite nice and different, while the prawn and pomegranate gravy was liked by the group, but though good, it didn’t have the wow factor. Then came the Dal Indus, a slow cooked dhal (yes, very slow cooked over 40 hours), that is a specialty of this restaurant. How did it taste? Well, if you are expecting Dhal Makhani, then you will be disappointed, but look at it as different dhal and you will be able to appreciate that it was quite different. Starchy and rich, this was a different dal. The gravies were served with three types of bread and the chilly olive naan was a stand out.
And then the nice dessert with a very nice Anjeer Halwa, served with a nice ice home made ice-cream. Then came the chef explaining the concept, which like I said, I didn’t buy, and then the good byes and then the fantastic Galouti Kebab. This was such a wonderful, wait, I already wrote about that. Sorry, but this was a Galouti, that I am unlikely to forget in a long time!
The Masala Klub menu is on at Beyond Indus, Taj Club House up to the 22nd of June with Chef Chandan from The Taj West End, Bangalore.
And a big thank you to my friend and fellow blogger, Fazil, for staying back for the Galouti and allowing me to use his photos as my flash ran out of battery!
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