We met Mr. Babar at the Roti vendor next door and followed him to his restaurant as Mr. K had a sudden hankering for Indian food. (This was towards the end of our trip and he was done with Thai food for awhile). I liked the fact that the restaurant had no front wall which gave the impression of dining in a comfortable front porch. We ate here twice in 4 days and watched bollywood musicals one night and then a Thai soap opera the next on the television that was suspended in a large metal bracket in the back of the room.
On our first visit, I was more in the mood for snacking since I had just eaten a banana-coconut roti. We split a plate of Butter Chicken, which smelled heavenly as they were cooking it. I had been reading Madhur Jaffrey’s memoir about growing up in India and she had described the humble origins of Tandoori chicken, which I believe is the basis of this dish.
The tomato based sauce arrived garnished with a blob of melting butter. It was fragrant with spices and had a thick rich creaminess and was very good spooned over the turmeric rice with cumin seeds.
We also got a dish of Raita, which is kind of a yogurt sauce with chopped cucumber, tomatoes and onions with cumin sprinkled on top. It is rich and tangy and light at the same time and adds exciting zest when spooned into the other dishes.
Onion Naan bread which is perfect to dip in the various sauces.
Mr. K assembled his perfect plate
Two days later it was pouring rain and so we came back to try some seafood dishes. We started with an order of Masala Poppadum, which had lightly cooked tomato and onion mixed with spices scattered over top. The poppadum is a delicately thin crispy flatbread that we both inhale.
We enjoyed them dunked into delicious chutneys. The brown one was sweet and sour, and the green was fiery hot and tasted of fresh coriander and mint.
Grilled Tiger Prawns were sweet and luscious morsels that arrived smoking hot from the grill which we gobbled voraciously.
Grilled Red Snapper was brilliantly fresh and flaky, steaming with the heady aromas of lime and coconut
It was stuffed with fragrant vegetables and we ended up eating and pulling the flesh off the bones with our fingers. The flesh was succulent and juicy while the grilled skin was crisp and crunchy, an incredible combination. After our feast we were given a well needed bowl of water to wash our hands in…
We tried the Garlic Naan, which was drenched with butter and thinner and less doughy than the time before. It smelled amazing and tasted better.
Mr. Babar, the proprietor was a friendly fellow and a wellspring of information. We had been thwarted by language issues here in the south and it was great to at last find someone who we could communicate with. We loved everything we ate and wish him well!
