Beyond Indus

While on our honeymoon we had a brief stopover in Chandigarh, where I had my life's best food experience in the form of a chicken tikka, it tasted like heaven, I don't remember ever tasting anything that comes close to it, until of course last week when I ate the Dal Indus at Beyond Indus at Taj Club House.

Ambiance: (-1/5)

Ever since I heard that they have a few specialities from Sindh I have been looking forward to an evening there. In my mind that evening was to be a peaceful happy evening spent with my much deserved cheat meal. But to my shock Beyond Indus was right next to Blend which is the bar at Taj Clubhouse. The music, besides being unbearably loud, was awful too, the noise was giving me a heart and head ache and to top it all I could barely listen to the husband. What I don't get is, how can a place like Taj be so lousy, how could they have missed one of the most essential part of dining out: ambiance, how could they assume that people who come to dine tolerate trash from another place that was so loud that our glasses rattled. If I wanted loud music I would go to the bar! Another thing that I didn't like was the oval tables and uncomfortable seating. I couldn't stand it for more than 10 minutes so I complained and we were moved to the adjacent restaurant, where a band played some songs completely out of tune, but after the trash music at Beyond Indus we were thankful for the tune-less band.

Service: (3/5)

The girl who attended us when we entered couldn't understand us or speak with clarity. She referred to me as "Sir" and when we complained about the music she replied " Well, you see it's Friday night." I was tired after a long day or else I would have really made her miserable. I am not a Sir, I have come to a restaurant to eat and not to tolerate trash that's being played in the bar next door and it is SATURDAY. Anyways I just let it slide. The people who served us after we were moved were good though, we received quite a few apologies for the noise but I'd still say, how dare they assume that they can impose shit like that?

Food: (5/5)

We tried their Tomato+Fennel soup which was Meh at best. For starters we tried their sea food platter which was again just about okay, but then everything changed. The only thing that single handedly turned the disastrous evening to an evening I shall remember fondly for a long long time was the Dal Indus with Phulkas that we tried for the mains. Now, if I shall say so myself I make really good phulkas but I don't know anyone who'd make them for me, or any good restaurants that make them as good as they were at the Indus, which means every time I have to eat good phulkas I have to make them, but not anymore, now I shall simply go to Beyond Indus. The Dal was outta-this-world level of yumminess. My second best meal till date. Okay so if you understand the concept of Diminishing Marginal Utility let me tell you that for me every morsel was heaven and only got better. I was really really really happy. Every morsel I went mmmm---ymmm-ummm.

For desserts we tried their lahori rabri, which was anything but rabri. I wonder if these guys understand that texture is really important, you cannot make rabri and then blend it finely into pudding. So while everything else was meh or passable, for the Dal Indus and phulkas I have to give them a 5/5. Maybe I shall marry that dal.


Pocket friendly: (2/5)

So this meal for 2 cost us 4000. So it's definitely not very pocket friendly but for the second best food experience of my life, I'd say, I'd happily be fleeced. So will I go there again? You bet I will but only for the Dal and phulkas.

Dinner 492

That's a nice garlicky mushroom pizza without the pizza base, gluten free pizzas who woulda thunk :D accompanying the gluten free pizza we have chatpata paneer, salty cucumbers and a bowl of curd. Burpppp!

Anda burji

I didn't see any specific value add in putting up recipes on my blog since the internet seems to be overflowing with them but then I read too many recipes where I shake my head in disagreement or want to improve upon them. So I thought well, I will put down my recipes every once in a while and if find yourself shaking your head in disagreement or want to improve on it, do let me know :)

Now lot of people have trouble eating eggs, specially because of the smell and I have an excellent recipe of eggs that don't smell, look or even taste like eggs. If you have been in Mumbai then you would know that on the streets specially at odd hours like 4 am there are a bunch of stalls that will make you an delicious anda ( egg in Hindi) burji with pav.

What you'll need:

• 6 Whole eggs
• 1/2 tsp of turmeric
• 1 tsp of paprika ( this is what is popularly known in hindi as kashmiri mirch, it doesn't have much heat and is generally used for it's vibrant color specially in tikkas)
• 1 tsp of cumin powder ( optional)
• 2 green chillies finely chopped ( optional, add these only if you enjoy heat)
• Salt to taste
• 2 Tbsp of coconut oil
• 3 Medium sized onions finely chopped ( a good rule to follow would be about half an onion for each egg)
• 3 Medium sized tomatoes ( same rule here, about half a tomato for each egg)
• Handful of fresh coriander leaves

What you'll need to do

1. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan and fry the onions on a low flame till they are translucent and turn a light pink color.
2. Add the tomatoes, green chillies, cumin, salt, turmeric and paprika, then cook the tomatoes of a low flame till they are soft and cooked properly.
3. In a bowl beat the eggs together and after the tomatoes are cooked add the eggs to the pan.
4. Stir the eggs slowly till they are cooked properly and garnish them with the coriander.

That's it, your eggs are ready!!