Indian food is not something to be indulged in if one is looking for delicate tastes and subdued and dainty dining experiences. Indian food is an assault to the senses with a richness of flavors exploding in the mouth with every bite. The heat of the peppers, the earthiness of the cumin, turmeric, cardamom, cloves and dozens of other indigenous spices wake up even the most jaded of palates and launch the taste buds into an odyssey of sensations.
A lot of gestures and noise accompany the enjoyment of Indian cuisine. These are the oohs and ahs from diners, in acknowledgement of the potency of flavors; the constant sniffling and eye-rubbing from the sinus-clearing spices; the slurping of the must-have lassi, the Indian yogurt drink, to neutralize the heat on the tongue. All these validate the heartiness of an Indian meal, and its enjoyment.
I am happy to have rediscovered New Bombay Restaurant, an Indian restaurant on H.V. de la Costa St., Salcedo Village, Makati City. I say "rediscovered" because it has been around for six years and has a loyal lunch clientele of office people. But it is quiet in the evenings and very conducive to laid-back, informal dinners.
I went on a Thursday evening with my fellow cuisine purists, Francesca and Beatrice Ayala. Beatrice, who lived in London, was craving for the authentic taste offered by her neighborhood corner Indian restaurants in London while Francesca is a four-year veteran of Indian homecooked meals courtesy of her Indian University classmates. Both were in search of Indian food of similar taste standards that would not blow their budgets.
And so on empty stomachs and hopeful palates, we trooped to New Bombay. It is indeed a cubby in the wall, a box-like, no-frills structure with whitewashed cement walls. It has a lightly-tinted glass frontage with industrial aluminum sidings that doesn’t belie its humble offerings. It is obvious that almost no attention was paid to interior fixings, except for the slight effort in putting up a few woven wall hangings to evoke an Indian feel. Tables and chairs are functional and comfortable. There is ample space for 20 or so diners at any given time. The fluorescent lighting, normally quite harsh on the eyes, works in the restaurant’s favor this time, because it illuminates every crevice and corner and showcases the cleanliness of the place.
We ordered eggplant barta, which is roasted eggplant, slow-cooked with onions, tomatoes, and Indian spices, priced at P110. The favorite chicken tikka masala, a boneless chicken tandoori, is priced also at P110. We had chili paneer, homemade cottage cheese in masala for P140. We couldn’t resist the dal with mehti, which is yellow dal with garlic, onion and Indian mehti leaves, also for P140. We chose garlic naan (unleavened bread) for our carbo fix instead of biryani rice. Yes, we had loads of food, but the extensive menu and cheap prices got us all excited, and prudence wasn’t exactly on our minds that night.
The chicken tikka masala was the real McCoy. It doesn’t get more Indian than that. The initial bite sent us on a culinary catapult straight to Bombay. The fire and earthiness of the masala sauce was a perfect foil to the neutral and clean taste of chicken breast. The melt-in-the-mouth eggplant barta was perfect with the slightly chewy naan bread. I’ve had better palak paneer, but the dal with mehti leaves was down-home delicious.
I was lucky to have caught the owner, 46-year-old Meenaxi Khanchandani who hails from Gujarat, India. She is a hands-on proprietor, very genial, not only with the customers, but also with her staff whom she has trained to execute and serve dishes from age-old family recipes. She says, "New Bombay Restaurant prides itself in our signature dishes of saffron biryani rice, chicken tikka masala, and palak paneer (cottage cheese). All our recipes have been handed down from the women in my family. We make our own cottage cheese and yogurt at home. We don’t buy commercial quality. I never use these curry powders. I get all my spices directly from India – cumin, cardamom, cloves, turmeric etc., I have them sent by Fed-ex or DHL here to Manila. I mix the spices carefully myself. I only buy flour, sugar, and salt here. I want everything to be authentic."
What sets New Bombay apart from other Indian restaurants? "I concentrate on serving light food and vegetarian food," she says. "My recipes have not been altered through time, they remain authentic."
Don’t forget to order a lassi to down the truly authentic Indian flavors that await you at New Bombay restaurant. If that doesn’t appeal to you, there’s always ice-cold beer.