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| - The prawn puri appetizer: succulent crustaceans and a Goan-inspired, onion and tomato masala sauce (with just enough heat), consummate their marriage in a bed of that delicious deep-fried Indian bread, the puri. Orgasmic pleasure for Indian seafood lovers.
The other standout was the dum parda biryani, which though overspiced on the first try was perfect on the next visit. Basmati (Sanskrit for "The Fragrant One") rice comes to you cooked in a clay pot with a lid of naan dough baked on. Rip open the bread and a cloud of steamy subcontinental spice fills the air. In the pot, long slender rice cavorts with meaty bits of lamb (my preference for a biryani - you could try chicken, beef or shrimp) - it is quite the ballet.
I like to test restaurants that claim to cook Goan food. Vindaloo, that great spicy-sweet-sour pork dish so beloved of Goans is almost always a failure in every Indian restaurant - a weird facsimile composed of fire and vinegar - that bears no resemblance to the real thing.
Here, I tested DB's Xacuti, a Goan standard that is dominated by the taste notes of roasted coconut and poppy seeds in a ground coriander seed and cumin masala. The dish was tasty enough, but it was no Xacuti - those critical roasted flavours were sadly missing.
All in all, this is a good Indian restaurant.
And if you only eat the prawn puri and the biryani, you'll leave happy.
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