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| - This is the best *North* Indian food in Montréal.
- The white girl who reviewed Thanjai
I jumped the gun when I categorically declared Thanjai the best Indian food in Montréal while ignoring the sheer size and diversity of the Indian subcontinent. Because if you want a hot and perfectly crispy puri (flat bread) or some hearty chana masala (chickpeas in a mildly spicy sauce) and a side of achaar (OMG THE MOST DELICIOUS THING EVER okay it's pickled lemon), you're gonna need to go north ... in fact, one metro station north, to Namur, where Pushap is within walking distance.
Apparently the thali is pretty popular here (if you get it, spend the extra 75¢ for raita and papram), but for me, it's all about the comforting, soulful, fill-your-belly chana bhatura. For under $5 (tax included!) you can eat a good portion of their chana, one of their specialties, served with a couple of hot, crispy bhatura (like puri but different), some fresh onion slices and a couple green chilies, and a serving of achaar. ACHAAR! This is the kind of thing I find myself wiping the residue of off the dish with my fingers if there isn't any bread left.
"Why does this person's race matter?" you may have asked upon reading my opening paragraph. Well, as a white person of northern European heritage, I was raised on a diet of baked potatoes and Tuna Helper, and the strongest spice I ever tasted was a light sprinkling of black pepper. I'm happy to say that I've come a long way in the past few years, but I still prefer my food pretty low on the Scoville scale. There are nevertheless some exceptions to this, of which ACHAAR (or Indian pickle) is a significant one. The principal ingredients of achaar are magic and deliciousness that punch you in the face with flavour, although I'm pretty sure lemon and spices figure in there too. While in Thailand this summer, I discovered the delicious sour-and-spicy tom yum soup, and realized that sour spiciness is a whole 'nother ball game from regular spiciness, a ball game I was a lot more interested in playing. I find the sourness really cuts the spiciness, but my partner finds that sour intensifies spice, so disclaimer: I have no idea what will happen when the sour-spice hits your individual taste buds. My advice to have some raita (savoury yogurt) handy to control any damage stands. Like a lot of Indian food, the chana will start off pretty mild but halfway through you might notice a taste bud smolder that will grow into a fire if you keep feeding it.
Getting back to Pushap, you can get a pretty good plate of comfort food for under $5, but if you've hauled your ladoos all the way out to metro Namur, why not go all the way? For $30, Raj and I can eat ourselves into a food coma with appetizers, drinks and sweets to go with our chana bhatura and/or thali. Don't miss the lassi if you're getting drinks. The only way to go wrong with the sweets is not getting at least one. Appetizer-wise, the chaat papadi is amazing and the samosas are pretty good too. I wish I could recommend the cheese pakora but I can't because I've never tried it because they always seem to be out! If you've had it, please let me know so that I know it isn't just a mystical legend of fried balls of cheese.
Ambience-wise, I'd totally recommend Pushap for a date. It's festooned in multicoloured string lights that make it look like it's always Diwali or Christmas, but between the Bollywood tunes playing on the sound system and the traditional Indian paintings of couples tastefully giving each other bedroom eyes, this place says ROMANCE. Just be careful not to eat so much that you need to waddle out at the end of the date ... some advice I could probably stand to take myself.
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