Spice of Life, Harris Park

I've recently befriend (or inflicted myself upon) some new blogger friends - all of whom are expats in Australia. Two girls are from the USA and another hails from the UK. The two Americans have just landed in Oz after a stint in the UK...and they were ALL hankering after some decent Indian food reminiscent of the "good stuff" found in the UK. 

It just so happens that I live VERY VERY close to Sydney's Little India (aka Harris Park). A heady and mouthwatering aroma of exotic spices envelopes this suburb - you smell the delicious food long before your stomach gets anywhere near it. 

Wigram Street is where you'll find the majority of the restaurants in Harris Park, with a few up on Marion Street. There are Indian grocers, spice shops, video stores and sari shops aplenty (along with a few Arab delis, butchers and cake shops - a nod to the fact that we're only a few kilometers from Auburn - Sydney's Little Turkey I guess you'd call it).

The majority of the restaurants can be found in lovely little cottages - however tonight we have our sights set on Spice of Life - an enormous Indian restaurant (apparently the biggest in Australia no less)! It's been highly recommended to us by an Indian colleague of VegeTARAian's as being quite authentic and we have an excellent meal - delicious food, great service and loads of laughs.

As with all good Indian meals we start with a basket of lovely, crispy Pappadums that come served with a tangy yoghurt Raita.  It's Kingfisher beers all around (they go down WAY to easily I think) as well as our flat bread of choice - Roti bread for me, and Naan for most of the others.

Tara and I are sharing Vegetarian meals tonight and we start with a Mixed Vegetable Platter for 2 ($16.00).  I don't ever recall seeing a Vegetarian entree platter at an Indian restaurant before - so we're both pretty impressed.  The platter houses a selection of Samosa, Paneer Tandoori and Batata Vada (mashed seasoned potatoes mixed with spices and deep fried).  We both REALLY love the Paneer which is pan fried in a mix of spices, capsicum and onions.  If I could figure out the spice mix I think this would be pretty easy to whip up at home.

  

For mains Tara chose Baigan Achari ($15.00) - a beautiful beautiful roasted eggplant dish cooked with onion in a hot spicy sauce of traditional spices and garnished with coriander. This dish was wonderful - the eggplant SO smokey. Amazing.  Weather I'm eating Vegetarian or not I always find it hard to go past an Indian main that has Cottage Cheese in it - thus my choice for our mains is Malai Kofta ($15.00) -  cottage cheese and cashew nut dumplings simmered in saffron scented creamy sauce.  This was excellent - a nice balance of flavours and this dish wasn't too creamy at all.

The Boy - who was slumming it down the Vego end of the table - decided on a Non-Vegetarian Thali ($18.00). Thali plates are AMAZING - perfect for the indecisive person who wants to try loads of different things and they are WAY more filling than the individual little dishes make them out to be. The plate comes with a mix of  vegetable curries, non-veg curries, roti, green salad, mixed pickles, raita and pappadums. And, you even get dessert!!! All on ONE PLATE!!!

There was a meat-festival going on at the other end of the table - all too hard to photograph from my end of the table whilst scoffing and photographing my own food.  Check our SarahKates blog for a low-down on what the carnivores got up to that night.

After dinner we wandered across the road to Taj for some amazing Indian Sweets...a good night was had by all I think - judging by the amount of groaning and belly rubbing that went on after we'd finished dessert.

Spice of Life is at 116 Wigram Street Harris Park. Phone them on 9762 1033.

Kammadhenu, Newtown

It's lucky for me that this isn't a video blog as I seriously have NO idea how to pronounce the name of this restaurant. For years I've just put a capital "K" in front of a string of random letters and hoped someone knew which Newtown restaurant I was talking about...you know "let's go to Kamendakendanularoolaroo - that Indian Place on King Street".

I'm lucky again then that Miss Chicken and I were strolling past  Kamendakendanularoolaroo-blah-blah one lunch time and all I had to say was "let's eat here". Done!

The "Restaurant beginning with K" offers a myriad of cuisines from Malaysia, South Indian, Indo-Chinese and also Sri Lankin, but it's hard to go past the $8.00 lunchtime Thali Plate special.

Thali is a WONDERFUL dish as you get to try a little bit of a lot of things - dahl, pickles, curry (I choose lamb and Miss Chicken goes for...the chicken), rice, poppadums and something sweet to finish with.  Often I look at the little serves before me on a Thali plate and think "I won't be full after that", but it sneaks up on you and before you know it you're clutching your tummy.

Lamb Curry

Heart shaped rice - awww.

Kammadhenu (yes that is its real name) also has a variety of Hoppers on offer - something I have always wanted to try. On this occasion I begin at the beginning and try a Plain Hopper ($4.00 for two) which tastes just like a fluffy pancake in the thickest part of the hopper, and like crispy-cooked pancake batter on its thinner parts.  Because plain hoppers taste quite...plain, they are usually served with a curry type accompaniment to spice things up a bit. I can't wait to come back and try the other hoppers on offer...egg, string, milk - the list goes on.

We also try a Lamb Roll ($1.50) which in essence is a little potato and lamb croquette. Delicious.

When you go to pay your bill at the register there is a colourful bowl of Mukhwas awaiting you.  Mukhwas is an Indian after-dinner snack that serves as a bit of a breath freshener and digestive aid.  I just love the flavour in Mukhaws - the are usually a mix of fennel and anise seeds - some are sugar coated and so pretty!  The aroma and flavour is fantastic - a perfectly exotic end to an Indian feast.

Scoop a serve into your hand and "bottoms up".

Kammadhenu is at 171 King Street, Newtown.

Kings Indian, Parramatta

Well, if I thought I was a bad photographer after my recent dinner at East Ocean our visit to Kings Indian in Parramatta cemented this thought in my head once and for all.

After my East Ocean post, where I told a sob story of my photography woes,  I received great comments and helpful photography tips from readers and fellow bloggers on how to fall back in love with my poxy, stupid, evil, betraying Nikon D3000.

Armed with these tips & tricks I was feeling very chipper when The Boy and I settled into our seats at Kings Indian - ready to redeem YET ANOTHER meal deal voucher.  As an aside from my camera whinging (just for a second mind you), The Boy has decreed that I shall not be allowed to be in possession of any more than four meal deal vouchers at any one time - ah, never going to happen my friend?  Just saying!

This photo was taken at f/2.8, ISO 1600 and Shutter Speed of 1/15

We'd all established that I'd had the F Stop set too low at East Ocean (f/1.8), so I upped it a bit on this night, which did something wacky to the shutter speed - making it too slow for my shaky hands to hold. I turned up the ISO and "thought" I was getting great photos, but nearly 90% of those I took were too dark, blurry or just plain B.A.D!  To make matters worse Kings Indian was much much darker than East Ocean was. Argh!  Once again, I've try to adjust the colour of the photos in Picasa and crop them a little - they do look better than their original state...but not by much.

This photo was taken at f/1.8, ISO 1600 and Shutter Speed of 1/40

Our meal deal voucher included either a glass each of the house red or white wine.  Neither The Boy and I felt much like drinking wine, but were told we couldn't substitute the wine for soft drinks - interesting, as most other voucher deals don't mind this at all.  The wine was actually quite nice - crisp and dry, and I enjoyed drinking it.

This photo was taken at f/1.8, ISO 1600 and Shutter Speed of 1/30

The voucher allowed us to choose anything we liked from the menu - two entrees and two mains.  We had free reign of the menu and it took us AGES to decide what to order as everything sounded so nice. In the end we settled on two of our favourite entrees - Chicken Tikka and Tandoori Barah (Lamb) Kebab.  

We were impressed to see that the Chicken Tikka was free range (happy chickens - yay). The chicken had been marinated in yoghurt, "exotic spices", ginger and garlic then roasted in the tandoor oven. The meat was slightly charred in places and really flavoursome.  The Tandoori Barah Kebab, also marinated in spices and cooked in the tandoor, was amazingly juicy and tender - I adored these lamb cutlets and wish that we had received more than just one each.

This photo was taken at f/3.2, ISO 1600 and Shutter Speed of 1/5

The Boy was fixated on ordering his favourite Butter Chicken as one of the mains - until I pointed out we had the option of trying Butter Prawns - something which neither of us had ever sampled before.

This photo was taken at f/3.2, ISO 1600 and Shutter Speed of 1/10

I decided to go the vegetarian option as I really love Malai Kofta - a mild curry of cottage cheese croquettes mixed with potato, cashew nuts and spices.  We even spotted the odd raisin in the croquette which gave it a lovely sweet taste. The sauce is a smooth and luscious mix of cream, almond meal and crushed tomatoes. 

This photo was taken at f/2.8, ISO 1600 and Shutter Speed of 1/25

The meal also came with rice, as well as our choice of Garlic Naan or Plain Naan.  We decided to order one of each type of naan bread - just because we could. I really loved the way the Naan bread was slightly crisp, which made it perfect for dipping into the left over curry sauces.

This photo was taken at f/2.8, ISO 1600 and Shutter Speed of 1/25

This photo was taken at f/2.8, ISO 1600 and Shutter Speed of 1/25

Despite its dim light and my terrible photography, I really loved the food at Kings Indian. The restaurant is really just a 15 minute walk from our house and The Boy and I both agreed we'd be back sample more of their dishes...as soon as I've used up all my meal deal vouchers that is.

This photo was taken at f/2.8, ISO 1000 and Shutter Speed of 1/15 - in the rain, brrr.

Kings Indian is at 40 Phillip Street, Parramatta. Phone them on 9635 9677.

Taj Indian Sweets & Restaurant , Harris Park

After our Cabramatta road trip last weekend to try out some Vietnamese fare, my mostly dormant sweet tooth popped up to say “FEED ME SOMETHING SWEET….NOW”!

What I really wanted was a McDonalds sundae with Caramel Sauce, but I do have a slight problem with ice-cream. I love it, but it hates me.   Nicey-Poo also points out that McDonalds sundaes are gross and totally uncool. Seriously, what do Gen Y know about these sort of things anyway?

As we’re already back in Parramatta I suggest a quick detour to Harris Park for some Indian sweeties.

I’ve not been to Harris Park at night time before and I’m surprised by how busy the cafes on Marion and Wigram Streets are.   The suburb is heaving with restaurant diners all enjoying a late night meal (ok, a meal at 9.30pm). 

Harris Park is the area that some people have started referring to as Sydney’s Little India and the air is thick with the aroma of delicious Indian Food.   Indian isn’t the only type of food on offer in Harris Park though, there is Greek, Japanese Teppanyaki as well as Lebanese.

The Boy pulls the car over in a prime position right outside Taj Indian Sweets and Restaurant – snap!  I was getting worried we wouldn’t find a park and that I’d have to force Nicey-Poo to eat a McSundae. 

Although Taj’s menu board shows prices for sweeties by the kilo, they don’t mind if you just order a piece…or three.

Despite the large array of sweets on offer, I already know what I want  as it is the same thing I always have when indulging in Indian Sweets  – Pistachio Burfi.    

Burfi is basically a dieters worst nightmare.  It is made from condensed milk which is cooked with sugar until it solidifies.  It is super sweet and rich and super delicious!  Luckily for me one piece is enough (it is all my waist line can handle after our huge Vietnamese meal earlier in the night).

The Boy is indecisive as he really wanted a sweetie with silver foil on it as it just feels ‘more special’.  Taj is out of silver foil goodies, so he settles on an Almond Burfi. It’s good, but not as good as my beloved Pistachio Burfi.

Niecy-Poo goes for a piece of Gulab Jamun.  Gulab Janum is a syrupy sweet ball of deep fried dough.  The dough is made of milk solids.  Once the dough is rolled into a ball it is deep fried then soaked in a sugar syrup that is flavoured with anything from cardamom seeds to rosewater or saffron.  

  

The Gulab Jamun I’ve before has always been served warm, sitting in a bath of the sugary syrup. Taj’s offering is served cold and without the syrup, so it is not as nice as it is when served warm.  That said, it was still sweet enough to rot the enamel off our teeth!

Taj Indian Sweets and Restaurant is at 91 Wigram St, Harris Park.