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Sat, 14 Apr 2007

Turmeric

Part 2 of the Nebraska Roundup is on deck, but in the meantime I wanted to rave about a couple of local places, both somewhat newish, that caught my fancy this month.

The first is Turmeric, in Sunnyvale, which after three visits I feel completely comfortable in anointing as my favorite Indian restaurant in the Bay Area, and one of the best anywhere.

Turmeric has an interesting story. Its chef, Arvind Bhargava, has a pretty serious resume, including the executive chef position at a top restaurant in New Delhi and a degree from the CIA's Advanced Culinary Arts Program, followed by the top spot at the Bombay Club in Washington D.C., a favorite of President Clinton. According to local press, in addition to Clinton, Bhargava has cooked for Prince Charles, Princess Diana, Indira Gandhi, and King Hussein of Jordan.

The restaurant's previous incarnation was spelled Turmerik, and it enjoyed a nice, but somewhat quiet local reputation. Bhargava was the chef, but he did not own the place and the owners closed it in mid-2005. Barghava and his wife purchased the place, and gave it a major makeover and relaunched it about a year ago with a new menu and a (slightly) new name.

The difference is dramatic. The old Turmerik had very tasty food -- certainly above average for the southern Peninsula which has no lack of Indian restaurants -- but the new Turmeric completely transcends the genre of passable but workaday Indian food that can be found in any town in the Bay Area.

What lifts Turmeric's food out of the average is a combination of factors. There's Bhargava's training, experience, and personal commitment, as well as the kitchen's fearless innovation while retaining the authenticity of Indian regional cuisines. (Most items on the menu are denoted with their origin -- Kohe Awadh (lamb shanks) from Lucknow; Achar Ghosht (lamb with pickling spices and yogurt) from Hyderabad; Goat Curry from Punjab.)

On my recent trip with a group, we were able to sample a good selection of delicacies, starting with the Goan Shrimp Balchau, which were pan-seared and had a brilliant and spicy tomato and garlic sauce; the Trio of Fish Perry-Perry (salmon, tilapia, and catfish prepared three ways); and the Manchurian Cauliflower, where small nuggets of cauliflower were fried crispy and coated with a piquant red sauce of tomatoes, onion, and garlic. And those were just the appetizers.

Main dishes included a mild Punjabi goat curry with almonds and cardamom, Malabar fish curry with a sweet-spicy coconut and ginger base, murg ka mukul from Rajasthan (shredded chicken with yogurt and turmeric), and masala lamb chops, which were rib chops half-cooked in the tandoor and finished in a pan with a herb and spice masala. This was accompanied by palak paneer, aloo dum chutneywala (stuffed potatoes cooked in a sealed clay pot, served with mint chutney), and, to top things off, Chef Bhargava brought to the table a special dish, an entire head of cauliflower in a mild creamy sauce with nuts and spices, which was wonderful.

I was working a draft of this yesterday when dinner time rolled around and I was getting hungry. Well, specifically, I was hungry for Indian food, and having written all this about Turmeric, there was just not going to be any getting away with lesser substitutes. I got in the car, drove to Sunnyvale, found parking (sometimes no easy feat on Saturday night near Murphy Street), and headed to Turmeric. I knew they had a weekend dinner buffet, and while I couldn't imagine any buffet measuring up to their cooked-to-order cuisine, I thought might be an interesting contrast. Purely for research purposes, of course.

The buffet was in the upstairs dining room, which was nearly full. The buffet spread itself was not large, which was a good sign. It began with a bhel puri setup, which I skipped; a lovely salad display, which I tried, and instead of pakoras or samosas, there were ragda (stuffed potato patties), which were very nice. The meat dishes included achari chicken (more about that below), chili chicken, goat curry (more of a rogan josh style than the korma style on the regular menu), tandoori chicken (much more tender than anywhere else), and a chicken makhani, rich and creamy with nuts and fruits. On the vegetable side there was a good bhindi masala (okra with spices), paneer makhani, palak with aloo, navratan korma, and a very delicate Punjab kadi, which is usually translated as "vegetable dumplings" -- these were soft balls of greens and chickpea flour, lightly seasoned, in a mild savory yogurt sauce -- I thought it was the best of the vegetables, along with the bhindi. These were accompanied by breads, dal, desserts, and the usual condiments.

The achari chicken deserves its own dissertation: it's the best dish I've ever had at an Indian buffet. "Achar" means pickle, and these are chicken breast kebabs with a paste of yogurt, mustard oil (one of the most distinctive flavors in Indian pickles), and roasted spices (cumin, turmeric, onion seeds, fenugreek, and chili), cooked dry. The yogurt and spices form a toasted crust and the result is simply marvelous.

The buffet pretty much blew away any competition. Turmeric's buffet dishes are better than the cooked-to-order menu practically anywhere else, and the non-buffet menu simply stands on its own. I'm glad you don't have to be a head of state to eat Chef Bhargava's food. (And yes, he came upstairs to the buffet to stop by each table.)

Posted at 15:52 | permanent link

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