Wow, I am so behind in mofoing, it's not even funny. Watch me single handedly churn out 3 posts within the next few hours, in style...
Anyway, right after visiting the Salcedo Market last Saturday, the family and I decided to eat at an Indian restaurant in the area called New Bombay upon recommendation of my sister who ate there the day before. What I love about my family is that we're not afraid to try something different. Granted Indian is one of the most popular cuisines around and is no longer "different" (hell I'd like to take a wild guess and think that Filipino cuisine is "something different" to the rest of the world!), but I know some of my friends despise Indian food and like it nice and safe at Pinoy and western restaurants. Sorry, Indians out there, no offense. I guess some people's palettes really can't take the 20+ spices you add in your food that makes it complex and sooo good.
But back to my family, we love good food and we love going to new restaurants, especially when that restaurant is pretty much a hole in the wall. And we really really love Indian food. We live in Alabang and there are NO INDIAN RESTAURANTS AROUND. We are so deprived of Indian food love that we eat Indian any chance we get. Hey, Pinoy Indians, why not come over to Alabang and put up a veg friendly restaurant?
Don't you just love it when restaurants show the world that they have vegetarian food?! Well, here where everyone bows down and kisses the feet of meat (and eats them too...), I find it refreshing and... what's the word --- reinforcing? that the world can be vegetarian friendly and that I'm not alone in the battle for more commercially available vegetarian food.
Gosh, enough with the rambling and on with the food...
My brother (who's vegan too) and I ordered the appetizer staple in any Indian restaurant, the samosa (P80 or $1.67 for 4 pieces -- not bad eh?). It was a good thing that it came on a plate wrapped in foil, which I think masked the fact that the samosa was deep fried. Anyway, the hot samosas were perfect with the cool spicy tamarind sauce (the potatoes inside were themselves spicy too).
For our entree, we ordered the dal makani (P150-180 or $3.13-3.75, [I forget the exact price] enough for 2 people), a stew of black lentils (which look uncannily like black monggo) in a yellow sauce spiced with garam masala and ginger. Traditionally this dish is served with huge amounts of cream and ghee, but this restaurant served it dairy free. Despite the dairy free status, the dal was creamy and satisfying. I think I tasted a hint of cumin in the background? Together with the dal, we ordered...
Chapati, whole wheat of course (P20 or $0.42 per piece). I myself am in love with any flat tortilla-type bread, so I liked this one all right. It didn't seem like the right carb accompaniment to the dal though. The dal was thick, but not thick enough to spread on the chapati without the sauce spilling over. We had some of my sister's saffron rice, which went better.
And of course, when we saw that the menu had vegetable meatballs, we just had to order them.
Not made of TVP, the vegetable coftas (I think it was P140 or $2.92 for 4 coftas) were pleasantly firm and chewy, definitely not mushy. You could almost have these on pasta. I would definitely order these again.
New Bombay
G/F Sagittarius Building III,
312 HV dela Costa St,
Salcedo Village, Makati
819.2892
Disclaimer: this place really is a hole in the wall... Don't expect posh dining. It was kinda dark inside... Perfect for lunch but not for a romantic date for sure.
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