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I am not now nor have I ever been a vegetarian. Although I crave juicy steaks, vegetables of all kinds are a strong staple of my daily diet. They play a large role in a number of cuisines, especially Indian. Vegetables often are cooked with aromatic herbs and spices which add heady flavor to onions, cauliflower or peppers. My dinner at Bindi last June with my friend Dan whetted my appetite for Indian fare.
I recently read about Mumbai Bistro on Locust Street and asked my friend Jim to join me for lunch. Jim had never eaten Indian food, but he has a sense of adventure.
The word bistro conjures up images of Paris, but Mumbai is not a bistro. It’s a small place with a few tables and chairs and a buffet, which changes daily. The take-home menu reads: “Fast, fresh, homestyle Indian food.”
That’s exactly what you get. The chefs use a 0 percent trans fat vegetable cooking oil. There are vegan and lactose-free dishes daily, as well as gluten-free entrees.
Jim and I helped ourselves to the buffet. Lunch or dinner costs $4.95 per pound. Thick black plastic plates, which are sectioned so chicken, rice and vegetables do not touch each other, are piled next to the plastic ware. This did not bother me. I felt like I was taking part in an indoor picnic.
We sampled each dish on the buffet. Chicken tikka masala was cubes of poultry cooked with onions and peppers in a fresh, fragrant tomato sauce. Because the cooks at Mumbai slow cook animal proteins, the chicken was very tender. Another dish was chicken korma, which I especially enjoyed. It was prepared with boneless sliced chicken and blended with yogurt in a mild curry sauce. It was aromatic and tasty. I actually put it on fragrant perfectly cooked basmati rice.
I was curious about the cheese dish because I do not associate cheese with Indian cuisine. Paneer masala were cubes of mild cheese cooked with onions and peppers in the aforementioned tomato sauce. It was a light dish for anyone, including vegetarians who eat dairy products.
Vegetables are sometimes mince and formed into veggie balls and simmered in a sauce. Jim and I both liked the vegetables malai kofta, which were served in a slightly spicy red sauce with peas. I could not discern what vegetables were used here. It could have been onions, peppers and string beans. They had a meaty texture that I liked. The dish reminded me of the vegetarian chopped liver I have eaten in kosher dairy restaurants.
My favorite dish was the gobi masala. It is one of the most famous dishes in the Indian culinary repertoire. Fresh cauliflower florets are simmered with potatoes in a heavenly curry sauce which was spiced just right. I liked it so much, I told Jim I was going to surf the Web for the recipe.
We also bought garlic naan ($1), which was nice and hot when it emerged from its aluminum foil wrapper.,Our buffet lunch came to $7 per person.
Mumbai Bistro has an all-day menu. It closes at 9 p.m.
Ironically, there was a surprise waiting for me at my door when I returned from lunch. It was a fresh-off-the-press copy of “At Home with Madhur Jaffrey,” whom I consider the Julia Child or Marcella Hazan of Indian cuisine. She is an award-winning prolific cookbook author and actress who put Indian cuisine on the American map.
I perused the book and the following day made my way to Whole Foods with a list of spices I need to prepare the kind of dishes Mumbai Bistro serves. Jaffrey’s new book is all about homestyle Indian cooking.
Two-and-a-half tips of the toque to Mumbai Bistro. SPR
Mumbai Bistro
930 Locust St.
215-418-0444
www.mumbaibistro.com
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