Chinese Mirch @ New York City

After hunting for Indo-Chinese restaurants in NYC, we landed at Chinese Mirch. I love Indian food. Have been eating it all my life. I love Chinese food. I love the Indian - Chinese fusion as much as I love Chocolates. But do I love Chinese Mirch? No, not so much.

Like most Chinese restaurants in India, the decor was a mix of red and black with dimly lit interiors. It was the only restaurant in NYC where we could get a high chair for our little one! The service was quick and the waiters/waitresses were very friendly. They have two floors. The first floor was more informal. Okay, now, the food. We got a free Yelp check-in offer - Szechuan Bhel - the most popular Indian street food tossed in Chinese Szechuan sauce. Slightly sweet and tangy, it was an Indian Chinese version of Bhel Puri.

Schezuan Bhel

The waiter brought over the soy, samabl olek and the pickled chilis. We started with Crispy Okra - fried okra pods with smoky chilli seasoning. Came served like French fries, in a funnel shaped container. Crispy and crunchy, it lacked salt. But when had with the dip, it tasted a lot better. It was a little greasy. Did I mention it is fried?

Next came the Momos - Tibetan dumplings with vegetable filling. It comes steamed or fried. We asked for the steamed version. It was bland like it is supposed to be. When dipped in the soy sauce it tasted like, well, Momos. Good stuff!

We then got the Chilli Paneer dry - pressed indian cheese in a hot soy chili sauce, served dry or gravy and Chilli Garlic noodles. We really looked forward to the Chilli Paneer, the classic Indo-Chinese dish, but that turned out to be meh. Ginger, garlic, chilli, where art thou?  Disappointed.

The Chilli Garlic noodles was nice and spicy.

The portions were big. But, that's about it. I would try the other Indo-Chinese restaurants before coming back here. Just because they screwed up my Paneer.

Inchin's Bamboo Garden

Oh Boy! For the first time, I am not so enthused to write about the restaurant I ate at. Do I like Inchin's? No. Do I hate Inchin's ? No....
A's incorrigible craving took us to Inchin's Bamboo Garden, after what, more than a year? We reached there at about 8 pm. Can't call it a fine dining place, but it is a little on the expensive side. It was dark inside and Bollywood tmusic was playing in the back ground. The restaurant was quite packed, but we were seated immediately as it was just the two of us. We ordered their house special Veg Coins Manchurian (fried veg. dumplings in a mildly spiced soy garlic sauce cooked with fresh cilantro, celery, chilies, ginger & green onions)

and the Paneer in Szechwan sauce.

Now, the good things about Inchin's :

• The service was good.
• The waitress was quite attentive to our needs and checked on us often.
• Most of them looked like they were regulars (Regulars, why do you like Inchin's so much?)
• Both the entrees came with rice.
• The helpings were huge. We boxed the leftovers for lunch today.
• The Paneer dish was good. The fried Paneer was yum and there were other veggies too, like, mushrooms, bell peppers, egg plant, onions et al.

 The not so good things :

• It took about 25 minutes for the food to come.
• The veg coin by itself tasted good, but the sauce it was in was just okay. I could not get the flavor of ginger or garlic. All I could get was the spicyness.
• Someone at a table near ours had ordered noodles. There was a lot of noodles in the huge bowl, but it looked a lil stale.

Now, the best part - They have interesting appetizers that are really good. We didn't order any this time around, but I recommend all of them! They used to have a happy hour and we loved it. I don't know if they still have one. If they do, I might go back for the delicious finger food, but not for lunch or dinner.
What about you ? Been there ? Like it?

PS - Inchin stands for Indo-Chinese :)

Chilli Pepper House @ Vancouver

A and I love hooot and spicy food. The kind of spice that makes your head itch, your tongue crave for some ice chips, and then you look around and gesture to the waiter for more water..... Just kidding. We love spice but not the kind that has after effects. We relate hot and spicy food to Indo Chinese cuisine. Seattle, has only one, Bamboo Garden, but Vancouver has many. A trip to Vancouver is considered complete only after the said food is consumed and relished. So,on our drive back, after the Winter Olympics, we stopped at Chilli Pepper House in Surrey.

It was just another restaurant. Some tables.No bar. Asian waitress. The manager looked Asian  too, but was fluent in Hindi. The menu had lots of Vegetarian options.I scanned the menu, made big eyes whenever I read the words "Paneer" "Chilli" "Garlic" "Spicy", let out a tiny squeal and looked at A, who shot back a look as if to say "We can only pick two!". We ordered the Gobi Manchurian (dry) and Chilli Paneer. A told the waitress, "Make it spicy....maximum.....how many? 5 stars? Yes, make it 5 stars." The waitress, not sure of A's spice levels, brought us a spice rack on top of the 5 stars.She had some trouble understanding the "dry" part of the Manchurian. To avoid any disaster, we told her to get the regular Manchurian.

Gobi Manchurian came. It looked good, but was kind of cold. Or least, was not hot enough.We told the waitress to heat it a little more and she stomped back to the kitchen swearing something under her breath.
Then, Gobi manchurian (aka Cauliflower Manchurian) came back, nice and hot. I would describe it as Golden fried cauliflower florets in a mildly spiced soy garlic sauce cooked with fresh cilantro, celery, chilies, ginger & green onions.It was excellent.

The Chilli Paneer was fantastic. Basically, it is Indian cheese fried to perfection and tossed with green bell peppers, onions, chilies, ginger and garlic.We ordered rice on the side.

                            

We loved the food and will go back for more, sometime soon. They have another branch on Kingsway, which is also great!