A taste of 29 states: Bollywood style
“INDIA is too big.” The owner of the biggest and hottest Indian restaurant in Cebu to date, explained right after dinner how “serving authentic Indian food” is a little bit more complicated than it seems.
“India has 29 states, with some states bigger than the Philippines.”
This should strike local foodies hard. If the Philippines, with an approximate total land area of 300,000 square kilometers, has trouble differentiating humba and adobo from each other, imagine what a total land area of 3,287,263 square kilometers (that’s about 10 times more) does to a dish of chicken tikka masala?
“Each state presents a different kind of food, and here in Bollywood Tandoor, we try to sample dishes from every state,” shared restaurant owner Soni Vasnani. For Vasnani, authenticity is staying true even with all the variety. True enough, Vasnani says the restaurant can serve more than 100 dishes.
People say that to find good authentic food, one needs to visit the places the locals frequent themselves for a hearty meal. If that is indeed to be taken as gospel truth, then the sight of many Indians dropping by for lunch and dinner here is a good indicator of how the food served here must hit closest to home.
Speaking of home, one of the things the restaurant highlights is its use of an authentic tandoor brought here all the way from India. A tandoor is India’s traditional clay oven, and as Vasnani claims, just gives all the restaurant’s flat breads (chapati, naan etc.) their distinct taste that’s unmistakably Indian. These flat breads are handmade, freshly baked and take just about a minute to cook. The naans, chapatis, parathas—any, or just about all of them actually, go great with the dishes here.
With a piece of bread at hand, ready one’s self for a flavor trip: the restaurant’s version of chicken tikka masala, grilled boneless chicken prepared with a tomato base sauce, is a good starter choice. For an adventurous pick, there’s the paya, which is goat meat cooked in onion gravy. If one wants to take the spice levels up a notch, try the pepper chicken, cashew nut paste marinated chicken cooked in black pepper sauce, or the mutton rogan josh, which is mutton cooked in gravy and sauteed in chili and ginger fried in oil.
For some locals, it bothers them how they are not able to finish all the gravy that comes with every bowl of curry that they order. Interesting to note, Vasnani shares that the amount of gravy left behind in a bowl is one indicator if a table has been occupied by Indians or Filipinos. The latter think it is all too much, tearing a small piece of bread and dipping it in the bowl for good measure. The former forget that there was even meat to begin with; treats the gravy as the “star” instead—according to Vasnani—tears a piece of bread, forms it into a made-up spoon and scoops all the gravy from the bowl like the easiest thing in the world.
“Indian food is also one of the healthiest,” said Vasnani, attributing to the fact the vegetable dishes are also very popular Indian fare.
For instance, a dish called crispy veggie magic, is a sleeper star. A meat lover may easily mistake it to be some stir-fried pork dish. But as the name suggests, it is actually crispy fried mixed vegetables sauteed in honey. There is no meat in this dish but the eyes roll just the same after taking in a tasty forkful. For appetizers these vegetable-based orders are good picks: Choley bature, whole boiled chickpeas sauteed with onion, garlic, ginger and tomato, served with crispy fried bread; and the popular veggie samosa, fried pastry stuffed with savory potato and green peas filling.
“We serve 100 percent authentic Indian food, all our spices imported from India,” said Vasnani, pointing to the restaurant’s storage room where all the spices are kept at room temperature. And to ensure the consistency, according to Vasnani, the kitchen is led by a team of three chefs from India. “We don’t modify flavor according to Filipino taste,” Vasnani assured, except for the spice levels as previously stated.
The restaurant, both featuring an air-conditioned space and al fresco dining area, can seat about 200 and features a parking space good for more than 20 vehicles. Bollywood Tandoor is located on Gov. M. Cuenco Ave, Cebu City and is open from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for lunch and 6 to 11 p.m. for dinner daily. As an added bonus, dinners on Fridays and Saturdays are complete with entertainment by belly dancers.