Last spring, New Delhi started sending emails Every few months, a new one would arrive, informing me of the opening of an Indian Accent branch in Midtown. He also encouraged me to go check it out.
One began, “Dear and Most Revered Mrs. Pete.” “Just wanted you to know about the best Indian restaurant in the World.”
Another person praised the original spot’s kulchas (or stuffed flatbreads), especially one with duck and hoisin. My correspondent wrote, “It’s Indian like Padma Lakshmi.” “But definitely more delicious.”
These notes were my first introduction to the Manish Mehrotra cult. He has been a popular Indian chef since opening Indian Accent, a small hotel in the suburbs of New Delhi, in 2009. His style is lighterened by modern influences from overseas (he trained in Asia and worked in London), but it’s still rooted in the Indian culture. At his New Delhi restaurant, a scoop may be made in a toy pressure cooker. This appliance is almost as common in Indian homes than microwaves in America.
Mr. Mehrotra’s Indian cooking inspires people to try new ways of eating traditional Indian food. New York could also use more of this. Junoon and Tamarind Tribeca make up the short list. They offer comfortable, modern Indian restaurants that allow you to dress up for beautiful food. Surprises, created by an Indian-style imagination, are rare since Tabla closed.
Indian Accent opened at the Le Parker Meridien Hotel in February. It has many surprises. The prix fixe menu is $75 for three courses or $90 for four, and it offers all the comforts you would expect from a restaurant. The interior is clean and simple, with the exception of a gold wall at one end.
Cocktails are made at the marble bar with tea and spices. The tables are served with stiffly pressed napkins, and narrow-stemmed wineglasses. This is a signal to pay close attention to Daniel Beedle’s list. It contains aromatic whites and savory wines that can be paired with layers of spices.
Vivek Rana will eventually be the chef, and Mr. Mehrotra is a co-chef. Although duck kulcha isn’t on the menu, I was able to see why my New Delhi informants were so excited about the kulcha stuffed w/ pastrami and mustard.
Our server stated that the chef had the idea for the dish after eating Peking duck. He set down a wooden tray with a copper pan with shredded lamb on one side and a stack flatbreads called Rumali Roti on the other. There were cucumber spears and four types of chutney in between. One of them was hoisin sauce subcontinentalized and tamarind. This brought Peking within shouting range. As I wrapped a roti around soft-spiced lamb, and spooned on one or all of the chutneys — each was great individually and together — I thought about tacos.
It is a remarkable feat to let China, Mexico, and the Carnegie Deli enter an Indian restaurant without the meal turning into a chaotic grab bag. To add crunch, fried squid is seasoned with chickpea flour threads and puffed rice. Why not? Especially when the spice mix that can make your tongue ache is used to season the squid.
The “sweet pickleribs” are something I do not know how to classify. However, they are tart mango sauces with strips of dried mango on the top make these baby backs so delicious I would eat them any name.
It’s also a wonderful thing to make soy keema. This version is not as similar to the original keema which is a stew made of lamb and peas. It is more like a spicy filling for a vegetarian sloppy Joe. I am looking out at a takeout window on 57th Street. The tiny, fragrant, lime-scented rolls that come with the keema on the skewer look like marshmallows, and it’s possible that this is how I got the idea.
These are not the only outstanding dishes. Kolhapuri chicken is a western Indian chile-based curry that can be served as an appetizer with cold chicken salad. The fried shiso leaves stood tall in a heap of potatoes and water chestnuts, but the batter was too thick to allow the herb to make much impact.
Indian Accent is a new restaurant that’s still trying to replicate the New Delhi-New York approach. It can take some time for chefs in new regions to find their suppliers. Sea bass fillets glazed with tamarind tasted a bit like bottom-feeder fish, which is something we don’t normally find in wild saltwater fish.
Although the menu is now less confusing than initially, crossbreeding of prix fixe and a la carte options can still prove to be difficult. For example, the lamb costs $38 more. Although the price is reasonable for a larger platter than most main courses in town, I would prefer that it wasn’t stapled to increase the already high cost of the meal.
Servers are more likely to complain about the complexity of ordering. In the beginning months, dinner requires patience and a lot of smiling. The menu has terms that New Yorkers might not understand. It was a delight to discover that sweet potato shakarkandi is a tender cube stacked over shaved Kohlrabi, making it one of my favorite small starters.
However, I am always eager to eat, especially if it is a delicious dessert like the makhan malai. It was once a street snack. Now it’s a fluffy mound made of aerated milk and sprinkled with rose petals, almonds, and palm sugar.
It’s the fun part of this dessert, how these crystallized toppings transform unsweetened saffron water once it meets in your mouth. This is the kind of happy collision that only Indian Accent can offer.
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