This advertisement immediately caught my eye! (My attention is often controlled, it seems, by my palette.) This one proclaimed a new Indian restaurant- Sher-E-Punjab- had opened and, as I read the rest of the ad it dawned on me that the new place was in the same location as the Taj Majal had been. I had thoroughly enjoyed many a meal there (Indian restaurants are always a bounty of wonderful meatless dishes) and regretted its loss, wishing the former owners luck and success. But, then, if we were losing one Indian restaurant we were gaining another one in its place. So the big question came to mind: will the cuisine be as good as I had enjoyed before? Well, only one way to find out.Always eager for such a challenge (especially when it involves Indian cuisine), Donna and I paid the new restaurant a visit that very night. I needn't have worried. The cuisine was fabulous! If you are not familiar with Indian cooking- WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? India is a country that really understands vegetarian food, vegetables grandly take center stage, seasoning is an art form, and the textures and flavors bombard the senses with joy. The word "feast," it seems to me, was created to describe Indian cuisine. The cooks at Sher-E-Punjab lived up to our highest expectations.
Beginning with the appetizer sampler platter we proceeded to explore as much as we could of the vegetarian selections available, and there's plenty to choose from. While waiting for the appetizers to come we munched on hot pappadum, crispy little wafers made from lentil flour. Veggie samosas are wonderful little deep-fried pastries stuffed with seasoned potatoes and green peas. Veggie pakoras and batata vada are batter-fried vegetables and spices. Paneer is a home-made Indian cheese and as an appetizer these are cut into finger-sized pieces and batter-fried. The texture is a little firmer than other cheeses and not as "melty" but creamy and flavorful. Accompanied by a hot mint chutney and sweet-sour tamarind sauce, the appetizers were wonderfully prepared, light with a flaky crust and seasoned as to thoroughly grab the attention of all of your taste buds.
Donna and I shared Kashmiri rice and rice pilau, abundant with peas, carrots, onions, raisins and cashews. Our first entrŽe choice was simple- Donna and I both love spinach, so we ordered the palak paneer- creamy spinach cooked in a curried ginger-tomato-onion sauce with little cubes of cheese. The second choice was more difficult but we finally settled on aloo gobbi: cauliflower and potatoes in a curried tomato sauce. We accompanied this with garlic naan, mango chutney and, for me, a little bowl of hot curry paste. (I like my Indian food slightly more incendiary than Donna does hers.) We could really have done with only one order of rice- the servings were huge- but it was great reheated the next day. The flavors were marvelousĐrich and redolent of curry spices and garlic. Although we had no room for desert, we each enjoyed a creamy mango lassi, a shake made with mango and sweetened, home-made yogurt . The service was attentive and quite pleasant. A very good meal indeed, excellent food in a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere, with leftovers to enjoy the next day.
A couple of days later, I was telling one of my co-workers, Scott, about it and we decided to visit for their lunch buffet. As with the lunch buffet at other wonderful Indian restaurants, the variety and quality of vegetarian foods is phenomenal: lentil-vegetable soup, basmati rice, palak paneer (spinach and cheese with a different seasoning), bengan bharta (smoked, curried eggplant), dal (curried lentils), aloo gobbi again, veggie samosas, iceberg lettuce and tomatoes, mint chutney and tamarind sauce, naan. Wonderfully seasoned but not overpoweringly hot, the flavors and textures were blissful. Dessert is included with the price of the buffet and features rice pudding and gulab jaman (sweet round donuts in flavored syrup). For a limited time, the price of the buffet is only $3.99, but it would be a bargain at twice the price.
The dŽcor is lighter and more subtle than the Taj Mahal's had been, but remodeling is still going on. There's a very comfortable sense of space and texture that's quite relaxing. All in all, though it's always sad to lose a treasured friend (as Taj Mahal had been), I look forward to a long and lasting relationship with its worthy successor. Sher-E-Punjab, welcome to the neighborhood.
Sher-E-Punjab is located at 853 East Grant Road, just East of 1st Avenue. Their phone # is 624-9393.
Robert Oser is a local chef, teacher and author of "Flavors of the Southwest" and an upcoming vegetarian chili cookbook. He currently works at the Food Conspiracy Co-op.