Small Potatoes Make The Steak Look Bigger

The website of Kashmir (52 Race Course Road, tel : 6293 6003) makes a very confident claim that once one has visited the place, said person will add them to their personal list of best restaurants in this country and will subsequently come back for more. I thought that was a rather bold statement, but hindsight has told me that the claim, is probably not very far from the truth. This is one of those places which I left happy and telling myself that I'll like to come back again. It's definitely not the first time that I've gotten such a feel about a restaurant, but I would say that one that inspires as such, is not the majority of the occasions.

We started off on a promising track with some really good kabargah. This was basically lamb ribs that was boiled in milk and spices before being deep fried. There wasn't a lot of meat for a $12 portion, but what was available was definitely very nicely done. The resultant dish retained the aroma of its meat and was quite tender to boot. I could have finished two portions of these easily by myself.

I'm very impressed with this Afghani murg which is basically chicken that's marinated in almond paste, cream, some ginger and garlic before being charcoal grilled on skewers. Marked with very nice char terrain on the surface and surprisingly juicy on the insides, the robust char aroma could just be described as....beautiful. It certainly was good with all that moist meat and half a chicken ($12) felt a little too small. The is seriously good stuff with two thumbs up to the chef.

I ordered this chilly cheese naan for novelty's sake of trying another rendition of naans and their stuffings and it turned out to be pretty good. The crumbly cheese that was used was unexpectedly light in flavor and the naan was highlighted in each bite with the bits of raw sliced green chillis.

The malai kofta turned out to be a mixed bag of a very good and sweetish creamy sauce of saffron and cashew which contains a couple of what is described as cheese dumplings. It's a mixed bag because the gravy didn't taste too nutty or retain much of the saffron flavoring, but it was still good in its own ways, especially as a dip for the naan. Those cheese dumplings didn't taste anything that I knew of cheese at all. Even after having numerous experiences with cheese in Indian restaurants, this one takes the cake of being the weirdest tasting one with a texture that reminded me of sweet potatoes.

Known as 'Honeymoon' on the menu, this dessert was basically a gulab jamun served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. Gulab jamuns were basically my first introductions to Indian desserts and have thus made me a little wary of them since there were mostly sweet to the point that I consider excessive. Adding vanilla ice cream seems to have pushed back the attention of the tongue from all the sweetness and yes, despite it being very sweet still, this was really good. Hot ball of spiced thing with the cold ice cream, I'm sure one can just imagine.

This would be the phirni, which is basically a steamed semolina based dessert that feels like a very soft pudding with the texture of many mini sago. The added sliced nuts didn't really do much to enhance the flavor than the texture of each mouthful. Great stuff as well. It's not so common that I find myself truly pleased by sweet endings.