Punjab Grill (B1-01A, The Shoppes at Marina Bay Sands South Podium, tel : +65 6688 7395) opened their doors back in 2011. Certainly didn't feel like it was 7 years ago, but it had been. Both the media and local blogosphere had performed their obligatory coverages but I was curious because I felt that these guys might be a place better experienced than read about in some uninspired and obligatory work literature.
We were served papadums and chutneys along with a shot of mango lassi shortly after orders were taken. The white chutney in the middle tasted like it was yoghurt and garlic. Reminded me of toum. Nice when paired with the fruit chutney on the papadum.
It was unfortunate that their saffron lassi with pistachio didn't cut it. The crushed bits of pistachio were obviously there just to make the drink look good. This couldn't even be compared to the mango saffron rendition at Dabbawalla which managed to coax a surprising balance of flavours between the mango and saffron. Barely getting the saffron here.
Service was efficient. Didn't managed to get a snap of their chicken tikka and lychee chaat before the wait staff started portioning out.
It's a cold chaat of shredded bits of chicken tikka tossed with cream cheese and bits of lychee. This was further enhanced with some tamarind sauce. Not quite getting the cream cheese or lychee individually but as a whole, this was pretty good. Smoky, sweet and sour with texture akin to chicken mayo salad with added crispy bits. Pretty sure no where else here does a chaat like this.
The item that I was looking forward to was their guchchi pulao. Guchchi or gucchi refers to morel mushrooms. The wild morels used here are imported from Kashmir. Harvesting I gather (pun intended) is a labourious process since these cannot be cultivated and quantities can be unpredictable.
Anyways, the mushrooms are dried and rehydrated in water over the course of a day. The water that was used to rehydrate the mushrooms is used to cook the rice - dum styled along with spices which included saffron and cumin. Those morels were large and stuffed with a mix of cottage cheese flavoured with more saffron and cumin. The menu mentioned those stuffings to be milk cakes. Since those are not mutually exclusive with cottage cheese, they could mean the same thing.
Damn this was good. The rice was well infused with the flavours of the morel and it was obvious that the other spices that was included in the pulao was meant to be delicate and not overpowering for the mushroom. The morels themselves were flavourful and meaty.
The supplement to the pulao was a saag gosht. Plump morsels of moist lamb served in a spiced spinach gravy. The palak was scented with the aroma of fried onions amidst the other spices. Lamb was tender and flavoursome on its on. Yum!
To close the meal, we were given a shot of betel leaf with sweet vanilla concoction as a freshener after the food. Service here was pretty good. Would like to come back again.
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