Kammadhenu

Seeing dogs being taken for a walk in the evening is unexceptional, but seeing a pair of goats being led down the back streets of Newtown was a bit of a surprise. They looked quite spoilt. One was walking on a leash. The other was trusted to walk alone, and wore a coat to keep warm. Wearing a coat is one way to keep warm, but it’s also nice to eat a hot curry on a chilly evening. Perhaps not goat meat curry after spotting these nice fellows.

If you want to warm up with a curry in Newtown you can visit Kammadhenu. The restaurant specialises in South Indian cuisine, especially bread dishes. The selection includes dosais, hoppers, and even Malaysian roti chanai. While the food is South Indian it’s very mild. The restaurant is clearly catering for uni students and Newtown locals who aren’t accustomed to red hot South Indian food. This seems to be a successful strategy, since the crowd is large and loud even mid-week.

As well as a vegetarian menu there’s an egg menu, which is rather exciting. The egg dahl features two boiled eggs, halved, in a red lentil curry. It’s creamy, and flavoured with cumin and mustard seeds without being spicy.

The mushroom masala is another creamy curry. As well as the mushroom and peas it’s packed with sweet pieces of onion. It’s definitely the pick of the two dishes.

Since neither of the curries is particularly spicy our side of raita was hardly necessary, but it was a good raita. The cucumber is grated, and the tang of the yoghurt is allowed to show without excessive sweetening. The other side dish, a garlic roti, disappoints the naan-lover. The toothsome layered bread lacks the fluffy appeal of naan, and the garlic is understated.

Kammadhenu seems to err on the side of caution with the strong flavours of garlic and chilli, and could probably be a little more adventurous without turning the crowd away. However the prices around the fifteen dollar mark are well suited to the location and clientele.

To one side a little shrine pays tribute to Ganesh, Buddha and the sacred cow. The cow is a beauty with her droopy ears, almost as cute as the goats going for their evening stroll.

Kammadhenu
171 King St
Newtown NSW

Ratings (out of 5 snorts)

Price	3 snorts
Taste	4 snorts
Service	2 snorts
Atmosphere	3 snorts

Vasanda Bhavan

It felt strange to return to an old favourite to write a review. We’re not regulars anymore, and the new waitress didn’t recognise us. I kept wondering what it would be like. Were we coming home? Would it be the same?

The restaurant we were visiting was the Vasanda Bhavan in Homebush. When we lived in Strathfield we would visit almost every week. Some weeks we tried to break the routine and eat something else, but the Vasanda was our favourite. Coming back and stepping into the dining room, decorated with Christmas baubles and nondescript Australian landscapes, I did feel a sense of familiarity. The laminated menus hadn’t changed either. You can still get the same selection of curries for the same good prices between $10-15. Some things have changed though, and I was pleased that the jugs of water had lost their refrigerated taste while we were gone.

If the restaurant is making small changes, so are we. In the old days we would routinely order one lamb dish and one vegetarian. Now we’re trying to be more vegetarian and on this occasion we chose both our dishes from the vegetarian section of the menu. We didn’t change all our habits though. Rice for two, Garlic Naan for James and Raita for Arwen were must have dishes.

The Paneer Tikka Masala is a dish I used to love, and nothing has changed here. The rich tomato sauce with a touch of cream is really tasty. I also appreciate having some vegetables with the paneer. The paneer, an Indian cottage cheese, is tasty and not rubbery.

The Aloo Muttar was chosen to satisfy James’ love of peas. The sauce is a creamy curry. Interestingly tonight it’s not spicy, and neither is the paneer dish. We mustn’t have looked like we could handle a hot curry. I’m surprised we weren’t asked how hot we wanted the dishes actually.

While the dishes we ordered this time weren’t spicy this isn’t a good representation of food at the Vasanda Bhavan. It can be hot – seriously hot. One night when we were feeling particularly adventurous we ordered the Lamb Pepper Masala. Our waiter cautioned us that this was an authentic South Indian dish. He seemed to be asking if we thought we could handle it, and the answer was yes. How wrong we were. It was so hot that it was hiccough inducing. James thinks we were being taught a lesson, but perhaps South Indian food really is that hot.

When I was eating that red hot dish I remember thinking that it was a pity that the Raita wasn’t more cooling. You see, the Vasanda’s Raita contains raw onions and mustard seeds as well as cucumbers, so it’s not the cooling yoghurt you’re used to. With our mild dishes at this recent dinner it was perfectly refreshing and I rather enjoyed the onion hit. The agreement with ordering the Raita is basically that it’s my compensation for James being able to eat bread. I’m always terribly jealous when I smell the warm Garlic Naan, so I need a consolation Raita. The Vasanda’s Garlic Naan was a crispy one and it was fresh out of the oven. It certainly smelt good.

If you don’t want to eat in the Vasanda Bhavan does take-away as well as eat-in meals. One night an Indian family (eating in) had brought a casserole dish along with them which they had filled to take home. It’s really great for the environment to bring your own container like that. I’ve never tried it myself, but it’s a brilliant idea.

Returning to the Vasanda Bhavan I was pleased to find I still love the place. It’s a great restaurant for a low key, inexpensive Indian meal. I almost felt as if the food had improved, but that was probably just in comparison to our local desperado Indian joint. Maybe I’ll have to go back for another taste, just to make sure.

19-20 The Cresent
Homebush
NSW

Ratings (out of 5 snorts)

Price	5 snorts
Taste	4 snorts
Service	3 snorts
Atmosphere	3 snorts

Yak and Yeti

I have a bit of a fascination with the Himalayas. When I was in High School I read lots of books about Tibet. I read about women walking solo in Tibet, the Dalai Lama’s autobiography, Vikram Seth’s walk from Tibet to India (through Nepal), Tenzing’s account of climbing Everest with Hillary and a book about a Chinese doctor travelling to Tibet because her husband had died there. I couldn’t get enough of it. The beautiful high mountains drew me in and I became interested in the Bhuddist culture. I was also intrigued by the idea of people living on rancid yak butter tea (it was always rancid in the travel books) with tsampa (ground barley). Now that I’m a coeliac I won’t be tasting the tsampa, but I jumped at the chance to try butter tea (although the butter was neither rancid nor from a yak). The opportunity came up because Tibetan butter tea features on the menu of the Yak and Yeti restaurant in Glebe. I was happy to hear we had a dinner scheduled at an untried restaurant, but once I’d seen the menu I was really excited.

I loved the pictures of Annapurna and Dhaulgiri on the walls. They certainly enhanced my hunger to see these mountains. Luckily my hunger for dinner could be satisfied more quickly with my first taste of Nepalese food. It is very similar to Indian food, but was mostly quite mild. There was a choice of basmati, chapatis or pilau to eat with. There was also fried rice, which was not like Chinese version, but it still seemed odd to have fried rice with curry.

We started with entrees. Most of them were deep fried, so I only tried the chicken. It had a beautiful barbequed flavour and went well with the hot roast chillis and capsicum. It was also served with dahl and rice flakes.

I’ve only got photos of some of the mains. My favourite was actually the dahl, which was quite watery and a little salty, but really warming and comforting. I didn’t get a photo though because it was eaten so quickly. Another interesting thing I noticed was that the goat meat was nicer than the lamb and didn’t have any bones. One of the lamb dishes was quite spicy, but the rest of the food was mild. The channa (chickpeas, pictured above) also had a touch of spice.

The mis mas was a bit disappointing since it tasted mostly of tomato and not much else. It had a good mix of coloured veggies though.

The aloo dish, with potato and bamboo shoots, was a mild curry. This is real Northern food, mild and homely. The only curry I noticed with coconut milk was a prawn one, which I guess must be a ring-in from somewhere with a coastline rather than landlocked Nepal.

Last but not least I want to tell you about the Tibetan butter tea. I’m sure your hanging out to find out what it was like and I was certainly anticipating the opportunity to live my dream. It arrived in a pot and it was very frothy!

The flavour of butter was there and the tea was just slightly salty. It was as if you’d taken a bite of buttered toast followed by a mouthful of milky tea. It wasn’t nearly as strange as I’d expected after all those books. I wonder if Yak and Yeti has toned down their tea for Sydney tastes, or if the travel books were spinning a good exaggerated yarn about foreign food. In any case it was exciting to try it, and quite pleasant to drink. I’ll certainly try it again when I get the opportunity.

Yak and Yeti
41 Glebe Point Rd
Glebe
NSW

Ratings (out of 5 snorts)

Price	3 snorts
Taste	4 snorts
Service	3 snorts
Atmosphere	4 snorts

Royal India

A couple of years ago I lived in Strathfield and while I was there I always walked to Homebush when I wanted Indian food. I never visited Royal India even though it’s on the main street of Strathfield. I think the wine glasses scared me off. Any place with wine glasses must be expensive, right? Wrong. The mains at Royal India are $10-15 and the wine glasses are actually for BYO alcohol. This is a good place for a cheap feed.

The reason I finally visited Royal India was for a farewell dinner for a couple of work colleagues. They’re from the UK and they’ve often boasted that, as Brits, they like their curries hot – “not like you wimpy Australians”. This left me a little concerned for a few people in our group who aren’t chilli lovers. Would this place be too authentic for them? Luckily not. I didn’t sample the Vindaloo, which was probably the hottest item on the menu, but the other dishes weren’t extraordinarily hot. They were spicy, but they didn’t make my nose run.

The dish that really stood out for me at this meal was the Palak Paneer. It had a good flavour and the cheese was perfectly cooked and not rubbery. If only all Palak Paneer was this good.

The two mildest dishes were the Butter Chicken and the Cheese Kofta. The butter chicken didn’t stand out for me and I didn’t taste the dumplings. They kept Miss Mild very happy though.

We were expecting the Mutton Xacuti to be very hot, but it wasn’t. However it was still well flavoured with spices.

I had a pot of Masala Tea which made about a cup and a half. It was pleasantly spiced and I enjoyed it.

For dessert I had Kulfi. I’m embarrassed to admit I’ve never had it before. I need to make up for lost time though. It’s a great alternative to icecream. I had the pistachio kulfi which was beautiful. Sweet and nutty it would have stood alone very well. Strangely it was served with strawberry topping which looked artistic, but really wasn’t a good partner for the flavour of the kulfi.

It’s difficult to comment on service when you visit with 30 people. I’ve never been out with a group this size without some confusion. To their credit the staff at Royal India were good humoured. I’d certainly recommend a visit, although a smaller group would probably work better.

Royal India Restaurant
35 The Boulevarde
Strathfield NSW

Ratings (out of 5 snorts)

Price	4 snorts
Taste	4 snorts
Service	3 snorts
Atmosphere	3 snorts

Kasturi

Chatswood has an Indian supermarket, where you can buy paneer, legumes and the odd Bollywood movie. If your into Indian movies you should take a look at Om Shanti Om – it’s a lot of fun. What Chatswood has lacked until recently is an Indian restaurant. That’s why I was so pleased to see Kasturi open up with its cute logo of a deer with huge antlers.

Indian restaurants vary between eatery style and restaurant style. The eateries have basic fittings and a big TV which usually plays dance scenes from Bollywood movies. At the other end of the spectrum are restaurant style places with napkins. There don’t seem to be many places in the middle of the road. Kasturi is restaurant style, but the prices are fairly reasonable, with mains around $15-20.

To start with we were supplied with complimentary papadums with mint sauce, and glasses of water. I was impressed that the waiter was able to tell me that the pappadums had wheat flour in them. He knew what I was talking about. We perused the long menu which was helpfully annotated with a different numbers of chillis beside each dish. James was complaining about the lack of an international standard in chilli ratings, since a Homebush chilli is much hotter than a Chatswood chilli. Apparently there really is such a thing: it’s called the Scoville scale (see The Gourmet Sleuth and Wikipedia). Unfortunately the scale isn’t employed in curry restaurants, although I’m sure there would be plenty of volunteers to rate the dishes.

For our meat dish we had Lamb Rogan Josh. The lamb was cooked to tenderness in a meaty tomato sauce. I enjoyed it a lot.

For our vegetarian dish we had Jeera Aloo, a potato curry. This was hotter than the lamb in a creamy tikka-style sauce.

James was very impressed with his garlic naan, which was beautifully soft. I had raita, the biggest serve of it I’ve ever had. The yoghurt was a little sweeter than tangy, which was disappointing. I was pleased there was plenty to go around though.

Kasturi is a little more expensive than most of the Indian places we frequent. However it’s important because it fills a big gap in Chatswood’s dining scene which is dominated by bbq duck restaurants and cafes. The food is nice and there’s a big selection of dishes.

Ratings (out of 5 snorts)

Price	3 snorts
Taste	3 snorts
Service	3 snorts
Atmosphere	2 snorts

Kasturi North Indian Diner
6/272 Victoria Avenue
(corner of Victoria Ave & Neridah Street)
Chatswood