Rice Indian Cuisine (Burlington,ON)

4460 Fairview Street
Burlington, Ontario
905.681.3301
website

Two of my co-workers, R & K, had been raving about an Indian restaurant near our office. Rice Indian Cuisine serves a lunch buffet for $8.99. About a month ago, we headed there with my colleague K, for R's birthday and had a marvelous lunch. I was lucky enough to be taken out for my birthday last week and we decided to return to Rice with 2 more colleagues!



Rice is situated in a nondescript plaza (steps away from another favourite Bahn Thai), and keeps very busy with office workers at lunch time. While lower quality food may come to mind when thinking of Indian buffets, the food is actually quite good and fresh. All the curries were delicious. Most importantly, the naan bread was hot and passed the freshness test! Even the pakoras were crispy!


My full plate (and no, I did not just have one!).

My favourite curry, that I kept thinking about after my first visit, was the mushroom matar, mushroom and peas in a cashew, onion and tomato gravy. Pieces of mushrooms and peas swim in a rich sauce with fried onions. What's not to like? I will definitely be attempting to replicate this dish in the near future! Other curries that I enjoyed: aloo ghobi (cauliflower and potatoes), mixed vegetables (with a good spicy kick) and butter chicken.



Pakora, butter chicken and tasty naan bread!

Not only were all the savoury dishes excellent, but Rice also serves two of my favourite Indian desserts (really the only two I know and like...). With R & K's influence, we combined the gulap jaman (donut-like dumplings in syrup) on top of the rice pudding. While the gulap jaman's are good, I just love the rice pudding. It's rich and creamy but not too sweet: my perfect dessert. (Side note: you don't even want to know how many jokes about balls were made. Yes, we were all women...)


Gulap jaman and rice pudding.

Rice Indian Cuisine has great food, and at $8.99 for lunch, offers great value. I was harshly reminded yesterday that not all Indian buffets offer good food (unfortunately, my poor boyfriend A and I did not have such good food at another Indian restaurant). My only word of advice is to wear comfy pants when you visit, because you won't be able to stop eating!!

Origin India (Edmonton)

10511 82 Avenue Northwest
Edmonton, Alberta
780.436.0558
website

For my last meal in Edmonton, I got to share it with none other than my friend and ex-roommate Trapezista, and her boyfriend S! My trip to Edmonton could not be more timely with her boyfriend having a meeting there too! After walking in downtown Edmonton where their hotel was, we decided to head to popular Whyte Ave (182 Avenue) in search for dinner! I mentioned Indian food (which is referred as East Indian specifically in Edmonton) and we found Origin India.



Origin India offers both a buffet and à la carte items. I am usually a bit weary of Indian buffets but this was definitely better than average. One of my issues with buffets is that the naan bread isn't always the freshest or best. We were provided with a basket full of fresh out-of-the oven naan bread. We weren't even able to eat all the naan, which is pretty sacrilegious I think!


Our basket of naan bread!

The curry choices weren't as bountiful as usual buffets but the quality was good. Unfortunately, the restaurant was very dark so I had a really hard time taking pictures. One thing that made me happy was seeing a pile of pappadom's shaped into cones. Being a chip lover, I love salty and spicy pappadom's! They were also freshly fried! I've never seen them at a buffet which may be a good thing since I indulged in quite a few.



Finally, after having two full plates of food (I always feel pressure to take advantage of buffets!), I got to have some Indian dessert. S thought the gulab jamun amazing so I took one. They usually are too sweet for my taste but it still was very good. I was more excited about having payesh (rice pudding). My sister tells me it's easy to make at home. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or bad...


Can't see the rice pudding but the gulab jamun looks sticky and sweet!

It's always nice to see old friends over good food! Whyte Avenue is a fun street to visit in Edmonton. Trapezista and I came back the next day (Saturday morning) to visit the Old Strathcona Farmer's Market nearby. There are also some nice clothing stores!



For my other restaurant posts in Alberta:
* Italian at Fiore Cantina (Calgary)
* Burgers at Barpa Bill's (Banff)
* Half-price starters at The Bison Mountain Bistro (Banff)
* Steak at Melissa's Restaurant (Banff)
* Mr. Mike's Steakhouse & Bar (Edmonton)
* Sawmill - Prime Rib & Steak House (Edmonton)
* Asian Fusion at Wild Tangerine (Edmonton)

Pushap (Montréal)

4777 boulevard des Sources
Dollard-des-Ormeaux (West Island), Québec
514.683.0105

Ok, so the title is a bit misleading. Pushap is not actually in Montréal (but on the island of Montréal) but in Dollard-des-Ormeaux, the suburb where my mom lives. In fact, it's about a two minute drive from my mom's. My sister L has been telling me about Pushap for years. Being a vegetarian Indian restaurant, Pushap is her substitute for The Himalya Restaurant in Hamilton.



On this day, we were a total of five people for lunch. A larger group is more conducive to sharing and tasting different dishes. We started out with appetizers: samosas and pakoras. I only had a pakora and really enjoyed the variety of vegetables in the fritter. We all thought the accompanying sauce had a mighty kick!


Samosas and Pakoras to start with.

We somehow agreed that we needed 6 dishes for five people and proceeded to pick what was appealing. The menu was broken down into two sections: the special preparations for $4.75 and the cheese (paneer) special for $5.50. From the first group, we ordered the bhartha - eggplant (L's recommendation), the aloo gobhi - cauliflower and potatoes (my request) and chana masala - chickpeas (M's request). For the paneer dishes, we ordered the palak paneer - spinach and cheese and two servings of the navrattan korma (L stating that this is as close as the vindaloo as it gets!).


Palak paneer, naan bread and chana masala.

Everyone was happy with the dishes though none had any kick at all. The most popular dish was the bharta. The eggplant dish was creamy and perfectly spiced. I was happy with the aloo gobhi; I highly dislike overcooked vegetables but can make an exception for mushy cauliflowers. My sister who doesn't usually like aloo gobhi preferred this saucier version than the usual drier versions. The biggest disappointment was the palak paneer. The overall consensus was that it tasted bland and boring.


Aloo gobhi, bharta and navrattan korma.

For the appetizers and six dishes mentioned above, 5 naan breads, 2 mango lassies and one portion of rice, the total came under $50, costing us $9.80 each! What a great price! Everyone was filled to the brink and barely ate dinner (well I ate a good dinner...). Definitely worth the trip to DDO, or to Pushap's other location at 5195 rue Paré in Montréal (514.737.4527).


My very well filled plate!



For my versions of two of the dishes:
Chana masala
Baigan Bharta

Shafali Restaurant (Ottawa)

308 Dalhousie Street
Ottawa, Ontario
613.789.9188
website

After my visit to Montréal, I drove to our nation's capital Ottawa with my sister L. She is going back to university to become a high school teacher. Another engineer changing her career! I spent a couple of days there for moral support and we got to eat out a couple of times. On our first evening there, we dropped off some of L's things and went to look for dinner. We walked by Parliament Hill and headed off to ByWard Market. We agreed on Indian and ended up at Shafali Restaurant.

Parliament Hill.

Ottawa is very pretty!

After going back and forth, we decided to go for a vegetarian combo meal for two. We started off with a plate of appetizers, consisting of pakora's and samosa's. My sister and I can never resist Indian appetizers! Both were served with a tamarind sauce.

Starter of pakora and samosa.

Our combo included two curries and rice. We asked to change one of the curries to matar paneer (one of our faves!)and the waiter was happy to oblige. The second curry that was included was podiyal, a South Indian vegetable with coconut dish. We had never tried it before and it was good. You could really taste the coconut. There were no leftovers after this meal!


Rice with fried onion. Yum!

Matar paneer.

Vegetable podiyal.

After we finished our curries, the waiter came up to us and asked if we preferred gulab jamun or payesh for dessert. My sister likes both desserts and I definitely have a weak spot for payesh (rice pudding) so we had the rice pudding. Even though we were both stuffed to the gills, we managed to finish our rice pudding. It was creamy and not too sweet. Perfection! My sister told me she sometimes makes this at home. I will definitely have to try this! I rarely have dessert at Indian restaurants because I'm usually too full; however, it's included, I won't refuse it!


It was getting dark so this was the best shot of my rice pudding topped with almond.

India Palace (Toronto)

257 Queen Street West
Toronto, Ontario
416.593.7272
website

MC and I spent her last day visiting me in Toronto. The plan was to shop on Queen Street West and at the Toronto Eaton Center. We picked a great rainy day to shop outside. Once we were soaked and dirty from the rain, we decided to call it quits and have lunch. We discovered Indian food is a great relief when you feel cranky from the rain. We picked India Palace because the Indian restaurant next door had a long waiting line and we were not willing to wait in the rain. I did notice that there were a few Indian restaurants in the same block, all offering a $10.95 buffet.



I like Indian buffets because you can try different things. Having said that, I usually just stick to what I like. Some will argue the quality of the food at a buffet is not as good. This is especially true for deep-fried appetizers like pakoras and samosas; they are never at their best at buffets because they're not freshly fried. I tend to overeat at buffets, trying to get my money's worth. I had three plates that were very similar, as you can see below. MC and I both really enjoyed the saag paneer (spinach and cheese). You can notice that by my last dish, I was only getting sauce and naan bread to sop it up. MC and I tried to minimize waste by re-using our plates but were chided for it. I guess it's not a hygienic practice...

My three plates mainly containing butter chicken, saag paneer, naan bread and aloo gobi.

Before we stopped for lunch, we were shopping for shoes near the MuchMusic building. We saw people setting up for the MMVA's. While we were looking at shoes, the salespeople started dancing and screamed out that Lady Gaga was singing. So we went outside to watch her rehearse. I thought it was funny because I only recently discovered Lady Gaga and I find her songs are perfect for running (maybe just slightly too slow). When I mentioned this to MC, she was very unimpressed and thought Lady Gaga will just be a one year wonder. I guess we'll see... Meanwhile, I'll keep running to Just Dance!

MMVA stage.

Lady Gaga rehearsing.

Baigan Bharta

To accompany my chana masala, I also made baigan bharta. Baigan bharta is an Indian eggplant dish that I really enjoyed when I went to India Oven. It was creamy, sweet and so spicy; however, it also looked very oily. My sister told me she makes a healthier, tomato-based version at home that she and her boyfriend really enjoy so I thought I would give it a try.



Baigan Bharta (Serves 2-3)
I followed the same recipe as the chana masala, with the additon of ginger (that I would omit next time) and turmeric. Since I still have some half-and-half left (that stuff does not go bad!), I did add some to make it creamier. I also added a bit of sugar to make it sweet. However, you can make it without the addition of cream and sugar. It's the eggplants' texture that gives the dish a creamy texture! Finally, I used Japanese eggplants because I prefer them but you can definitely use regular eggplants instead.

* 3 Japanese eggplants
* oil
* ¼ tsp cumin seeds
* 1 small onion, finely diced
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 1 cup crushed canned tomatoes (or more if you like)
* ½ jalapeño pepper, seeded & very finely diced
* ¼ tsp garam masala
* ¼ tsp turmeric
* ¼ tsp salt
* 1-3 tsp sugar (to taste)
* 1-2 tbsp cream (optional)
* ¼ cup frozen peas (optional)
* fresh chopped cilantro, for garnish

Poke some holes into your eggplants with a fork to allow for the steam to go out in the oven.
Bake the eggplants in the oven at 400F for 30-35 minutes, or until the skin is burnt brown and the outside feels soft (I poke it with my fork!).
Let cool until you can handle it and peel off the skin.
Cut the big pieces with scissors and mash the peeled eggplant with a fork.
Set aside.
Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat.
Add cumin seeds and cook until they begin to pop - about 30 seconds.
Add onions and cook until they begin to brown.
Add garlic and cook 1 more minute.
Add tomatoes, chickpeas, jalapeño, garam masala, turmeric, salt and sugar.
Mix in the peas.
Stir in cilantro and serve with rice or naan bread.
Tada!

The eggplant is not the most attractive vegetable but tastes SO good!

I was very happy with my baigan bharta even if it's not the most attractive dish!

Chana Masala

Although I really like Indian food, I don't often make it at home for a few reasons. One, I don't believe I can make it as well as in restaurants. Two, I'm worried it's fatty and unhealthy. Obviously, these are not good reasons. I regularly read the blog Lisa's Kitchen and Lisa reguarly makes healthy Indian food. This chana masala recipe, that I ripped out from a friend's old Martha Stewart magazine, is very easy, healthy and yummy.



I have to admit that when I go to Indian restaurants, I do not usually order chana masala. I just find it's one of the lesser exciting dishes. In addition, it often looks like a mass of brown food, not very attractive. I like this recipe because it's tomato based and it's actually pretty good looking for Indian food!

I am submitting this recipe to the food blogging event, My Legume Love Affair, highlighting recipes with legumes. This eleventh edition is hosted by Lori Lynn from Taste With The Eyes. If you are interested in participating, or want to check past round-ups, take a look at the host lineup. This food blogging event was created by Susan from The Well-Seasoned Cook.

Chana Masala - Serves 2-3
Adapted from Martha Stewart.
I have added some sugar to the original recipe. I like the slightly sweet taste of Indian food (like Vietnamese) and I figured a couple of teaspoons wouldn't hurt! I put a whole jalapeño, seeds and all. It was fiery! So add jalapeño according to your heat resistance level! Final note, it's worth buying whole cumin seeds, even if you've run out and it costs $4.69..........

* oil
* ½ tsp cumin seeds
* 1 small onion, finely diced
* 1 cloves garlic, minced
* 1 cup crushed canned tomatoes (or as much as you want)
* 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
* ½ jalapeño pepper, seeded & very finely diced
* ½ tsp garam masala
* ½ tsp salt
* 1-3 tsp sugar (to taste)
* fresh chopped cilantro, for garnish

Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat.
Add cumin seeds and cook until they begin to pop - about 30 seconds.
Add onions and cook until they begin to brown.
Add garlic and cook 1 more minute.
Add tomatoes, chickpeas, jalapeño, garam masala, salt and sugar.
Reduce heat to low and simmer for 10 minutes.
Stir in cilantro and serve.
Serve with rice or naan bread.
Tada!


Onion, garlic, jalapeno and cumin seeds. How can this not taste good?

The tomatoes make this dish very colourful.