The Food Nazi

There are a handful of food "genres" I get massive cravings for every now and so often: Indian food is one of them. And, having spent a considerable amount of time in New Haven, I'm used to indulging in cheap all-you-can-eat Indian buffets with all the fresh-baked naan bread your appetite can handle (which is, for me, usually a lot). To name a few: Royal India and Thali are two of my all-time favorites. The latter I usually reserve for special occassions because, although the food there is absolutely unbeatable, it is a bit on the expensive side (Click here to see the review I wrote up about the restaurant). My favorite part about Thali is the pilau rice (bits of raisin and slivers of almond give it a splendid texture) and the extensive dessert table. Royal India is out of the way, but definitely worth visiting for a quick-and-easy weekend bite. The owner there knows me well enough - he brings me tandoori roti instead of the standard naan bread (their roti is fantastic), he puts out some baigan bhartha (eggplant) for me even if it's not on the buffet line, and he always serves me a complimentary glass of mango lassi.

So, all of that is to say: whenever I can't magically transport myself to New Haven for good Indian food, I usually have to settle and find myself another place to feed my cravings. And, boy oh boy, do those restaurants have a lot to live up to. Not surprisingly, few often live up to my standards. Which brings me to the latest: Ivory Kitchen in Clarke Quay - elegantly situated along the river, keeping company with a host of other ritzy eateries at the quay. Sadly, the restaurant succeeds at putting on airs, but its food is lacking the excitement I get when I go to Thali or Royal India. Its atmosphere is inviting and the decor is lovely, but it is not enough to make up for the fact that its food is nothing remarkable.

That said, it wasn't BAD. It made for a pleasant meal which is pretty much a general rule here in Singapore. You can't really get a bad meal. You run into a few massive disappointments (CPK was pretty awful), but it's nothing a little ice kechang or peanut butter & kaya toast can't solve. All in all, I enjoyed the meal. The price ($25/lunch buffet, plus $8 for a mango lassi) was a bit steep, but the food didn't suck. Would I go back again? Probably not. But it was a fun little food adventure, nonetheless.

I started off by trying some of the salad options. Apart from a refreshing cucumber-jicama salad with fresh mango coulis, there was nothing particularly interesting at the salad station. Garlic broccoli, hard boiled egg salad, and picked onions were a few of the other options, none of which were memorable enough to write about. Word to the wise? Do not pass go, do not collect $200....skip the salad - head straight to the main course and dessert.


Ahhh, that's much better: chaat topped with puffed rice, lentils, cilantro, potatoes, and a sweet-sour tamarind sauce. I think of it as India's spin-off ofMexican nachos. The whitish sauce tasted almost like sour cream and it went awfully well with the tamarind sauce. The chaat (like tortilla chips) had a wonderful buttery flavor. I used the chaat to scoop up the generous portions of cilantro, sauce, and puffed rice. (Chef Prasad at Thali does a similar dish which he serves on curved spoons - making it easier to pop one in your mouth and just enjoy the entire in-mouth explosion of flavors and spices.)


Main courses included saag-potato (spinach-potato), goat fish curry, coconut cabbage, creamy cauliflower korma, paneer (indian cheese cubes), coriander leaf curry, tandoori chicken, mutton vindaloo, and more. The only real stand-out was the cauliflower korma which used a lot of heavy cream (I wonder if that's the reason why I liked it so much). The paneer was chewy, like a rubber tire, and lacked any real cheese flavor. The fish curry was not adequately spiced. Its blandness was made even worse by the dryness of the fish (which had been obviously overcooked). C'mon, people, how hard is it to get a decent piece of fish around here?! And, worst of all: the saag-potato tasted like smelly cabbage. It was the strangest tasting spinach puree I have ever eaten and almost made me wonder if they accidentally substituted Gerber baby puree for the spinach mixture. Ugh.

(Also, if you're into pilau rice, their pilau rice was nothing to be excited about. It lacked that characteristically-sexy aroma of coriander, cinnamon stick, and saffron you get with a good quality pilau rice.)


Okay, onto desserts: a few of the desserts were good enough to make this meal a wonderful finish (despite the obvious bumps and scratches along the way). One in particular tasted like a reinvention of the classic halwa (carrot pudding). Little orange beads with a texture reminiscent of goji berries tasted like pureed carrot. These were served warm with a creamy puree of ras malai and chopped pistachios, and slightly-saccharine rose water syrup. All-in-all, a very pleasant dish in small doses (I can imagine feeling a little sick from eating too much of this all at once).


But, best of all was the mango ras malai. (On your way there, be sure to pass on the brownie and the walnut dessert that tastes like treacle fudge. Save yourself ample room for the ras malai.) As with the cucumber-jicama salad, the restaurant does not skimp on using fresh mangoes for its dishes. This is evidenced by the wonderful fragrance of the mango ras malai. The aroma of fresh mangoes really makes this dish. The familiar texture of the ras malai (think of a soggy sponge) is taken to new heights with this dish. I enjoyed it so much, I went back for seconds!


I enjoyed the meal, but did I love it? No. There were some definite highlights. But, in the world of Indian food, Ivory Kitchen just ain't happenin'. I won't discourage you from going - after all, it's not all bad.

Posted by J. Lo on Monday, July 02, 2007 at 11:04 PM | Permalink