Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on November 25, 2014

Great rivers of ghee have of late been streaming into Manhattan Valley. Golden brooks of clarified butter have been seen babbling down from the heights into an aquifer on 97th Street and Broadway. Its an estuary of cholesterol in a precinct of octogenarians.

Ghee is to the Indian kitchen not so much what schmaltz is to Ashkenazi food but what milk and honey are to all of Christendom. And if thats the case, Awadh, Guarav Anands newish restaurant on the Upper West, is the promised land.

Opened in June, the restaurant is the only one in the city devoted to the cuisine of Awadh, a region of Uttar Pradesh, a state in Northeastern India. It is a tradition, says Mr. Anand, marked by elegance and luxury. Lucknow, the regions capital, was once home to the great Nawabs, a ruling class given over almost entirely to the pursuit of pleasure, most of it edible, some of it sensual, little of it public policy oriented. The regime didnt last long, but while the Nawabs ruledfrom 1722-1856there was an unstinting consumption of ornately prepared meals. Ghee and eunuchs, naan and nudity, paratha and congress.

AWADH

2588 Broadway (646) 861-3604 awadhnyc.com (4/5stars)

For a diner accustomed to the NOW! Indian food menu, that generic greatest hits broadsheet of sag paneer and chicken korma, the menu at Awadh can be daunting. One must venture into uncharted territories of bhargain (eggplant), gosht (lamb) and bindi (okra). Far from the curries and tikkas we love or like but most importantly know. To eat at Awadh is to explore unknown flavors, to tap into the current of a hitherto unknown yet highly codified tradition. This changing the channel is both endlessly exciting and deeply humbling. And, in this case, fucking delicious.

Mr. Anand has proven his kebab chops elsewhere. He owns not only the sole U.S. outpost of the Delhi chain Moti Mahal Delux on the Upper East Side but the kebab-centric Bhatti Indian Grill in Murray Hill. At Awadh he reprises some of his greatest hits. Among the best of them is the galouti kebab ($11), spiced lamb patties served on a disc of naan and under the solitary O of a slice of red onion.

According to Pushpesh Pant, the awesomely named and exceedingly erudite expert of all cuisine Indian, The pleasure-loving Nawabs aged before their time; their flesh became increasingly weak but their yearning for good food remained strong, so the lighter-than-air kebab was devised to tempt their toothless palates. (Paging Gibbon, Mr. Edward Gibbon.)

As often happens with the effete, the very indulgences that lead to their downfall are the legacies that outlive them. Mr. Anands galouti kebab comes with unimpeachable Lucknowian credentials. He got it from his mentor, Sushil Malhotra, the guy who runs Cafe Spiceremember those?who got it from a guy named Mohammed Muslim, the grandson of Hajj Muhammed Ali, the one-armed chef nicknamed Tunde whose galouti kebab stand in Lucknow, now 100 years old, still serves the citys best.

There exists, then, a direct lineage to the era of Nawabs. At Awadh the galouti kebab begins as a leg of lamb, trimmed of all fat. It is then minced six times, until it has an almost pat-like quality. Tenderized with papaya paste and spiced with a masala Mr. Anand imports from Lucknow, the meat is then slowly cooked in the nawabs other great innovation: dum pukht.

See the original post here:

Ghee Whiz: At Awadh, on the Upper West Side, a Decadent Nod to the Nawabs

Category: Ashkenazi
Tags: