The Dim Sum Trail
Chicken Tikki Masala - and other things worth dying for...
If you take the Clifton Park exit off of the Adirondack Northway (I-87), curve under the overpass, hang a right at the second light into the big shopping center, drive to the back wall, park and step out of your car, you will be standing in front of Shalimar.
After you walk in, stop...allow yourself a moment, just that fleeting moment, to take in the subtle, tasteful decor, nice place settings and friendly, but quiet atmosphere. Now, let your gaze wonder over the buffet, served not in the buffet-style generic square brushed aluminum steamer trays...but at the elegant, somewhat small, but well setup display of silver serving dishes and platters.
Once you've satisfied the requirements of being politely greeted, getting a table, ordering drinks (go with Mango Lasse), etc. etc...grab a plate, throw on some great basmati rice and stop in front of the serving dish labeled...Chicken Tikki Masala.
This westernized chicken curry dish (hugely popular in Britain), is somewhat mild for a curry but very full of flavor. And at Shalimar it is capable of changing your concept of Indian food forever...I don't care if you already love Indian food, those feelings will likely grow stronger. You will wonder, somewhere in the back of your mind, how those large, dense chunks of chicken can be so moist yet so firm in texture...and loaded with flavor ALL the way through.
The sad truth about so many heavily sauced chicken dishes, is you bite into chunks of chicken that are swimming in a sauce and flavorful on the outside, but the flavor gives way to generic, unseasoned, dry chicken in the center. Each subsequent bite is a roller coaster of savory/bland/savory/bland.
If you experience that at Shalimar in Clifton Park, NY...email me, I'll send you a check for the cost of your dinner. Of course, I'm not going to be writing any checks...because I know the truth. With each bite, you're going to wonder just how exactly someone makes something so perfect. While pondering that you might bite into a piece of your naan (spiced Indian flatbread) just to go with that flavor, then experience the wonder all over again as the spices in the bread just explode on your pallette.
The thick (like not quite milkshake thick), tangy sweet/sour of the Mango Lasse washes it all down while you try to figure out just how many times you can go back for more without crossing the line from 'wow I'm full' to 'Oh my God, I'm miserably full' (you know the feeling).
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Dim Sum -
Main Entry:
Pronunciation:
Function:
noun
: traditional Chinese food featuring a variety of steamed or fried dumplings, chicken, pork, shrimp, steam buns, rice balls, etc. all served on small plates or in small bamboo steamer baskets.
: A Cantonese term meaning - Order to your Heart's Content
: An addiction; Cantonese Crack
If you've never had Dim Sum, you're not alone. Your local really good Chinese Food restaurant may even serve Dim Sum on weekend mornings, and just doesn't tell you about it. Tai Pan (see New York Part One), doesn't exactly bend over backwards making sure the local community knows about their Dim Sum brunches on the weekends.
Just to help, I've uploaded a copy of the Dim Sum menu (thanks Rebecca!).
For anyone who may be confused, allow me to point out that anything ending in the word "dumplings" is Good Eats as Alton Brown might say. In my 35+ years of experience, there are no exceptions to this rule. So that's a great place to start.
However, when you want to extend your Dim Sum experience beyond mere Dumplings, you find yourself with a heap of choices running the full gamut from mundane (Crispy Fruit Rolls anyone?) to What?? (How about them Chicken Claws, mhmm).
Seriously, this weekend, go now...find thee Dim Sum, and indulge. For every Tasty Meat Bun you order, try to mix in something like Curry Squid.
Chances are you can load up on Tea (Dim Sum is all about the tea, well...literally it was created as something small to serve with tea). As well as leave a stack of plates and bamboo steamer baskets in your wake as the proverbially breadcrumbs marking the trail of your culinary voyage through decadence...all while walking out with a bill that leaves you thinking, no way they added that up right, I got off CHEAP!
Casualty of War - Broccoli and Cheese Pizza, we hardly knew you.
Every time I travel, I carefully map out several meals that I just "have to have." Inevitably, conflicts will arise and those one or two meals that were on the fringe which separates "would like to have" from "have to have" ..get lost, sacrificed to the gods of scheduling and time constraints.
Such was the fate of Broccoli and Cheese pizza. Any one of the ubiquitous Upstate New York Mom & Pop Italian Food/Pizza places will serve up this pizza with white sauce, white mozzarella, broccoli and ricotta cheese. It's not my favorite pizza in the world, but can certainly hit the spot. And, outside of Upstate New York, I've never seen it made in the "just right" way that they make it.
I have high hopes that, without having to wait five and a half years to try again...I'll track down that one slice of Broccoli & Cheese pizza I need just to go...yeah, that was the stuff. *nods*
I've decided to save The Quest for Glassware (and the story of the best gift I've ever given anyone maybe - which isn't bragging so much as pointing out I'm a lousy gift giver), for my next entry...everyone loves an adventure.
If you take the Clifton Park exit off of the Adirondack Northway (I-87), curve under the overpass, hang a right at the second light into the big shopping center, drive to the back wall, park and step out of your car, you will be standing in front of Shalimar.
After you walk in, stop...allow yourself a moment, just that fleeting moment, to take in the subtle, tasteful decor, nice place settings and friendly, but quiet atmosphere. Now, let your gaze wonder over the buffet, served not in the buffet-style generic square brushed aluminum steamer trays...but at the elegant, somewhat small, but well setup display of silver serving dishes and platters.
Once you've satisfied the requirements of being politely greeted, getting a table, ordering drinks (go with Mango Lasse), etc. etc...grab a plate, throw on some great basmati rice and stop in front of the serving dish labeled...Chicken Tikki Masala.
This westernized chicken curry dish (hugely popular in Britain), is somewhat mild for a curry but very full of flavor. And at Shalimar it is capable of changing your concept of Indian food forever...I don't care if you already love Indian food, those feelings will likely grow stronger. You will wonder, somewhere in the back of your mind, how those large, dense chunks of chicken can be so moist yet so firm in texture...and loaded with flavor ALL the way through.
The sad truth about so many heavily sauced chicken dishes, is you bite into chunks of chicken that are swimming in a sauce and flavorful on the outside, but the flavor gives way to generic, unseasoned, dry chicken in the center. Each subsequent bite is a roller coaster of savory/bland/savory/bland.
If you experience that at Shalimar in Clifton Park, NY...email me, I'll send you a check for the cost of your dinner. Of course, I'm not going to be writing any checks...because I know the truth. With each bite, you're going to wonder just how exactly someone makes something so perfect. While pondering that you might bite into a piece of your naan (spiced Indian flatbread) just to go with that flavor, then experience the wonder all over again as the spices in the bread just explode on your pallette.
The thick (like not quite milkshake thick), tangy sweet/sour of the Mango Lasse washes it all down while you try to figure out just how many times you can go back for more without crossing the line from 'wow I'm full' to 'Oh my God, I'm miserably full' (you know the feeling).
- -
Dim Sum -
Main Entry:
dim sum
Pronunciation:
\ˈdim-ˈsəm\
Function:
noun
: traditional Chinese food featuring a variety of steamed or fried dumplings, chicken, pork, shrimp, steam buns, rice balls, etc. all served on small plates or in small bamboo steamer baskets.
: A Cantonese term meaning - Order to your Heart's Content
: An addiction; Cantonese Crack
If you've never had Dim Sum, you're not alone. Your local really good Chinese Food restaurant may even serve Dim Sum on weekend mornings, and just doesn't tell you about it. Tai Pan (see New York Part One), doesn't exactly bend over backwards making sure the local community knows about their Dim Sum brunches on the weekends.
Just to help, I've uploaded a copy of the Dim Sum menu (thanks Rebecca!).
For anyone who may be confused, allow me to point out that anything ending in the word "dumplings" is Good Eats as Alton Brown might say. In my 35+ years of experience, there are no exceptions to this rule. So that's a great place to start.
However, when you want to extend your Dim Sum experience beyond mere Dumplings, you find yourself with a heap of choices running the full gamut from mundane (Crispy Fruit Rolls anyone?) to What?? (How about them Chicken Claws, mhmm).
Seriously, this weekend, go now...find thee Dim Sum, and indulge. For every Tasty Meat Bun you order, try to mix in something like Curry Squid.
Chances are you can load up on Tea (Dim Sum is all about the tea, well...literally it was created as something small to serve with tea). As well as leave a stack of plates and bamboo steamer baskets in your wake as the proverbially breadcrumbs marking the trail of your culinary voyage through decadence...all while walking out with a bill that leaves you thinking, no way they added that up right, I got off CHEAP!
Casualty of War - Broccoli and Cheese Pizza, we hardly knew you.
Every time I travel, I carefully map out several meals that I just "have to have." Inevitably, conflicts will arise and those one or two meals that were on the fringe which separates "would like to have" from "have to have" ..get lost, sacrificed to the gods of scheduling and time constraints.
Such was the fate of Broccoli and Cheese pizza. Any one of the ubiquitous Upstate New York Mom & Pop Italian Food/Pizza places will serve up this pizza with white sauce, white mozzarella, broccoli and ricotta cheese. It's not my favorite pizza in the world, but can certainly hit the spot. And, outside of Upstate New York, I've never seen it made in the "just right" way that they make it.
I have high hopes that, without having to wait five and a half years to try again...I'll track down that one slice of Broccoli & Cheese pizza I need just to go...yeah, that was the stuff. *nods*
I've decided to save The Quest for Glassware (and the story of the best gift I've ever given anyone maybe - which isn't bragging so much as pointing out I'm a lousy gift giver), for my next entry...everyone loves an adventure.
Mango pudding! You didn't mention the mango pudding with the dim sum! That mango pudding is the PERFECT end to any Asian meal, but is especially awesome after all the dim sum goodness!
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As is usual, there is a smile on my face after reading this entry. For many reasons, although, mostly for the part about the broccili and cheese pizza. Never having had it myself, I think I will have to change this fact post haste.
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oh, you didn't just do that. you didn't just give me an undeniable obsession with something i've never had before in my life.........
dim......sum......i must come to know it.
can't wait for "part 3", man.
-Max
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Greg, old bean, it's so very refreshing to find an Honest-To-Goodness American who has a discerning palate and a writing style which makes your ruminations on food quite appealing.
Fish and chips is what I'd classify as "hugely popular" back home. Indian Curry, more specifically the creamy red delight that is Tikka Masala, is the most popular dish in Britain and has been since the late 90s. It's estimated that there are in excess of 8,000 Indian restaurants in the UK alone. Compare that with the approximately 12,000 McDonald's restaurants in Canada (couldn't find an accurate US figure), and that gives you an idea of just how "hugely popular" Indian food is there.
There's a whole culture that dominates the British post-work-week blow-out. Oh, how many times I followed this ritual; It's Friday night and you're going out with the lads for a night on the town which includes, but is not limited to, a raucous meal at a local Indian Curry House, some awkward attempts at "dirty dancing" with some equally inebriated lasses at a nightclub, another Indian takeout to be consumed in the consolatory company of your similarly-unsuccessful comrades, and copious quantities of lager consumed at all points in-between.
The exact level of insobriety one experiences on such a night is directly proportional to the number of people in your party who order curries so hot, they could strip wallpaper. That would include the Vindaloo, Jalfrezi, and Madras. The hotter the curry, the more lager that is quaffed. (Quaffing is like drinking, only you spill more.) And since ordering is done by the collective, the poor saps who order something more temperate and thus lack the need to quench the fires of Hades (if you'll excuse the cross-cultural reference), find themselves having to drink at their mates' pace, or face ridicule to their manhood later on at "the dancing".
I was one of the saps. I'm cursed with this desire to *taste* my food, rather than have it strip layers from inside my mouth and oesophagus.
If you do find yourself in the UK and want to try a Chicken Tikka Masala, take my advice and go easy on the ale. The meal may look delicious on your plate, but the same can't be said if it finds its way onto the sidewalk.
Or, heaven forbid, that similarly inebriated lass at the club.
Not that I'm admitting anything.
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I just wanted to let you know that we did Dim Sum again this past weekend. We tried the coconut snow balls, which even now I can't decide how I feel about them. It was a kind of nutty filling surrounded by a chewy, elastic wrap, rolled in coconut. No one else finished theirs, but ate the whole ball, and still can't decide if it was good.
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