Kababs at The Baluchi
Intercontinental Grand is one of the several five-star hotels that have come up near Mumbai's international airport. The interiors are very classy with warm colors and a large atrium which goes all the way up (about 10 stories high). This hotel features multiple restaurants of which Trendz is probably the most popular and serves world cuisine. However, I wanted to try the North-west frontier cuisine at Baluchi, especially their Doodhia kabab of which I had heard so much.
Since I was alone, the only way I could taste more kababs was by ordering a sampler. They honored my request to include the Doodhia Kabab and the Barra Baluchi. The Doodhia is a delicate kabab made of two round slices of paneer (cottage cheese) with a thin layer of potatoes and aromatic spices. The Barra Baluchi are lamb chops spiced and cooked on a charcoal grill. My sampler also included the Afgani Jhinga Zarad Masala - crunchy jumbo prawns marinated with yellow chillies, fine herbs and spit roasted, and the Dum Murgh Tikka Baluchi - chicken marinated with pureed almond cream cheese and cooked in an oven.
The Doodhia lived up to the hype - one of the rare vegetarian kababs I would recommend to anyone! The prawns were a little disappointing; they were slightly over-cooked and I have had better. The Barra Baluchi was fantastic! Few can make barra kababs this well. The Dal Baluchi on the side was pretty good too and pleasantly different from the Dal Bukhara imitations found everywhere else.
I went straight to desserts after this and ordered a Malai Kulfi which was served on falooda. The Sula Chenin Blanc went rather well with this meal. For those who want to try some curries, I recommend one of the following: Dum Nalli Ka Gosht - baby mutton marrow prepared with hot and sour tomato gravy, Pasliyon Ka Salan - a curry of succulent lamb ribs, and Kheema Pasanda Gosht - hand pounded meat-sheets rolled with fresh mince and cooked delicately on dum.
Baluchi also has a good selection of exotic Indian breads such as the Taftan, Methi Khaimiri Roti, and Ulte Tawa Ka Paratha. However, their dessert menu is nothing special.
To summarize, this is a great place to visit if you love lamb. The variety and quality of their lamb kababs and curries certainly exceeds expectations. If you have an appetite for something different, also consider ordering the Peshawari Chappli Kabab, which is minced forcemeat with grated pepper cooked on a griddle. This is a delicacy from Pakistan but rarely made in India.
As for the hotel itself, the Intercontinental Grand has excellent rooms and everything else a business traveller needs. The only grouse I had was with the front desk staff. On the day I was there, they seemed to be staffed with a bunch of interns(?) and the check-in/check-out process took very long.
9 comments:
Wow! That looks great! - The intercontinental in Bangkok is also very good, that's where I had my christmas dinner this year :)
The Kebabs do look great and some day I'll eat meat for sure:)
Wow, that is a beautiful hotel, love that room... Kebabs look wonderful too, never heard of forcemeat before.... mixture of meat, poultry and fish, eh? I can't imagine the taste... :)
@myeggnoodles, @final_transit: Thanks for your comments.
@sig: I heard of forcemeat the first time here too. However, in this kabab, they do not use fish/seafood.
I am a kebab lover and this looks and i bet it tasted awesom and did you mentioned "paneer" that is my favourite too!
Pssstt i never skip palak paneer on my visit to an Indian restaurant
@azazura: Me too! Paneer is pretty popular here, especially with the vegetarians.
Shantanu,
What lovely kababs and such mouth watering descriptions. Agli baar parcel kar ke le aana, boss :-)
Great post, me wants to go right now
Cheers
Mahesh
@mahesh: Heh! Maybe you can do this after the next Mumbai marathon.
It looks great. I also like to shop at Restaurant.com for some of my favorite dishes.
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