Kathmandu:

Each bite of Tandoori Chicken was so full of different tastes that we took the advice of the great writer James Traub who said, “It is pungent with cumin and coriander, rather than hot with chilli. One should give in, after the first bite of tender chicken, to the sudden desire to weep. India is an emotional country, after all.”

We were sitting in the elegant Bawarchi, hundreds of miles away from India, opposite the Teaching Hospital and one floor up. When you indulge yourself of Tandoori Chicken, you are actually eating a part of tradition.

The Tandoor or clay pot has been primed with spinach, yoghurt and molasses. The chicken itself has been marinated for three hours in multitudes of spices based in yoghurt — going from the hot garam masala to the garlic, ginger and cumin to yellow and red aromatic food colouring.

That night at Bawarchi, the Tandoori Chicken indeed reigned as the “king of kebabs”.

Rena and Sanjaya, who own Bawarchi, make exquisite hosts. Rena decorated Bawarchi and in just a few months they’re drawing people. If you go at ‘Doctor Time’ when Teaching Hospital comes to Bawarchi, you might get a quick consultation between the main course and a side dish.

Take-aways in aluminum boxes are happening at Bawarchi and word of mouth is filling the place.

Old Calcutta hands come for the Chicken Bharta, which was created at Calcutta’s Ambar restaurant and was redolent with spices, immersed in cream and yoghurt and occasionally

butter. The fine strips of chicken coated with all this goodness gave a lining to the stomachs of famous journalists who then proceeded to drink their lunch with gins and vodkas without effect and plenty of taste. The Chicken Bharta at Bawarchi is exquisite.

“One day I want to have Bawarchis all over Kathmandu,” said Sanjaya.

It is a dream that is going to come true soon. The dishes at Bawarchi guarantee success. Like the Mutton Rezala, which is a white Korma-like gravy splashed with the colours of different ingredients so it looks like a painting and tastes of distinct spices. An ancestor of Mutton Rezala was used by the Emperor Shah Jahan in Agra on full moon nights when everything was white and the jasmine flowers covered the wrists of ladies.

Ram Kumar Puri and Navaraj Pandey were doing heavy duty fetching and carrying and brought The Bawarchi invented Kababi Kebab, which has differently spiced chicken and mutton cooked together on one skewer. The mutton smouldered while the chicken was a mild miracle. Kababi Kebab will one day be talked about along side Tandoori Chicken and Chicken Bhartas.

“Our Palak Paneers are popular,” said Sanjaya. And so they should be with chillies, ginger, fenugreek or methi, and cumin or jeera, making for a deliciously heady brew in the spinach and cottage cheese mix.

The Vegetable Korma was slightly sweet and the vegetables came to life over the yoghurt and onions. Of the Korma Jennifer Brennan says, “They are of Mughlai creation enriched with spiced sauces, cream and butter.”

I don’t think Sanjaya and Rena’s cooks departed too much from the original 19th century recipe from the Madras club because as Brennan says, “A good recipe travels well. A great recipe travels in time in addition to distance appealing to so many cooks that like old soldiers they don’t fade; they are merely transformed.”

So it is with the food of Bawarchi. It adapts to your palate, it adapts to the time and if change it must, it will do so tastefully. Call 4414855!