Kathmandu:

The view from E.d.en’s bar atop The Kathmandu Mall is fabulous and makes the food taste even better. Next door, the food court has Indian, Nepali, South-East Asian, Japanese and children’s food.

Said Roshan Adiga, who appeared in this column as managing the Bukhara in Soaltee, “I worked there for nine years and now I am MD of E.d.en which stands for Eat, Drink, Entertain.”

You can choose from 150 items on the menu and a beautiful beverage menu full of drinks and your kids are entertained in a kiddy’s corner.

“Despite the extensive menu, our guests go for our momos,” said Roshan as Sagar Shrestha, who worked for 10 years in Dubai, brought us the Barbecue Chicken Wings and a full bodied sauce.

Sagar said, “Your next course will be served in seven minutes after you finish this one.”

The Barbecue Chicken Wings lived up to the taste of the original word ‘berbekot’, which comes from the Haitian Arawak Indians who in the 16th century smoked their meat over an open fire on a grating of wood. So you get a flavour of outdoors and charcoal or wood (even if they aren’t used) and you gnaw your chicken to the bone dipping it in the sauce of oranges and pineapple and spices.

“The food court is full when people shop, so it’s the bar we are concentrating on with happy hours and a DJ on Friday nights when the bar is packed,” said Roshan.

The Shami and the Sheekh Kebabs with the mint and chilly sauce arrived and were amongst the best served in Kathmandu. Of the Shami, the great food writer Madhur Jaffrey says, “Shami kebabs are spicy, hamburger-like patties made with double minced lamb and shallow-fried.”

Typically lentils are cooked and mixed with the meat along with spices. With the chilly hot mint sauce, you floated as high as E.d.en bar.

The Sheekh Kebabs (minced meat, spices cooked on a skewer) had hints of green chillies and touches of coriander and mint and... Suddenly the night view over the Tundikhel, the lights of the City seemed distant as your senses focused on the Sheekhs.

Sagar served us an authentic Rogan Josh, which Chef Babu Lal Shrestha learned from a cook from the Taj chain in India, which he in turn learned from their Vice-President Camellia Punjabi who writes, “Rogan means meat-fat and josh literally means heat, though figuratively it means intensity.”

Chef Babu Lal used cardamoms and cloves and a touch of rose water bringing the Eden, that is the Shalimar garden of Srinagar in Kashmir where Rogan Josh comes from, just a little nearer to E.d.en.

It reminded us of the Mughal Emperor who said of Kashmir, “If there be a paradise on Earth it is this, it is this, it is this.”

The Chicken Makhani or Chicken Tikka Masala, which is the most popular food in Britain, had a slight sweetness and richness at E.d.en. Punjabi has a recipe for making it at home without a tandoor. She says, “Chicken Makhani, made with tikkas, derived from the Hindi world tukra and meaning pieces of chicken, is a dish consisting of tandoor-cooked chicken in a sauce. Butter chicken originated in the 1950s at the Moti Mahal restaurant in Delhi.”

We sopped the gravies of the robust Rogan Josh and the rich Chicken Makhani with garlic naan and the many layered, fried bread or Lachedar Paratha and the tastes had us truthfully telling waiter Ganesh Adhikari that yes the food, the atmosphere and the evening were terrific. Call 4150062, 4150063.