Chaat it up! Restaurant Review

You can take a woman out of India but you will never get India out of her. If you are like me -- you would give up several days of food in return for fresh street made Chaat food on demand, in the middle of the city cacophony. I was up in Oh Canada a few days back -- and some parts around Toronto are as Indian as Chandni Chowk. Actually Chandni Chowk with four times the space and half as many people :-D What better place to look for authentic chaat on the other side of the globe? A simple google search for "best chaat Toronto area" yielded an article from the Toronto Star which recomeneded -- Dhaba (King West, Toronto), Brars (Brampton) and Mirch Masala (Brampton). The first two finds were quickly vetoed because they served Chaat as appetizers! How tacky and high society! Give and take respect, people! Mirch Masala in Brampton, Ontario was touted to be the place to get together with friends over a fun meal. One look at the menu sampler on the article and I was sold. Pani Puri. Bhel Puri. Papdi Chaat. Whats not to like?

We drove into Bramdesh, as the localites lovingly refer to Brampton -- and into this hidden jewel somewhere outside of town

Mirch Masala
8917 The Gore Rd,
Brampton, ON

We pulled into the sprawling strip mall aptly titled Jaipur Gore Mall, lined with Indian businesses -- a Hindu temple, a Hindu Montessori school, Subzi Mandi cash and carry, Chilli Szhezuan Indian Chinese restaurant etc. Snug n the middle was 'Mirch Masala' standing out with its bright yellow sign and the attractive posters boasting of the sheer variety in the menu. "21 Paratha varieties", "51 eggless cake flavors", "100 % Vegetarian". We walk in -- and we are the only ones there! Maybe we were the only chaat crazy ones on a late Sunday afternoon. Well -- no time is better for chaat than right now if anyone cared for my humble opinion.

On glance at the menu and you know you are out for a smogarsboard. Why can't you have yourself a Pani Puri, a Bhel Puri, Dahi Puri, Aaloo tiki chaat and Papdi chaat when you have it all for less than CAD 5.00 a piece? Once you are down with the light stuff, head over to the 11 different varieties of vegetarian burgers. Are you reading this McDonalds? Now that is what I call a happy meal. Try a 'samosa'wich burger -- a burger packed with samosa pieces and spicy chickpea curry, topped with onion, tomato and lettuce. Add chilies to your burger, kick back your shoes and sink in. Samosa does not fancy you today? No problem, try a Indian curry burger or a Bollywood burger or a Greek Burger. Make it a combo and add Masala fries and a soda.

Ok, you really wanted to go to Brars but your chaat crazy wife guilted you into coming to Mirch Masala? Don't worry, you will not be missing out on anything. Have a Paneer Tikka platter - includes grilled paneer tikka, with grilled peppers, tomatoes and onions. With a side of chickpea curry, butter nan and rice for CAD 8.99.

And end the meal with hot gulab jamuns. Wash it all off with a fresh lime soda or masala chai.
Sriracha hot sauce flows free as the Niagara Falls. Goodbye bland food!

Next time you are in the area, stop by at Mirch Masala and enjoy a quick meal. The menu is sure to please all kinds of taste buds. If any locals are reading this -- please enlighten me -- why wasn't the place swarming with people, a place like this deserves dedicated patronage :) Is there a better chaat place I should try?

Dinner Dance

You may graduate from college in four years, but graduating from the college lifestyle can take longer. I have trouble getting up for those early meetings. I am forever running 10 minutes late for everything. Dinner is something I get in the stomach, not necessarily on the table. While I am growing out of these habits slowly and steadily, there are crazy days that I absolutely need to conjure dinner in less than 10 minutes. Most often this is because I am absolutely dying of hunger at the end of the day. I call this my weekday dinner dance. Today being an exemplary day of swooning to the rumblings beats of hunger, I turned the stove on, rummaged for my favorite pan, drizzled a few drops of oil it and placed the pan on the stove. Then I tapped off my shoes and washed my hands. From the freezer, I picked out some veggies – chopped mixed peppers, broccoli or cauliflower, threw in a handful of them in the hot pan added some seasoning. As the veggies rocked and rolled on the stove, I morphed into my pyjamas and washed up. I ran a knife through whatever combination of fresh aromatics I had on hand – onions, garlic, cilantro, and chili peppers and dropped them into the party. Thinly sliced tofu and aimed them into to the pan with seasonings of salt and pepper. The tofu and vegetables browned as I checked out the day’s mail and separated the bills from the junk. Two huge fistfuls of dry thin rice noodles went to the pan, with a cup of water. Now I did some on the spot walking as I patiently let the noodles cook up and the water get absorbed or evaporated. Noodles were transferred to a plastic container and eaten right out of the container. The leftovers were left over in the same container for the next meal which may be the next day’s lunch.

Such is the joy of cooking that satisfies your basic human needs.

Granola bars - bhel puri ishtyle

I have become a breakfast person. I still have difficulty waking up in time for breakfast, but I can have breakfast foods for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I am a self proclaimed coffee addict and quick cooking oats fan. I love my dosas, idlis and vada sambars. If I were to skip a meal before bed, I would dream about the white fleshy doughy morsels of idlis soaked in a spicy mixture. True to my Indian born thirst for the complex spices, I will run a marathon (heck, a triathlon) if the reward was a bellyful supply of chaat – pani puri, bhel puri, pav bhaji and the likes.

And I like crunchy cereal and granola bars. My only peeve is that most American breakfast foods (whatever is vegetarian-izable) is laden with sugar and cannot be enjoyed if you have a spice tooth. Why do granola bars have to be based on honey and sugar syrups. The three primary seasonings in our culinary world are salt, pepper and chili powder – why can’t we have a granola bar or a health bar that actually uses one of them? I decided to break the trends and create the spicy granola bar. The ultimate go-to snack chaat bar. I would base it off the classic Indian street food – bhel puri.

The main challenge involved in steering the sweetness out of the bar – find a sticky substance powerful enough to bind the ingredients together and not fall apart. Bhel puri is like a salad or crumbly granola of sorts made of puffed rice, fried dough chips (papdi – vernacularly translated), chopped onions, tomatoes, spices with a dressing of tangy, sweet, spicy chutneys. Now puffed rice would readily get soggy at the first hint of moisture and that would make for bhel that tastes like cotton. And making the bhel-puri bar healthy would not be a bad idea.

So off I went to the neighborhood Whole foods and spent a leisurely evening of food label reading. I came back with the following

Crispy Brown Rice Cereal (substitute for the rice puffs)

Old fashioned rolled oats (it is a granola bar of course)

Sliced almonds (initial thought was peanuts, but figured almonds are healthier)

Baked pita chips (substitute for the papdis)

Dates (sticky substance + sweet taste)

Tamarind paste (sticky substance + sour taste)

Mixed dry fruit – cranberries and apricots

My game plan was this – just like a traditional granola bar, I would toast the oats and nuts while I create the binding sticky substance. I contemplated using molasses as the sticky agent. But that would be sweet all over again. I decided on using egg replacer as a thickening agent and if ever it shows properties similar to the egg, when baked it should coagulate and bind its neighboring particles together. If all else fails, I may not end up with a bar – it may just be a crunchy granola mixture. But, it shall be spicy and it shall be healthy.

1 cup sliced almonds 1.5 cups old fashioned rolled oats	Spread on a cookie sheet and toast in the oven at 300F for 10 mins. Allow to cool
2 cups brown rice crisps cereal 1 cup baked pita chips broken into bits	Mix together with the toasted ingredients and set aside
2 tbspoon tamarind paste 5 dates (pitted) A handful of coriander leaves A few curry leaves Salt (about half tsp) Any hot sauce (for desired spice level) .5 tsp Cumin seeds	Using as little water as possible blend into a nice sticky paste.
2.5 tsp Ener-G egg replacer 1 tbspoon water	Dissolve the egg replacer with water and combine into the sticky paste. Now in a convenient mixing bowl combine your dry ingredients with the sticky ingredients Grease a baking dish slightly and transfer your mixed granola. Press down firmly to allow all ingredients to acquire stickage. Bake at 300F for 10 minutes or till nice and crunchy Allow to cool overnight and then cut into bars.

I still need to let the bars cool overnight. I may not have achieved the desired level of stickiness – but the bars are still quite warm to touch. I did hazard a taste and not bad ladies and gents, it may be a worthwhile experiment. I forgot to include the dried fruit in the bars – but I can eat those while I wait for the bars to cool.

Whats the verdict? not bad for experiment #1. I still have not dropped the idea completely.

If folks out there want to try making the traditional granola bars, look know further than the Alton Brown recipe.