StarBulletin.com

Reach beyond the ordinary and explore all the tastes textures of the Indian menu


By Jackie M. Young

POSTED: Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Zaffron Restaurant

» 69 N. King St., Chinatown; call 533-6635

» Open 5 to 9 p.m. Mondays and Tuesdays; 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. Wednesdays to Saturdays

  The dish: Keema Zaffwrap was created quite by accident. One day when owner Taiyab “;Tai”; Khan and Stefan Moisyadi, a University of Hawaii assistant professor of biochemistry, were dashing off to play volleyball, they wanted a little snack to take along. “;My sister, Rukshana (Zaffron's head cook), just threw together some odds and ends and wrapped it in naan bread,”; Tai recounted. “;It tasted so good, Stefan said we should put it on the menu and call it 'Zaffwrap,' after our restaurant. That's how Zaffwrap was born.”;

Zaffwrap comes in three varieties: keema (ground beef), vegan and chicken (Mayor Mufi Hannemann's favorite).

The tasty Keema Zaffwrap takes about half an hour to cook and is flavored with cumin seeds, black and cayenne peppers, garlic, ginger and white onions. The ingredients are fried in vegetable oil and wrapped in naan bread.

The scrumptious bread is made of wheat flour, yeast, sugar, salt and water and takes only about a minute to cook in the famous cylindrical tandoor clay oven (a custom clay oven from India, heated to 400 degrees, upon which the batter is placed directly with a special mitt).

“;We can cook about 12 to 13 naan in that oven in about a minute,”; Khan said.

  The restaurant: The entire Khan clan—owner Tai, his sister Rukshana and her husband and Tai's cousin, Farad, who manages the restaurant—is from Nadi, Fiji. Tai's grandparents escaped political persecution in Punjab in Northern India to become field laborers in Fiji.

“;There's a large North Indian population in Fiji that's fairly isolated, so the preservation of culture and cuisine is quite intact,”; Khan said. “;Rukshana learned how to cook from my mother, who learned from my grandparents.”;

Khan received his master's degree in public health from Loma Linda College in California and met his Hawaiian-Japanese wife while doing postgraduate work in Walla Walla, Wash. They decided to move to Hawaii in 1978, where Tai worked at Brewer Chemical (and met Hannemann). He's also been co-owner of Food Quality Lab since 2002.

The restaurant, named after the rare and valuable spice saffron, opened in 1996. “;I enjoy owning a restaurant that exposes people to good Indian food,”; Khan said.

 

India Cafe

» Kilohana Square, 1016 Kapahulu Ave.; call 737-4600

» Open 5 to 9 p.m. Mondays to Thursdays; 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9:30 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays; 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 9 p.m. Sundays

The dish: One Lamb Masala Dosai is a somewhat spicy (can be adjusted to taste) rice, fenugreek and lentil crepe, with lamb and potato cubes wrapped inside. (”;Masala”; means “;mixture,”; and “;dosai”; is similar to sourdough bread. The restaurant used to serve Two Lamb Masala Dosai but found it was too much for customers, hence the “;One”; in the name.)

“;The lamb is boiled and then simmered for two hours in a special sauce of oil and garlic to take away the 'gamey' flavor,”; said co-owner Jiva Segaran. “;Then we marinate the lamb with a sauce of cinnamon, star anise, cardamom, cloves, fresh mint and curry powder.”; The potatoes are steamed separately, then mixed with the same spices as the lamb.

The result is a tender, slightly minty-tasting lamb wrap.

A Sambar lentil soup made of string beans, carrots, daikon and tomatoes is served on the side, as well as a very spicy coconut chutney.

“;We're the only ones to carry this dish, and we're the only ones to make our own dosai bread,”; noted Segaran. In a three-day process, the rice, fenugreek and lentils are soaked and fermented overnight, ground in a special machine and fermented again, then rolled and cooked on a griddle like a pancake.

  The restaurant: At age 30, Jiva Segaran is among the youngest restaurateurs in Hawaii. And his family's history is probably the most complex.

Segaran's grandparents came from Tamil Nadu in South India, but immigrated to Malaysia, where Segaran's father was born. His father (who's also co-owner of India Cafe) moved in 1975 to join his wife's military parents stationed in Hawaii. Segaran and his brother were born and raised in Waianae.

India Cafe opened in 2001, originally with Jiva's uncle, aunt and cousin also working. A few years later, they all dropped out, and Jiva (a 2000 University of Hawaii grad in marketing) took the reins.

“;At first it was hard because we had no experience—it was 15-hour days, seven days a week,”; Segaran said. But they've expanded to two other locations: a lunch kiosk at UH and a lunch wagon at Don Quijote in Kailua by the post office.

“;I learned how to cook from my dad, who learned from my grandmother, who still kept the South Indian way of cooking alive, even though they lived in Malaysia,”; Segaran recounted. “;Our menu is just an expanded version of how we would typically cook at home.”;

 

Bombay Indian Restaurant

» Discovery Bay, 1778 Ala Moana Blvd.; call 942-3990

» Open 11:45 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m. weekdays; 5 to 10 p.m. Saturdays; 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Sundays

  The dish: ”;I got the idea for Seafood Fritters from my cousin's daughter,”; explained owner Ashwani Ahuja. “;But I changed the recipe around to my taste.”;

The fritters take only three to five minutes to deep-fry, and contain equal amounts of finely chopped shrimp and scallops, mixed with lettuce, cornstarch, turmeric powder, paprika, coriander powder, cumin powder, salt, red chili powder and fresh lentils.

The four-fritter appetizer is served with a sweet mango chutney on the side. “;I guess that's a British custom that we maintain,”; observed Ahuja.

Although the recipe is modern, the taste is traditional, and this is the only place in Hawaii that makes it.

  The restaurant: From New Delhi, Ashwani Ahuja's been in the restaurant business for 18 years, since he was 33, but got into it quite by accident. “;My dad was in government work,”; Ahuja recounted. “;I got a degree in accounting, and we always ate at home.

“;One day a friend took me to the hotel where he was working. Hotel restaurants in India aren't like ones in America. They're luxurious, with first-class service—you're treated like royalty. I thought the experience was so exciting, I wanted to open my own restaurant.”;

Ahuja trained at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Delhi for four years, learned French and Italian because he believed those were the languages of all the best chefs, then traveled to Algeria and Washington, D.C., where he opened four restaurants (one of which he still owns—Tamarind on the Lake, with mostly American cuisine).

He'd been visiting friends in Hawaii for several years, then in 2006 decided to move his wife and two young children here and open Bombay Indian Restaurant.

“;I really enjoy meeting people, serving them and treating them like family,”; Ahuja said. “;I never get tired of it—it's in my blood.”;


On the Net:
For Jackie M. Young's previous restaurant explorations in the Star-Bulletin:

» Beyond pho

» Beyond kalbi

» Beyond pad thai

» Beyond adobo

» Beyond burritos