Hampton Chutney Co., New York

It was mildly raining in Manhattan that day, so while I wait for it to stop and my friend to come, I decided to go to Hampton Chutney Co. (Or just Hampton Chutney, lol), at 82nd and Amsterdam.

I got introduced to this place by my guardian (not the chef nor the yogi, the Italian). It was love at first bite!

Hampton Chutney basically sells Indian food, but only the wrapped ones, I think. They have dossas, uttapams, sandwiches, and some cakes. I guess they’re sort of a fast food but healthy restaurant. Their concept is kind of like a fast food restaurant too, because we’re supposed to order at the cashier, put our names with the orders, and once they’re done they would shout our names out and deliver the food to us. FUN!

In case you don’t know what dossas and uttapams are, I’m gonna give you a short info right here. Dossa is (I got this from the menu) light, crispy, sour-dough made from rice and lentils. The dossa will be filled with a food combination. Uttapams is the same rice-lentil batter made into an open-faced pancake topped with any food combination.

I ordered the dossa with curry chutney chicken, spinach, and balsamic roasted onions, with mango and peanut (YAYAYAYAY!) chutneys, and together with a cup of mango lassi. The total was 17 something dollars.

I like this thing with the peanut chutney more because the mango was too sour for the combination. The dossa and filling itself was full of flavor already, so together with the mango chutney, it was too much. There were little pieces of plain dossas on my tray and that mixed with the mango chutney was REALLY GOOD. You can see from the picture (sorry for the quality, I forgot to bring my camera that day so I used my phone) that the food looks really big, but it wasn’t actually a lot. It was fulfilling, but not so much that you wanna barf. Basically just a little over fulfilling, but not reaching I-can’t-walk-because-I’m-too-full. Yea…

I would totally bring my friends and family here if they visit NY, cos the food and the concept is just interesting. I don’t see a lot of Indian wrapped food around, so it’s quite unique.

What else? The mango lassi was just like a normal mango lassi. I think a little more sour than what I usually have, but was okay. I would order it again just because I love mangoes :D

I guess that’s it. See you next time!!

Indita

7 June 1 Permalink

Singapore Food Venture! Vol II

Another noteworthy restaurant I went to in Singapore was a Japanese restaurant: Akashi. This is actually a long-standing restaurant, but they just recently opened a new branch in Paragon mall. Located on the basement floor along with the other restaurants and supermarket, Akashi serves (extraordinarily) good food, without the pretentious set-up. I’ve noticed that good Japanese restaurants nowadays are either unnecessarily expensive, or fusion-ized so much that it reaches oblivion. Akashi is neither of those. I ordered the sashimi set, which was REALLY good, but the dish worth mentioning most is the Gindara (Codfish) Teriyaki Set. I don’t usually like codfish, so I was pleasantly surprised to find it so delicious! The meat is so tender, it almost feels like you’re eating.. well, I can’t compare it to anything else, really. JUST SO GOOD. This particular dish isn’t in the menu, so you just have to ask the waiter about it (I was told of this dish by a friend). I left happy :)

The next day I went to a restaurant I actually planned on going to before I arrived in Singapore, it’s called Banana Leaf Apolo, it’s located in Little India, and it has REALLY good indian food. I usually don’t have the chance to explore indian food more, because Jakarta doesn’t really have a wide selection of good indian restaurants. huff. When we arrived, we saw lots of tourists and expatriates dining here, and the restaurant has (I just found out) been featured in the Travel channel. Cool. So the concept: in banana-leaf restaurants, dishes are put in the middle to share (sort of like a chinese restaurant), but instead of using a plate or bowl to place your rice, you have a banana leaf. The food was very spicy, as indian food generally are, but I didn’t really notice the variations of seasonings used in the food that I ordered. I later concluded that it’s because none of us really quite understood indian food, so the food combination that we ordered were not complimentary of each other. The dish that stood out the most though, was the fish head curry, with the head as big as a.. VERY BIG FISH HEAD. I managed to balls up and eat one fish eye. It tasted like… fat and barf and goo rolled into an eyeball. Not a good experience. sigh. I have yet to master the art of indian …uh.. eating.

Anyway, so that’s the end of my Singapore food venture-ing :( be sure to check out these restaurants next time you visit Singapore!

Cheerios,
Dodilia

4 June 4 Permalink