It was not as meltingly tender as it ought to have been, but it wasn’t terrible. Haandi was hands down the winner texturally.
ETA: My expectations of the “sauce” with paya is that it is thin, yet packed with flavour and with the rich, mouthfeel you get from the collagen (and the sticky fingers). I had to adjust to the thicker, curry-like texture of the Lungi version, but once I shifted taste gears I enjoyed it.
Curry King says it’s “Pakistani, Indian, Bangladeshi”, and it has dishes that nod to all three.
Oh, pricing: Contenders 1 (Handi) and 2 (Curry King) weighed in at $15, and Lungi at $26. I didn’t physically weigh them, but there was not a huge difference in how heavy they felt. In any case, for a dish that is largely bone one has to judge it on other factors in assessing bang-for-foot.
I didn’t grow up eating beef paya, so I much prefer goat or lamb trotters because the ratio of edible stuff to bone is a LOT better!
This is why I’m wary of ordering paya outside (in addition to the proper cleaning element) — at home it can just go back into the pressure cooker to get to the proper point .
Re sauce, agree thin, though not watery, for the North Indian / Mughlai / Muslim versions — so that the bread or naan can soak up enough of it without it running out before the carb does. One of our home versions has some beans that disintegrate by the end for a bit of body.
South Indian preps (like Lungi) are quite different, with coconut and other things thickening the sauce. I think they actually use a two step recipe, first to make the soup by cooking the paya, and then a second gravy with more aromatics, coconut, and spices. Eaten with idli, idiyappam, etc. The North Indian version has a single long, slow cook (usually overnight, that’s why it’s often a breakfast dish).
There’s clearly no free samsa for me, so I bought myself two today from that truck, one for now another for later. I was impressed that the crust was flaky and crisp(-ish) even off a truck. I also had the plov, and again I liked it, with its texturally interesting tidbits, and traces of sweetness.
They have two opposing pictures of the plov on the truck, one with meat on rice, another with small quail-like eggs and sliced sausage. I asked about the difference. I was told that they sometimes had beef-beef and sometimes lamb-beef. There was lamb on mine, but no eggs or sausage.
Switching gears, there is now a Xi’an Famous Foods on 8th and 53rd. My bowl of noodles runneth over.
40% off with inkind app credits purchased during a sale. I believe they’ve announced an upcoming Black Friday sale. Otherwise it’s 20 per cent off, still a a good deal!
I was skeptical, but Indian friends said we must try it, and I’m so glad we did. Wonderful food, wonderful service, expensive but well worth it for a high-end restaurant.
Tasty lunch - noodle dish was at least 75% pickled beans with vey few of the interesting noodles, the dish grew on me a lot. I liked the lotus root texture but thought the dish was pleasant but bland, and what’s not to like about pork belly with leeks? Id definitely visit this place again. PS I noticed that Fuschia Dunlops Hunan Cookbook has a vegetable pickling recipe, that looks interesting
Once again, I searched the Union Square Holiday Market for my beloved Taste of Persia ash reshteh. In vain. I was forced to console myself with this fish tofu & kimchi banh mi, which was very good, but not as good as ash reshteh.
Siestema published a review of annapurna bhavan today, he recommended what he called some hard to find dishes here in nyc, we’re back first week of Dec if anyone wants to meet for lunch.
The food looks good, strange there has not been an option for it around there. (Love utappam being described as pizza too .)
However reading that review made me cringe a bit from start to finish (“invaded”??? “inscrutable parotta”???). A little basic research might have helped him offset his somewhat surprising lack of familiarity and even more surprising lack of intellectual curiosity about south indian food (especially given the deliberate mention of the place near the UN in the '70s and Jersey city eateries). And misspellings – just copy-paste from the menu, for pete’s sake.
(Re dishes “unusual” to him – king dosa = paper dosa, rava kichdi = upma, curd vada = dahi vada, all of which are quite usual.)
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