![]() ![]() “In a generation, these recipes could be lost,” Mazumdar said. This wasn't news to Pandya, who had become obsessed with the rabbit after devouring it once, illegally, two decades ago at a rural canteen a few miles away. ![]() Spice Court's chef, Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, lamented that he couldn't legally cook khargosh since hunting and serving the type of wild rabbits used in this dish is outlawed in much of India. Not coincidentally, this has become the most celebrated entrée at Dhamaka, where Pandya prepares the dish faithfully-marinating the whole hare for two days, roasting it for six hours, and serving it complete with kidneys and skull. Although the restaurant was renowned for local mutton dishes, like the fiery junglee maas, Pandya bemoaned the absence of his favorite food from the region: Rajasthani khargosh (Rajasthani rabbit). Near the end of our day in Jaipur, we sat down to a long meal at Spice Court, an airy colonial-themed eatery with white walls adorned with polo mallets. The best shop we found, Khunteta Namkeen, cooked over white-hot stones, which, Pandya explained, distribute heat more evenly than coals and gas heat-a sign of careful preparation. On narrow lanes, we sidestepped the occasional passing scooter or Brahman bull as we prebreakfasted on dal kachori chaat and, a block or so later, balushahi-small wheat-flour donuts deep-fried in ghee and drizzled with sugar syrup. ![]() But while their taxis turned toward the Hawa Mahal palace, with its 953 latticed windows, we headed to a quiet quarter within Jaipur's Old City. When eating Pandya's renditions of bhetki paturi and khichuri at Masalawala & Sons, dishes I'd only eaten with my late father's family in Kolkata, my eyes began to water, and not just because of the potent green chiles.ĭeparting for a day trip to Jaipur, our dawn flight was filled with tourists looking to complete the Golden Triangle after visiting Delhi and Agra. Diners emerge from their meals at Adda and Dhamaka visibly moved Pandya and Mazumdar tell me they've been thanked by guests in tears. Although some members of the Desi community, as we South Asians call ourselves, were dubious that Unapologetic Foods' humble dishes were worthy of a proper restaurant-no less one where it's impossible to get reservations-Pandya's exquisitely rendered homestyle cooking proved to be the cause of and cure for homesickness. Along the way, Pandya, Mazumdar, and Unapologetic Foods have amassed acclaim, including a Michelin star for Semma and a James Beard Award for best chef in New York for Pandya. They also introduced New York to Indian fried chicken at the street-food-inspired Rowdy Rooster in the East Village. They extended this approach with Semma in the West Village, chef Vijay Kumar's ode to his native Southern Indian cuisine, and Masalawala & Sons in Park Slope, Brooklyn, based on the Bengali family recipes of Mazumdar's father, which mirrored my own. They refused to modify the spicing or ingredi-ents (the title of The New Yorker's review: “ Learning to Love Goat Kidneys and Testicles at Dhamaka”) to make dishes more accessible or otherwise “apologize” for the food eaten by the world's most populous nation, which is why they named their restaurant group Unapologetic Foods. The duo's success has come from aggressively scrubbing away pretension and cooking the food they loved-and missed-first at Adda in Long Island City, Queens, then with Dhamaka, their restaurant on Manhattan's Lower East Side, which is devoted to the lesser-known flavors of the Indian Subcontinent. Marwadi thali at Sri Moturam Prasadam in Jaipur Pankaj Anand
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