My Masala

In India, people refer to Masala as “the gossip”, which I find quite funny because they´d be like “OMG, let me tell you all my Masala!” haha Anyway, as many of you might know, Masala is -properly put- a type of Indian sauce which varies depending on the mixture of spices you use, kind of like the Mexican “Mole”.

I´ve always loved spicy food so when I got to go to India I was very excited about all the amazing new flavors I would get to try over there and I was not disappointed, quite the opposite actually, most Indian food lift up to my -rather high- expectations and ever since I love it almost as much as I love Mexican Food. Oddly enough, in Mexico, not a lot of people is into it though, they find it weird and some people is “afraid” of even trying it as they think it´s going to be too much, which -I insist- is strange considering Mexican food is also quite spicy and full of intense flavors.

In Mexico City, there only like 2 or 3 Indian Food Restaurants as, like I said, it´s not very popular; and the existing ones are sort of expensive as I believe they consider it “exotic” food. Needless to say, I had never been to any of these restaurants but wanted to for so long now, I had just never found someone who would dare going with me…until yesterday, when my good friend Maru aka El Soldado was feeling “adventurous” enough to go and give it a shot. So, we went to this place called “Tandoor” -quite creative and original…NOT!-.

The decoration wasn´t very Indian, it was more like any fancy restaurant, which disappointed me a little bit. The music wasn´t Indian either…another bit of a disappointment, until before we let they actually starting playing Indian music videos and that only was enough to change the whole environment. So, they brought the Menus and I was happy as I was familiar with most of the stuff there, I went through the whole thing even though I knew what I wanted even before we got there. A lot of things sounded absolutely luscious but I was determined not to leave the place without having my all-time Indian Favorite: Chicken Tikka Masala! Good thing is, since I was the “expert” there, Maru allowed me to make some dish recommendations to her and she actually listened to me! (You don´t know her, but she doesn´t take a lot of suggestions from people lol). She first said she wanted the same as me but I told her she should order something different so we could try more stuff, so I ordered Korma Mutton with Almonds.

The Chicken Tikka Masala was so good it took me back to Jaipur, where I had my first one. The color was off a little bit as it is usually red-ish and this one was yellow-ish, but as soon as I tasted it I loved it, I could feel the spices on my palate and little explosions of intense flavor in my mouth. I accompanied it with a Garlic Naan and it was -as Carrie Bradshaw would say- “Delicious, exactly what I wanted, I couldn´t get enough!”. I did feel like it wasn´t spicy enough but I get that it´s kind of hard to get the exact same spices from India here, however, it was all in all, a great meal.

Now, the Korma Mutton with Almonds, I have to admit I would have liked it to be a bit softer than it was as it is one of the mutton’s characteristics, but It was alright. The Masala that accompanied it was less spicy than the one with the Chicken, and darker but also very good and the almonds added an interesting touch. For that one, we ordered a Cheese Naan which was way better than the Garlic one, the latter was a bit toasted and crunchy and it´s supposed to be soft and warm. Although it was a very good dish, I prefer my Mutton with some Biryani and regular Naans or Chapatis.

So, all in all it was a great meal, so great I´m going to make it a point to go there at least once a month. If you live in Mexico City and want to give it a try which I would absolutely recommend-, the restaurant is called (again) “Tandoor” and it´s on the corner of Leibnitz and Copérnico, in the Colonia Anzurez. Quite easy to get there actually. Well, if you do go…enjoy!