Date night at Indian Accent, NY

It was the end of summer 2019. I was all excited about spending a month in my favorite city – New York. I imagined a small Airbnb just outside Central Park. Early morning walk/runs with my dog, a brisk walk to work and evenings exploring the hidden neighborhood jewels – bars and restaurants, shows and musicals. By fall, I was excited to have one week in NY! And in that week, our dinner at Indian Accent, NY crowned our dining experience.

The work day delivered on its promise to be busy and intense. Plans to visit the WTC memorial were replaced with emails and to-dos that could not wait until the next morning. How do you reward yourself for a day well done? Your spouse takes you to dinner to Indian Accent, just because….

A brisk walk to dinner on 5th ave, crisp fall air, scent of roasted chestnuts wafting in the air is just the right recipe to work up an appetite.

Manish Mehrotra is the chef at Indian Accent (indianaccent.com) and while I had heard about the place, I had not read or researched the place or the chef. Was eager to be surprised, pleasantly of course!

So.. here goes, my first food blog post, expect it to be amateur but genuine.

David, our quitesencial host for dinner took us through our menu options with experience based inputs which was helpful. They have a 3 course, 4 course and an eight course chef’s tasting menu. I opted for the 8 course, with wine pairing, of course.

Course 0: compliments of the chef

Pumpkin coconut shorba with mini blue cheese naan; warm, yummy gooeyness of melted blue cheese on your tongue as you bite into the naan. Chase it with the sweet creamy shorba and savor that symphony for a bit.

Course 1: 5 mini puchhkas – Mint, tamrind, pineapple, kokum and yogurt- served with Madeira. I had to admire the presentation first- a rolling pin serves as a tray to hold these mini “pani” (flavored water) shot glasses. The taste did not disappoint either, the right tingling of the palette to anticipate the next dish.

Course 2: syso leaf chaat with a very dry Riesling. Syso is a Japanese leaf, I have not had it before so was unable to fully appreciate complexities and challenges (if any) in integrating it in Indian food. What I liked was the different textures as you vertically sliced through a chat and let the textures and flavors traverse your taste buds.

Course 3: Beetroot peanut butter cutlet. Now, this was not very different from the Bengali cutlets, the peanut butter center was a nice surprise.

Course 4: Ahhh!!! Amritsari cod. This was one of my favorites. A nice buttery cod, not too heavy, lightly flavored with minted boondis (fried chickpea flour globules). Every bite would start with a flaky buttery, spiced cod and end with a minty crunch!

Course 5: Soy kheema pav with quail egg

Everything about this dish was dainty and packed with flavor! See those little buns? Firm on the outside and soft inside. Delish!!

Course 7: mushroom parathas

It was sooooo good, I couldn’t wait to get a pic. And polished off the plate. Inspired by this meal, I did make mushroom blue cheese parathas at home. A roaring success. I was requested to make it back to back. Just saying…

Course 8: gunpowder scallops

Clearly inspired by the classic idly+gunpowder combination which is rip roaringly popular in Tamil Nadu, especially since it survives long road and train trips and is versatile enough to be enjoyed with good filter coffee or a smooth scotch!

Course 8: Dessert!

My least favorite course actually. They gave us a trio.

Carrot halwa in tiny cones with ice cream

A chocolate barfi /ganache cross over

And I cannot remember the last one 😳

Satiated, was ready to roll into bed and face another day. Another day in NY, another day at work.

Will definitely go back, will try a la Carte the next time.