My Dinner at Pao Walla
This is a Tingmo. Â I wish I had taped the description our extremely beautiful waitress dreamed up, because it was the most remarkably sensual description.... Â I'm paraphrasing, but it went something like this. Â "All of our breads are delicious, but you can find many of them in other restaurants. But this Tibetan bread is the softest, sexiest thing you'll ever eat. Â The yeast dough is rolled into ropes, then looped into a spiral and steamed into a texture unlike anything you've ever experienced. Â Your mouth will be very happy."
Dipped into the chutney sampler - I loved them all, but was particularly partial to the sprightly lemon and the searingly spicy chile versions - it was the perfect beginning to our meal at Floyd Cardoz's new Pao Walla Restaurant.
I've always been a Floyd fan; I loved his food at Tabla, and when he was a contestant on Top Chef Masters in 2011, he made one shockingly delicious dish after another. (He won). Â Here he's doing something that feels very close to his heart; this is casual restaurant is serving Indian food you won't find at other restaurants.
On a sticky hot night it was the perfect place to be, and we ate progression of dishes so hot and delicious we just kept ordering more. Â After the tingmo (such a wonderful word!) Â we had
fluke ceviche with green mango and heart of palm in a sauce sparked with the strange appealing sourness of kokum, lightened with a splash of lime.
An oddly appealing egg kejriwal: Â French toast took a trip to India and liked it so much it decided to stay. Â Sweet, cheesy and garlicky all at the same time, it's one of those dishes that arrives seeming bland and stays to tease and intrigue you.
Liver masala - like no liver you've ever tasted. Â Tangled in spice and vegetables, it comes out fighting all those other flavors - and wins! (The roll on the side is a pao - a soft Portuguese-inspired bread.)
Cucumber salad, an Indian version of the Chinese smashed cucumbers; a simple dish with surprising complexity.
Shrimp with black pepper and lime; perfect finger food.
Calamari stuffed with a complicated mixture.  Onions, I thought. Squid ink.  Cilantro. And then I  stopped thinking and simply ate for the pure pleasure of it. We were ordering blindly now, loving the scents rolling around the room, intoxicated by taste.  A chicken and chile dish arrived,  burned our mouths and made us happy.  We ordered more breads, ate more chutney. And finally, we shared a single cool and lovely dessert.
This is wonderful food, wonderful fun, and if I were you I'd go now, while the heat wave is blanketing the city. Â It's the perfect taste for this time of year - Â and you will go home happy.