Gaggan, Bangkok, Thailand (Alissa and Don Eat Asia)

"Oh shit... Gaggan is #1!"

Such began my panic in March for a meal that was at that stage 6 months into the future. Having originally planned for a holiday to Japan with stopovers in Bangkok and Hong Kong, only to have our Bangkok time extended (and Japan leg cancelled) on the strength of Nahm and Gaggan's ascendency to the upper echelons of the restaurant world, a table at Gaggan was one of the highest priorities of our trip. I'm pretty organised when it comes to reservations, and had already planned a rough schedule for our holiday when the news broke that Gaggan - the Progressive Indian restaurant in Bangkok of all places - had beaten such luminaries as last year's winner Nahm and perennial favourite Narisawa to be voted Asia's Best Restaurant (later coming in at #10 on the World list). Having had some experience with how tough this kind of reservation can be once a restaurant gets this level of good press - booking a table at Attica when it came #21 in the world was hard enough - I immediately got onto Gaggan's website reservation system and made a booking. Thankfully, it was a fairly painless process and Alissa and I managed to secure a table for our visit in September.

Maya Indian Restaurant, Fremantle, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Revisiting a restaurant after many years can be like catching up with an old friend. With all the incredible openings in Perth over the last few years, dinner in Fremantle is a somewhat uncommon practice for Alissa and I. Combined with my general reluctance to go out and eat Indian food whenever I come back from a trip to India, its been at least 4 or 5 years since I last dined at Maya, a much lauded Indian restaurant and small bar located on Market St, just off the main drag of the Cappuccino Strip. When I dined here last it was between my first and second trips to India, and I recall thinking the food was some of the better Indian I've had in Australia. After a stalled attempt to book the Winter Dego advertised on their website in July (they weren't offering it at the time), I received an email informing me that they would be served their 'Winter Banquet' every Wednesday of August. At an extremely reasonable 10 dishes for $38, this is quite likely one of the cheapest tasting menus in town (albeit seasonal), and after conferring with a few friends eager to get in on the bargain, we made a booking for six for the first Wednesday of the month.

Bollywood Spices, North Perth, Western Australia (Alissa and Don Eat Australia)

Whenever I get back from India, I always feel like I need a serious break from Indian food. Eating a food heavy on the ghee and spices everyday is decadent and delicious, but after a few weeks it becomes all a bit too much. Add to this the impossibility of finding Indian in Australia that can match the delicious seafood (and our all-time favourite naan) at Trishna and the refined quality of the food at Dum Pukht (our all-time favourite biryani) in Mumbai, and getting me to go out for Indian food can be a real challenge. With no dinner reservations on a Saturday night, and all the hip 'no reservation required' casual eateries likely to be packed, Alissa's suggestion that we visit Bollywood Spices seemed sensible. After some final cajoling to push me over the line, we hopped in the car and made the drive to North Perth for our first meal of Indian food since we left Mumbai last year.

Located in North Perth, Bollywood Spices is confusingly one of three Indian restaurants located near the intersection of Charles and Angove Sts, and unfortunately its not the most visible of the three from Charles St, as its the best rated on Urbanspoon. When Alissa lived on Angove, her and her housemates tried quite a few of the different Indian restaurants in the North Perth/Northbridge area, and Alissa and I felt that Bollywood Spices was probably our top pick. The restaurant is fairly small but it is nicely decorated and comfortable. When we arrived there were no other customers dining in. While there were more dine in customers as the even progressed, the kitchen was largely kept busy by a constant stream of take away orders.

Dum Pukht, Mumbai, India (Alissa and Don Eat Asia Day 18, Part 2)

Flying back into Mumbai from Cochin I was dreading the inevitably annoying taxi experience we would have. We were headed to the hotel ITC Maratha for our dinner at Dum Pukht, a restaurant that specialises in the eponymous refined style of cooking food at low temperatures and longer durations in containers sealed with dough. Even though we went with the safe route of the prepaid counter, dealing with the taxi driver was reliably frustrating as they initially put our suitcase on the roof rack without tying it up, and then the driver had a friend come along for 'baggage' service - aka getting a tip for doing nothing.

Arriving in our beat up yellow and black taxi at the luxury hotel was a comically out of place juxtaposition that you may find in a Wes Anderson movie In spite of probably looking a bit out of place next to all the private cars, the hotel staff were lovely, and after scanning our bags through their strict security assisted us as we headed to Dum Pukht for our meal. When we arrived it seemed that in spite of a confirmation email that my reservation had not been recorded, however given that they were not particularly busy we were seated immediately in the restaurant's opulent dining room. Having eaten here 4 years ago, the restaurant had had a serious refit in the interim and really looked like a restaurant fit for Indian royalty from a bygone era. By far, Dum Pukht had the best décor of any restaurant we ate at in India.

Our waiter Ashok initially gave us the a la carte menu, but also gave us the option of a complimentary meal if we bought a very expensive bottle of wine (not something I was interested in) and also a set dinner featuring many of their signature dishes. Seeing their famous Dum Biryani on the menu, we decided that the non-veg multi-course set dinner was the way to go, along with a bottle of French Syrah.

Instead of the obligatory bread of other more European fine dining establishments, we were served some tube shaped papads. Though the presentation was very interesting it was not exactly surprising in terms of flavour – about what I would expect for a good papad.

Our starter was a kabab taster consisting of Murgh Chandi Tikka (chicken) and Dum Pukht Kakori (lamb). The chicken was delicious and incredibly soft – completely different to the spicier style more commonly encountered. This tikka used a 'royal' cumin marinade resulting in a lighter, more refined dish. Still, as good as this was, it was no where near as amazing as the lamb. A signature dish of the restaurant's, the lamb was described as 'melt in your mouth' - though this was an understatement. Just touching the kabab with a knife was enough to cut it, and it was easily the smoothest lamb mince I've ever eaten, spiced wonderfully with cloves, cinnamon and saffron. We wondered how on earth they managed to remove the meat from the skewers as the softness would have been a difficult challenge even for the most careful of chefs. Ashok explained that once there was a king who loved eating lamb kababs, however as he had no teeth he commanded his royal kitchen to make lamb mince so soft he could eat it without chewing. This was the dish they created. After our excellent lunch at East Indies, it seemed like we'd struck gold yet again.

Our main was served in two courses. The first was a trio of curries – the dum cooked Murgh Khushk Purdah (chicken), Shahi Nehari (lamb) and Maash Qaliya (moong bean). 

All three were excellent in their own right but the real standout was again the amazing lamb. Cooked overnight, the lamb curry was 'assimilated' (whatever that means) with extract of basmatti in milk with almond paste.

It was so smooth it looked like the smoothest gravy known to man, with most refined spiciness. This was served with a a basket of roti. The naan was more restrained than the over the top variety at Trishna, and though it would have been inappropriate in this setting we felt we preferred Trishna's naan. The paratha on the other hand was easily the best paratha we had in our trip – lovely layers of cooked dough that outclassed every parotta we had in Kerala. Possibly the best I've ever had.

There was so much curry, that even with an additional scoop of chicken and lamb to our bowls there would have been over half a bowl of each curry left when we decided to move onto the rice, so if you're a bigger eater than we are you can really fill up at this stage of the evening. But please please please leave some space for what would have to be one of the best biryanis you'll ever eat. Due to the slow cooking method and the more restrained spiciness of the dum pukht cooking method, the rice in the signature Dum Biryani has a very different texture to any other biryani I've ever had. Where most rice holds together in clumps to some extent, each grain could almost been eaten one by one – this is the most perfectly cooked rice. Having been basically slowly steamed in its own juices while sealed in its cooking vessel, the rice is incredibly flavoursome while maintaining the refined elegance of fine dining. I'd usually choose naan over biryani, but I'll make an exception for this Dum Biryani.

We took a bit of a break after the rice, and then moved onto dessert. We were served a quartet of Indian sweets – Gulab Jamun, Ras Malai, Saffron Falooda noodles and Saffron and Pistachio Kulfi. All we perfect examples of these Indian sweets, with the Gulab Jamun and Ras Malai being very traditional and the other two dishes being opulent versions of the classics thanks to the addition of saffron.

To finish, we were served a tray of non-tobacco paan as a freshener.

The Verdict: Exceptional

If you're not staying at ITC Maratha, getting to Dum Pukht can be a little inconvenient – especially if you're staying in the Fort area. That means the best time to go is on the way to or from the airport, and we found going to Fort from ITC was expensively jacked up in price because of the assumption we must have had some money to have eaten there. Still, in spite of all the inconvenience I can thoroughly recommend the food at Dum Pukht as being truly exceptional examples of Indian cuisine at its more refined, elegant and opulent. There is another Dum Pukht in Delhi that I have on good authority is even better than in Mumbai, being the best restaurant in India on the S. Pellegrino list. Regardless, if you're in either city Dum Pukht should be required eating.

Copper Castle, Munnar, India (Alissa and Don Eat Asia Day 17, Part 1)

I sometimes worry I'm a little too generous and positive in my appraisals of restaurants. Perhaps its because I worked hard researching good places to eat, but the vast majority of our meals in India have left us feeling genuinely satisfied, even surprisingly so in the case of the very cheap Rapsy Restaurant. As a means of contrast, let me tell you about our meal at Copper Castle.

After a morning and early afternoon of doing the Munnar tourist drive to Top Station and back, our driver Das took us to town to eat at Silver Spoon. When we got to town, we found that it was indeed right smack in the middle of town as I had remembered however it was closed for what seemed like renovations. Having to go with a second choice, we chose to forgo a second meal at Rapsy and decided on lunch at the Trip Advisor recommended Copper Castle, which was down the road from our hotel. Little did we know we had just made a huge mistake. 

We arrived to sit at the empty dining room of the restaurant, something I've come to notice is fairly usual with hotel restaurants in India as the dinner trade seems to be when they are at their busiest. We looked through the menu and chose to go with the Malabari Fried Prawns and the Pepper Chicken, along with two serves of parotta. 

We received our drinks quickly enough and began to amuse ourselves with conversation and making funny faces at each other as we took photos. But then things started to go downhill. We waited for what seemed like a very long time before we received our first dish, and when it came out we were both a little taken aback by how small it was.

The Malabari Fried Prawns were a lot smaller than we had expected. I'm not sure if the photo does justice to just how small the prawns were, but they were really very tiny – more like the smaller size you'd expect from a cheap supermarket shrimp cocktail than the usual meatier size I'd expect as a main. We ate this quietly, both of us commenting on how surprisingly small the serve was while noting that it at least tasted good. We were thinking maybe we should have ordered something else or that we may have to order an additional main, however the slow pace that things were coming out at made us hesitant to ask for an additional order less we extend our meal any longer. I understand prawns are more expensive than chicken or lamb, but I would rather pay more for a reasonable serve (either larger prawns or more small ones) than get a plate so insubstantial.

Things got even worse when they collected our finished plate. Unbeknownst to myself as I was facing the other way, the chef and kitchen staff came out of the kitchen to stand and watch as the waiter interacted with us.

'How was the prawns?' the waiter asked as he took the plate.

'It was very good, thank you,' said Alissa, being polite.

When he returned to where the staff were waiting, he spoke to them and they all started laughing. We're not sure whether they were laughing because they knew we'd obviously been fleeced by a stingy serve that they knew was no good or whether they were laughing because Alissa being Caucasian made her seem strange or some other reason. Regardless of the fact, this is unacceptable behaviour in any restaurant. I've never seen anything like it before.

After waiting again for a long time, the Pepper Chicken came out. We were very hungry by this point so to be fair the photo I've taken was after I'd already dished out some of the gravy onto my plate, but you can see that three measly pieces was all the chicken that was served to us. By way of comparison, have a look at the amount of chicken served to us at Rapsy Restaurant the previous day and you'll see how this was terrible value for money. The food was again at least tasty, having nice spice, and the parotta served to us was probably the best we had in Munnar. However I would later learn from Alissa that the restaurant staff again stood at the back of the room and watched, which made her feel very uncomfortable and self-conscious.

The Verdict: Okay

In all of our journey, I'm fairly certain this was easily the worst dining experience and most disappointing. I've heard that the nighttime buffet service is quite good but a restaurant should be bringing its A-Game at all times, and this was amongst the worst restaurant services I've ever experienced and the stingiest serving sizes we've encountered in all of India. A dish per person has been the rule of thumb at every other Indian restaurant we've eaten at, and my feedback to Copper Castle would be I'd rather have paid more for decent serving sizes that be served an insufficiently filling meal. But then at four times the price of Rapsy, one could eat food of equal quality to their hearts content and have a better dining experience to boot. Our meal here was at least good tasting otherwise this would be getting an even worse rating, but I thoroughly recommend you save you money and go to Rapsy Restaurant for a lunch in Munnar rather than have the kind of terrible service only Copper Castle seems able to offer.

Persian Darbar, Mumbai, India (Alissa and Don Eat Asia Day 8)

Alissa was not in a good mood. She found Bandra's high density array of clothing stores a little overwhelming, and combined with the heat and humidity we needed to take a moment to settle before continuing with our shopping expedition. Thankfully, the air conditioned comfort of Persian Darbar was not far so we headed in for lunch a bit earlier than usual.

I first went to Persian Darbar 4 years ago. I find their menu bewilderingly long and comprehensive, and you would have to be a die hard connoisseur to describe what every curry is,so if you're looking to try something beyond the stock standard its best to ask. I can say however from what I've tried that I am particularly fond of their tandoori and tikka-based dishes, and as such we ordered the Tandoori Chicken and the Chicken Jalandhari Masala along with two serves of garlic naan. 

The barbecued bird was a good as I remember it – well seasoned and spicy, and having that delicious smokiness of being cooked in a tandoor while maintaining that wonderfully soft and juicy texture of the meat. This was a very good tandoori bird, far better than what we can get in Australia.

The curry we ordered was a recommendation of the waiter's, and he was on the money. I've not had a Jalandhari before, but it reminded me somewhat of Jhangiri, a specialty of Ambrai in Udaipur. After a bit of research, it would appear Jalandhari is named after the city of Jalandhar in the the Punjab and as such is presumably a specialty of the region. This was a rich and delicious dish – similar to a chicken tikka masala insofar as that the meat is cooked in a tandoor and the dish is tomato based, but all the better due to the addition of cashews and a more complex spice flavour. Eaten with garlic naan, this was an indulgent calorific lunch.

For dessert we ordered some kulfi. The was about what I would expect – nice cardamon spice combined with sweetness. I have a feeling that they brought this in from a seller outside, as the server seemed to disappear out the door of the venue and back in, so given that it was not particularly special I would suggest this is something that is worth skipping in the future.

The Verdict: Very Good
Given that it takes 45-60 minutes to get from Fort to Bandra, I only make the journey once per visit to Mumbai. When there, its good to know that old faithful Persian Darbar is there for a delicious tandoor meal.