Užkalnis: this Indian restaurant is as good as if it were not in Lithuania

Sure, I try something once a week, but who is it once a week for a man like me.

Indian food has the good property that it travels home very well. It is as if it was deliberately created. The point here is that thick, greasy curry-like sauces, in which sheep, shrimp, vegetables, or chicken are soaked, are heated to a temperature higher than water, the longer they stay hot, and the more they bubble, the better (you it can even heat up)., if there is such a desire, but I can’t wait, I’m hungry).

All kinds of rice and other dishes are often delivered to people in the workplace in India itself (there people definitely eat hot food for lunch, they don’t go to restaurants for lunch, because where does the food come from? money and they bring hot lunches to the offices in large bowls; those food messengers who carry whole stacks of covered jars stacked in cylinders – there a food messenger, whom we call Darius or Luke, called “dabbawalla”, that is, a box man, a boxer – the food is placed in cans).

Probably the only Indian food that doesn’t travel (and therefore I didn’t order it in this case) is a freshly baked bun, naan; It doesn’t really travel, I suggest eating it alone in a restaurant, no more than ten minutes should elapse between baking and eating, and that spoon should not close in any covered cavity as it loses consistency.

Indian restaurants in Lithuania are undergoing a certain Renaissance (although I don’t know if it is appropriate to call it, because Indian cuisine has not existed in Lithuania, not even in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania) – I would say that if Chinese restaurants are shown in less one third the quality and authenticity of such restaurants, like Blue Lotus (an old favorite, last time I wrote about them here.

At the moment, Chinese food is not eaten in Lithuania, because the quality gap between Lithuania and countries like Germany, Britain or the US is terrible: I am still waiting for something good Chinese to appear, I am still waiting, and it will do. It is probably possible to catch red fairy dragons sooner, walking around Vingis park than for fancy Chinese food. Now all that is supplied is a post-Soviet plura of sweetened starch. Perhaps the Seimas and the Government could take care of that and pass some laws that would force the Chinese to open at least three good Chinese restaurants in Lithuania, or we would not buy phones and tablets from them. The situation is so dire.

But now it’s more about Chinese restaurants – I want to talk about an Indian restaurant that I really enjoyed, that took us home for a rich, hearty, hot lunch, and (that I really enjoyed) the food was perfectly packaged for the trip. , even though it cost a few pennies a package. And with good reason. The restaurant has the right to pass on additional costs to the customer. Now it is very difficult for restaurants. For me or you, it’s a few dozen extra cents, and for the restaurant, that means there is no deeper penetration into their profit margin, which is already very slim these days, given that much of it owes be discovered by the courier company. . Yes, I know that Wolt works well, finally solved a lot of problems, finally we don’t hear nonsense like before (“I know, unless in three hours”), but God sees that they are not cheap providers.

Now we will talk about the Indian restaurant Namaste India, which is located at the foot of Kalinauskas street, at the junction with Pylimo street, and it is a beautiful place for me, because sometimes I would walk through those streets to Salomėja’s house. Nėris Gymnasium (my parents’ house is at J.Basanavičius and the corner of Mindaugo streets, where you can come and take photos).

By the way, I had written about this restaurant five years ago, in January 2016, and then it was also a very cold winter, and then I mentioned my favorite laugh about global warming, which does not exist when you need it most (the post can be found here). A long time has passed, the quarantine has arrived and now is the time to check how this home delivery service works. They then took four geese out of five. What will it be like now?
The first course was Dal Makhani (€ 6), a thick lentil soup. Dal Makhani is a Delhi recipe anyway, but lentil soups (sharper or softer, thicker or more liquid) are the staple of Indian, Pakistani, Bengali, Nepalese cuisine, it’s more for them than for Lithuanians in Borsch, it is for them, like potatoes, like a white mix, like baked bread, a dish that everyone eats, a dish that fills and gives energy, fabulous trinkets and versatility at a very low cost. Here, Dal Makhani was a slightly spicy, creamy, cozy and very wintery soup, gleaming with silk highlights, and one that is impossible to stop eating.

We wanted lamb, so I ordered Lamb Vindaloo (lamb vindalū), € 10.50. Vindaloo sauce is native to South India, Goa, and is a phonetic derivative of the Portuguese sentence “carne de vinha d’alhos”, which means a dish enjoyed by Portuguese settlers. In Britain, he is known for the ugly laugh “when you eat vindaloo, you go straight to the toilet” (and when you eat vindaloo, you have a direct path to the toilet), and refers to the brutal bowel movement, especially in immature body, of the same sauce stronger and harder. In England, vindaloo is ordered when you want to show off in front of others, how you are not afraid of anything and how resistant you are to the heat of cosmic chili peppers. I did the same and it was really stupid.

Here, the vindaloo sauce really suited the conservative taste of Lithuania, and since I ordered a medium spicy dish, I was expecting the windows to pop open on my breath and the fire to break out, as it would have been in Britain. but none of that happened, we did it here in Lithuania. We are from the north, we are moderate and adapt dishes from exotic countries to ourselves (the good news is that we are not the only ones doing this, I have eaten similarly in Estonia, at the most famous moment in their Indian restaurant at the time, but that was many years ago).

Prawn butter masala (€ 12.50) is a shrimp in a buttered bait sauce whose most common ingredients are tomatoes and coriander. Butter gives fat and plenty of flavor. There was everything here: creaminess, intensity of flavor and abundance of spices. Please note that this traditional sauce from Indian cuisine comes with tomatoes, which originated in India only in the 16th century, brought by Portuguese travelers, and were only cultivated in abundance in the 18th century, and were cultivated by the colonizing country for British needs. Tomatoes have now become, in a couple of hundred years, an integral and important part of Indian cuisine.
Another highlight was Lamb Korma (€ 10.50). Korma is the smoothest and sweetest Indian cuisine sauce, with yogurt and lots of coconut, believed to have once been brought to India from Persia, and is most often ordered in Britain for children and women, as everyone they love sweet and spicy. Here it was very well balanced and not too sweet (sugar is very often introduced into this sauce, and it doesn’t have to be that way, it’s not syrup or dessert). The sauce was fragrant, silky, cozy and it really was a relaxation after the hot and spicy options.

I really liked the pulao rice, probably the product with the most variations in spelling: pilaf, pulao, or even the word “pilovas” known to Lithuanians is from the same origin. A delicious, delicious and fragrant serving of rice with vegetable toppings costs € 3.50, and I’m not a rice lover, but when the dishes boil them, I could, on my word, just eat them. There are no secrets to cooking rice: each type of rice has its own cooking and steaming time and the amount of water, which should be measured to the gram, and if you want to try how Asian long grain rice is made, order from Namaste India and you will know. Some kind of fiction. Brittle but not dry, loose, but not too much, fragrant, full. Probably one of the most authentic Asian rices that can be found in Lithuania.

I definitely wanted Pepino Raita, 3.30, it is a creamy, thick yogurt with cucumber, whose main function and value is such that it extinguishes the fiery effect of the pepper in the mouth. Water can’t do that, but liquid yogurt always does. Make sure to give it a try. Cool, cool, cheerful. It was like a glass of cold sparkling water on a hot day.

In two, we paid € 53.80 for a good lunch and included a € 5 tip for the courier. One of the best Indians from Vilnius and Lithuania? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. He was dripping saliva as he wrote.

It is an honor for them and an honor for us to have such restaurants.

Five out of five geese. Hurry to order.

Namaste dating in India, Pylimo g. 5, Vilnius. Tel. +370 662 20440.

Website: http://namasteindia.lt/ Facebook Profile: https://www.facebook.com/namsteindia.lt

Monday to Thursday: 11:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. Friday from 11:00 a.m. to 11:00 p.m. Saturdays from 12 a.m. to 11 p.m. Sundays from 1:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.