Junoon in NYC – A Review
People come to New York, the city of dreams in hopes of succeeding and making it big, some actually fulfill these dreams. The tale of Vikas Khanna has fascinated me, ever since I began reading his book – Flavors First. The beautiful book is an engaging read, however, I shall tell you more about the book, once I cook from it. I have bookmarked several recipes, but like a lot of chef cookbooks, I do not always have all the ingredients on hand to cook the recipes.
I had picked up the book, in the Delhi airport and actually lugged the rather heavy book, all the way, reading through it. Despite, the lack of loads of narrative, the simple story of a man who started with humble beginnings, knitting sweaters with his mother to raise seed capital for a catering business in Punjab is quite inspiring. Despite, the chef apologizing about his knowledge of English, the book is actually a very engaging read and offers a very down to earth success story of passion, dreams and family.
Giving up the safety of home in India, Vikas makes it to the US, stays for the first two weeks in a homeless shelter, before beginning to pick up life and establishing himself, and opening Junoon. I tend to be wary of Indian restaurant that stretch my budget, however once I realized how close Junoon was to my work, I decided to use restaurant week as an opportunity to visit.
I was pleasantly dazzled by the restaurant’s opulent get up, the formal dining room was named Patiala room, with a tribute to Vikas’s Punjabi roots. The settings and service was all very white linen and kept up with the exotic and elaborate settings.
The first day, I went myself and tried the Non-Vegetarian Thali, a rather exotic affair, presented beautifully around the regular plate. A lovely touch there! There were separate spoons for each dish. Small, but adequate portions of a few select items and I chose to have my order with a roti.
The Roti, was of the tandoori variety, crisp and just very lightly charred, absolute perfection with the rich and creamy raita. The chicken tikka masala (yes, I am actually rhapsodizing about this restaurant special) was just amazing, leaving me to note that it needs to be one of the first recipes to try from the book. The lamb was good, the shrimp piri piri could have been spicier. I was disappointed by the lentils, which probably did not hold up its own, against these other elaborate items.
I was hooked, I came back again with my friend Cheng, and we admired the lovely settings once more. I tried the lamb kholapuri, which was rich but not too greasy and well seasoned. I had also sampled the lasoni gobi, an indo-Chinese creation, which was well presented, but missed the taste benchmark by a few notches.
The two desserts that I had sampled on both days were both good. The passion fruit mousse was smooth and tangy. They had done something different with the rice pudding making it thicker and closer to the Indian dessert called phirni.
My overall reaction, Indian food well done, but rather on the steep side. Maybe, if the very handsome chef was present on premises along with the attentive staff, I might think twice about complaining about the price.
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