1 St. Katharines Way
E1W 1LA
Tel: 020 7480 6356
Date of Last Visit: Thursday, December 8, 2005
The Vicitms: Heath, Bevin
The Damage: Unknown
I’ve eaten at Mala three times now, so I’m not quite sure why I never write it up! My apologies. Mala is good. I like its location in St. Katherine’s Docks, close to all the boats and things. It always seems very holiday-ish, but maybe that’s just because of the lights on the DIckens Inn next door.
Anyhow, it’s one of Bevin’s favorite places to eat in London–she likes the saag paneer, which I too must vote for. I love saag paneer, and Mala does a very nice job with it. One of these days, I’ll figure out how to make the paneer part–it’s cheese, but it’s like tofu cheese. I think sometimes, saag paneer is called palak paneer…not sure what the difference is. I do have this problem where I confuse saag aloo with saag paneer–aloo has potatoes in it, and while tasty, just doesn’t have all the spinach in it that saag paneer has. I get very mad at myself when I do this.
So, where was I? Heath ordered something that sounded very complicated. I went for the Butter Chicken, my Indian dish of 2005. (2003 was Chicken Jalfrezi. Indian food consumption dipped in 2004, so no dish of the year.) Both dishes arrived at the same time, one that looked a whole lot like Butter Chicken, but with a bit more of a kick in it than I expected. So we thought maybe the Butter Chicken wasn’t the Butter Chicken. It didn’t matter thought because it was DELICIOUS. We also ordered some garlic naan and it was really tasty but a bit bizzarre because it was covered with green slime. Tasty green slime, though.
We started talking to our waiter and whaddya know but he’s just become an American citizen! He’s moving to Massachusetts to open a restaurant and put his two kids in HARVARD. Smart cookies. He didn’t seemed phased by moving to a new country and opening up a new business–it was finding the spices that was bothering him!
The Verdict: A good spot for a good curry if you’re in the ‘hood.
1 comment
saag and palak both mean spinach. you can use either term.
and paneer is a bit time consuming to make (you add an acid like a bit of vinegar to hot milk, seperate the curds and whey with a cheesecloth and then put the curds under a heavy object to press them into shape… vague descrip. i know, but i always loathed paneer, so never bothered with it).
you can pick blocks of it up at most indian/pakistani/bangla shops (theres a huge one on brick lane called bangla mart that should have it).
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