BENGALURU: As chilly winter seeps in, need for comfort food hits a crescendo. The season spares no second for hassles so the best offering comes in one bowl. Monkey Bar understands that quite well so they have 12 varieties of one-bowl meals with different textures and flavours ranging from Asian to Moroccon.
The first up bowl I tried is the Kashmiri Yakhni -- saffron scented rice served with slow-cooked boneless lamb. The mutton was given a creamy texture with the addition of yogurt and nuts. The dish was sweeter than anticipated and the hint of toasted garlic balanced the sweet and sour flavour well. This one bowl was a warm hug that you crave in winter.
My favourite bowl was the Korean Bibimbap. The colourful Instagram-worthy bowl boasted about eight prominent ingredients including the sunny-side up fried egg. The pink sticky rice with gochujang steak or beef steak made for a scrumptious bowl. The spicy and sour kimchi, which is an essential ingredient in Korean cuisine, spiced up the bowl. While the beef was chewy, the dish on the whole was a burst of unpredictable flavours.
The Rajma Bowl was perhaps the grandest on the menu. It offered six accompaniments to be relished along with the the rajma chawal. So there were portions of chilli pickles, tomato chutney, spicy yogurt, fried palak to replace the papad, tawa aloo and the ghee. It was a compact dish offered at a reasonable price of Rs 280. The flavours were authentic and Rajma Chawal lovers are sure to binge on this. The servings of rajma and chawal were almost equal.
Chicken chilly (inspired by Nagarjuna’s chicken chilly) with Malabar parotta is a safe bet. The soft and sweet malabari parotta with spicy chicken served well for a quick bite.
For those who love the flavours of Bengal, there is a bowl offering all the known tastes of Bengal. The Panch Phoron and Kasundi Maach had gobindobhog rice, kingfish from the rivers and brinjal wrapped in mustard. The five spices and the mustard made the taste a bit too bitter.
Since khichdi qualifies for a comfort dish too, Wild Mushroom Khichdi was one of the 12 varieties. Slow cooked in moong dal and ghee, the dish was served with four condiments including papad and curd.
The 12 bowls were a treat at the festival which is on till December 30.
Prices: Vegetarian One
Bowl – `280 onwards,
Non-vegetarian One
Bowl – `380 onwards.