Finding a really good Indian restaurant can be a difficult task in Taipei, where choices are limited not so much because of the small number of dining spots, but because of the similar, if not exactly identical, food on offer. Fortunately, progress is occasionally made with the arrival of establishments such as the Balle Balle Indian Restaurant & Bar.
Opened more than one year ago on Guangfu North Road (光復北路) near Bade Road (八德路), the place first caught my attention when I walked past the storefront and saw it was packed with patrons many of whom were Indian. And the reason for its brisk business proves to be self-evident as soon as I took my first bite of the rich flavors from the Indian subcontinent finely rendered at Balle Balle.
Balle Balle’s kitchen is fully devoted to Punjabi cuisine from the Punjab region in north India. As it turns out, many of the popular elements of the Indian cuisine such as tandoori cooking is derived from the region. Compared to the often extensive menus that have the weight of a book at similar establishments, the Punjabi-centered eatery has a diner-friendly carte mainly composed of appetizers, tandoori food, curry dishes and breads. Meanwhile, ingredients used by the restaurant’s team of Indian chefs directly come from the Indian specialty store which is the owner’s other business venture.
Photo: Ho Yi, Taipei Times
As Punjab is also the birthplace of Sikhism, the space is bedecked with ornaments and objects that represent its religious and cultural roots, including a life-size statue of a Sikh greeting diners by the entrance. Apart from the Sikh figurines and dolls, the dining environment is neatly arranged, devoid of gaudy travel photos of South Asian landmarks and exudes a feel of straightforwardness that is strangely comforting.
Equally reassuring is the Indian manager known as GV. Speaking fluently in English and Mandarin, the manager is as friendly as he is helpful in making recommendations and answering patrons’ needs.
With the help of GV, my dining partner and I started our meal with murg malai kebab (NT$380), a tandoori starter made up of boneless chicken marinated with cashew paste, homemade cream and spices. We were both won over by the surprisingly tender, succulent meat, accompanied by the slightly charred, lusciously sweet onions.
Photo: Ho Yi, Taipei Times
The vegetarian alternative to the chicken tandoori snack is paneer tikka, which involves Indian cottage cheese grilled in a clay oven. Among them, hariyali paneer tikka (NT$410) is marinated with yogurt, cashew paste and flavored with mint and spinach.
From the curry section, which comprises choices of chicken, lamb, fish and vegetables, we chose veg kofta (NT$290), featuring soft balls made from mashed potatoes and mixed vegetables and submerged in onion and cashew gravy, while spices including ginger and coriander add punch to the delightfully creamy dish.
The gosht rahra (NT$360) delivered a wow effect with the offering of tender, boneless mutton tossed in onion gravy and makes another mild, smooth curry delicacy.
Photo: Ho Yi, Taipei Times
The restaurant has a wide variety of naan, roti, kulcha and paratha. Both the garlic naan (NT$75) and tandoori roti (NT$85) we tried were satisfyingly substantial and chewy. Amritsari aloo kulcha (NT$120) particularly impressed with the savory stuffing of mashed potatoes and spices.
For drinks, the restaurant offers the richest and thickest mango lassi (NT$120) I have ever tried. But the best companion to Balle Balle’s hearty fare, in my view, is the pudhina nimbu soda (NT$80), that aids digestion with a concoction of mint leaves, lime, black pepper and salt.
With fine food and warm, attentive service, Balle Balle Indian Restaurant & Bar is quickly becoming my favorite spot to quench my thirst for the flavorful South Asian fare.
Many people noticed the flood of pro-China propaganda across a number of venues in recent weeks that looks like a coordinated assault on US Taiwan policy. It does look like an effort intended to influence the US before the meeting between US President Donald Trump and Chinese dictator Xi Jinping (習近平) over the weekend. Jennifer Kavanagh’s piece in the New York Times in September appears to be the opening strike of the current campaign. She followed up last week in the Lowy Interpreter, blaming the US for causing the PRC to escalate in the Philippines and Taiwan, saying that as
US President Donald Trump may have hoped for an impromptu talk with his old friend Kim Jong-un during a recent trip to Asia, but analysts say the increasingly emboldened North Korean despot had few good reasons to join the photo-op. Trump sent repeated overtures to Kim during his barnstorming tour of Asia, saying he was “100 percent” open to a meeting and even bucking decades of US policy by conceding that North Korea was “sort of a nuclear power.” But Pyongyang kept mum on the invitation, instead firing off missiles and sending its foreign minister to Russia and Belarus, with whom it
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has a dystopian, radical and dangerous conception of itself. Few are aware of this very fundamental difference between how they view power and how the rest of the world does. Even those of us who have lived in China sometimes fall back into the trap of viewing it through the lens of the power relationships common throughout the rest of the world, instead of understanding the CCP as it conceives of itself. Broadly speaking, the concepts of the people, race, culture, civilization, nation, government and religion are separate, though often overlapping and intertwined. A government
Nov. 3 to Nov. 9 In 1925, 18-year-old Huang Chin-chuan (黃金川) penned the following words: “When will the day of women’s equal rights arrive, so that my talents won’t drift away in the eastern stream?” These were the closing lines to her poem “Female Student” (女學生), which expressed her unwillingness to be confined to traditional female roles and her desire to study and explore the world. Born to a wealthy family on Nov. 5, 1907, Huang was able to study in Japan — a rare privilege for women in her time — and even made a name for herself in the
RSS