Orlando Food Blog 001: Anmol Indian Cuisine !

Anmol Indian Cuisine Restaurant
Location: Orlando, FL

The best way to experience culture, in my humble opinion, is to experience through food. The sights and sounds are incomparable to the distinct tastes of a culture. Right beyond the University of Central Florida’s front entrance lays a passage to the land of India via the tastes of Anmol Indian Cuisine restaurant in Orlando, FL(http://www.anmolindiancuisine.com).

India, birthplace of Hinduism, Mahatma Gandhi, Bollywood films/musicals, and curry spices. The cuisine is characterized by its use of many rich spices and herbs native to India, subtly added to flavor and entice the palate. Each bite into the naan bread or the basmati rice dipped in chicken pasanda is a step into the centuries of cultural history of India.

Anmol Indian Cuisine Restaurant, local and family-owned, is conveniently located in the plaza behind McDonald’s on the northwest corner of University Boulevard and Alafaya Trail in Orlando, FL. The décor inside Anmol is similar to what you may find in an Indian living room: framed engravings of ancient gods in pose, paintings of decorated Indian elephants, the TV set interchanging between CNN International and some old Bollywood musical, flyers advertising Taj Mahal imported beer.

The menu at Anmol Indian Cuisine is diverse ranging from vegetarian dishes to chicken and lamb curry. During lunch time, there is a special which includes lentil soup, the entrée dish, a plate of yellow and white basmati rice, and naan bread all for $7.95. Naan is a light, flat bread made from a dough of super fine flour and baked in a clay oven.

Chicken Pasanda, in a almond curry sauce

Our group orders the samosa and special naan for appetizers. The samosas come in pairs, each fistful fried to a crisp, filled with potatos, peas, and other vegetables. The special naan is fluffy, tasty, and stuffed with boneless chicken tikka, vegetables, herbs and green coriander.

Special Naan, stuffed with chicken tikka, veggies, and herbs

For our lunch entrées, we order chicken tandoori, lamb curry, and chicken pasanda. These dishes can be ordered mild, medium, or for the adventurous, spicy. The chicken tandoori is a dish with pieces of chicken marinated in yogurt and mild spices, roasted in the tandoor, or clay oven. The clay oven, a traditional Indian cooking method, gives the chicken a fresh, boldly baked taste. The lamb curry arrives with pieces of tender lamb chunks, potatoes, and the curry sauce. The chicken pasanda, my personal favorite, comes in a small dish with savory morsels of chicken, in a rich almond flavored creamy sauce. The naan bread, slightly glazed with olive oil to a crisp, is luscious when dipped into these sauces. The mountain of basmati rice goes well with these entrees also.

Chicken Tandoori – cooked in the tandoor, the Indian clay oven

Basmati rice – mountains of fluffy goodness

Naan bread – buttery glazed and fresh

Unlike in western diets, meat in Asia is sparse and is used to complement the largely grain based diets of east and south Asians where rice and bread makes up most of the meal. The curry sauces help flavor the meal and by the end of it all we leave with our tummies thoroughly satisfied and quelled.

Lamb Curry

Other dishes recommended at Anmol Indian Cuisine include the vegetarian aloo mutter tamatar, made of green peas, tomatoes and potato cooked in flavored curry sauce. Also try the chicken tikka masala, chunks of chicken roasted in a clay oven and then folded in a creamy, tangy, tomato sauce. Wash it down with a mango lassi, a sweet yogurt based smoothie-like Indian drink that balances the more spicier tastes of India.

TASTY CHOMPS RATING:
4 out of 5 Tasty Chomps!!!!

Anmol Indian Cuisine
12239 University Blvd.
Orlando, FL 32817-2134
Phone: 407-384-8850

Lunch 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; dinner 5 p.m.-10:30 p.m. Monday-Friday; Lunch noon- 3 p.m. Saturday; Dinner 5 p.m.-10:30 p.m. Saturday; closed Sunday

http://www.anmolindiancuisine.com/

Photos by Huy Phan