Restaurant Review: Royal Guard Fish N' Chips, Danbury, CT

As part of our mission of eating at a different restaurant each week that I'm preaching in Bethel, my son and I decided to try Royal Guard Fish N' Chips/Royal Curry Corner this past Sunday.  Ian had noticed a listing for the restaurant on Yelp! and we decided to give it a try, knowing as we drove there that we'd both be eating from the Pakistani lunch buffet, yet also wanting to try their fish and chips, which gets good reviews across the interwebs.

The restaurant, at 389 Main Street in Danbury, is directly across the street from the Danbury Masjid and has a neon sign in the front window announcing "Halal Food."  When Ian and I walked in, we noticed that the restaurant was rather spartan, with a counter for placing orders in one corner and a buffet along the back wall.  The tables were bare, with yellowed newspaper designs on them, befitting a chips shop.  The other customers were largely Pakistani and wearing traditional clothing, which I took as a positive sign for the quality of the buffet.

Ian and I made our way to the buffet, lifting the lids off of the steam trays and helping ourselves to the wide variety of food.  The chicken biryani was very flavorful,.  I was reminded that this was Pakistani (Muslim) and not Indian (Hindu) as I helped myself to some well-seasoned beef curry.  Ian really enjoyed the pakoras, though I didn't sample any.  Tandoori chicken always makes me happy and Royal's tandoori chicken was better than most, moist and flavorful and fall-off-the-bone tender.  The palak paneer (spinach with fresh cheese) was quite good, as was the chana masala (curried chickpeas).

Poori, as God intended them to be but not, unfortunately,
as they appear on the buffet at Royal Fish N' Chips.

The only real disappointment of the meal was the poori (deep fried whole-wheat flatbread), which is usually a real treat.  Poori, however, doesn't belong on a buffet.  It needs to be served hot and fresh.  Unfortunately, on the steam table, the poori, which was puffed up when it comes out of the oil, collapsed into depressing soggy flatness and lost all of its light and airy goodness.   The naan (tandoori bread) was delicious, though, with a nice, nutty flavor from the sesame seeds that covered the top of the bread.

Despite the tragic poori, the meal was quite good and was also quite affordable.  Next time I go back, I'll have to make the difficult decision about whether to get more of the Pakistani fare or to get the fish and chips for which the restaurant is named.  It'll be a tough call.

Cheese, Bread and Magic

"So, Dad," my son asked at dinner last night, "What's with all of the salads and flatbreads?"

I guess he's noticing a pattern. Honestly, though, there haven't been that many salads, except for the garden salads that have always been a part of our regular diet. My guess is that, after two weeks away with his grandparents, Ian has forgotten how we usually eat at home.

He's right about the flatbreads, though. I've sort of fallen in love with them. The first breads I ever made were the chapatis that I mentioned in my blog on August 17. Since then, chapatis have appeared again alongside a chickpea, paneer and cauliflower curry that I found in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, (p. 623) both on the curry's first night and again as leftovers. The curry was a success, though I'm not sure I see any advantage to baking it, as Bittman's recipe directed, instead of simply stewing everything together.

I enjoyed making the paneer, an Indian cheese made by bringing milk to nearly boiling and stirring in lemon juice, then draining off the liquid when the milk cracks and pressing the curds so that they form a solid cheese, similar to a farmer cheese or queso fresco. It feels rewarding to be able to create such a satisfying food practically ex nihilo. "And Paul said, 'Let there be cheese' and there was cheese..."

I've made cheese a second time this week, too. Lebneh (which has lots of variant spellings) is a middle-eastern yogurt-based cheese that is a snap to make and is also really good. Basically, all there is to it is stirring a bit of salt into yogurt and then hanging the salted yogurt in cheesecloth to drain for a day or so. Then, the lebneh can either be served as a soft spread or rolled into balls to dry out a bit, like fresh mozzarella. We found that it was really good with fresh sliced tomatoes. I served the lebneh and tomatoes as an accompaniment to a lentil, rice and sultana salad from Flatbreads & Flavors (p. 57) and a Pebbled Persian Bread that the authors featured on the preceding page. The salad wasn't bad - it was today's lunch and we'll probably finish it up at dinner tonight - but it was sort of underspiced. I've been adding cumin to it at the table, which seems to be working well.

The bread, on the other hand, was wonderful. Unlike Chapatis, the Pebbled Persian Bread is a raised yeast bread that is made with LOTS of water. It starts cooking in a skillet on top of the stove and then moves to the oven for a few minutes, giving it a typical flatbread shape, but with a rough textured top and a delightful chewiness inside.

So what is up with all of the flatbreads? I think it is really all about magic. Like making cheese, or brewing beer, baking bread is elemental in a way that few things in our world are anymore. The flour, water, salt and yeast interact in ways that are almost supernatural. Living yeast transforms a heavy blob of dough, literally inspiring it to become something greater than it once was. That lifeforce then energizes us as we share it together as companions in life's journey.

THE MENU FOR AUGUST 29-SEPTEMBER 3

• Friday - Broiled Salmon and potatoes, steamed broccoli and a garden salad.
• Saturday - Lentil, rice and sultana salad, fresh sliced tomatoes with homemade lebneh and pebbled Persian bread
• Sunday - Leftovers
• Monday - Grilled Teriyaki steaks, baked potatoes, grilled zucchini-kebabs and garden salad. (It is Labor Day, after all.)
• Tuesday - Yucatecan shredded beef tacos, homemade tortillas, sliced avocado, pinto beans, fruit and coffee flan (Kimberly is fixing all of this for me as a late birthday dinner!!)
• Wednesday - Leftovers