Restaurant thoughts - Amma

I went to dinner last night with an old friend, and he convinced me to do something I'd never done before: try a tasting menu.  I met him at his late aunt's apartment (he's getting the apartment ready to sell) and we went to the Indian restaurant, Amma, which is across the street from the apartment.  I got the vegetarian tasting menu and he got the non-vegetarian menu.  We both declined the wine option.

Don't try a tasting menu if you're in a hurry.  We were there for quite a long time.  The restaurant itself is very nice--dark, with reds and yellows, and only maybe 15 tables, with a hushed atmosphere.  The music was exotic, but muted.  We were seated in the front, by the window and the door, so it got chilly as people came in and out, but it wasn't bad, mainly because the room was pretty warm, and the food was relatively spicy.  I couldn't get a good shot with the iPhone, though, because the lighting was so dim.


My first course was crispy spinach chaat, described on the menu as mung beans, potatoes and onions.  That doesn't really seem like what I ate.  I also noticed tomatoes and some kind of lentils (in addition to the mung beans), but it was tasty, regardless.  Plus, there was something acidic, other than the tomatoes, but I can't quite identify what it was.

The second plate was a samosa stuffed with green peas, and a mushroom stuffed with paneer chese.  They came with a little tamarind chutney and a cilantro-mint chutney.  I'm not a huge fan of cilantro, so I only took a little taste of that chutney (which was too cilantro-y for me), but the tamarind chutney was delicious.  So were both the samosa and the mushroom.  The samosa dough was light and not greasy at all, with a complex pea filling.  The stuffed mushroom had a really nice texture and was quite large.  I liked both of these dishes.



Next, came the tandoori bharwan (I think that's what it was called).  It was a red pepper, stuffed with vegetables and paneer chese, alongside some raw mushrooms in a tomato-garlic-ginger sauce.  The sauce on the mushrooms was incredible.  It had so many layers of flavor--sweetness, heat, spice.  I really liked it.  At first, I was uneasy about the mushrooms being raw, but they were sliced so thinly, it didn't matter.  The filling in the red peppers was very tasty, with sauteed cauliflower, broccoli and some beans, but I don't like to eat so much raw red pepper, so I left it behind.  All in all, another tasty dish.  And, you may notice, all the dishes were gorgeously plated.

Next came the dish I was most looking forward to--the kele ka kofta, a plantain dumpling in an onion-tomato sauce.  It was served with crispy lotus chips, and a baby eggplant, stuffed with mushrooms and garlic, in a bit of a yogurt sauce. Before we decided on the tasting menu, I was thinking I would just get the plantain dumplings and some biryani, since that sounded tasty.  But I was glad they were on the tasting menu.  And they did not disappoint.  The consistency of the filling was just right, and the flavor was delicate and delicious.  The sauce was also delicious.  Probably my favorite sauce of the evening (though that tomato-garlic-ginger sauce was way up there).  The crispy lotus chips were delicious and a nice textural contrast to all the soft dumplings and sauces.  I will say that the stuffed eggplant was my least favorite dish of the evening.  I didn't like the mealy consistency at all and the sauce was clumpy and unappetizing.  So I don't give thumbs up to that, unfortunately.  

I was starting to slow down by this point--it wasn't a lot of food on each plate, but just more plates than I'm used to.  I was determined to make it to dessert, though.  The next dish was interesting - the center of the plate was a crispy okra salad, which tasted completely different than it looked.  It was salty and earthy, but not nearly as spiny as it looked.  It was tasty, though a bit difficult for me to eat more than just a bit.  Also on the plate was a piece of paneer, with a tomato-cream sauce.  It was good, not great, and I only ate about half, because it was so dense.  The other piece was a vegetable crepe, on a curried pumpkin sauce.  Now, I love me some pumpkin, but this sauce was way too spicy for me, as was the crepe.  I think there were whole chiles in the filling, which just isn't my thing.  I only ate a few bites of it.  Of course, I still had two plates to come, so it probably was a good idea to stop cleaning my plate!  :)

Next was the 'main course.'    There were a few choices, and I selected the dum aloo, a potato stuffed with raisins, cashews and more potato, covered with a tomato-onion sauce, and served with basmati rice.  This was super yummy, potato-y and warm and saucy.  The rice was also tasty, with a little jackfruit inside, which added a nice bright sweetness.

Even though I was beyond stuffed by this time, I was still looking forward to dessert.  I love getting rice pudding at Indian restaurants.  It's always delicious, a little spicy and aromatic and not too sweet.  This was no exception.  I could taste a hint of cardamom, even maybe a little black pepper.  It was a lovely finish, with a cute design on the plate, and a nice mango and strawberry puree.  It was a great dessert.  All in all, I greatly enjoyed my evening at Ammo and I definitely think I would go back.  There were quite a few vegetarian options that weren't on the tasting menu, so there would be lots of new stuff to try.  Tasting menus will have to be occasional experiences, though.  All that food is a little overwhelming to me!  If I had had wine too?  Yikes!  :)