Rockaway Beach Fencepost August 29

Scott Fisher

We were delighted when the New Taste of India opened their food cart a bit north of town several years ago. I’d learned to love the cuisines of India in the 1980s and was thrilled to have an option close to home. We were happy to support them through 2020, when a food cart made social distancing easy. And we’re still happy to support them now.

In the traditional regional cuisines of India, and there are many, each dish has its own combination of spices, seasonings, and flavor elements. This is a constant source of delight to me and many who cherish traditional, regional culinary specialties—whether that means Dungeness crab and rockfish from the waters around Rockaway Beach, or heady combinations of coriander, cumin, and chili peppers from halfway across the world.

If you’re already a lover of Indian cuisine, you’ll recognize a few familiar dishes. We can’t seem to leave without an order of saag paneer ($14.95), a combination of chopped spinach leaves simmered with the traditional Indian cheese, called paneer. Like halloumi from the Mediterranean, paneer holds its shape when cooked, rather than melting like mozzarella or cheddar. It has a very mild, creamy flavor, and is a beautiful foil for the highly seasoned creamy spinach.

Mutter paneer ($14.95) is a variation on this, with green peas replacing the spinach, and saag channa ($14.95) combines spinach with chickpeas. All these dishes are cooked with onion, ginger, and garlic, and are served over a generous portion of steamed rice.

Another of our favorite preparations here is Goa curry, available with either chickpeas ($14.95), chicken ($15.75), or lamb ($16.50). You might be familiar with the highly spiced dish containing potatoes, vindaloo, which is also from Goa; the New Taste of India serves this with chicken ($15.75) or lamb ($16.50) and a splash of vinegar.

The surprise of the Goa curry at New Taste of India: the spices are blended in a savory sauce made from coconut. The curries of Thailand, another favorite cuisine, are also typically based on coconut, but the Goa curry here is enrobed in a thick, creamy, and densely flavored sauce, whether served with chunks of lamb, chicken, or chickpeas.

Note that whatever dish you order, you’ll be asked how spicy you want it. We usually settle on medium; I used to be a serious lover of spicy food, the hotter the better, but these days medium is the right compromise for us: spicy enough that you feel the heat while stopping well short of that burning sensation.

Another regular choice for us is their biryani ($15.50 for vegetarian, $15.75 for chicken, $16.50 for lamb). This dish bears at least a structural resemblance to the Spanish paella: a savory combination of seasoned rice with onions, garlic, and ginger. Biryani uses basmati rice, the fragrant variety traditional to Indian cuisine, with a very long and delicate grain. (Spanish paella uses a shorter, plumper variety, the most popular of which is called bomba; it’s very similar to the Italian arborio used in risotto.) If you’re making Indian food at home and can’t find basmati rice, jasmine rice from Thailand has a similar texture.

The appetizers here (all $7) are delicious and go beyond the familiar samosas (a triangular pastry filled with potatoes, peas, and spices) and pakora (fresh vegetables in a chickpea batter), both served with two kinds of chutney, a spicy mint and a sweet-tart tamarind. You can also choose samosa chaat, made by layering slices of samosa with chickpeas, onions, yogurt, and the two chutneys, and papri chaat, which combines chickpeas, poppadums (crispy chips of chickpea flour), plus the chutneys, yogurt, and sliced onions.

This barely scratches the surface of the offerings from New Taste of India, with a full thirteen vegetarian selections (all $14.95). We’ve tried their channa masala, chickpeas served in a medium curry sauce, and malai kofta, vegetable balls in a creamy sauce, and it seems every time we order here, we see something else we want to try next time.

New Taste of India, 530 N. Highway 101, (503) 470-0932. Open seven days 11 a.m, - 8 p.m. Phone orders recommended, especially at dinnertime (wait times can be 30 minutes).

Scott Fisher

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