Pet’s Plates
Sa Re Ga Ma
Fortina Hotel
Sliema
Food: 8/10
Location: 5/10
Service: 8/10
Value: 7/10
Overall: 8/10
It is hardly the Caribbean.
The Indian Restaurant, Sa Re Ga Ma, is located in the Fortina Hotel’s Tropical Garden. What we found ourselves in was a gloomy, tired looking pool area surrounded by a few sad plants. I was hardly impressed. The restaurant was just off the pool area. Its interior offered little comfort. The ambience echoed the dull, dreariness pervading the forlorn Tropical Garden.
We sat in a rather characterless, cold room that felt very impersonal. This was in sharp contrast to the restaurant staff who were extremely personable and quite lovely. Things improved slightly as we explored the promising menu. By the time we tucked into the starters we were completely won over. Not another thought was spared as regards the restaurant’s ambience and surroundings.
Indian street food plays a great part in the country’s cuisine and our starters consisted of a veritable feast of dishes that would be served at wayside dhabas or street stalls.
India has a lot to offer in this respect and there’s a wide and colourful range to be savoured; encompassing all manner of good things, especially of the deep-fried variety. This is comfort food that provides a sensory overload.
The Sa Re Ga Ma Special Sizzler consisted of various stalwarts of any curry house starter selection - grilled chicken, seekh kebab, keema samosa, delicious fried prawns and onion bhaji; all served on a hot plate, sizzling away.
The Sizzler platter was simply splendid and bursting with flavour. It was an appetite whetter for the meal to follow. The meat was tender and flavourful. The beautifully crunchy deep fried samosa possessed the right texture and flakiness, consisting of spicy lamb mince wrapped in filo pastry. The onion bhaji was a feisty, deep fried ball of pungent onion and light, crispy dough. At their best, onion bhajis can be truly adictive; one of the best fritters you’ll ever eat. The ones at Sa Re Ga Ma were great. An essential element in many curries, chickpeas play a major role in the Indian diet and many local deep-fried delights are in fact fried in chickpea batter.
Not content with the Sizzler platter alone, we also tried the Aloo Cholley Chaat. Made from chickpeas and potato, this is yet another colourful dish that is typical of India’s street food. Aloo Cholley Chaat is a very popular snack, especially in the North of India. The nutlike flavour and buttery texture of the beans combined with the spicy potato to create a tasty, tangy dish.
If you’re looking for good, authentic Indian food, you’ll find it here. Just go easy on the dessert
Britain governed India for nearly a century. The end of World War II signalled an influx of Indian immigrants to the UK. Such mass migration naturally resulted in ethnic and cultural diversity on a grand scale; a diversity which began to manifest itself through food.
The 1960s saw the birth of the British Curry House and this is where many Brits tasted curry for the first time. They were seduced. Curry became a national treasure with Chicken Tikka Masala now widely considered a national dish. This particular curry is a hybrid of ethnic immigration and British tastes (namely, a penchant for gravy) that has endured to such an extent that it has been exported back to India! If we are to believe one particular version of events, the story behind the Tikka Masala is one of culture clashing; a clashing of cultural palates.
A grouchy Glaswegian found his dish of bite-sized chicken pieces (Chicken Tikka) far too dry and sent it back to the kitchen. The disgruntled Indian chef poured some tomato soup, yoghurt and spices over the chicken and the curry house classic of Tikka Masala came into being! A star was born and soon this reinvented chicken curry was being devoured up and down the country. This dish is of cultural significance. It is a symbol of a multicultural Britain and an illustration of British immigration and integration.
You won’t find Tikka Masala on the menu at Sa Re Ga Ma, but you will find Butter Chicken (or rather, Chicken Tikka Makhni) - a dish decidedly of Indian provenance. While many Brits can’t seem to tear themselves away from Tikka Masala, Tikka Makhni is the hot favourite in India.
It is a glorious curry with an amazing flavour profile. Succulent, meltingly-tender tandoori chicken that has been basted with liberal quantities of clarified butter (ghee) is folded into a rich, luxuriously creamy, spiced tomato sauce that has a natural slight sweetness and boasts a beautiful melange of flavours.
A final garnish of fresh coriander adds fresh, clean flavour and completes the dish.
At Sa Re Ga Ma, this Indian classic was well executed. I found it quite irresistible and mouth-wateringly good. I could have devoured the entire dish all by myself, scooping up every calorific mouthful with my garlic naan bread.
The Kashmiri curry, Rogan Josh, was gorgeous consisting of lamb flavoured with fennel and ginger served in a velvet sauce made from tomatoes, garlic and fragrant spices. It was tantalizingly good. Saag Aloo is a North Indian vegetarian curry; as nutritious as it is delicious. Creamy spinach and potato are tossed in aromatic spices and the results are divine.
Sa Re Ga Ma’s Saag Aloo was moreish with a lovely, earthy flavour to it. It perfectly complemented the other curries we had ordered. Indian cuisine provides such an impressive array of flavoursome and hearty vegetarian dishes.
One day soon, on my next visit to an Indian restaurant, I will set myself the task of ordering a strictly vegetarian Indian feast. We had consumed an embarrassing amount of food. Everything was quite delicious apart from the desserts which we found to be rather disappointing. The Indian rice pudding was stodgy and bland and the traditional Indian ice cream, kulfi, was very mediocre.
The excellent food at Sa Re Ga Ma certainly allows the drab restaurant interior to melt away. If you’re looking for good, authentic Indian food, you’ll find it here. Just go easy on the dessert.
You can send e-mails about this column to petsplates@gmail.com.