The smell of Punjab

that would be the translation of the name of the new place which sits where amrit ganga, and before that the indian-chinese spot used to be - directly across the street from the fresh farms/north water market. Though to be fair a more flattering translation would be aroma or flavor or khushboo (for you hindi speakers out there)

They've been open about a month, and I happened to try it this past weekend with my dad. I'm a sucker for any place that declares allegiance to a specific regional indian focus and so was drawn in by the punjabi name. Also by the sign outside mentioning a saturday special of sarson ka saag and makki roti (I've been looking for a good place to get both of these dishes - chopal makes a great saag but no roti, and bhabi's does poorly on both fronts) We grabbed a few takeout items.

Even though I mentioned that there's a regional focus to the place, nothing on the menu will strike folks as things they haven't seen - mainly because punjabi food, especially the vegetarian items are in some ways the standard items sold at your typical mughal spots, in addition many of the pakistani places are also punjabi, but the part of punjab that became pakistan.

I had already stocked up on meat items so didn't order a lot of these dishes, mainly looking for some of the things that really distinguish punjabi food in my mind - bhartha (think of this as the indian counterpart to baba ganouj), saag (greens), channa (chick peas), and a couple of the breads - paneer kulcha and mouli (radish/daikon) parantha. The one meat dish i did order were lamb chops. Unfortunately it was sunday, so they were out of makki (corn) roti.

I was very happy with the channa dish (to give some slight sense of the importance of this dish to me/punjabis - the only phrase I know in punjabi is "would you like some more channa"). The saag was good, much better than bhabi's bitter concoction, though not quite in league with chopal's. The bhartha will be a matter of personal taste - I thought it pretty good, my wife loved it, my mom who tried some later thought it too heavy on tomatos, this is kind of a stylistic choice as I've seen a number of tomatoey bhartha's. The lamb chops, which turned out to be a tandoorified version, suffered a bit from eating later (we actually had dinner that night at dorado - which was great), and was somewhat tasty, though I thought the chops were unusually sinewy. I prefer the goat champs for a similar dish at chopal.

However given the success of the veggie dishes, I'm very tempted to go back and try out the meat, especially the window advertised specials of chicken achar and achar gosht (chicken or lamb with mango pickle) as this may be one of the spots where both veggies and meat focusers can get what they want.

Oh yeah, this may be one of the few places I would actually order butter chicken, which is also a signature punjabi dish (even featured in the title of the book "eating butter chicken in ludhiana, by Pankaj Mishra) often made terribly in other restaurants.

Mehak of Punjab
2629 W. Devon
773-262-5281
Saturday Special - Makki Roti/Sarson ka Saag

I should mention for c8w's benefit that mehak does offer biryani, though it's lamb biryani. Didn't try it though -as well as a couple of biryani's that I am sure he will not try - vegetable, chicken, shrimp, and paneer.

Thanks. I saw this place in the works. Now, I especially wanna go.

zim wrote:The lamb chops, which turned out to be a tandoorified version, suffered a bit from eating later (we actually had dinner that night at dorado - which was great), and was somewhat tasty, though I thought the chops were unusually sinewy.

I'm quite certain I've never had a tandoorified lamb chop, but for some reason I'm not surprised it was only "somewhat tasty" -- and, perhaps, dry? Chops can tricky, and the few times I've bbq'd them (not a tandoori oven, but the same dry heat), I've been disapppointed.

Thanks for the find, zim.

Hammond

David Hammond wrote:
I'm quite certain I've never had a tandoorified lamb chop, but for some reason I'm not surprised it was only "somewhat tasty" -- and, perhaps, dry? Chops can tricky, and the few times I've bbq'd them (not a tandoori oven, but the same dry heat), I've been disapppointed.

Chops done well (as opposed to well done) in a tandoor can be excellent. The extreme high heat should immediately sear the meat and seal the juices in. It takes some chops though.

zim wrote:I should mention for c8w's benefit that mehak does offer biryani, though it's lamb biryani. Didn't try it though -as well as a couple of biryani's that I am sure he will not try - vegetable, chicken, shrimp, and paneer.

I saw this place a while ago, before it had opened (the sign was up already
a week or two before the restaurant made its debut), and was very
excited by it.

However, I spoke with a friend's dad, who tried it twice in the first
week for takeout. He claimed it was not very Punjabi at all (this is a
guy who has travelled through Punjab a bit), that the menu was
basically no different from most other Indian restaurants on Devon.
And he also claimed that it was expensive (talked about a few
items like "tandoori jhinga" being up at 15 bucks or so, which is
high for any Indian entree), and, in his opinion, not particularly
good - and he didnt think he'd be trying it again

Is the sarson ka saag and makki ki roti just a weekend thing, do
you know? I think he ordered during the week, and Iam not sure
he tried them (I asked about the saag in particular, the indication
I received was either that he didnt try it, or that it wasnt on the
menu! Thats what turned me off the place even without going
there - a restaurant named "Mehak of Punjab" that didnt carry
sarson ka saag was not going to be a restaurant I patronized

It seems like a restaurant that offers just Indian cuisine, from
pretty much all over - with some specific Punjabi touches
thrown in.In that, at least the achar-ka-gosht etc is basically a
Hyderabadi dish, no? As long as they *do* have Punjabi items,
however, and do those items well, thats just fine. From your
descriptions of the sarson ka saag etc it appears like its a
decent enough spot for Punjabi food too (though, if they make
saag less well than a Hyderabadi place like Chopal, they arent
hitting their specialities brilliantly well, maybe. Of course, eating it
in combination with a makki ki roti would add greatly to the
experience).

c8w

c8w wrote:
However, I spoke with a friend's dad, who tried it twice in the first
week for takeout. He claimed it was not very Punjabi at all (this is a
guy who has travelled through Punjab a bit), that the menu was
basically no different from most other Indian restaurants on Devon.
And he also claimed that it was expensive (talked about a few
items like "tandoori jhinga" being up at 15 bucks or so, which is
high for any Indian entree), and, in his opinion, not particularly
good - and he didnt think he'd be trying it again

I can sort of see those thoughts, as I mentioned in the above punjabi stuff is kinda the standard mughlai menu. My dad's family is actually punjabi so I know a little about this (though not as much as I do about kashmiri) however the sign for sarson ka saag/ makki roti stood out - well and the fact that 2/3 of the folks in there were sardars. It was a little expensive, though I think using tandoori jhinga is a false standard as I'm usre its the most expensive thing on the menu, and generally also something I would never order from a punjabi place.

c8w wrote:Is the sarson ka saag and makki ki roti just a weekend thing, do
you know? I think he ordered during the week, and Iam not sure
he tried them (I asked about the saag in particular, the indication
I received was either that he didnt try it, or that it wasnt on the
menu! Thats what turned me off the place even without going
there - a restaurant named "Mehak of Punjab" that didnt carry
sarson ka saag was not going to be a restaurant I patronized

In terms of the saag, well as I mentioned theirs was pretty good, its just that chopal's (hyderabadi or not) is great. IT is only a saturday thing, not even all weekend.

c8w wrote:It seems like a restaurant that offers just Indian cuisine, from
pretty much all over - with some specific Punjabi touches
thrown in.In that, at least the achar-ka-gosht etc is basically a
Hyderabadi dish, no? As long as they *do* have Punjabi items,
however, and do those items well, thats just fine.

I don't know, there's the issue of punjabi stuff being all over, but also I think that there's a little bit of a confidence thing - I don't know if they just made things specific to punjab that wouldn't be at other places that they know they would do all that well - I'm not sure I disagree with them, thinking of other regional places (sizzle, sonargaon, before that the bundoo khan on the north side of devon which used to focus on NW frontier food) they really haven't done all that well. I never thought of achar gosht as a particularly hyderabadi thig but I could be wrong, after all hyderabad is kinda where you think of achar

zim wrote:that would be the translation of the name of the new place which sits where amrit ganga, and before that the indian-chinese spot used to be - directly across the street from the fresh farms/north water market. Though to be fair a more flattering translation would be aroma or flavor or khushboo (for you hindi speakers out there)

The Smell of Punjab... has faded away.

Was driving down past this place today, and noticed that Mehak of Punjab
has closed up shop. There were signs outside heralding the arrival of a new
place (which Iam not sure I recall well - for some reason I remember the
name Swati, and that it might be Gujarati food? But I wouldnt swear to
it).

Lots of turnover in this spot - rents are ridiculously high in that part of
Devon, so in some ways its not surprising. The past couple of
years have seen Manchow (the Devon branch of Hot Wok - the
Hoffman Estates version of which continues to flourish, heavily
patronised by the NW burbs Indian expat population) and Amrit
Ganga, and now Mehak. Wonder how long the new spot will
last.

c8w