India

Dark-wood ambiance and eager-to-please service

by Bill Rodriguez

123 Dorrance St., Providence
278-2000
Open Mon.-Thurs., 11:30 a.m.-9 p.m.
Fri. and Sat., 11:30 a.m.-10 p.m.
Major credit cards
No handicapped access

For years Thayer Street's Curry In a Hurry held a special place in my gustatory heart as the eatery that made me stop saying I didn't like Indian food. But I've come to realize that the loss of Curry In a Hurry was a good thing, as its former owners now have time for their latest, more ambitious, full-scale restaurant -- India.

India has been open for a few months now, but until recently, I hesitated to drop by. In a way, it was fun to tantalize myself, to look forward to it for a special occasion, which turned out to be our running late for the theater.

Before this, the place certainly had looked intriguing from the outside when I'd driven by. Numerous paintings on the walls. A warm, dark-wood ambiance. Then once I stepped inside, it become nicely personal.

The oils, while no works of art, are a colorful travelogue of people and places around the subcontinent. Boats on the Benares, wind on a mountain range, faces of a Bengal tiger, a woman with a nose ring and sari, a beaming turbaned Brahmin. The whole tour.

While I was waiting at the bar for my companion, I also noticed that the restaurant's owners serve specialties from India, such as Kingfisher beer and a cream sherry. Of course, I made the mistake of ordering a Manhattan and was asked if I wanted it with Dewar's.

At the table, the service continued to be as endearingly inept as it was eager to please: requested water forgotten, a bowl of soup arriving instead of a cup and not with the appetizers, as asked for. Still, the raita soup ($1.95/$2.95) was a good start. Yogurt-based and sometimes served as a condiment, India's version contains shredded cucumber and aromatic amounts of cilantro. It's a good thing to keep around throughout your meal if you're ordering spicy dishes, since yogurt quickly dampens the heat.

The first appetizer we had was aloo paratha ($3.25), whole-wheat bread cooked on the grill like a pancake and, in this version, stuffed with mashed potatoes and cilantro. In one bite, the dish confirmed my belief that no cuisine does better by potatoes than Indian, what with various spices writing poems on the starchy tabla rasa.

We also sampled the paapri chaat ($2.95) for an extra appetizer. Proprietor Amar Singh, a native of New Delhi, says that it's a snack you can buy in Bombay streets, and he describes it on the menu as "Indian-style nachos."

The Frito-sized chips are made from chickpea flour and topped with more chickpeas, plus red onions and almond bits, all drizzled over with yogurt and tamarind sauce for a nice sweet/ sour combination.

After this treat, the main dishes were almost an afterthought. I made a good choice with the mixed kabobs platter ($14.95). Amidst the charred vegetables and mushrooms were shrimp, swordfish, chicken, and lamb. The tangy marinade, heavy on the cumin and ciriander, succeeded wonderfully in every case -- even more with the chicken than with the fish.

The entrée across the table from mine was meatless, but delicious enough for me to want more than just a taste. India's "veggie mango" ($6.95) is a ring of fragrant basmati, saffroned yellow, surrounding a heap of vegetables cooked with tomatoes and the pungent sweetness of cumin.

The desserts at India are actually better than they were at Curry In a Hurry. The shahi kheer ($1.95) is a sweet cardamomed rice pudding heavy on the almond slices. Or try the gulab jamun ($2.50, golf-ball-sized fried dough soaked in honey and oris water, with a scoop of mango Ben & Jerry's and begin to wonder if what they were really doing in the Kama Sutra was sublimating over food.