The first dish that arrived was the dish of the day, actually, no, it is still the dish of the month for me. That set the standards so high, that the rest of the meal paled in comparison. And this dish was part of the mango festival. The mango salad. Yep, just a simple name. What did it have? It looks like slices of mango, topped with some veggies and topped off with cream. However, it hides a lot more than it reveals! Mango carpaccio is the visible part. Delicately thin slices of mango, and I can't even cut a mango properly, so I'm still wondering how they got it razor thin. With just a hint of chilly powder, but as you dig into the veggies, mango cubes magically appear on the spoon, but this time with the full blown hit of chilly, that leaves the tongue, although I don't know how, pleasantly burning. The veggies are there to reduce the impact of the burn, but the master stroke, a dollop of cream scented with cinnamon brings the heat down to zero!
This dish alone is a super star. The roller coaster ride of both the mango, with its slices and the chilly with its intensity finishing off with almost no need of water to cool it down? Wah!
Unfortunately, the dish set the bar very high. And since I've always associated The Flying Elephant with creative dishes like the one above and have not really explored the Indian menu there, the rest of the meal, though I had no complaints, didn't wow me.
It was another salad that lived it up! Rocket leaves, and a small cutlet on top was soothing. The paneer kebabs with a variety of fillings was interesting, the paneer itself was excellent but the fish that came along was too similar in flavour with the paneer. The gravies and rotis were nice and so was the fish baked in parchment paper, but they were just that. Nice. Nothing more.
The biriyani was blah, but I believe they now have a Biriyani with Australian lamb. Now, that I have to try!
I'll probably have to go back and explore this menu again and try out more interesting stuff, but if I had to go back, just for the mango salad, I would do so in a heartbeat.
I'll report back soon if I find more interesting stuff on the menu. Else, the old menu is still great for me!
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