Hello

Your subscription is almost coming to an end. Don’t miss out on the great content on Nation.Africa

Ready to continue your informative journey with us?

Hello

Your premium access has ended, but the best of Nation.Africa is still within reach. Renew now to unlock exclusive stories and in-depth features.

Reclaim your full access. Click below to renew.

The mogul biryani is the real deal over at Taj Asian Bistro

For Shs40,000 one can enjoy a multi-faceted buffet that includes a Ugandan national dish of matooke and ground nut sauce. PHOTO/KADUMUKASA KIRONDE

What you need to know:

  • The mogul biryani at Taj Asian Bistro is a fine example of how Indian cooks and chefs employ a wide variety of seasonings to enliven a dish and bring out its true flavour without diminishing its character.

During this long vac (two months at the very least), for the Ugandan family, activities for the whole family become an important consideration and necessity.

Unlike developed countries, where one can visit museums which are numerous and offer a variety of interests, visiting relatives is another option, although for various reasons, ranks low in popularity.

Game parks would also be an excellent choice, but they tend to be rather dear and restricted to the middle and upper class. Which leaves dining out as being the most practical and affordable activity with choice of venue/type of food being the deciding factor.

When I was deciding on where to go as a family for lunch on a Sunday, Taj Asian Bistro ticked all the right boxes. Pricewise, at Shs40,000 per person and Shs25,000 for children and a multi-faceted buffet that includes the quintessential Ugandan national dish of matooke and ground nut sauce.

In the main, the food on offer at the Taj Asian Bistro’s Sunday Brunch is Asian with a strong bias of South and Northern Indian runners such as tandoori chicken, paneer tikka, hara bara kebab, mutton biryani, vegetables in black bean sauce, dosa with aloo masala etc.

The dosa -a breakfast favourite over the years, was particularly exciting, well executed and guaranteed to leave vegetarian foodies more than satisfied. 

Idlis, dosas and hoppers have remained my favourites over the years. I dare say that they can all be described as rice cakes of one sort or another, made from rice flour with the additions of varying amounts of ground lentils, but that makes them so humdrum and gives only the facts and none of the truth. It is akin to saying that croissants, brioches and pumpernickel are all breads.

Each preparation has its own distinct personality, texture and appearance, and just like a good Ugandan chef, is judged by a light hand with pasty.

A good South Indian cook is rated by the perfection of consistency, flavour and appearance he can give each cake. The chef at Taj Asian Bistro is supreme.

The biryani, from Northern Indian for instance, has become such a popular item on many an Indian menu in Kampala to the point where it has developed many different forms, with varying masalas and changing ingredients.

Expert chefs and cooks will argue until the cows come home about the best recipes and insist with patriotic fervor on the virtues of particular local embellishments.

In essence, biryani is a lamb and rice dish and not as many think is a pilao in which the rice takes precedence over the meat or vegetables with which it has been cooked.

Incidentally, biryani can also be made with chicken or fish, but these are recent variations and the classic Mogul dish uses only lamb.

The Mogul biryani is the real deal over at Taj Asian Bistro and is a fine example of the way Indian cooks and chefs employ a wide variety of seasonings to enliven a dish and bring out its true flavor without diminishing or destroying its true and essential character.

To prepare the masala for it, they grind ginger, red chilies along with almonds together. The masala is cooked in ghee and combined with meat and then a second masala is prepared.

Curd is strained through fine muslin in order to bring it to the smoothest consistency. Next, the curd is mixed with cloves, cardamom, turmeric, finely chopped green chilies, coriander, mint and a very delicate variety of cumin seed known as shabi zira, royal cumin. The curd mixture is seasoned with lime juice and then added to the lamb.

The rice for the biryani is boiled separately and then cooked before the whole dish is arranged in layers in a heavy cooking pot---- a layer of rice, then a layer of lamb and then a layer of fried onions, and so on with milk and ghee.

The cooking utensil is then sealed round the edges with wheat flour paste and placed in the oven at a moderate temperature and baked for an hour until cooked.

An oven is essential to ensure that the rice does not burn. The end result, flagrant with saffron and unexpectedly subtle considering the elaborate masala; ambrosia fit for the god!

Place: Taj Asian Bistro

Address: Garden City

Smoke-Free Zone: Strictly enforced 

Recommended items: The Dosa aloo masala

Service: On the money 

Ambience: Semi alfresco and Convivial

Open: Sunday brunch 12 noon till 3 

Menu: Starters: Tandoori chicken, hara bara kebab, paneer tikka, chili fish dry, vegetable garlic ball, Main course: chicken in lemongrass sauce, vegetables in black bean sauce, chicken Awadhi korma, matooke and g nut sauce, paneer butter masala, mutton dum biryani, steamed rice, Dessert: pineapple rabri, ice cream, live pain puri, papdi chaat, live dosa counter with sambar and chutney, virgin mojito

The Crowd: A might be expected a multitude of Asians coupled with many Ugandan families as well as the Chinese. 

The Bar: Soda, sparkling and still water, juice, beer and a small selection of wines

The damage: Shs 40’000 for adults and shs 25’000 for children under 12

Sound level: Excellent

Rating: Not to be missed 

Parking: Available, abundant and secure

If you go: Every Sunday

RATINGS: Not to be missed, worth a visit, OK/so so, don’t waste your time.