Mughlai Mayhem

Oily, sinful, and delicious.
Hip-killer. Butt- embiggener.

These are just some of the terms used to describe the world famous phenomenon of Indian and Mughlai cuisine. Synonymous with the word curry, to most of the intrepid travellers’ in our humble establishment, this cuisine will not be unfamiliar; for others, it may be an almost novel experience.

It is our duty, as the best restaurant in Dehradun, to surprise both these categories of customers: the neophyte, the newcomer, whom we want to introduce to the sheer delight of mughlai food; and the cynical man, for whom we want nothing short of revelation. A reimaging of how delightful an oft tasted dish can be.

With our signature black pepper we accomplish both of these tasks. Our chef uniquely garnishes the dishes, even and especially the mughlai dishes, with black pepper to create a taste that your palette just won’t be able to experience anywhere else! This tends to make the familiar, new!

We serve an assortment of mughlai, which combines with our various Chinese and continental offerings to create a mix of dishes that not only brings to your table the amalgamated cuisines of billions of people, but also introduces you to very different styles of cooking, subtly innovated upon by our chef.

With our Panner Butter Masala, Kadhai Chicken, Mutton Biryani, Chicken Lababdar, and others, we carry an assortment of sinfully oily and scrumptious offerings. Our Dal Makhni chef special vitalizes our vegetarian offerings, further bolstered by our Vegetable Jalfrezi, and other dishes. 

The mughlai, a centuries old cuisine, is in many ways the most widespread of these dishes. With thick curry sprinkled with thousands of unique tastes, the curry is one of a kind dish, a kind’s whose replica you’d be hard-pressed to find elsewhere.
Which is why you should be here!  

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Black Pepper and Healthy Condiments

Intro to condiments 

Like most Indian restaurants, our use of condiments, especially spices, is quite comprehensive. Unlike many Indian restaurants, however, due to the multifaceted nature of Black Pepper (we are the best multicuisine restaurant in Dehradun, after all, we use a larger array of condiments, including but not limited to various sauces, spices, and others. For example, our Continental dishes are often marinated in exotic sauces and we radish a number of our meals with unusual choices. This all serves to provide Black Pepper with its distinctive taste. Additionally, due to the many health benefits of the condiments we use, this also ensures that our food, in general, is healthier than that of most of our competitors.

Making that just another reason to come by our establishment.

List of Condiments 

Some of the many benefits are condiment specific. To enumerate a few: 

• Olive oil: Due to the presence of omega-9 fatty acids, olive oil is useful in keeping the brain healthy and the neurons firing faster. It has been clinically tested that animals fed an omega-9 rich diet are able to remember more and recall better.

• Sauerkraut: an excellent condiment for the digestive system, Sauerkraut is choke full of probiotic bacteria that helps relieve various problems in the intestine, and getsrid of major conditions as such Irritable bowel syndrome.

• Horseradish: A great condiment for bettering your liver’s ability to resist various carcinogens (cancer causing agents). It also helps detox from various additions.

• Honey: loaded with antioxidants, dark honeys can perform a large number of extremely beneficial acts: they can help slow aging (slightly), helping one retain the vitality of youth longer; as they protect you cells from free radicals (very science-y, but essentially types of radiation) they can help decrease your risk of macular degeneration and cancer.

• Cinnamon: for the diabetics, cinnamon helps stabilize blood sugar greatly.

• Black Pepper: an excellent condiment, black pepper contains a compound called piperine that can greatly assist in preventing tumors. The condiment also performs a number of other functions: by simulating your taste buds in a certain way, Black Pepper induces the production of stomach acid, helping digestion and preventing indigestion. Moreover, this stimulation aids in the increase of appetite slightly, which can help in overcoming various psychological barriers towards eating that people suffering from conditions like anorexia have. Other useful effects include the ability to help decrease congestion. And finally, if you suffer from paper cuts, or cuts in general, sprinkling a bit of black pepper will promote healing and kill germs, to an extent. With so many diverse benefits, it’s really not wonder that the best restaurant in Dehradun is named after black pepper!

So, really, these benefits provide a perfect reason for you to visit us, and stay, if not the food, or the wonderful ambiance, just for how much healthier you’d be, at the end of our meals!

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The Chinese Conundrum – part II

The not choices 

Beyond all the offending items spelled out in the previous post, one of the worst offenders on the faux-Chinese menu is fried rice – beyond the health concerns of white rice, which can be mitigated to an extent with good preparation techniques that our restaurants use, fried rice is largely devoid of all nutrients and fried besides. This kind of rice not only has a high glycemic index, it’s also so refined that it’s basically starch and adds little but bad calories to your diet. The dish, at less discerning places and certainly not at the best restaurant in Dehradun, is basically this rice with bits of meat and sodium – which means that besides places at like Black Pepper, which is regarded as the best restaurant in Dehradun, you should really avoid it elsewhere. 

The best practices 

•  Soups are really some of the best meals that the Chinese cuisine provides. A bowl of soup before the meal ensures that at least some of your appetite has been assuaged by a low calorie food that really seems quite filling. Mixed with eggs or chickens or even vegetables, soups are a really healthy way of starting off your meal.

• Though the faux-Chinese experience rarely allows it, a lot of good Chinese food is made with vegetables are the core of the recipe. Good multicuisine restaurants, like ours, will allow you the opportunity to explore Chinese foods with vegetables such as bean sprouts, bok choy, Chinese broccoli, cabbage, long beans, eggplant and a lot more. These are all brimming with fiber, vitamins and minerals.

• One of the testiest and healthiest of Chinese foods, and one which is often sold even on street corners, is steamed, not fried, dim sums or dumplings. Not only do steamed dim sums provide an authentic Chinese experience, they contain fewer calories than many other foods, and come with fillings as varied as vegetables, tofu and chicken. They are a good source of various fibers and vitamins as well.

•  Wherever possible, get it steamed or stir-fried.

Places like Black Pepper, known to be the top multicuisine restaurant in Dehradun, accord you a Chinese food experience quite unlike most. Healthy and well-prepared, our foods ensure that your enjoyment won’t come at the expense of your health!

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The Chinese Conundrum – part I

Intro to Chinese food 

There is a vast difference between actual Chinese Food, and the imitation Chinese served all across the world. Largely, the difference lies in the ingredients and the manner of preparation. The imitation Chinese uses ingredients common to the cuisine it’s situated in; actual Chinese food goes for healthier choices such as vegetables, rice, and soy, along with small portions of meats such as chicken, beef or fish. 

The manner of preparation also greatly matters: considering that this imitation Chinese food is sold everywhere, from the cheapest of roadside ‘dhabhas’, to restaurants like ours, regarded widely as the best restaurant in Dehradun – since it is sold everywhere, quality greatly differs. And while we might remain quite conscious of health concerns such as calories and cholesterol, a lot of vendors are not, and that really gives Chinese food bad press

Still, as long as you remain conscious of what you are eating, and where you are eating it, you can not only greatly enjoy what Chinese, or even faux-Chinese, cuisine has to offer, but also keep your waistline in check. However, to be vigilant, you need to first understand what to be vigilant against: hence, spelled out for smarter eating, here are some do’s and don’ts of Chinese cuisine: 

Firstly, the don’ts: 

·   A lot of Chinese food is made cheaply and quickly, using deep frying, rather than the healthier method of steaming. So, learn to avoid the items that have crispy in them, because those are likely to be deep fried. Good alternatives to deep frying include stir-fried or steamed – not only do these ensure few calories and much lower cholesterol, they also taste pretty good. 

·    Certain items on the menu are just, simply, bad for you. For example, egg rolls are deep-fried and completely filled with saturated fats. A simple experiment: wrap an egg roll in paper napkin and see the fat drench it. If you value your heart, this is not something you’d want to eat. 

·    A lot of faux-Chinese joints have a huge problem of variety: sweet and sour often simply means covering the meal in question with a sickeningly sweet sauce, before deep frying it. Avoid! 

In the next post, we’ll finish the list of don’t and begin with the best practices that the finest multicuisine restaurant takes very seriously!

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