Much Needed Spice for a Monday

Some places you visit and then yearn to go back to. Some places your friends in distant cities visit often, swear by and you keep oscillating between what the fuss is all about and wanting to go and check it out for yourself. Lings in Bombay which Knife from Finely Chopped visits quite often has been one such place for me.

Since I live in Delhi this has not been an easy thing to accomplish then last year Knife came to Delhi NCR stayed for a few days and reviewed Canton Spice a restaurant at Cyber Hub which happens to be run by the Ling family. This had me excited, now was my chance to try out the Chinese food I have been swooning over long distance.

One thing or the other prevented my visiting Canton Spice till the past Monday when I finally got a chance to walk in with a few friends for a on-a-whim dinner plan.

The place had a pleasant ambience and it was very non chinese in its décor. What I mean is it didn’t  have red, dragons or frilly lamps. What it did have was a comfortable, well lit, focus on the food kind of aura.

Apart from the menu – huge blackboards also highlighted the day’s special and for a while we were lost about what to order. The fact that my table mates were not much into experimental eating was also a matter to be kept in mind.

We eventually settled for some Chilly Garlic Spare Ribs and Drums of Heaven for starters and beer to go with it. The food was served quickly and we were happy to note that the portions were good. The Spare ribs I can safely say were the best I have ever had in Delhi firm yet soft and very very flavorful.

If this in not tempting, what is?

For the main course we ordered chicken pan fried noodles a favorite with the partner, Mongolian chicken – diced chicken in a mildly spicy gravy and a schezwan chicken fried rice. While the pan fried noodles were well made and so was the mongolian chicken, I found the rice a little too dry and lacking flavor though the others on the table were quite fine with it.

 I also insisted on ordering a bitter gourd and egg scramble something Knife had written about long back. Surprisingly the dish wasn’t bitter and it helped clear the palette which was fighting the onslaught of meat.

The very interesting Bitter Gourd and egg scramble to which they had also added some mushrooms on special request

The yummy pan fried noodles. You will have to excuse me about not posting pictures of the other items on the table...I was so engrossed in eating that I plain forgot to click.

We overall enjoyed our meal. The fact that the portions were generous was borne out by the fact that we couldn’t finish what we had ordered and had to get the extra food packed. Canton Spice gave me reason to smile and I am looking forward to returning there soon to try out the sea food which comes highly recommended.

I finally now know what it is Knife writes about though my mission of eating at Lings in Bombay hopefully with the Knife still awaits.

A Quikr signage kept ready to be put up - made for an interesting image at Cyber Hub