Taste of Punjab – Lamb Vindaloo and Butter Chicken

The Punjab region of South Asia is quite large and comprises both the Punjab province of Pakistan as well as the Punjab state of India.  The name takes itself from the Persian words “panj” meaning “five” and “aab” meaning water and refers to the five tributaries of the Indus River.  Okay, enough with the geography lesson, let’s get back to the reason why you’re here… namely food.

This restaurant is located in Whalley and within walking distance to the King George Skytrain station.  We started out our lunch with a Mango Lassi ($3.49) with yogurt and ground pistachio nuts sprinkled on top.  The yogurt definitely had a tang to it and I might have preferred something else but I knew I would need something to kill the heat of what I was about to order…

Specifically, the Lamb Vindaloo ($12.99).  I’ve always held a special place in my heart (or should I say stomach) for vindaloo.  The dish had good flavours and tender lamb.  This is the kind of curry dish where the heat builds up as you eat more and more.

The Butter Chicken Thaali ($10.49) comes with rice and naan.  Both the butter chicken and the lamb vindaloo begs for something to soak up the sauce.  Fortunately, the rice and naan made the perfect vessel for this.  I thought the rice was fluffy (I’m not sure what type of rice they use – it seemed like it was a shorter grain than we usually see with basmati).

In addition to the garlic naan, we picked up orders of Onion Kulcha ($3.49) which is a stuffed naan.  I prefer the stuffed naan as it was both soft and flaky making it great for dipping in the sauces.

I was pleasantly surprised by the food here.

10009 Whalley Blvd
Surrey, BC

tasteofpunjab.ca

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