Dec. 17, 2008 - Issue #687: ‘Tis the Season?

Origin India

Origin India the real deal

I have an unabiding love for the food of India, and in this town, I have many suitors. Truth be told, over the past decade, there has been a profusion of Tastes, Grills, Palaces, and Gardens all denoted with the name India. But not until the past two months has there been a restaurant with the guts to tag itself with the word “Origin,” as if to saucily say—appropriately, I might add—that if you want the real thing, here is where you go.

 

Located in busy Old Strathcona, right below Filthy McNasty’s pub—was there ever a better-named place for a first date?—Origin India is a dressed-in-brown ceramic-tiled leather-lounge-style restaurant whose horizontally layered wine bottles-as-decorations tell you this is no typical Indian place. Indeed, manager Arvind Sawhney spends much of his time telling you why wine is a better accompaniment to his food than beer, and that you should really try the fresh-cooked items from the kitchen rather than the $19.95 10-course buffet. 

 

On both cases, he is absolutely right. When properly chosen, a spicy Gewurtztraminer or a nice, buttery Chardonnay match well the high seasoning often found in Indian food. So, too, does the Californian house red, Gnarly Head Old Vine Zin ($10 per glass), with its spice and robust berry. As for the buffet aspect, well, this is Whyte Avenue, after all, and when you’re in a student and foot-traffic ghetto, that’s liable to be the audience you draw. Nonetheless, there are several hotels in the area with a built-in audience for food that adventurous, freshly prepared, and still singing of spice.

 

So what did we do? We split the difference with one of us choosing the buffet—to get the sampling heft over with—and the other a selection of meat and vegetarian dishes that could demonstrate what this kitchen could do on order.

 

As it stands, the menu has a good selection of the traditional appetizers (samosas, pakora, tikkas, kababs and tandoori chicken) in the $6-$15 range, meat and vegetarian platters ($17 and $13 respectively), soft naan bread fresh from the tandoor oven ($3-$5), a selection of biryanis (vegetarian, chicken, beef, lamb and shrimp, $14-$19), and 15 meat curries (in butter, karahi, boona, and vindaloo varieties, $16-$19), and another 11 vegetarian entrées ($12-$15).

 

On a chilly night, there are few places you would rather be, and it’s not just because of the food. The room itself is warming, and absent the many Indian knick-knacks you find in most restaurants of its ilk. It’s also wheelchair-accessible. The buffet area is actually out of sight when you first arrive, the first signal you have that you might be interested in the made-to-order dishes. Not that the buffet suffers—food is not kept steam-tabled for hours, but is gradually replenished.

 

This evening—the buffet changes daily—there is a selection of pakoras of potato, spinach, onion and eggplant; beef kofta (clove-imbued meatballs in a spicy sauce); arbi (crescents of taro, like a potato in texture, but with much more flavour); Navrattan korma curry (a sweet and rich dish of mushrooms and mixed veg in cream); vegetables Jalfrazi (another sweetish dish of green and yellow beans); and the Edmonton favourite, butter chicken, whose flavour is less sweet here than that in other restaurants, and far more assertive. 

 

For the à la carte portion of the evening, I have my favourite go-to, bhaigan bartha ($13), a slow-simmered dish of smoked eggplant, green peas, onions, tomatoes and ginger, along with the dose of the classic seasoning, garam masala. This is the ideal dish for naan dipping, and Origin India’s version has texture to it, not mush, and is heart-healthily low on the ghee front (ie melted butter). 

 

Another favourite is Karahi paneer ($15), a dish of homemade softened cottage cheese with green peppers, black mustard seed and spiced tomato sauce—or “gravy” in the parlance of Indian chefs. There is a nice blend of onions here, with finely chopped and well-sweated jewels providing the flavour base for the dish, and larger sautéed pieces adding sweetness. Again, a clove undertone and the fresh julienned ginger drive the flavours directly to the palate … and up your nose if you’re not careful. 

 

Finally, chicken biryani ($16), a densely flavoured rice dish that is the essence of rice cookery. The flavours are dark in this dish, made of basmati from the Deccan Plateau near Hyderabad. Sawhney offers kachumbar, a bowl of fresh vegetables to lift the palate. This falls under the rubric of pickles, and it is utter simplicity and brilliance, really: finely diced onions, tomato, and cucumber. A squeeze of lemon over top, and you have crunch, spice and sweetness in one mouthful. 

My advice would be to try the buffet for a visit, just to see what you can see. The spicing there is below medium, so you won’t hurt yourself, if you’re a first-timer. Indeed, medium should be as hot as you want to go, so that you can taste the food and the spicing without the threat of tastebud overload. Indian food, after all, is not a test for those wanting to be tortured. It is complex and utterly beguiling, and that’s why on your next trip, you should move directly to the menu. V 


Mon - Fri (11:30 AM - 10:30 PM)
Sat, Sun (12 PM - 10:30 PM)
Origin India
10511 - 82 Ave; 780.436.0558

More info about Origin India →

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