Nothing whets my appetite more than the sight of a man or a woman — usually in a Hollywood or a Netfilx film — dipping into a carton of noodles with a pair of chopsticks and having a mouthful of what looks like a flavourful meal. The table is not loaded with dishes and you don’t have to politely ask someone to pass the rice. Everything that you need is in that carton. This is life, I tell myself, when your dinner comes ready in a bowl. No mixing, no stretching — all that you have to do is dig in.
Well, we don’t have those cartons, but we sure have meals in a bowl. One of my favourite dishes at The Deck in the India Habitat Centre is its bowl of rice and chicken, with goat cheese and spinach leaves adding to its taste. Every now and then, my heart sings for such meals. It’s just what you need when you want to watch a gruesome thriller on television and have dinner at the same time.
And, thus, to get to the point, I looked up a place called World in a Bowl a few days ago and decided that our dinner was going to comprise different kinds of bowls. We asked for the Kyoto Teriyaki Chicken with Herbed Rice (₹219), Butter Chicken with Jeera Rice (₹269), Aglio Olio Chicken Pasta Bowl (₹275) and Sunny Protein Salad Bowl (₹279).
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This is a delivery place with outlets across Delhi (and elsewhere, too). I ordered through Swiggy, and the food arrived within the hour. Each of the dishes was packed in a plastic bowl, with little bowls of sauces on the side. Like the characters in the American series, I dug into my bowl (alas, not with chopsticks) and had a hearty meal.
My pasta — with its trademark garlic-olive-oil-and-red chilli dressing, and topped with some greens — was excellent (even though the pasta was a bit more al dente than the way I like it). The butter chicken lover at home gave her dish full marks, though I must admit that its appearance didn’t appeal to me at all. But I did share the Kyoto Teriyaki — and enjoyed it thoroughly. The rice had been flavoured with fresh cilantro and basil, and the sweet and spicy teriyaki chicken came with garlic sautéed broccoli and cabbage, and scrambled eggs. The chicken was actually juicy, and the flavours had all melded well.
But what I loved the most was the Sunny Protein Bowl. The description on the menu had won my heart: “Robust chickpeas, purple cabbage ribbons, blushing beetroot, broccoli, fennel shaving, fresh spinach topped with a crispy fried egg and tzatziki dressing on the side”. I am not sure if the beetroot was blushing (I did think of relating a racy, Pedro kind of a joke to it), but the veggies and chickpeas — with that double fried egg on top — did make for an awesome salad. We had some of it that evening, and some for breakfast (with boiled eggs) the next morning.
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The helpings are large. And I found that the menu has various other interesting dishes (though the menu may vary from outlet to outlet). It has, for instance, Chicken Vietnamese rolls with Glass Noodle Salad (₹249), Fish and Lemon Butter Sauce with Pilaf (₹289), Black Rice with Chicken (₹270), Vegetable Thai Green Curry with Steamed Rice (₹219), Chettinad Chicken with Coconut Rice (₹250) and Stir Fried Tofu with Noodles (₹259). The desserts include Red Velvet Cake in a jar (₹220), Blueberry cheese Cake in a jar (₹220), Belgian Brownie Beauty (₹175), Sunrise Lemon Cake (₹170) and Gluten free Chocolate Cheesecake (₹200).
Quite like the old explorers, I am now going to discover the world. Bowl by bowl.
The writer is a seasoned food critic