The Serve: Shahi Tadka worth a hike

THEME: DANDENONG

★★★☆

SHAHI TADKA
13-15 PULTNEY STREET, DANDENONG, 9792 2777
BYO AE JCB MC V EFTPOS
TUESDAY-SUNDAY 11.30AM-2.30PM, TUESDAY-SUNDAY 5PM-10PM (FRIDAY AND SATURDAY TO 11PM)
ENTREES: $5-$18; MAINS: $14-$18.50; DESSERTS: $6

There aren't many generalities you can throw at vast and varied India but there is one sight that is ubiquitous from Gujarat in the west to Bengal in the east, from the northern Himalaya to the southern tip of Kerala. It's the Tata truck, produced by India's largest auto company.

Stand on any road in India – a pot-holed country lane, an icy mountainous byway, a multilane intercity freeway – and you'll see a Tata truck rollick along before too long. Some are sleek and new, others are tinny and overladen. I once hitchhiked a ride on the roof of a Tata truck, clinging to sacks of potatoes after my (Tata) bus broke down in the middle of the night.

So when I saw that a Tata truck had been refashioned into the bar at Shahi Tadka restaurant, I suspected I was in for an authentic dose of India. And I was. The large, colourful restaurant and function centre, open since November, is a fine addition to the rich subcontinental possibilities in Dandenong. "Multicultural" only hints at the scope of this south-eastern suburb, 35 kilometres from the city and home to 150 nationalities and many more flavours.

Shahi Tadka's mostly north Indian menu runs through curries and tandoor dishes with a few divergences and contemporary tweaks. Spice-marinated pineapple is grilled in the tandoor oven: if you're a pineapple-on-pizza fiend, you'll love it. The usual potato patty is greened up with spinach to create the healthier harra bharra kebab. Parmesan and soy sauce even appear in a couple of entrees.

What really impresses, though, is the cooking from scratch and painstaking making to order. The "tadka" of the restaurant's name is a seasoning made by frying ghee (clarified butter) and spices. Order the dal tadka, for example, and they make the tadka for each serve, adding cooked lentils to the pan to finish it off. This allows for custom spicing – if you love chilli heat, tell your friendly waiter – but also means the spices are freshly toasted and fragrant, swirled through the lentils rather than mashed into them.

Paneer (fresh cheese) is made here daily and used in a few ways. It's flavoured with paprika and fenugreek and pressed into firm cubes for the signature handi paneer, a thick yoghurt and tomato-based curry named for the wide pot it's cooked in. Paneer is also turned into rasmalai, a dessert that sees the paneer formed into dumplings, burbled in sugar syrup and dunked into condensed milk to create a kind of wet and fragrant cheesecake flavoured with pistachio and cardamom. I was impressed to discover that even the condensed milk is made here.

A from-scratch approach is also evident in meat dishes. Whole chickens are broken down for the on-the-bone Punjabi chicken, and cashews are ground then added to the mild Mughlai chicken curry to thicken the gravy. In all cases the spicing is subtle and balanced and the chicken is juicy.

There are other nice touches: pappadums, fresh onion pickle and eggplant relish are brought as a matter of course. The pulao rice is saffron-tinged and scattered with lovely whole almonds. Breads include various naan but also the less common lachha paratha, a flaky bread, made with coiled strips of wholemeal dough. They take ages to make so eat them with appreciation!

Dandenong is a bit of a hike for me but I'd go back to Shahi Tadka for the care and obvious pride that are poured into the food, for the attentive service and, of course, for a Tata truck trip down memory lane, minus the sacks of potatoes.