Desi Videsi, Sion, Mumbai

Angrezi Babu Desi Mem...

Or something along these lines was the name of a movie back in the 90s which, for some strange reason fascinated me a lot, maybe because it had Shah Rukh in it :D ♥♥♥ So why did this name suddenly pop up in my mind? Oh that's because I just had some yummy food from a place called Desi Videsi. So yeah, just like that :P

Now the scene is that my sister has got her Final Year MA Examinations going on. So obviously the whole family is giving exams with her. Not sitting in the exam hall (*duh* :D) but you know, giving moral support et al. And good food is a biiiiiiig part of this moral support, don't you think? So when yesterday afternoon she came home after a particularly difficult paper, I had to order in some yummylicious food for her to get over the trauma :D And this new place in my residential vicinity has been making all the right noises in recent times. So here goes, our tryst with Desi Videsi!

My sister can walk Chinese food, sleep Chinese food, marry Chinese food. Even as a toddler, Chinese cuisine was the only one that could keep her quiet at dinner table! Thus, obviously, once I gave her the menu card to peruse, all she ordered was Chinese food even though there are quite a few Indian and Thai dishes on the menu too. Well, those will be enjoyed some other time soon I guess :D We ordered in Paneer Dragon Fire, Veg Burnt Garlic Rice, Burmese Khow Suey with Exotic Veggies (Okay,okay,so we had 1 Burmese dish too :P), Diced Veg in Hot Garlic Sauce and Honey Sesame Noodles. It was planned that my sister & I will be sharing all this, so even though I was tempted to order for a Biryani too, I controlled myself since I suspected all this will be more than enough for the 2 of us :D

And how right I was. Generous portions make Desi Videsi a perfect Value for Money proposition. We ended up sharing all this with our mom too, who usually is not very enthusiastic about Chinese food, but here, as we were opening the packets, she remarked, ''The smell is marvellous. Keep some of each dish for me too'' :D Way to go mom! Delivery was done within 45 minutes and everything was packaged expertly, no spillage. I wondered how they would deliver the Burmese Khow Suey since it has a plethora of toppings too. Simple, they made little sachets of Fried Onions, Garlic, Peanuts, Spring Onions, Lemon Slices and sent with perfectly packaged Khow Suey Curry :D 

Finally, the main point of ordering in food-the taste! Everything we had was lip-smacking. Nothing was toooooo oily which is always a danger with Chinese food in India! The Burnt Garlic Rice was flavorful enough to be enjoyed on its own, without being too garlic-y :D The Diced Veg in Hot Garlic Sauce was not at all dangerously spicy (as I had suspected it to be) and went perfectly well with Burnt Garlic Rice,all the veggies having retained their crunch and individual flavor :) Burmese Khow Suey was not overtly sweet which is how I remember even some 'fine dine' places serving it as (because of which I never order it anywhere now!) and was a delight to have with the big serving of beautiful Steamed Rice it was paired up with :) I am just mentally kicking myself now that it was so delicious, I forgot to even take a good enough picture of all the beautiful exotic veggies that made this gravy so delicious! The Star Dish for me was undoubtedly, Paneer Dragon Fire. As anybody who has ever read any of my food reviews knows, I LOVE Paneer. I can marry Paneer :P And no, I am not going to debate about the relationship between Vegetarians and Paneer right now :P So, any dish with Paneer automatically makes me biased in its favor. And this was one amazing dish with soft chunks of Paneer in sweet spicy sauce. Nobody can have just one ;D Every time I come across a dish as magnificent as this, I become sad at the prospect of having to share it with anyone else :P THAT's how good it is!

Honey Sesame Noodles were the grand finale which again, my regular readers know, is one of my favorite desserts :) But a lot of places do not get the proportion of honey and noodles right! Some places unfortunately drizzle just a few drops of honey while at other places, the crunch of the noodles is missing. Just last week I had enjoyed a perfect Honey Noodle dessert at The Oriental Blossom and I thought, nobody will ever be able to top that! Well, the Honey Sesame Noodles at Desi Videsi comes very close to that :) Crunchy, fragrant, warm noodles with generous sprinkling of sesame seeds and perfect amount of honey to cover it all. Magnificent. The fact that I am comparing this with the version I had at an exclusive, fine-dine restaurant speaks volumes about how good this is, isn't it :) 

So to sum it all up - Tantalizing taste, Brilliant portions, Perfect seasonings, Timely delivery make Desi Videsi one of the permanently bookmarked places in my gastronomic journey through life. Recommended to one & all.