ARDENT GOURMET: New Taste of India
Food Truck, Rockaway
By David & Susan Greenberg
We were in Mumbai recently where we gorged on Indian food so wondrous, it was the flavor equivalent of sparks from a disco ball. New Taste of India’s food may not be quite so spangled, still it satisfied our culinary souls.
Naan is a flatbread traditionally cooked by slapping disks of raw dough onto the wall of a tandoor which is a cylindrical oven sunk in a counter that runs ultra hot (up to 900 degrees). As likely as a pizza joint with a wood-fired oven at the North Pole, we didn’t figure that a truck all by its lonesome in Rockaway could have a tandoor. That would be asking too much. But it did! And the naan was hot, pliable, bodaciously blistered, and garlic-forward, a creditable version.
Tikka Masala consists of chunks of seared chicken in a yogurt sauce flavored with the usual Indian aromatic suspects, coriander, cardamom, ginger, cumin, turmeric. As much perfume as food, layered on perfectly cooked basmati rice, we scooped it with naan.
Starbucks makes its chai — black tea leaves, nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and cloves — from a mix, as do most restaurants. Surprisingly, New Taste of India makes theirs from scratch. Delish.
Their selection of Indian beers is greater than we’ve seen in any Indian restaurant in the United States or India.
New Taste of India serves some of the best truck food we’ve had yet on the Oregon coast.
David & Susan Greenberg love to hear from readers. You may contact us at our restaurant review website, www.ardentgourmet.com