Bombay Masala

Owner Philip Mathew, who came from Chicago over a decade ago to launch and manage the all-vegetarian Udupi Palace and then its meat-friendly sister, Tiffin, in Langley Park, has built a steady following since opening Bombay Masala in the Cipriano Square shopping center in Greenbelt. The samosas and pakoras are good and virtually greaseless, the meats that emerge from the tandoor are well-seasoned if not always as juicy as you might like, and the curries are fiery and reliable. But it’s not for the curries and samosas that some the customers regularly make the pilgrimage to Greenbelt from as far away as Arlington and Alexandria; it’s for the special Indian-Chinese menu—a selection of dishes that aims to re-create the Chinese food that they grew up eating in India. The product of the second- and third-generation Indian-Chinese who settled primarily in the cities of Calcutta and Bombay, Indian-Chinese cooking is a bracing, often fiery synthesis of the two cuisines, heavy on the garlic, ginger, and finger peppers. The eggy corn soup is a rich, slippery concoction brightened by green onion and diced carrots, finished with a generous drizzle of soy. Chicken Manchuria appears to resemble any number of chicken preparations from the Chinese repertoire—hunks of dark meat battered, fried, and submerged in a sauce with veggies—but it’s shot through with so much ginger, garlic, and chili that it takes all of a bite to appreciate the difference: Looks like a stir-fry; tastes like a curry. The same could also be said of the Chili Cauliflower, the sweet sponginess of its pakora-battered florets an intriguing contrast to the fire and spice of its sauce.
—Todd Kliman, June 11, 2004