Saturday, June 15, 2013

South Indian Food in Taipei: Take II (now with masala dosa!)

DSC06263
YES I DID EAT THIS IN TAIPEI. WHAT! WHAT!


















Mayur Indian - Keelung Road (South Indian - idli only)

350-5, Keelung Rd Sec 1, Taipei City 
台北市基隆路一段350號之5 (above that part of Keelung Road that's underground just south of Ren'ai)

Mayur Indian - Xinsheng N. Road and Civic Boulevard (idli and masala dosa)

Xinsheng N. Road Sec 1 #38 - right where Xinsheng veers to the west after Civic Boulevard
台北市中山區新生北路一段38號


This will make it into my "Indian food in Taipei" post as an update in just a moment, but I feel it also deserves its own post. Remember when I last posted about south Indian food in Taipei, at the now-defunct, I-heard-its-moved-but-I-don't-care Exotic Masala House? The one that started off good, got really bad, got slightly better, and then disappeared? Well, it wasn't quite good enough to keep going back, so we didn't. No idea if idli is still on the menu or if they are even still in business.

Well, now there's another option: Mayur Indian on Keelung Rd. now offers idli (2pcs), and their Xinsheng Road location now offers idli, masala dosa, and an idli-dosa set.




It's pretty good - it's more like a paper dosa and less like the Udupi ghee dosas I like, but still very good. Great coriander chutney. Creamier sambar than I am used to - I think there are more lentils in there (yes, sambar can have lentils in it) - but I've had sambar that creamy in India so I'm fine with it. And pretty spicy - they will definitely make it so that it tastes like the real deal, not the dumbed-down "aaah spice! no!" versions of Indian food you often find in Taipei.

It comes quick, too. I'm not really sure how they do it so quickly.

Sadly, no coconut or tomato chutney, but hey, I takes what I can gets.

Mayur's fantastic because they've gone from "good basic curry" when they opened to offering regional specialties from around India. You can get passable chaat, Goan snacks, a tasty yoghurt curry (and malai kofta!) there, not just your usual "chicken, fish and mutton four different ways, and some vegetable curries" like at other Indian restaurants.

And they don't put that gross garlic butter spread on their naan like Out of India. Seriously, Out of India, you have to stop doing that. You have good naan. Don't destroy it with that disgusting spread. It's the main reason I don't go to your restaurant often (your curries are not bad otherwise).

3 comments:

cathy said...

Coming to taiwan in the winter - adding this place to my list!!! thank you!

MIK Taiwan said...

Thankyou Jenna, Always grateful for your motivation. Your kind words motivates MIK team to bring regional specialty. We are happy to share with you that now we have MIK-7 branch.in Zhubei, Hsinchu
MIK-8 Halal branch in Zhongxiao e.rd serving Medi. + Indian Arabic cuisine.
MIK-9 Beach restaurant at Qinshuiwan bay area, Sanzhi in New Taipei city, and last MIK-10 in Taichung at Hotel Kuei. Most welcome to see you anytime, we love your writing. It's always a pleasure to get the best critic out of you to do something close to India. Thanks, MIK team

Jenna Lynn Cody said...

I'll check out the one on Zhongxiao E. Road -- I generally just cover Taipei but it's great that you have branches in Qianshuiwan and Zhubei now!