Spicy alternative
The family is a focus of Gujarati culture and cuisine - the province of India which lies on the north-west coastal region, north of Bombay. Breaking bread or chapattis with one's brood beside a laden table of diverse dishes is de rigeur. So too is the custom of mothers teaching daughters the tricks of the kitchen. By the time they are women, most command a wide repertoire suited to their family's tastes.
While the family of Atul Joban, managing director of a computer consultancy and owner of Vishal Vegetarian Shine restaurant near London's Hatton Garden, live in Harrow, his offspring are woven into the identity of the City's 35-seat restaurant.
Vishal is the name of Joban's four-year-old son and Shine is the English meaning for his daughter's name Roshni.
The family is another reason why the restaurant opens only during weekday lunchtimes. Caring for her children is top priority for Joban's wife, Daksha, who together with a friend are the cooks and managers of this modest outpost to a specific type of Indian vegetarian food.
But Joban is not happy with the term ‘Indian food'. It is too general a label for a country with such diverse and differing cultures and cuisines, he says. Talk about the province of Gujarat and he's happy to expand. "I opened this restaurant because I wanted to explain what Gujarati food is. The usual Indian restaurant serves bland vegetarian options. I wanted to prove there is something more to it. Each dish has several permutations according to the ingredients you use. There are many shades of tastes and flavours. Gujarat is a fertile region with a stable history. People are family-oriented and sociable. Food is not functional to Gujarati people - they are totally pre-occupied with it!
"Our food is delicate and you can't just whack it in. It needs a woman's touch. We've tried putting men in the kitchen but we seem to lose the finesse achieved by a woman," he says, blithely unaware of the feminist hackles this might raise.
Having been brought up a vegetarian, Joban rarely eats meat, although he will if nothing else imaginative is available. But at Vishal, he is determined that imagination and quality are the stamps.
Confident that word-of-mouth marketing is kicking in, he tells me about an Indian VIP who visits London regularly and who insists on eating exclusively from Vishal. He has even sent his chauffeur to transport Vishal fare to his first-class British Airways compartment, complete with heating and serving instructions for the flight crew. Joban is flattered and is hoping to work closely with BA on the idea of introducing Gujarati dishes on Indian routes.
Then there are the wealthy Indian guests at London's Taj-owned St James' Hotel who frequently dispatch taxis (at £18 for a return trip) to EC1 to collect Vishal meals which the hotel then heats and serves to them.
Many of these loyal diners plump for what are known as Jain meals. Jainism is a 3,000-year-old religion which dictates its followers should eat only foods which will reproduce after one has plucked the relevant fruit or vegetable. Consequently root vegetables are out. Despite this, Joban insists that the famous Gujarati variety is maintained even with Jain dishes.
Such variety is obvious from a glance at Vishal's menu. Although traditional Gujarati cuisine and custom does not include the western concept of starter, main course and pudding, such demarcations do exist here as in most other UK Indian restaurants.
But Joban is keen to stress the typical way to eat is to share many dishes at once with a full table of family or friends.
He scans the top of Vishal's menu and picks out chora farie (95p) as an alternative appetiser to the more common poppadom. Tagged as ‘very tasty', it consists of a plate of crispy fried strips of spicy channa flour, sprinkled with paprika.
Combing through the next section, he picks out patras as one of his favourite hot starters (£2.45). It is described as "a delightful Gujarati food speciality" and comprises patra vine leaves spread with spicy gram flour paste, rolled, baked and then sautéed. It is normally served with chutney and salad garnish.
He also points to the vegetable pakoras (£2.10), which include a seasonal mix of items such as mushrooms, aubergines, corn and methi (fenugreek) and onion bhajis. These are dipped in spicy batter and deep-fried and served with yoghurt chutney.
Various types of lentils feature throughout Gujarati food and provide much of the protein which carnivores might claim was otherwise missing. For instance, the ragado patties (£2.65) comprise green lentil beans gravy (ragado) poured over potato patties. This is normally served with salad, tamarind and a garlic sauce.
Or there is the popular idli sambhar (£2.25) which is steamed rice dumpling garnished with spicy lentil soup, special herbs and diced onion. It comes with coconut chutney.
The best-selling dish is mixed dahl (£3.50) which contains a blend of seven different pulses cooked in a spicy mix of garlic and green chillies.
On spices, Joban is circumspect. "One anxiety I had when starting Vishal was that everyone should be able to taste what they were eating. But we do provide the strong sauces if people want them."
Sitting under the restaurant's whirring fans in the heat of a summer afternoon, he glances at one of the cold starters, sev potato poori (£2.10). This he uses to illustrate the role of such foods in the normally sub-tropical climate of Gujarat. Containing crispy poori filled with diced potatoes, yoghurt, sev and onions and dressed with garlic and tamarind sauce, he refers to it as "typical of the kind of food one uses to cool or wind down".
Another favourite is dhai vada (£1.90) which contains lightly spiced lentil fritters. These are served in yoghurt with coriander, cumin and paprika.
Although the menu includes only five bread varieties, Joban assures me that there are well over 20 from which to choose. The most popular is stuffed paratha (£1.65) which is thick rolled bread stuffed with a spicy mix of potatoes and shallow fried in ghee (clarified butter).
Labelled as side orders, some of the menu's last dishes are more recognisable as puddings to a western palate. Joban picks out the gulab jambu (£1.50) as one of his favourites. It is described as juicy sponge balls in saffron syrup topped with cream.
Milkshakes run the gamut of mango, saffron and rose, while teas range from the traditional black leaf to the house speciality massalla tea which is brewed with a special mix of cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg.
After such a racy kaleidoscope of flavours, tastes and aromas, the tea comes as the ideal agent to restore the balance. And balance is what the Gujarati dining experience is all about.
NEXT WEEK: Continuing our Take Five vegetarian recipes series, David Tarpey visits a Gloucestershire establishment which is making waves with its innovative vegetarian menu
