Spice Magic at UOMASALA
Published: November 5, 2019
Indian cuisine lovers in the Toyosu area rejoice! The North Indian curry house UOMASALA opened its doors on July 11th this year, serving spicy treats at reasonable prices to the lucky residents of southern Koto Ward. Located on a side street in the middle of residential Edagawa, it’s a brisk twelve-minute walk from Toyosu station over a canal and round a corner; the stroll is well worth it though as we discovered recently when we dropped in on owner Ms. Miki Tanimura and her spice magicians.
“I spent some time studying in Bristol in England and that’s where I became enamoured of Indian food, music and culture,” says Ms. Tanimura, who has 15 years’ experience in Indian food. “After returning to Japan I started working at an Indian restaurant, then moved to Andhra Kitchen restaurant in Tokyo where I eventually became hall manager. That’s where I met Thapa and Pardip.”
Qualified chefs Thapa (left) and Pardip (right) trained at a renowned restaurant in New Delhi before coming to Japan. “We’ve reproduced the authentic tastes of New Delhi and North Indian dishes,” says Pardip. “All our spices are imported from India.”
There’s no compromise on the quality of the spices used at UOMASALA, as you can see. Bay leaves, chili peppers, star anise, cinnamon, cloves, black cardamom and the very expensive green cardamom are all of the highest quality, fragrant and aromatic.
The chefs prepare the basic sauce every morning, first grinding the spices, then frying them with onions, tomatoes and a little water. “Ginger accounts for about 5% of the spice used for the sauce while garlic is around 3%,” explains Pardip. Depending on the dish to be prepared, other spices or ingredients such as nuts can then be added as the meat or seafood is cooked. The butter chicken pictured here is the most popular item on the menu; a wonderfully smooth, creamy concoction that had us purring with pleasure.
The Keema curry was warming, a little sweet, hot and richly spiced. There are 17 different curries on the menu at UOMASALA, including a rather unusual scallop curry, which was the daily special when we visited.
UOMASALA doesn’t stint on the spices and they certainly don’t stint on the naan either. What a beauty that is, piping hot and straight from the tandoor!
UOMASALA serves an awful lot of naan. The kneaded dough is bagged up and allowed to prove. The chefs use flour, eggs, sugar and salt, together with both baking soda and baking powder.
The dough is divided into individual portions and allowed to sleep again until needed.
Then it is stretched around the naan pillow.
And stuck to the inside of the oven where it cooks for around a minute. The tandoor oven is heated to 400C and the naan immediately swells up, crisp on the outside, soft on the inside and nicely stretchy. The whole room fills with the rich, warm smell of baking bread, a fabulous aroma that cheers the spirits immensely.
The cheese naan is the top seller and it’s easy to see why. The naan itself is rich enough, containing milk and egg, but the melted cheese stuffing elevates the savoury flavour to astonishing levels. It was irresistible and we ate it all in the blink of an eye!
It’s not all curries and naan of course. Chicken tikka, boneless cubes of chicken marinated in yogurt and spices and then baked in the tandoor, is one of the world’s favourite dishes.
Unlike its cousin tandoori chicken, which is cooked on the bone and strongly flavoured with chili and lemon, chicken tikka is milder but still tangy and goes perfectly with beer. Four pieces for 600 yen is exceptional value.
Speaking of exceptional value, just look at the lunch menu: one curry set for 850 yen, two curry set for 900 yen or the UOMASALA set of two curries, tandoori chicken and sheek kebab for 1,000 yen! Incredible value, especially as they come with salad plus all-you-can-eat rice or naan. Customers can choose from six different curries: chicken, vegetable, keema, dal, mutton and the daily special. There’s also a lunch set for kids (sweet butter chicken, mango lassi, naan) for 600 yen. You can check out the latest news on Twitter (https://twitter.com/uomasara).
The dinner menu is slightly different. For 1300 yen you can choose one curry and one dish from a list of tandoori chicken, sheek kebab, creamy chicken or chicken tikka. It comes with salad, rice and naan. Party courses are available for 1,980 or 2,500 yen and both come with all-you-can-drink for 90 minutes. Customers at UOMASALA are largely office staff from nearby companies at lunch and local residents in the evening.
Popular starters such as papadums, samosas, onion bhajis, shrimp manchurian, and pakoda are also available, alongside curries like saag paneer (spinach and cottage cheese). Everything is available on Uber Eats. Winter is in the air in Tokyo; the temperatures are falling and the nights are drawing in. What better way to beat the coming chill weather than with some superbly spicy Indian food? Just direct your feet to UOMASALA; you won’t regret it!
Story and Some photos by Stephen Spencer
