In Short : North Indian cuisine, tandoor fired meats bursting with flavour, delicious breads, open late
What I love about Sydney is the spread of ethnic communities around the basin. In Harris Park there are a cluster of Indian restaurants which have transformed the once sleepy cousin to Parramatta
into a vibrant hub of activity of a weekend. It’s amazing to see the Indian community in their colourful saris and shalwar kameez walking the streets in search of a restaurant to while away their afternoon.
One of those places that gets a fair bit of traffic is Tikka Corner. It’s basically a hole in the wall outfit with a few tables for diners. While unassuming outwardly, it’s what comes out of the tandoor
that really counts.
Being of Indian heritage counts for little, and really does bring home the fact how often Indian food for so long has been “Aussiefied”. Restaurants like Tikka Corner represent the vastness of the subcontinent and regional nuances in the representation of the cuisine. Feeling the need for protein, I order a Mashawi. It’s an assortment of meats served with mint sauce, tandoori bread and pickled salad. An Indian Bento box of sorts. Many of you would be familiar with chicken tikka, yet at Tikka Corner, you won’t be seeing any radiant red meats emerging from the tandoor oven, rather it’s a golden coloured meat coated in tumeric, fennel and specks of chilli. It’s a beautifully tender meat, but I am struck at first by the spice. It’s a richly perfumed spice that really tingles the palate. There’s a nice smokiness to the meat too.
A spectacular start to our mashawi! After a couple chunks of the chicken, I then move onto the lamb seekh kebab. Reminiscent of a sausage, the flavours of coriander, garlic, ginger and cumin come through with each bite. The meat is moist and tender, and is held well together. It’s well mated to the mint sauce wedged between some tandoori bread.
While the seekh kebab is a smoother textured offering, the lamb tikka are generous chunks of meat with a lot more chilli heat coming through. As you bite into the meat, the spicy flavours do not diminish. The lamb, like the chicken, is tender and just falls apart in your mouth. A trio of meat dishes that are just wow. Mavis, who usually goes for the more gently flavoured food, is supremely impressed. I thought the heat may get the better of her, but she enjoyed every single morsel on the platter.
Accompanying the meats are huge plate sized servings of tandoori bread. Our little one, who is not yet versed in spices, enjoys chewing through the crispy outer, and soft centred bread. It becomes a competition between the three of us to get at the bread, it’s that good. One day, just one day, I would love to have a high temperature tandoor over in the back yard. There’s nothing like wood fired flavours being imparted on bread and meats and Tikka Corner exhibits that with their Mashawi.
Tikka Corner really is a suburban gem. There aren’t any bells whistles visually, but the fireworks really come in the food that is cooked to order. It’s not just Mashawis that are available, so check back on this post, as we will be updating it, because we’re definitely returning for another feed very soon.
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