Piquancy offers GF-friendly Indian fare that’s a cut above the norm

SOUTHSIDE coeliacs have long known the joy of Babu Ji’s gluten-free naan, now Auburn Village is has a similar modern Indian of its own, writes Dan Stock.

Tandoori chicken; Piquancy’s dish from the street.

• Peninsula style and substance
• Cafe’s harvest from farm gate to plate
• New places to eat out

BEER and naan.

Sure, there would be many tears shed for pasta and a good loaf of bread but as far as writing off one of life’s great simple pleasures, if it came to abstaining from gluten, gee I’d pine for this Indian tag-team.

Thankfully I’m neither coeliac nor in any risk of voluntarily making such a debilitating lifestyle choice, so I’m free to swig Kingfisher lager while swiping a garlic naan through the gravy of a good butter chicken or punchy lamb korma whenever the mood strikes.

But for those for whom the big G casts its shadow over every dietary decision, there’s Mani Waraich and Ranjit Singh to the rescue.

The cousins have been saving southside coeliacs one psyllium-husked, chickpea and lentil-floured naan at a time at St Kilda’s Babu Ji, and are now doing the same up among the shops selling scented candles and sensible knits in Auburn Village – where I’m tipping “does that have gluten?” precedes the majority of orders taken up and down the street.

At Piquancy, the answer is no, with almost the entire menu GF including papadums with fennel seeds hidden within ($8) that are a step up from the norm. Served with a vibrant mint, a sticky tamarind and none-too-sweet mango chutneys, they are an easy decision to add to the table while whittling down the options on the rather extensive menu that reads especially well.

While the handsome room – whitewashed walls and timber floors and tables set with black linen napkins, nice glassware and gumleaf posies – immediately heralds this is a step up from the usual curry-and-rice cheerfully cheap, it’s backed up by the menu broken into food from the pot or from the street.

While our waitress referred to the latter as entrées, prices (around mid-$20) and portions across both sections seem fairly comparable.

Thick slices of paneer in deep ruby beetroot sauce.

I certainly wouldn’t call the serve of two huge pork chops an entrée, for instance. Marinated in the spices usually used in an Indian pickle – cumin, fennel, fenugreek seeds – these on-the-bone hunks of meat are big on flavour, but on the dry side of overcooked. A great swede puree underneath salvaged admirably, while a thick, sticky prune sauce added sweet fruit with a twist. A powerful chilli caramel encircled the plate that also added veg in the form of shredded purple cabbage and spinach. It’s a dish big on size and (almost achieved) ambitions ($24).

More entrée-like, two batata vada – a snack of spiced potato fritters. But here, unlike the streets of Mumbai, the two hefty mustard seed-flecked crisp-fried dumplings come piled high, Carmen Miranda-like, with shredded radish and micro herbs. The pretty mint yoghurt sauce they come swimming in is pretty delicious thanks to the added sweetness of pineapple, so while the presentation is faintly ridiculous, they are super tasty ($20).

Thick slices of paneer, the fresh curd cheese that’s a staple throughout the subcontinent, are used to sandwich a pickled slaw salad, each of the three portions drenched in a lurid, deep ruby beetroot sauce. They’re OK ($23).

To wash all this down, a help-yourself fridge packed with a good-looking range of beers from all over the place. Bridge Rd brews from Beechworth, Hawkers from Ressa, a couple of Temple brews join a shelf of Kingfisher, and a few from the US including Sierra Nevada and Anchor California lager. There’s around three dozen different beers, all priced at $9
a pop, but I didn’t spy Ballarat’s O’Brien gluten free range in the mix, which seems remiss.

Most of the menu at Piquancy is gluten free. Picture: EUGENE HYLAND

For now, those who can’t or don’t do beer can sip instead on a tight selection of wines that are also a step up from the normal curry house offer, even if the plastic sheathed menu isn’t – and you’ll be sorely stung if you go by the glass rather than share a bottle.

But sharing is what it’s all about, especially when it comes to dishes by the pot. Already planning a return for the slow-braised goat and the coconut milk fish curry, this night we tried the more unusual lamb kafirana, where the addition of powdered kaffir lime leaves add a high note to the thick, ginger rich and restrainedly creamy gravy. It’s excellent ($26), as are the deeply fragrant, complex black lentils ($19).

And the naan to swipe through the lot? A basket of flavours – sesame and onion seed, garlic and chive join a plain brushed with butter – are thin, crisp and blistered in the oven and prove the perfect ratio of bread to curry when called in for cutlery duty.

While Tonka in town is flying the lone flag for high-end Indian, Piquancy delivers a solid stepping stone into the mid ground.

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Piquancy

123 Auburn Rd, Hawthorn

thepiquancy.com.au

Open: Wed-Mon 11am-3pm; 6pm-10pm

Go-to dish: lamb kafirana

Rating: 13.5/20