PrintJersey Dispatch: Indian-Chinese Food Worth Eating
When you drive down Oak Tree Road in Edison, there are things you expect to see; sari shops, huge Indian grocery stores, and restaurants that boast "pure vegetarian." Then there are things that true Indian cuisine watchers know to look for that the rest of us don't expect. At the top of that list is are restaurants that serve Indian/Chinese—that is, the Chinese food served in India.
While this is the sort of thing that makes me really curious, I've eaten in enough of these places to be really suspicious. Just when I was beginning to become convinced that "Indian/Chinese" was defined by gloppy sauces and the flavor of raw chilies, I discovered Calcutta, an Indian/Chinese restaurant on (where else?) Oak Tree Road in Edison.
In a location that has held several more conventional Chinese takeout restaurants, Calcutta showed the first of its differences when the guy behind the counter greeted me in perfect English. Fearing that I would lose face with my lowbrow Brooklyn pronunciations, I almost ran for the door. Instead, I took a deep breath and studied the menu.
Calcutta's menu featured the basics; a combination of American/Chinese, Indian/Chinese, and Thai dishes with a few "straight" Indian items thrown in for good measure. In theory, a person could have pakoras, tom yum soup, General Tso's chicken, Manchurian paneer and chili beef washed down with a mango lassi. I ordered a chili chicken lunch special and started studying the menu.
Less gloppy and sugary than the competition, my chili chicken was good enough to get me to try more and soon my wife and I were fans. For her, the Pad Thai was it—far better than any local Thai place and for me it was lamb with spicy oyster sauce. We were thrilled.
The space isn't much to speak of. A few tables, a stack of strangely upscale magazines that felt like the one set of American encyclopedias on a remote Pacific island, and a cooler filled with the sorts of drinks one might need when faced with such a chili-laden menu...and of course...the only Indian/Chinese worth eating in this most Indian and Chinese of towns.
Calcutta Chinese Food
2090 Oak Tree Road, Edison New Jersey, 08820 (map)
732-494-1788
calcuttachinesefood.com
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