Asian fusion Tangra cuisine at Fifth Season

PUBLISHED June 11th, 2012 09:28 pm | UPDATED March 28th, 2016 02:13 pm

We’ve all eaten Indian food, and of course for most of us here, Chinese cuisine is part of our daily bread…but have you ever eaten Indian Chinese? Known as Tangra cuisine – because it was born in Tangra, East of Kolkata, where the Hakka Chinese population there adapted their traditional cuisine to Indian ingredients and to the Bengali palate. Throughout time Tangra cuisine has spread all throughout India, and evolved again as thousands of Tibetans migrated to India and added their delicacies. But where can we sample this very unique fusion of flavours from India, China and Tibet? Well, we are lucky to have our own Tangra cuisine restaurant in Little India where we can do just that – and it goes by the name of Fifth Season.

There’s something very pleasurable about scanning the menu at Fifth Season – as you continue to be surprised by intriguing dishes – some which are a different slant on familiar faces and others which are all together new.

Of course the first thing that jumped off the menu were the Momos – which were awarded the accolade of “Best Dish of the Year” at the Singapore Food Festival a few years back. Momos are essentially a type of dumpling native to Tibet made with a simple flour-and-water dough and stuffed with either a chicken or vegetable filling. Choose to have yours steamed or pan fried – we opted for the steamed vegetarian versions which were fresh, plump, tasty and served up with spicy tomato-based momo sauce (or a zesty ginger-garlic sauce if pan fried). The momos start at $9.80 for 5 pieces of vegetable momos upwards or $10.90 for chicken.

While this was a nice start, actually it was the Tibetan Thukpa ($9.80) which I absolutely fell in love with. This was a very simple yet incredibly hearty and warming spicy noodle and minced chicken soup which was so flavoursome it was actually probably my favourite dish of the whole meal! I would love to know what the secret ingredient of such a simple soup is (perhaps just LOADS of garlic and a good kick of chili?) that makes it so damn tasty. I was fully contented slurping and munching away of this one.

Now onto the mains. I am a sucker for anything that sounds different on the menu and so intrigued by the Chicken Manchurian Gravy ($15.30), we started off with that. Chicken tossed in a ginger, garlic and soya sauce concoction and served with a rich gravy, this was again a simple yet delicious and very more-ish dish. And I think that’s probably in the method, because traditionally the chicken is first deep fried, and then cooked in the fragrant sauce. This dish is also available in both a fish and vegetarian variant, which looks to be just as tasty…

Speaking of fish, the Fish Parsley ($16.40) here is an absolute must. For me this dish is the epitome of the Indian-Chinese taste fusion at the heart of Tangra cuisine because it so perfectly marries the fragrant Indian spices with the sweetness of its Chinese culinary roots, and gluing it all together is lovely soft and juicy morsels of fish.

Other items that caught my eye which I’ll definitely be heading back to try at another point for a taste of something different were the Spicy Eggplant Specials – brinjal in pickled chili Szechuan sauce;  the Spicy Chicken and Asparagus in Oyster Sauce – because I am so intrigued to taste a spicy version of oyster sauce; and the Mongolian Spicy Potato – because I’m curious to taste the fusion of the tangy sweet chili sauce and green chilies. Also worth noting that this is a great place to come if you’re a vegetarian because there are loads of interesting options for you veg heads.

As if I needed another reason to quite love Fifth Season, their lassis here are huge! No running out of lassi halfway through the meal here that’s for sure. Choose from salt, sweet, strawberry or alphonso – the latter of which I had and would highly recommend at $3.90 for a glass.

Feeling like a lazy bones or not up to the buzz of Little India? Well no excuse not to try some unique Tangra cuisine because Fifth Season also do delivery.  And although I have to admit I’m not a delivery girl, next time I’m feeling like I can’t peel myself off the sofa I know who I’ll be calling!