Thursday, March 17, 2016

PANIPURI @ New Nepali Short Movie @ 2016

The name grabbed us like a carnival barker or a lottery come-on.Hot Million derives its name from a well-known restaurant chain in India, said server Sapna, whose employer Sham Kumar worked the eatery business in Punjab.“We had room for 350 people back there,” said Kumar.His first Calgary foray — launched last August — is considerably more modest in scope, but a tastefully-appointed space attractive in its simplicity.Kumar’s menu visits all the typical Indian dishes but throws in some hybrid Hakka Chinese selections and a few other surprises.One of then was the pani puri/gol gappa ($5.95) — deep fried hollow pastry shells we were instructed to puncture, then fill with chickpeas, potato chunks and a housemade sweet and sour water.A few of them sprung a leak after we’d stuffed them, but this was a fun dish we hadn’t encountered before.That said, we suspect the rather bland fillings targeted western palates; we’d have preferred the more fiery norm.