Iidabashi, Guerrilla Rainstorm, and Eating Biryani

Through the midsummer guerrilla rainstorm, to biryani

I wrote about biryani in a note a little while ago. Ever since then, I've been craving biryani, and I finally went to eat it.

⭐︎This is that article.

I headed to TOKYO BHAVAN in Iidabashi.
It is a restaurant in the lineage of Dhaba India, the famous South Indian restaurant that used to be in Kyobashi.

It was a Saturday on a day with extreme heat. Hoping it would cool down a bit after sunset, I headed toward the restaurant aiming to arrive around 7:30, but it started to rain drop by drop.
Since a guerrilla rainstorm had passed through about an hour ago, I thought, "It should be fine now, right?" but when I went out, it was an even worse super guerrilla rainstorm. There were lightning and heavy rain warnings, and it was apparently equivalent to a level 2 alert on the Japan Meteorological Agency's warning scale.

It was raining so hard the road looked white and smoky. Iidabashi is where the slope from Kagurazaka comes down. It feels like water is flowing down.

We took shelter from the rain for 20 minutes under the eaves of a Subway that has since closed. The temperature was 29 degrees, it felt like 30, and the humidity was 80%. It was a sticky heat. I don't hear the term much lately, but isn't the discomfort index quite high?

The rain finally stopped. I feel like the humidity is higher than it was before it rained. When I was a child, a cool breeze would blow after an evening shower. Now, it gets even more humid after the rain.
Wiping away sweat with a towel, we headed for the restaurant. While fighting the urge to be sucked into any shop that looked cool, we arrived at our destination at 7:45.

To my surprise, there was a family of six Indians waiting outside. So it's a restaurant with a line. It's popular with Japanese people because it's a Tabelog Top 100 restaurant, but it's also popular with Indians living in Japan.
But just as I was about to give up, thinking it was too hot to wait outside anymore, a group of 10 people came out. Seats opened up. Let's wait a little longer.
After waiting a little while, we were able to get in easily.

Appetizers before the biryani

First, a toast with beer.
I had a Maru-F, and he had an Indian beer called "Godfather." It was a beer with a unique quirk not found in Japanese beers.
Now, today's goal is biryani. So, we won't be having the meals, which are synonymous with South Indian cuisine.

First, a three-kind appetizer platter, a small masala dosa, pani puri, and tawa chicken.
I ate the dosa, which I loved at Dhaba India in Kyobashi.

Next is the pani puri I often see on YouTube. It's a super classic, national street food of India where you fill a bite-sized, crispy, hollow fried ball with a spicy herb soup and eat it all in one go.
The ice-cold soup contains mint, cilantro, green chili, black salt, lime juice, and more, making it sour and spicy. This is what I wanted to eat.

Finally, the tawa chicken. Tawa chicken is an Indian chicken dish stir-fried and simmered on a flat iron plate or frying pan. It's a rich, punchy chicken stir-fry coated in the sweetness of sautéed onions, the acidity of lemon, and plenty of spices.
The spices really kick in. The green sauce served on the side has a heat that makes you sweat from the inside out. It was delicious, and he even ordered a second serving of it alone.
The fresh salad was average. But, as someone approaching fifty, I want to eat raw vegetables.

Biryani for the first time in 10 years

Finally, it's time for the biryani.
Before that, I added a Maru-F, and he added an Indian white wine.

I remember eating mutton biryani at Dhaba India in Kyobashi. That was nearly 20 years ago.
Today I chose chicken. Because the quirkiness of mutton has started to bother me as I've aged.

The biryani was superb.
The fluffy basmati rice tastes of various spices. The chicken is bone-in meat with a perfect salty flavor, juicy and delicious. I eat it while changing the flavor by combining it with the two sauces and lemon.
It really is delicious.
We ordered one more dish, a plate of mutton simmered in coconut cream and spices. It seems I really have become unable to handle lamb.

Suddenly, I noticed that everyone in the restaurant was Indian families or groups of friends. I realized it's a restaurant that authentic people frequent.

To be continued in the second part