Back to Blog
The stack menu new haven5/31/2023 ![]() ![]() The shaken Wing Commander Sharma goes tropical with pineapple-infused gin, passion fruit, pistachio orgeat, velvet falernum, and tiki bitters. My dining companion chooses a Passion Project mocktail with passion fruit, wild guava tea, and lime from the non-alcoholic offerings of the cocktail program created by Roger Gross (Highland Brass Co., Ordinary, Elm City Social), which is deep enough to organize drinks by category.Ī bubbly Street Spritz pairs Jin Jiji Indian gin with Aperol, citrus and prosecco. The cocktail menu receives no less transformative gesticulation than the food, including garam masala in the Rye of the Tiger, and the Bindaas Burns - with whiskey, orange Curaçao, and saffron-infused vermouth - the fresh orange flavor blending with the deeper herbal oil of vermouth for an eye-opening start to the evening. Each soft little ball is dusted with a topping of sev, a sensory counterpoint of crunch to the cool and spicy dish. ![]() Sherkaan harmonizes with its food.ĭahi vada - subtle, doughy lentil dumplings often served steaming - are offered cold and refreshing on a warm summer night, covered with raita and bright highlights of green and tamarind chutneys. Saarinen designed the dorms without a single right angle. You are surrounded on two sides by the neo-Gothic walls of the Ezra Stiles and Morse college dormitories, designed by Eero Saarinen (who is also responsible for Yale hockey’s Ingalls Rink, along with the TWA terminal at JFK, and the St. Inventing new forms from traditional materials becomes thematic as you step off Broadway between the Apple and Yale Book stores and into the courtyard of Sherkaan’s patio. The mix of influences brought together just the right notes for the new Indian concept. Hours: Open for lunch and dinner Wed.–Mon. “That, and a tall stack of cookbooks.”Ħ5 Broadway, New Haven (behind the Yale Bookstore) These kitchens were augmented by those in extended Harpaldas family homes, with Harpaldas’ wife, Prianca, and “cooking with all the aunties,” Burke says. He first spent months at Dhaba Wala, replacing a cook who had returned to India, and at restaurants run by Harpaldas family friends. Winter Caplanson for Hearst Connecticut Mediaįor executive chef Burke, it was a steep learning curve. Sherkaan is located at 65 Broadway in New Haven. ![]() The chaat dog is like nothing else we’ve found in the state, and it’s just one example of how Harpaldas and Burke have created a new experience from the culinary treasure chest of South Asia. The Street Eats section of Sherkaan’s menu includes possibly the most pervasive American street food ever, the hot dog, served as a lamb, chicken or vegetarian seekh kebab on a bun, drizzled with cucumber raita yogurt sauce, dry garlic chili chutney, pomegranate seeds, cilantro and crunchy sev. ![]() To provide something authentic done in an approachable way.” “We wanted to serve people who know and love Indian food, but also didn’t want to scare away anyone new to it with 20-page menus. “Ankit had been dreaming about making Indian food sexy again.” “In 2018 Ankit found out the space that had been Thali Too on campus in New Haven was available, and we thought selling Yale on a restaurant was a good bet,” Burke says. Within a few years, it was Harpaldas’ turn to make a pitch. The city food experience brought from India to the Elm City. There is none of the formal tikka, curry and red coats ambiance of British-inflected dining, and you will never see a steam tray, but instead you enter into a scrum of bicycles, face a Tata truck, a crowded train car, an elaborately carved wooden door. The thing to know about Sherkaan is everyone involved - owner, chef and diners alike - is trying something new. It was exactly this relaxed, nontraditional take on Indian food which brought us to this back-alley surprise in downtown New Haven. Helpfully, a section on their website ( “If You Don’t Know, Now You Know”) provides a brief glossary for words like “sev” (crispy chickpea noodles) and “totally bindaas” - how the restaurant describes its own ethos: totally chill, the coolest. Sherkaan, or “tiger king,” is a word probably best known as a character in The Jungle Book, but many of the menu’s words at the restaurant of the same name may be less familiar to visitors. ![]()
0 Comments
Read More
Leave a Reply. |