Raga Introduces Indo-Chinese Cuisine

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Published on Thursday, 24 January 2013 02:00

Written by Scott Joseph

Raga fried rice is one of the specialties of the new Indo-Chinese menu.I recently told you about Raga, the wonderful new Indian restaurant on Sand Lake Road. Now there’s something even newer to tell you about.

Raga’s executive chef, Dominic Sarkar, has introduced an Indo-Chinese menu, a popular style in Kolkata.

Get $40 of Food and Drink at Raga Restaurant for $20!

The Indo-Chinese style of cooking was developed by Chinese immigrants who moved to Kolkata, also known as Calcutta. They longed for the foods of their homeland, but were restricted in replicating it by the availability of ingredients in their new country. So the result was a blending of two cuisines, a fusion, if you will. Sound familiar? Think of Tex-Mex. Or Floribbean. Or Franco-American. Well, maybe not that last one.

Fiery chili fried beef is tempered a bit with jasmine rice.I stopped by to try a few of the selections recently. My favorite was the chili fried beef, which had bite-sized pieces of meat that had been flash-fried in a hot wok with soy sauce and lots of chili peppers, then finished with wine. It was spicy hot and delicious.

I also liked the Raga fried rice, which looked like just about any fried rice you might find in a Chinese restaurant except that it wasn’t a greasy. It had bits of tangy scallions blended in with the chicken, lamb and shrimp.

Chatpata Shrimp was a dish of tender-firm shrimp fried crispy and tossed with a fiery sauce, both in color and in taste. 

Other items include Manchurian chicken or prawns cooked in spiced up garlic; Kolkata Chop-Suey and Maharaja chow mein; and a couple of vegetarian options, including fried chili paneer.

Raga is at 7559 W. Sand Lake Road, Orlando. It is on the second level, accessed by steep stairway or via elevator. It is open for lunch and dinner daily. Here is a link to ragarestaurant.com. The phone number is 407-985-2900.

Raga's chef, Dominic Sarkar, cooks the Indo-Chinese dishes in hot woks over high flame.

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