My Fare London--Chinese, Indian Stars

As befits a city so cosmopolitan and polyglot, London has long been famous for its population of ethnic restaurants. It’s doubtful, in fact, that there is any world cuisine not represented by at least one or two professional kitchens in the city. Malaysian and Indonesian food seem particularly popular right now, but there are also eating places devoted to the cooking of Burma, Afghanistan, Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, Trinidad, Czechoslovakia and Switzerland, among others, in addition to that of all the more expected nations. There’s even a bit of a fad at the moment for something called “Texican” food. (“Who else would import Monterey Jack Cheese for their chile con queso ?” asks an ad for one establishment, perhaps confusing Monterey, Calif., with Monterrey, Mexico.)

Despite all this, London’s reigning ethnic cuisines remain what they have been for decades--Chinese and Indian. Indeed, two of London’s hot new restaurants--Zen Central and Jamdani--are Chinese and Indian, respectively. And both vividly prove that ethnic food does not necessarily mean unsophisticated food or hole-in-the-wall surroundings.

Zen Central is the third link in a mini-chain of smart Chinese restaurants famous for its high-style design and imaginative menus. This one, on a quiet street in Mayfair has a cool, sensually soft-lit interior. Done in black and white and gray, the place has cove ceilings, a marbled gray-and-white terrazzo, gray chopstick-pattern carpeting on the floors and an extraordinary mirrored wall mounted with stepped glass water troughs that are pebbled, half-frosted and glowingly illuminated.

I’ve heard the food at Zen Central compared to that at our own Chinois on Main, but I don’t think the analogy quite works. Wolfgang Puck’s inspired creations are mostly Europocentric improvisations on assorted Asian themes, Chinese and otherwise; Zen Central’s kitchen respects traditional Chinese forms much more faithfully. It may work deft little variations on some dishes, and it may undeniably modernize its cuisine (i.e., no MSG--still used almost universally in other London Chinese restaurants), but the food is simply not as original as Puck’s.

That isn’t to say, however, that this isn’t good food. One recent dinner of heroic proportions included such delights as crisp, aromatic deep-fried chicken and coriander rolls; unusual chicken-liver rolls, also deep-fried but meltingly soft and rich inside; a heap of delicious fried seaweed, light as air but given substance by a scattering of roasted pine nuts; crisply sauteed little filets of eel tossed with coarse salt, cracked black peppercorns and wisps of raw green chile; pieces of juicy smoked chicken perfumed with a bouquet of spices; a perfect presentation of roasted Sichuan-style duck, almost as smoky and opulently perfumed as the chicken with an additional salty tang, and served with shredded scallions, cucumbers and the usual paper-thin, damp pancakes; and a dish of dryish but intensely flavored crisp-fried shredded beef with chile, unfortunately served with some crisp noodles that tasted as if they’d been fried several days before (it was the meal’s only real fault). Agreeable homemade lime, passion fruit, ginger, and mango sorbets concluded the repast.

At Jamdani, a handsome, meticulously crafted contemporary/rustic-style dining room lets potential customers know instantly that this is no ordinary Indian restaurant. Raw wood, slate, rough plaster and pewter-hued metal give the place a rural, not-too-highly-polished feel. But at the same time, everything is positioned so carefully, and spare accents are so precise that the overall effect is downright elegant. A faint, eye-level frieze on the walls echoes a pattern of a traditional jamdani (a kind of dyed muslin used for saris and other garments in Bangladesh, from whence the restaurant’s owner hails); brightly colored cardboard cones in a glass display case suggest the heaps of natural dyes used for the fabric. Another wall is lined with big glass vessels filled with herbs and spices--an effective visual stimulus to the appetite.

And a healthy appetite comes in handy here. The food includes top-notch versions of the usual tandoori specialties and other Indian standards, but also offers a rich repertoire of Indian country cooking. Sham-e-Gujarat, for instance, is an assortment of three Gujurati yellow-lentil “snack foods”--one a light crepe-like thing, another a sort of lentil-flour cake-bread (a bit like crumbly cornbread) dusted with poppy seeds, and the last, a puree of lentils wrapped in a pungent green leaf--all three are delicious. Prawn masala is a brilliant Bangladeshi dish made with good, fresh prawns and a medium-spicy sauce with a predominant note of mustard seed (which turns out to suit the sweet-salt flavor of the prawns quite well). No place of origin is specified for Jamdani’s cashew-nut rolls--mashed potatoes and various vegetables rolled in ground cashews, deep-fried, then served with a sweet-and-sour date sauce--but any region should be proud to claim the dish as its own.

Other uncommon but quite wonderful Jamdani specialties include homemade cheese marinated in tandoori spices and then broiled in the tandoor oven--firm and nicely sourish, with charred crisp edges adding additional flavor; baked pomfret (a sole-like flatfish) in a spicy, nicely acidic marinade; Lucknowi koftas of ground lamb and pureed lentils with a myriad of spices formed into meatballs and baked in a thick cream sauce; and undhya, a Gujarati vegetable dish that marries eggplant, potato, green beans and green bananas in a sauce dosed with fenugreek. Even condiments are unusual-- raita made not with cucumber, for instance, but with coriander leaves and little pieces of fresh pineapple; or a wonderful homemade lime pickle that is very sour but not unbearably hot. Breads include such seldom-encountered items as methi roti, flavored with fenugreek leaves; Peshawari naan, filled with almonds; and til naan, sprinkled with sesame seeds.

Zen Central, 20 Queen Street, London W1. Telephone 629.8103 or 629.8089. Dinner for two, food only, $50-$125.

Jamdani, 34 Charlotte Street, London W1. Telephone 636.1178. Dinner for two, food only, $40-$75.