Pasta and poppadoms? Yes, it works!

Asiana

2 Hoopers Place,

Old Town

SN1 3RA

Tel: 01793 976500 or 01793 976066

THE word ‘fusion’ has been fashionable in foodie circles for some time; generally taken to mean two styles of cuisine from different parts of the world fused together on the same plate.

Asiana bills itself as an Indian/Italian fusion, but don’t wrinkle your nose just yet. In this case, the word doesn’t refer to the dishes – you won’t find a spaghetti madras or a vindaloo pizza in front of you – but rather two completely different menus running alongside one another, even cooked by two different chefs.

It’s an odd concept, granted. But somehow, in the slick surroundings of Swindon’s newest restaurant, it works.

The slant is definitely towards the Indian – the clue is in the name, after all. If you walked in without any prior knowledge of the menu, you’d be hard pressed to pick up on the Italian influence.

The downstairs lounge bar is generic enough, with soft washes of light and inviting booth seating. But once you walk up the disco-lit staircase, you’re certainly in Indian restaurant territory, albeit an elegant one, with a colourful mosaic on one wall and a striking domed ceiling.

With the heady smells of Asian cuisine wafting around me, I still had my doubts about the Italian side of things, so asked the waiter if indeed there was such a choice.

“Oh yes,” he beamed proudly, brandishing two menus. “We have two different chefs, you know. Our Italian chef has even cooked for the Pope.”

Well, that was my mind made up. When in Rome, as they say...

My friend, meanwhile, was still in Raipur rather than Rome and fancied a curry. What better way for us to put this fusion to the test than to order a bit of both?

Italian starters include insalata di mare (seafood salad, £8.90) and capesante e pancetta (scallops and pancetta, £9.50), but my eye was taken by the caprese calda con caprino (£5.90), a dish of roasted goat’s cheese and tomato with pesto and pistacchio powder.

It took a good 45 minutes to arrive, while my friend’s poppadums sat untouched on the other side of the table (such restraint), but when it eventually arrived it was heavenly, with warm, soft cheese oozing over the tomatoes and a vibrant, zingy pesto packing a punch.

I have to say the poppadoms, or at least the four sauces that came with them, looked pretty good too. At her insistence – and after I’d finished my goat’s cheese – I tried the tamarind chutney and it was a fantastic addition to the usual big three of raita, mango chutney and pickle.

There’s a huge choice of meat and fish dishes for the Italian diners, from monkfish with olives (£18.90) to a rack of lamb in garlic (£19.90), but for me the true test of an Italian chef is in their pasta. I toyed with the intriguing black spaghetti with clams and king prawns (£12.90) but in the end opted for the simpler paccheri al ragu di agnello (£9.90), pasta with a lamb ragout.

The dish was indeed simple, but none the worse for that, with large tubes of pasta (imagine inch-long sections of cannelloni) and chunks of tender lamb in a light tomato sauce. The portion was as delicate as the presentation, but I still battled to finish it all.

Over in India, my friend had struggled to choose from pages and pages of dishes on the menu. Meat eaters have signature dishes like rajshahi lamb shank (£16.90) and shizania chicken (£9.90) or offer and fish eaters can pick from at least a dozen specials, like the Asiana rupchanda special (£12.90) or Kashmir seabass (£12.90).

Being vegetarian, the choices for my friend were more limited, but then she spotted the ‘chef’s choice’ option: “If you still cannot decide what to have, choose the ingredients and our chefs will create you something special.” She simply asked for ‘vegetables’ and ‘medium heat’ and what emerged from the kitchen was sensational, packed full of bright, crunchy vegetables in a spicy sauce.

She was thoroughly enjoying it until she bit into and swallowed a large chunk of chilli, thinking it was a green bean.

As she turned puce, we asked for some water to cool her mouth, but apparently this is very much the wrong thing to do.

“Water will only make it worse,” advised our saintly waiter. “Let me bring you some yogurt instead,” and raced off to her rescue.

Just one spoonful of the creamy, cool yogurt and the tears stopped streaming from her eyes. Her relief quickly turned to admiration.

“That was amazing – it worked instantly,” she said, in a croaky voice. “But I think I might try the pasta next time.”