Om Chambers, Kemps Corner, Bombay
Nelson Wang is a drama in four acts. Act I was in the ’70s, when he invented the bogus ‘Manchurian’ cuisine and thereby blasted open the middle-class market for Chinese food in India. Act II was in the ’80s, when he started China Garden, which became the favourite of the Ambani-Godrej-Bachchan set, and was listed by the New York Times as one of Asia’s best restaurants. Act III was a time of bad joss, when he fell foul of Bombay’s FSI regulations. And now Act IV is CG83, which picks up where China Garden left off.
Wang, in his new avatar, fuses together Chinese and Southeast Asian cuisines—Vietnamese, Malay and Indonesian—to appeal to the palate of today’s diner, and the menu includes over 300 of his recipes. The fish with black olives, and prawns wrapped in bacon are recommended. But our favourite is still the good old pepper prawns. A great idea is the half-portions they offer here, so that you can sample a wider variety of their dishes. And in case you’re wondering, CG signifies China Garden, and 83 is the year it was founded.
