FM Magazine
Dining Out Insider
Saffron Heavenly Cuisine
Exotic, approachable, and saucy
By Steve Stark
Ah, Saffron. Even the name is soft and exotic whether whispered
or spoken. To many in the pop culture, the precious spice
was the girl extolled decades ago by singer/songwriter Donovan
when he crooned “I’m just mad about Saffron,
she’s just mad about me.”
Saffron’s reputation as the world’s most elusive,
precious, and expensive spice is complimented by its intense
color, scent, flavor, aroma, and color dying properties.
Saffron’s antecedents have their origin in the world’s
most ancient lands including Greece and India.
Saffron is one of India’s culinary and coloring gifts
to the world. Saffron’s delicate, thread-like filaments
are the dried stigmas blanketed within the saffron flower, “Crocus
Sativas Linneaus.” A single flower each hides only
three elusive stigmas. These stigmas must be carefully hand
picked from each single bloom. Over 75,000 flowers are needed
to produce a single pound of Saffron filaments. Thus, the
mysterious saffron earns its notoriety and popularity as
the globe’s most costly spice.
Half a world away from India is the Saffron Heavenly Cuisine
in Fargo. The region’s newest Indian eatery greets
its customers with the warm and relaxing saffron color as
you enter. There is a hint of the gentle and inviting spice
in the air whne you walk through the door. Ah-ha, immediately
you know this is different from a chain family restaurant.
Owners Vivek Syal and Bhargav Mistry never planned on being
restaurateurs. The two men met within the Indian community
in Fargo and shared a common longing for good Indian food
from the homeland.
Syal is an engineer and Mistry a physician. They retained
their jobs but became entrepreneurs when they opened Saffron
Heavenly Cuisine last year at 3003 32 nd Ave SW in Fargo.
Syal says the two “wanted to expose this part of the
country to something good, and something Indian.” The
restaurant has already established a loyal clientele, many
of whom had little or no experience with the exotic and saucy
dishes of northern India.
Indian restaurants have become one of the largest growing
ethnic dining facilities in the nation. Saffron Heavenly
Cuisine has added a new touch of culinary diversity to the
changing landscape of the valley.
Before my first dinner at Saffron I had limited encounters
with Indian food. My first experience a decade ago was in
a modest Indian café in the heart of Paris. It was
there that my tongue and tummy discovered the joy of sauces
like my mother never made.
My dinner companion at Saffron was a world traveler, chef,
food writer and cookbook author. His special order (off the
menu) “Dal tadka” was a tasty vegetarian dish
of beans and lentils. Marvelously spiced just right by itself,
and equally delectable on Saffron’s colorful and light “Basmati
rice;” or the wonderous “ Nan” – a
flat bread served piping hot from Saffron’s unique
clay oven. It’s fun to rip pieces of the bread and
dip them into the myriad mystical sauces the restaurant offers.
That one-of-a-kind clay oven perplexed Fargo city officials
before they granted Saffron its officially approved restaurant
status. There’s no other oven like it in North Dakota
or the region with which to compare.
From the incredibly varied menu offerings I enjoyed a marvelous “Chicken
tikka masala,” spiced “medium” that consisted
of clay oven baked chicken, cubed and removed to wade in
a thick, orange sauce that was equally enjoyable to the taste
buds whether accompanied by the rice or nan.
Saffron’s selection is wide and there are enough new
dishes on the large menu to keep a daring diner in new eating
experiences for a long time. Not to mention being a little
tongue tied stringing the new words together.
Our dinner was ordered off the menu, although there is a
lunch buffet every day from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. On weekends,
they welcome guests to a champagne brunch buffet, each day
from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Like many restaurants in Europe, Saffron
is closed from two to five in the afternoon and then reopens
for dinners from 5 to 9 p.m. But don’t go Tuesdays,
they’re closed.
The owners say they’ve made a lot of converts to their
Indian specialties and are proud to be the only Indian restaurant
in the state. They cater and recently delivered 600 meals
to a gathering.
Although not hidden like strands of Saffron themselves,
the restaurant is not on any of Fargo-Moorhead’s restaurant
rows. But for a palette pleasing venture into a different
culture’s tastes, it is well worth the trip. And you
don’t even need a passport.
Like good old Donovan the singer, I’m just mad about
Saffron, too.
