Restaurant Review: Magic in the bottle at The Spice Genie

Damn your eyes, man, I thought you said we could go back inside, that there’d be no more of this food truck business. Yes, we enjoyed the food, but we’re sick of standing around outside wondering which mood summer is in today. Sure, isn’t The Covid gone forever (well… em!) and we want to go back inside to a nice comfortable restaurant once more.

Actually, I have been reviewing food trucks for quite some years before the first lockdown ever arrived, back when ‘Pandemic’ was nothing more than an American sci-fi film and I’ll certainly review them again in the future for the limitations of their size tend to concentrate the minds of their owner/operators, sharpening focus and inspiring creative culinary innovation that can make for truly vital and exciting eating.

But, I know what you mean, right now, food trucks remind us of ‘that time’ we are all desperately trying to put behind us, even if The Covid still lingers unwanted in various corners of the party.

However, Chris Braganza and his Spice Genie food truck have been on my radar for quite some time, even before he fetched up on and eventually won RTÉ’s Battle of the Food Trucks. I have never really warmed to the show, finding the alternative, Paul Flynn’s Favourite Food Trucks (also RTÉ) a better encapsulation of the culture of street food, but Braganza appeared a deserving winner.

Nipping down the road from Cork to Midleton, where Spice Genie is pitched up alongside the Midleton Farmer’s Market is usually a 20-odd minute spin but today, one of the hottest of the year, it takes close to an hour, traffic backed up for several miles until we pass the hold-up, a single decker coach at the side of the road, engine burnt out, passengers disgorged. Yep, it’s hot.

By the time we reach Midleton, we’re cutting it fine. A quick dash through the market (passing Mike Barrett’s Lobsterman food truck, his lobster rolls highly recommended by this writer) and we find a rather quiet Spice Genie trailer, as all and sundry in East Cork have headed off to the beach.

In addition, the Gael tends to think of spicy Indian food as a cold weather warmer, forgetting most Indians eat this kind of fare in temperatures that put an Irish heatwave in the shade, metaphorically and literally—chilli actually helps to regulate body temperature in extreme heat.

Braganza’s winning menu in the final of BoTFT included a South Indian street food classic, a dosa, a pancake made with fermented batter of rice and urad dal lentils, a long time passion of mine. The Spice Genie dosa is smashing, tangy with a slight anise fenugreek note. Textures are gorgeous; sugars in rice’s starch crisp up on the hotplate and lentils bring a pleasing chewiness. It is stuffed with an earthy potato and sweet corn masala, the perfect little parcel elevated with a bright, clean coconut chutney, popping with coriander and tart tamarind.

Currently, for reasons of time and space, Spice Genie samosas are akin to some Indian cousin of a Greek spanakopita; instead of classic dough of flour, fat (butter, ghee or oil) and water, Braganza uses crispy filo pastry. Filling is a gently spiced mix of garlicky potato, onion and sweetcorn. Sharp, fruity tamarind sauce adds salivating contrast but I’m looking forward to Braganza’s take on the traditional version, soon to be possible with the planned opening of his new bricks-and-mortar deli shop in Midleton.

Chicken tikka has gobbets of tender spiced chicken coated in creamy, spiced sauce, sweet with cinnamon, tangy with yoghurt and astringent clove.

Beef masala in a real taste of home for Goan-born and raised Braganza, spice blend, made by his mother and flavoursome, melting Irish beef cooked with potatoes and kidney beans; comforting, delicious, spicing is gentle, earthy and warm, rather than a searing chilli-driven firestorm.

Actually, all Braganza’s dishes shy away from excessive heat: personally, he’d prefer to amp up the temperature somewhat but knows his local customer base, not least the 15-month-old son of a woman from Delhi and her Polish husband who come along every Saturday, the infant’s palate serving as pretty much the baseline gauge for spicy heat. For those who want to turn up the thermostat, Braganza offers the option of additional chilli oil or freshly chopped chillis.

Both meat dishes are excellent, and can be enjoyed as part of a combo bowl but my favourite of the masalas is a vegan lentil potato sambar masala of potatoes, gloopy savoury spicy sauce thickened with chana dal and served with cauliflower and sweetcorn, un-showy and elementally simple. Some chilli pickles on the side and I’d truly be in heaven; again, additional elements Braganza hopes to soon add when he can utilise the additional space of the new premises. Also coming is sibling brand Sweet Genie which will showcase Braganza’s dessert-making skills, for the man is actually a fully-trained pastry chef (and a League of Ireland referee!), including over a decade working in the kitchens of Castlemartyr Resort Hotel.

Overall, Braganza’s cooking is wonderfully instinctive, adding his own twists, and his spicing is empathetic and sublimely balanced. Neither is he afraid to adapt to his new home country in employing quintessentially Irish ingredients and produce. No 1 Son supplies his own sterling imprimatur, applying the remorseless masticatory skills of eternally ravenous adolescent to each and every dish and doesn’t come up once for air, other than the occasional highly approving grimace and thumbs up, a primal eloquence that probably tells you all you need to know about the Spice Genie magic.

The Bill: €32

The Verdict

• Food: 8.5/10
• Service: 9.5/10
• Value: 9.5/10
• Atmosphere: 10/10 (A sunny day at Midleton Farmer’s Market with the equally sunny Braganza in attendance!)