27 West 24th Street (near Fifth Avenue)
212-490-2100
junoonnyc.com

    Now two years old, Junoon has had deservedly good press, not least a Michelin star, the only one awarded to an Indian restaurant in NYC (London has three).  The reasons are easy enough to discern: owner Rajesh Bhardwaj set out to show that Indian food need not be an array of 100 dishes with five sauces and to prove that the cuisine can be as refined as any.  It would not be true, however, to say that Junoon is NYC's first "upscale" Indian restaurant, for, right along with the cherished, casual storefronts in Murray Hill,  the East Village and Astoria, there have always been finely decorated midtown restaurants like Dawat, Chola, Bombay Palace, and Tulsi.
     Junoon does, however, offer a larger, grander concept of modern style--the name Junoon means "passion"--which begins with  a seductively lighted 50-seat bar separated from the large dining room. The lounge area has two antique jhoola swings made from Burmese teak wood; the façade has a wonderful basket weave of black limestone;  "Tree of Life" sculptures line the entry to the main dining area, where  roomy booths and large dining tables are set with good napery and fine glassware.  To the far wall is a brightly lighted glassed-in kitchen. (I should note that for some reason the seductively  low lighting of the dining room is lowered further around nine o'clock, which makes it no more seductive but actually decreases the pleasure in seeing the color and beauty of the food settings.)
      Scott Carney's 750-label wine list--with one Indian selection--would be extraordinary in an haute cuisine French restaurant, but in an Indian restaurant it is unique.  Whether ,all 750 of those wines actually are a good match for the high spicings in Indian food is a matter of taste, but we enjoyed a Sancerre at $65 that had enough spice and minerality of its own to go with our meal. I'm not sure, though, that a Château Cheval Blanc 2000 ($2500) or a Joseph Phelps Insignia magnum  2008 ($800) on the list meets Carney's criterion as a "supple, fruity red."
     As I did on my last visit, my wife and friends put ourselves in the hands and imagination of Executivehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvfRGnmVHN0e Chef Vikas Khanna and  Chef Aliya Lee Kong (below).  They had just begun the spring menu, which is offered à la carte and as both a $75 and a $65 vegetable dinner.
    I must report that on the night I visited, midweek, the dining room was pretty full by eight o'clock, but that could hardly have been the cause for the distressing delays in getting our food out of the kitchen. Since no Indian bread nor pappadum crisps are presented to the table, we nursed cocktails and a bottle of wine for 45 minutes before the appetizers arrived (and not taking time  to choose our meal).  Then it was another 45 minutes before a middle course arrived, followed minutes later by the main courses, and more wine.  We kept on ordering more bread--the garlic naan with prunes is outstanding--just to keep our appetite at bay. Whatever the mix-up was, it was never explained. I like to assume it was an off night for service.
    We began with a shooter  of pretty,  light green spiced spinach puree, then an array of appetizers that included lahsooni gobi, crispy soft-centered cauliflower with chili flakes and a garlic tomato chutney; delicious eggplant chaat with yogurt, sweet-sour tamarind and red onion for texture and sweetness; murg tikka hasnu, which are tender chicken thighs with assertive garam masala spices and the surprise of cheddar cheese, served with a tomato-cucumber salad.  The really outstanding first course was salmon tikka, a dish difficult to get right because the salmon--which must be of the finest quality to begin with--can so easily cook through and become dried out in the fierce heat of the tandoor oven.  Here, it was a superbly rendered fine fish, juicy throughout its flesh,  served with greens. We shared these appetizers, but portions were not particularly generous.
    When our entrees arrived, we hungry few leapt on them.  Kari patta shrimp (rather small in size) were cooked in the tandoor with curry leaves, green chilies, coriander and pickled vegetables. Excellent wild striped bass malvan (above), a dish cooked on the cast iron tawa, was simply done with a sauce of fresh coconut, green chilies and kodampulli, a dried smoked fruit. Another tawa dish, murg labadar, was creamy chicken tikka simmered with cashews and white poppy seeds.  A handi dish--basically a curry---was patiala shai goat, slowly cooked but keeping all the succulence, along with with green chilies in a subtle, smoky peanut-tamarind sauce.  Punjabi kadi was a dish of chickpeas  and vegetable pakoras fritters with yogurt, dry red chili and garam masala.  The food at Junoon aims for subtlety, not mere heat, so if you prefer the latter style, make sure you ask for it.
    Pastry Chef Angie Lee goes well beyond the clichés of Indian sweets with desserts that might well find their way onto a French or American dining table anywhere in NYC: coconut rice pudding with brûléed bananas, dates, a rum hazelnut candied almonds and lovely ginger ice cream; a spice chocolate cake with chocolate sable, chocolate cream, white chocolate powder, and nutty torrone ice cream;  best of all,  a moist date and fig cake with a salty caramel sauce, clementines for a tangy edge, black sesame crumble, and nougat cinnamon ice cream--a perfect amalgam of flavors that bridges East and West sweets.
    In many respects that is the signature of Junoon, keeping long, refined culinary traditions alive in a modern style not opposed to Western influence.  It clicks right into in a melting pot city like New York. 

Junoon is open for lunch and dinner daily.  Appetizers run $12-$15, main courses $16-$38.

Rye Coming Through as the Hot New Whiskey
by John Mariani

                                                               
                                                                                                                Rye grain

     Ask most people to name a rye whiskey label, and they’ll probably squint and mumble, “Uh, Canadian Club?” Which is a blended whiskey, not a rye, as defined by the U.S. Standards of Identity as a spirit containing at least 51 percent rye. Yet over the past couple of years, rye has become the hottest “new” whiskey around, despite its being America’s first colonial spirit, long before bourbon was ever distilled.
    “When we first came back on the market with our Michter’s Rye in the 1990s, we were turned down by distributors,” says Joseph J. Magliocco, President of Michter’s Distillery LLC in Louisville, KY, which had gone bankrupt in 1989. “Now, we’re completely sold out of our 10 and 25 year old ryes, and our Chinese importer tells us it’s selling in Hong Kong bars for $150 per ounce!”
    This new fame was a long time coming. After Prohibition rye competed well enough with bourbon, but by the late 1970s all “brown goods,” including bourbon, Scotch, and brandy, were in free fall, replaced by more popular “white goods” like vodka and rum. “The word `rye’ on a bottle was a negative for years,” says Magliocco.
    But the renewed interest in bourbon in the 1990s, with a flood of new small batch and signature bourbons spilling into the market, spurred others to try to fill a niche market for smoother, small-batch, aged ryes, now being made in Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania, California, Virginia, Illinois, and Indiana.
      According to Fred Minnick, a spirits expert who writes for Whiskey Advocate and Whiskey magazine,  “What happened was that back in 2000 Seagram folded their whiskey operations, and its Lawrenceburg, Indiana, distillery was acquired by Pernod Ricard, which announced it would close it in 2006. (CL Financial purchased it but sold it five years later.) The distillery had a couple thousand barrels of rye whiskey leftover with nowhere to go. Then, small brands started popping up, buying the Indiana juice. Bartenders got hold of it and loved it for making whiskey sours, old fashioneds, and Manhattans, because rye is a good mixer. Then the Japanese and English, who love American whiskies, started bringing cases back with them on the plane, so now there’s incredible interest in the international market for rye. In fact, a lot of rye grain is now coming out of Europe.”
    When the Sazerac label introduced its “small batch” rye ten years ago, it was “a real gamble,” according to Kris Comstock, marketing director of Buffalo Trace. “Now there’s such a proliferation of info through social media and online that American whiskies are booming. Sazerac piqued people’s curiosity, and we now makes five different ryes, released annually and extremely allocated. The interest feeds on itself.”
    The new ryes are largely distinguished by their barrel finishing. Angel’s Envy, made by master distiller, Lincoln Anderson, 74, with his son Wes, 47, and grandson Kyle, 23 (left), is finished in Caribbean rum whiskey casks. “We had to come up with cool ideas,” says Lincoln. “So I tasted hundreds of different rums, then sought out the barrels that the ones I liked were aged in. So we take a 95% rye whiskey and age it in those barrels. The natural spiciness of rye collides in a beautiful way with the molasses and rum flavors.” Angel's Envy will be released this month and by 2014 will be distributed in 27 states.
    Wes Anderson explains Angel’s Envy’s name: “The 20 to 30 percent of whiskey that evaporates from the barrel into the air is called the `angel’s share.’ But we don't let them have all of it. They don’t deserve it, so we call it Angel’s Envy.”
    I tasted a wide array of ryes—with a splash of water—and found them a far cry from the raw, stinging stuff of the past.  Here are some of my favorites.

Redemption ($30)—a 92° proof beauty, made from 95 percent rye sourced from Indiana.  The nose bolts out of the glass before you even sniff it. It’s very smooth, broadens on the palate, with a mild finish but little bite. 

Rittenhouse 100 proof Bottle in Bond Straight Rye ($24)—Though made in Kentucky, this is a “Pennsylvania-style” rye named after David Rittenhouse, first director of the U.S. Mint. Despite its proof, this is a silky, creamy whiskey with a seductive, slow burn. Not meant for diluting in a cocktail. 

Sazerac Rye ($30)—One of five Sazerac ryes, this 90° proof crisp style has lots of flavor components and hints of molasses and cinnamon, and it goes down very easily. An ideal base for rye cocktails. 

Colonel E.H. Taylor, Jr. Straight Rye ($70)—Another Sazerac rye, it’s pricey but shows off breeding through a mating of rye and malted barley, so, while light in color, it has a briary cut to it that may remind you of a single malt Scotch.

Michter’s 10-Year-Old ($70)—Michter’s US 1 Straight Rye is impressive enough for its depth and layers of true rye flavors, but the 10-Year-Old shows just how strikingly American whiskey can compete with the finest Scotches and Cognacs out there. You want complexity, a nip of oak and smoke, this is well worth seeking out and worth every penny it costs.

Knob Creek Rye  ($41)—Another blockbuster at 100° proof, this has plenty of spice notes and gets vanilla from its charred oak barrels. 

WhistlePig ($70)—Aged ten years and 100° proof from 100 percent rye, WhistlePig is currently made from Canadian rye finished in bourbon barrels in Vermont, where the producers hope to have their own distillery up and running this summer. It’s got plenty of spice, some anise and caramel, and it’s gaining favor and distribution beyond the New England and the Mid-Atlantic states. 

Willett 4 Year Old Single Barrel Rare Release ($36)—Ready for a 110° proof rye? This is a surprisingly very smooth whiskey indeed, with little burn, and has a lush, sweet element to it. The company has a Franco-American colonial history and opened its distillery in 1935.

This article first appeared in  Bloomberg News.