Jaffron indian in New Hope

photo Aleksandar Damevski

A delightful Indian couple is cooking very good food in a slip of a flourescently lit kitchen in New Hope. Their restaurant is Jaffron.

The search for Indian food can yield an off putting array of brownish yellow oily sauces with one overarching flavor that often prove to be unkind to the digestive regions.  

What makes Indian food authenticand enticing? 

Indian food should be packed with fresh ingredients. The vegetables should resemble something of their original form, not look as if they have been mashed into a jar in a far off factory. 

Each family and each Indian chef will have their own special blend of spices - coriander, cumin, pepper, ginger, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon, bay, tumerick - and they will differ from kitchen to kitchen. 

At Jaffron the dishes present an array of interesting flavors. The baigan ka bharta, or baked eggplant with onions, tomatoes, and fresh herbs, does indeed have fresh herbs as well as an array of seeds and leaves and pods from the various spices that are used in the sauce. The aloo gobi matar, cauliflower and potato cooked with green peas, ginger, tomato, and spices also has a collection of spice remnants that end up on the side of a diner’s plate.  The meat dishes are flavorful and fresh. The samosas are excellent, made with a crust that is not too thick or saturated with frying oil. 

Any combination of dishes from the menu will yield equally pleasing results. From the tandoori chicken to the lamb vindaloo each dish has a unique flavor and combination of ingredients. 

The ambiance in the dining room lends itself to take out - nonetheless, there is usually a strong crowd on the weekends at Jaffron, New Hope. New comers to the cuisine of India will find the staff extremely willing to make the necessary introductions.