Bembi
By Michael Mueller
Lakwinder Singh has run the kitchen at Bembi since it opened in 2007, cooking the recipes of his mentor, Anand Singh Negi. Negi, who was born in northern India and lived for years in the south, worked for the Taj hotel group before developing dishes in London. He’s no longer at the stove every day, though the menus and plating at this formal Eixample restaurant remain his.
For the Hyderabadi dum ka hara murgh, the cooks seal chicken in a pot with cashew, cilantro and mint; the Thalassery tawa machi from Malabar pairs grilled hake with coconut and tamarind. They grind spices brought directly from India into a separate blend for each dish, using chicken from local farms, halal-certified lamb and veal from local producers and dairy from Montserrat. The regional cooking includes Lucknowi seekh kebab and Lucknowi gosht korma, with lamb in the Kashmiri gosht roganjosh. Butter chicken is the house specialty; the Goan chicken vindaloo comes with a warning on the menu: “for the brave.”
A dedicated tandoor cook bakes the bread to order.
Three partners opened Bembi on Consell de Cent as their first restaurant, later adding Rangoli on the Barceloneta waterfront in 2011 and Little Andaman to the group. Bembi serves meat and vegetarian tasting menus as well as a weekday lunch menu. Some of its dishes can also be made from Negi’s cookbook, Cocina india para occidentales, published by Océano-Ambar with more than 100 recipes.