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Waterloo Chronicle | Thursday, December 1, 2022 | 10 waterloochronicle.ca TERLOO REGION RECORD Give the gift of the Tagine Recor AVVET rey eye) GIVE THE GIFT OF TRUSTED NEWS 79 WATERLOO REGI [ON RECORD Visit wroffer.ca/gift/ WRWMGIFT or call 1-800-210-5210 and quote code WRWMGIFT Give a 1-year Friday and Saturday Home-Delivery Subscription Get a $25 Walmart eGift card Interested in a gift subscription to therecord.com? Visit therecord.com/gifts for more information. *Plus HST. See full offer Review section. Gi TV book or The New York Times and Book is ber to the od. No refunds will be emailed to the gift id. The eGift card oF offer. SCANTO SUBSCRIBE Home delivery O] 0 BB OPINION Vegetable dum biryani. Bahar Indian Cuisine photo NEW RESTO BRINGS THE FLAVOURS AND COLOURS OF SPRING OWNER DESCRIBES THE RESTAURANT AS AN UPSCALE CASUAL VENUE OFFERING A GOOD NUMBER OF SOUTH INDIAN DISHES, WRITES ANDREW COPPOLINO ANDREW COPPOLINO. Column Winter is coming, buta new restaurant in down- wn Kitchener promises then flavours and colours of — and some spice too. Indian Cuisine — "bahar" refers to "spring" — has opened at 276 King St. W., Unit 3, adjacent to Crafty Ramen. "We're spring and the colours of flowers with our food," says owner Stephen in. An executive chef with Fc years of experience in e industry and having Worked with major hotel brands like Fairmont and Hilton, Kiran wanted his own brand and set his sights on a casual dine-in during COVID-19. We didn't know then it was a pandemic, and we opened. COVID hit in February. It wasa tough time for us, but we made it." Successful in Bramp- ton, Kiran chose Kitchener for his second restaurant, both for its proximity to the GTA and the evolution of its population, which is about 625,000. Second only to Chinese, Punjabi is the most spoken. language in Waterloo Re- gion homes after English, according to Statistics Canada. “A lot of people are com- ing here, and the down. town seems to be becoming busy. There's alot around," he says. "I wanted to ex- pand away from the GTA." He describes the Bahar restaurant as an upscale casual venue offering good number of south ind, an dishes which will entice a demographic hungry for Indian food. “Most people here are familiar with Punjabi dish- es. When people hear Indi- an, the first thing that comes to mind is butter chicken. Bahar has south- ern Indian food with a blend of spices anda fusion f cultures." nd don menu is vibrant "You c: ant thee cultures of India i in With nearly two dozen varieties on the menu, you can explore those cultures and the regions of Indian ugh the rice dish, bi- ryani. "In the GTA, we're known for our biryanis. We them in a traditional bate " Kiran says. “The meat is marinated for hours and then put ona slow flame. It simmers in its own juices, and then we add the basinath rice to get full flavor The dish i is truly one of the wonders of world cui- sine with a virtually un- countable number of vari- ations both within the Indi- an subcontinent and out- side. Skimming culinary his- tory, it's possible to say that biryaniis a rice dish of Per- See - page 11