The Riverside Press-Enterprise
New SHOR Bazaar promises elevated South Asian street food
With some recipes from his many travels, and a menu that includes elevated dishes like mantu, a traditional Afghan beef dumpling and tomahawk kebab made with Hunter Australian wagyu beef, chef Imran Ali Mookhi is bringing Afghan, Indian and Pakistani cuisine to Hawaiian Gardens when SHOR Bazaar opens Feb. 9.
And following halal tradition, the Pakistan-born chef will eschew any alcohol at his new restaurant and instead will offer a menu of mocktails and zero-proof wine, beer and spirits. But the most high-end item on his otherwise sophisticated yet reasonably affordable menu is the water, particularly the $1,000 bottle.
Yes, $1,000 for a bottle of water. “There’s a whole other market for water. There’s water that comes from Japan, from Norway; there’s water that comes from icebergs. It’s crazy,” said Mookhi, who will helm the kitchen at SHOR Bazaar as its executive chef.
SHOR Bazaar is the latest restaurant from the team behind Fullerton’s Khan Saab Desi Craft Kitchen, which won a Michelin Bib Gourmand Award. Mookhi is also the executive chef at Khan Saab. At the new sister restaurant, the chef wanted to emulate a busy bazaar where various food stalls play a central role.
“Our concept was to bring that element where you get to experience different styles of street food,” he said. “The flavor and the recipes are authentic but the presentation of the food is more modernized and infused with modern techniques of cooking as well,” he said.
Water world
The experience will begin with his Water Bar, where the chef has sourced water from companies mostly known for their luxuriously designed bottles, with some sporting bling things like crystals
and jewels.
Mookhi got the idea for a high-end water bottle menu during a trip to Saudi Arabia, where he was eating at a restaurant and saw a cool-looking bottle. He thought it was filled with alcohol so he asked the manager, who told him that no, the fancy bottle he was looking at was filled with water, and it cost $100,000. Yes, $100,000.
“I was shocked. I’ve seen a $100,000 bottle of Champagne but not water,” he said. Mookhi didn’t taste the water because he couldn’t afford the hefty price, but it gave him the idea to do something similar at his restaurant.
The water menu ranges from a $12 bottle of Hildon filtered mineral water from England to a whopping $400 bottle of water from American-sourced Spring Bling H2O to the super whopping, $1,000, limited edition bottle Fillico Jewelry Water from Japan.
“The water comes from a well in Japan in the mountains. The water is purified with diamonds. It’s a whole crazy process,” Mookhi said.
The appeal of the high end water has a lot to do with the bottles, which patrons will of course get to keep as a status symbol.
The Fillico bottle is made of frosted dark glass and is decorated with angel wings. According to the chef, the cap was designed by Dior and the entire thing resembles a giant chess piece. Only about 500 Fillico Jewelry bottles are made every year, and the chef has secured 12. About 10 have been reserved even before the restaurant opens.
The real wow factor
While the high-end water is sure to spark conversations at the table, the food, of course, is the real wow factor, and it’s not going to break too many wallets since entrees are priced from the low $20 to low $30 range.
One highlight is the mantu ($14), a traditional Afghan dumpling that the chef said is served in every household.
“When you have that in your month you will have an explosion, a journey of spices from Afghanistan,” he said.
Another must-try is the $18 goat cheese kulcha, which is goat cheese naan topped with Parmesan cheese and brushed with truffle oil. “You get that rich cheese bread with the flavor and smell of that truffle,” he said.
The chef found another of his dishes in Pakistan, where he was dining at a restaurant and ordered a Balochi tikka, a traditional chicken dish.
“I was blown away. I went straight to the chef and I said I will stand here and pay you money if you show me how to make it. I will pay you for the recipe,” he said.
He paid the chef, learned the process and is now bringing it to Hawaiian Gardens. The bone-in chicken is marinated with ginger, garlic and black salt rubbed with a mix of about 22 spices.
“That’s my personal favorite,” he said. “It’s tangy, earthy, not super heavy on your palate as well,” he said. It costs $22.
But how will all that food pair with a $1,000 bottle of water?
“We tasted the water and it’s pretty different. I’m not a water expert but it tasted different. It didn’t feel heavy and it was very exotic. It felt like there was something going through your body while you were drinking it,” he said.