Written by: Hurmat Majid
Posted on: July 08, 2020 | 
The Beijing Beef
Four months into a pandemic, and most of us are craving really good food and in a restaurant setting. While half of this dream may be still a little out of reach, a number of new takeout places have popped up all over the city to satiate Karachi's undying love for amazing food. Funky Monk is one of these relatively new places.
While the Chinese food delivery place did open up a little before coronavirus took over our lives, the addition of the new comfort bowls was what put it on the map in the past couple of months. Ordering takeout was an occasion for our family; we dressed up for it, and ordered more food than was often required for our party of four.
To begin the affair, we had the Funky Monk Special Soup, which came with complementary crackers, and the Dynamite Prawns. Those sadly came with very little sauce, but more on that later.
Dishes from the Funky Monk (photo credits to Funky Monk)
The mains included the Cashew Chicken Bowl, the Beijing Beef, Egg Fried Rice and Vegetable Noodles. The Funky Monk Special Soup was an "everything but the kitchen sink" kind of affair, laden with lots of vegetables, including some fresh mushrooms, chicken and even a bit of tofu. Flavour-wise the dish was a little bit understated, but people can add the accompanying soy sauce, red chilli sauce and vinegar in different degrees to create the balance of flavour that is right for them. The complimentary crackers were a nice touch.
The Dynamite Prawns were incredibly sized, but those poor guys were cooked within half-an-inch of their life, to the point where they were almost chewy and the batter lacked any seasoning. Also, sending hot prawns in a flimsy paper container, meant that they arrived nearly cold, and not much could be done to salvage them.
The Dynamite Prawns
Since seafood is meant to be consumed piping hot, perhaps it is not the best idea to have them delivered, unless one lives rather close to the restaurant itself. Also, one small container of the dynamite sauce for 12 prawns, meant that there was nothing to bring a pop of flavour to the dish.
We ordered the Cashew Chicken Bowl with noodles as the base, but two other base options were available: steamed rice and fried rice. The bowl was the uncontested hero of the menu. The chicken was warm and sticky, with a thick sweet and sour sauce and an adequate amount of cashew nuts in the bowl. The noodles were well-done, and seemed to have been cooked in a flavoured broth, rather than in plain water.
The Beijing Beef came with carrots and onions, glazed in sauce. The meat was tender but sticky enough to stay on the tongue for a long time, and the dish worked well with the egg fried rice, and even had enough flavour to have worked with simple steamed rice.
The Funky Monk Special Soup
It's a fair assessment that the "carrier" dishes, that is, the fried rice and the noodles were a little muted when it came to the flavor. However, muted did not mean that it was bland. It only meant that the flavour was not as big and bold as we are used to. If it was intentional, we understand that it may have been a conscious effort, either to be more faithful to original Chinese flavors, or to ensure that the hero dishes, as in the chicken in the noodle bowl or the Beijing Beef, could truly take centre stage on our palettes.
Overall damage to the pocket was 4,600 but considering that most of our order was family-sized, the price can be justified. Yes, the kitchen at the Funky Monk needs to find its bearing a little, and work to make their flavour palette bolder. However, due to the bowls and well cooked meat, we will probably still give this takeout place another chance soon.
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