Entries Tagged as 'indian'

Bombay Wraps

January 13th, 2011 · No Comments

Back in November, Anjum and I decided to try out a relatively new Loop fast-food restaurant called Bombay Wraps. I was excited. Fast Indian food within walking distance of the office? Sign me up!

Bombay Wraps is small, so we got our food to go. You choose whether you want chicken tikka, chicken reshmi, potato tava, steak boti, cheese paneer, or lamb curry and you can get any of them either in a paratha (flaky, layered flatbread) or 100% whole wheat roti. I got the chicken tikka, which is grilled boneless chicken marinated in traditional Tandoori spices, finished with pickled onions, fresh cilantro chutney and a light garlic and ginger sauce.

The wraps were good, but the thing is, they were SO small. Like I should have gotten two of them, but at $4-6 each, doubling up makes it kind of an expensive lunch. I might go back just because it’s something different for lunch, but I’m not rushing to get there. Maybe next time I’ll try a side, too. They have sweet potato fries, samosa, and a bombay salad for $2 each.

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India House

September 16th, 2010 · 4 Comments

This week Erin and Cinnamon and I got together for dinner at India House. We had all been jonesing for Indian food and so we’d decided that we wanted to go to an Indian restaurant for our next dinner.

It was funny… fate.. on the day that I emailled Cinnamon and Erin about setting up a date for Indian dinner the Groupon for the day was for India House. I honestly wasn’t sure about buying it. Cinnamon lives right by Devon and so that is where we’ve gone in the past when we had an Indian food craving. I checked with Cinnamon and Erin and they were willing to try an Indian restaurant in (gasp!) River North, so I bought the Groupon and this week we went.

I realllllly wanted the food to be good so we could go back and you know what? It was really good. The menu is HUGE. The restaurant was not too packed with people, but not empty. And the interior was nice, but not too formal or fancy. Very comfortable all round.

I thought it was strange at first that we weren’t served papadum in the beginning of our meal. We were served a bread that was sort of like buttered strips of naan. It’s not that I was disappointed or that I love papadum so much, but I guess I”m just used to the routine of getting it at the beginning of every Indian dinner. No matter.

For an appetizer we had Bhindi Amchur, which is deep-fried, wafer-thin slices of okra that is sprinkled with tangy Indian spices. Erin had this somewhere else once and remember that she loved it, so we ordered it. It was SO good. Exactly what the description says.. crispy, tangy, addictive. We had this whole discussion about the first time we’d ever eaten okra. Erin and Cinnamon grew up having it fried, but my dad used to make it boiled and it was the grossest thing ever. It took me a long time to come to terms with okra and realize that if you fry it, like most things fried, it is delicious.

For another appetizer we ordered Papdi Chaat, homemade pastry crisps topped with boiled potatoes, chopped onions, and cilantro, smothered with sweet chutney and chilled light yogurt. Think nachos for this one. The pastry chips were round like round tortilla chips and you could sort of eat this dish in the same way. It was a cold dish, though, unlike nachos. I was telling Erin and Cinnamon about the Samosa Chaat that I had in New York and how great it was, so that’s why we ordered a chat. I liked the one in New York better, but this was still very good.

We decided that for our main courses we would each order something and share with everyone else so that we could sample a few different things. Since I haven’t gotten it for a while, I ordered my old standby: Chicken Tikka Masala, which is chunks of chicken roasted in a clay oven and then folded into a creamy sauce. Cinnamon ordered a dish none of us had ever heard of: Chicken Badami, chicken cubes cooked in a rich almond-flavored sauce. Erin ordered a vegetarian spinach dish. I think it was Palak Paneer, fresh cottage cheese cubes in a spicy spinach sauce.

Finally, for a bread we ordered Khandhari Naan, a rare bread made with leavened dough and a rich sprinkling of pistachio nuts. The three of us will never forget the delicious pistachio bread we had at Bhabi’s Kitchen (now closed, sad face!). I have to tell you… I was very happy with all of the food we had, and this includes the naan, but nothing is ever going to top that bread we had at Bhabi’s. Never ever! It was SO good. All in all, though, India House did not disappoint and I’m sure I’ll be back, now that it passed the test!

Of course it is always great to go out with Erin and Cinnamon. We don’t see each other often, but when we do, we just pick back up where we left off and it is so great. So much has happened to everyone that we had so much to talk about. Erin is expecting a baby girl in February, I’m getting married in February, and Cinnamon has gone on a bunch of trips over the summer. So nice to catch up with the ladies and enjoy some super delicious food.

Oh! I almost forgot… dessert! At the end of dinner they brought out dessert menus and we were so busy talking that we didn’t really look at them. The waiter came back a few times and we still hadn’t really looked. So, Erin and I both looked down at the dessert menu and the first thing that we read was “golden fried balls.” BINGO! I didn’t even read the rest. I’d eat golden fried balls of anything, I think. So we ordered it. It was Gulab Jamun, golden fried balls of milk pastry soaked in a sweet saffron syrup and served hot. Cinnamon had this dish before and said we would not be disappointed. OMG. So delicious. What a great dinner.

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Stop! Dosa Time!

August 25th, 2010 · No Comments

When Dallas and I arrived in New York on Friday afternoon we hung out and chatted with Jeannette and caught up on everything. When dinnertime came around we were trying to think of what to eat that we haven’t had for a long time. We thought maybe Korean, but settled on Indian. Jeannette and Yvan live in Queens and not too far from Jackson Heights, the largest Indian neighborhood in New York, so we headed over there to Delhi Palace for dinner.

We got appetizers and entrees, but most important of all, Jeannette and I split a dosa, which I’d never had before. The dosa is a savory rice and lental crepe served with fresh coconut and tomato chutney. It’s typically South Indian and is eaten for breakfast or dinner. In many places it’s eaten daily.

Delhi Palace had about a dozen different types of dosa. We decided to get the Butter Masala Dosa, a butter flavored crepe filled with spices potatoes, onions and nuts. Delicious, the crepe was nice and light, the filling savory and tasty. And the sauces were good too. I want more dosa!

As for the other food of the night, we of course started with Papadum, the fried crisp lentil wafers that are served at just about every Indian restaurant. We also had an appetizer called Samosa Chaat, which was smashed samosa topped with mildly spiced chickpeas, mint sauce, yogurt, and tamarind sauce. We all through this dish was very good. I’ve had samosa before, but I’ve never had them smashed up with other bits on top. The tamarind gave it a slightly sweet taste. Yum.

Be tried another appetizer called Bombay Bhel, made of rice krispies and mixed with chopped potatoes, onions, tomatoes, mint and tamarind. The menu said it was a street junk food in Bombay and that “U must try” it. So we gave it a try. Meh. When they say it’s made of rice krispies, they mean literally. Rice krispies cereal. Cold. Not the best, but we “must try”!

For entrees, Dallas had the Gosht Chiily Fry, marinated lamb cooked in tandoor, sliced and sauteed with peppers, onions, tomatoes & chilies (spicy). Jeannette had the Gosht Rogan Josh, cubes of lamb cooked in onion based red sauce & flavored with cardamom (specialty of Kashmir). And I had the Murg Korma, boneless chicken cooked with mildly spiced creamy sauce flavored with raisins and nuts. I ordered it mild and our wait asked a few times if I was sure. He seemed to want me to order it medium. In hindsight, I probably should have. My dish was good, but a little more spice would have given it an extra kick. Jeannette said the flavors of her dish were good but not like amazing. Same with Dallas. And his, even though it said “spicy,” it was anything but.

We had garlic naan on the side and some raita. Oh, and Dallas and I tried the Flying Horse beer. Jeannette asked about the wines. They serve Yellowtail.

We decided to pass on dessert since we were so stuffed from everything we ate. There’s a sweets shop attached to Delhi Palace and even though we passed on them, they brought us out a place of dessert to share. I don’t know how to describe what it was. At first we thought it was ice cream, but then realized it was solid square/triangle pieces. They were very rich and creamy, like a cheese dessert. Maybe burfi or kalakand?

It was so great to have a good Indian dinner. In Chicago 99% of all of the Indian restaurants are located up on Devon Avenue, which is about as far out of the way as you can get. I definitely want to try some more dosas!

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Bhabi’s Kitchen

April 29th, 2009 · No Comments

pistachio_naan
Pistachio Naan, Bhabi’s Kitchen, Rogers Park, Chicago

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Chicken Masala, Bhabi’s Kitchen, Rogers Park, Chicago

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Colorful Dining Room at Bhabi’s Kitchen, Rogers Park, Chicago

This month Erin and Cinnamon and I went to dinner up in Cinnamon’s neighborhood, Rogers Park. Cinnamon recommended Bhabi’s Kitchen, an Indian restaurant that I’ve heard a lot about but had never visited. I was excited to try Bhabi’s, but also excited just to eat Indian food. I love it and don’t get to eat it much in Chicago. In New York the Indian restaurants were disbursed around the city everywhere. In Chicago there are only a few that come to mind that are not very far north on Devon Avenue. Guess what, though? Devon is not that far when you have a car!

We tried the pakoda (chickpea flour nuggets with onion, fenugreek and spices) as an appetizer. Bite-sized fried pieces with three different sauces. Yum! For my entree I got my old favorite, chicken masala (chicken with a special spicy gravy). I’m used to the dish being prepared with a cream like yogurt mixed in the sauce and with boneless chicken. Here the dish is more of a red sauce and with whole chicken pieces.. so not my favorite preparation, but I still enjoyed the taste of the sauce a lot. Erin loved the bagarey balgan (fresh Indian eggplant cooked with secret spices). I tried a bit and it was delicious. Cinnamon got the saag paneer (fresh spinach cooked with spices and cheese cubes). I’m not a huge fan of spinach cooked down, but I think if you’re a saag paneer fan you’d like this dish. I tried a bit and it was good.

I especially enjoyed Bhabi’s Kitchen’s unique selection of breads. According to this Smithsonian Magazine article, there are 20 varieties of bread made with six different flours. We tried the makal corn flour bread and the pistachio naan (with mixed dried fruits and sprinkled with powdered sugar). We ordered the pistachio bread off a recommendation Erin had read in that same article. It was so good I wanted to eat the entire thing myself! The bread was sweet enough to be a dessert, but I found that their entrees tended to be pretty spicy, so eating them with the sweet bread cut the heat a bit. I want to go back just to try all of the breads. I think I say that every single time I go out for Indian food. I’m in love even with the most basic naan.

As always, dinner with Erin and Cinnamon was great. I enjoy hanging out with the ladies and am very grateful we make the time to get together on a regular basis. Every single time, no matter what, we sit and talk and talk until the restaurant closes and we are forced to leave. We have to be some of the most well connected people online and we still find a million things to talk about when we meet up.

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“Oh, you know, it’s just your standard Indian restaurant.”

August 9th, 2007 · 1 Comment

Standard India Restaurant
Standard India Restaurant, Lakeview, Chicago

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