Indian Potluck

I've always been skittish about hosting potlucks. The control freak in me has problems letting go. What if the dishes don't match! Potlucks with a theme may be the solution. At an Indian-themed potluck I attended, everyone chipped in. First up, Mango Lassi.

I brought some spicy snacks that I had picked up in Devon on a recent shopping trip. Hello friends with cars.

Homemade somosas with homemade dough. The dough was very hearty and probably took healthy for me, having been made with whole wheat flour. Still, it's always nice to eat food that has been prepared with care.

Chutney aka orange sauce for the somosas. I still think of chutney as something sticky and chunky, but I'm trying to let go.

Raita

Rice. I only just discovered at this dinner is that the trick to get the orange color is to drizzle some saffron infused water over the rice when it's done.

I brought this Eggplant Bhurtha dish - very spicy and fun to make.

This Mutter Paneer starts with a cashew puree, which was surprising but really lent a nice rich aromatic quality ot the dish.

Chicken prepared by our host, courtesy of his mother-in-law's recipe.

And a vegetarian dish from the same source. The image of mother-in-law and son-in-law bonding one weekend over old recipes is sweet. Our host is a bit of a precise fellow, and his mother-in-law has just made these dishes the way she has always made them. So he would consult an Indian cookbook that would call for a cup of a particular ingredient, and then she would proceed to pshaw him and say she just threw in eight spoonfuls. He couldn't take it, I suppose their love doesn't go that far, and measured our her eight spoonfuls, which equals exactly one cup.

And a homemade mango cheesecake. Everyone participating is incredibly busy, and it's such a treat to have people take time out of their packed schedules to make something delicious for you.

Usmania

In celebration of the end of finals, I trekked out with three students to Usmania. My expectations were wildly high, and they fell a little bit upon seeing the gleaming facade of the restaurant. I was expecting something small, hole-in-the-wall, but Usmania has the name of the restaurant in huge back-lit red letters.

The food itself was very good, but I strongly suspect Devon has more to offer. We started some kebab and tandoori chicken. The chicken was really tender and moist.

I think this is Chicken Makhni. It reminds me of Chicken Tikka Masala.

This spinach dish was my favorite. It was really rich and well-spiced.

No one was interested in the Brain Masala or Paya (cow feet cooked with different spices.) Sometimes I forget how useful the bastard consultant is as a dining companion given our mutual love of weird animal parts. We went with this curry instead, and I think it's actually beef!

A mutton biryani that I really enjoyed but some people found dealing with the bones a hassle. I love bones. I like finding the meat nestled in all the nooks and crannies. I love the gelatinous bits. The chewy tendon bits. I'm half convinced that I am not a midget because I spent so much time growing up gnawing on bones.

(I can sense eyes rolling amongst the community of readers that actually know something about nutrition and health.) Hey, bone gnawing for height is my theory, and I'm sticking with it.

I am the idiot that convinced people to order Usmania Kulfi dish. It was not good. The ice cream has melted and been refrozen so it had a lot of ice crystals. The weird scary noodles and red sweet sauce made me think the dish would have been more appropriate as a shock-value Halloween dessert than an eagerly anticipated ice-cream based sweet ending to a very filling meal.

Usmania, 2253 Devon Ave, Chicago, IL

Roti

My classmates are talented chefs as well, and a new friend was kind enough to let me try her homemade roti and kidney beans. Now that I've been on the receiving end of a few meals, I've realized that it really makes one feel so taken care of and welcome when someone spends the time to cook for you. I just love to entertain because I like being in the kitchen, and I like showing off culinary skills, but it has been lovely to be a guest as well.

Queens Food Crawl: Jackson Diner

Last stop on the food crawl was Jackson Diner, the famed Indian restaurant in Jackson-Heights. We had slowly been making our way towards it ever since we left flushing, but a taco truck, chaat-stand, and a freezer full of desserts had sent us on some happy detours.

Despite the multiple stops, all the walking had stimulated my appetite enough to enthusiastically dig into the basket of papadam. I love papadam. As much as I love butter popcorn, I really wish I could veg out watching a movie with a huge bowl of papadam in my lap and tamarind sauce and onion chutney on the side. That would be a crunchy, messy, and fantastic video night.

Mango lassi to cool the impending heat. Check.

Big heaping plate of Bhel Puri. Awesome! Makes one wish she were sitting at home at the kitchen table, with no one looking, and just shoveling the stuff in her maw with greasy fingertips.

Sweet lord I'm a pig. Obvious aside, this bowl of curry is Paneer Pasanda, described in the Jackson Diner menu as homemade cheese stuffed with spices, simmered in curry, and finished in cream. The cheese is soft, yielding, and addicting.

I know I've been one unmitigated sentence of adoration after another in this series of posts on the food crawl. Don't think I'm an undiscriminating food tourist. It's actually a bit difficult to have food that causes involuntary grins these days; I've spent so much of my life on the prowl searching for something just that much tastier. Despite diligent explorations, Queens remains largely a mystery to me, and it was beyond fun to taste so much that was good and true-to-itself, yet so different from most of what is available amongst the familiar streets of Manhattan. I strongly, strongly encourage that you strike your own excursion into the belly of Queens as soon as you can.

Queens Food Crawl: Grocery Ogling

Another favorite pastime for me while on a food crawl is popping into grocery stores. Here is an entire world of Indian snacks, and it's fun seeing something fill as much shelf space as our typical assortment of Doritos and Oreos, but instead packed to the gills with all variety of puffed rice, and spicy lentils and savory chickpea assortments.

And look! Look at this whole world of pickles! Each Southeast Asian country with its own take on spicy, puckery vegetables. I could grab ten bottles of those and with my rice cooker be set for weeks.

Queens Food Crawl: Chaat Stop

Next up: chaat - a.k.a. Indian cuisine's varied exploration of why all things fried are wonderful.

I can get a nigh on hysterical with excitement about food sometimes, and I got a bit jumpy ogling this guy smothering meat on a giant metal stick.

Still worried about over-filling the capacity of our stomachs, we convinced him to let us buy only one of several different types of chaat. Then we scurried across the street and huddled near the garbage can, while each person dipped a snack in the mint sauce and took a bite, moaned with fried-food induced happiness. I smiled as green dribbled down my arm towards my elbow.

36-67 74th St., Jackson Heights, Queens, NY

Saravanaas

I managed to swing back to Saravanaas one more time before I left New York. It's stunning how much I, and I suspect most of America, does not know about Indian food.

We started with Rasa Vada: crispy lentil donuts in a spicy south Indian soup. In hindsight I would have preferred something were I could have had the vada dry, as I love the crispy texture, but the soup was really good.

The thalis are so much fun. This is the South Indian Thali, and I love the variety. I'd go into detail about what I was eating, except I have no idea what I was eating.

This is a dosa. Just look at it! Can you believe going through life not knowing about dosas? It makes me feel like a culinary ignoramus.

I also feel really sorry for all of the South Indian transplants in America, who don't have ready access to a Saravanaas, or a restaurant of similar caliber. If this is your memory of home cooking, how much would it suck to not be able to have it on occasion. It's so much work to make it for oneself, I doubt one can fully replicate the experience without at least one patient Indian mother or grandmother puttering in the kitchen.

On that front, I also feel pretty sorry for people from Thailand and Sri Lanka. The restaurant offerings either do not compare or are rarely available.

Saravanaas, 81 Lex (@ 26th), NY, NY

Saravanaa Bhavan

Idli Vata

It is both affirming and startling that after a good four plus years of enthusiastic food hunting, this town still yields up delicious surprises that have been whispered about for ages.

Kaima Idli

I've never heard about Saravanaas's, but once I did, it seemed the name arose repeatedly off the lips of those not long from or until a trip to the motherland.

Onion Rava Masala Dosa

A vegetarian restaurant specializing in cuisine for Chennai, it's an utter delight.

Channa Batura

Well, so long as you don't ask the opinion of my cocktail dresses. Those babies are going to have to ride out a few more weekends in the closet until I can find my way down to the gym.

South Indian Thali

Down to the gym and a workout that includes more than the usual regime that barely results in breaking out in a sweat. Sometimes I think it's enough just to let the equipment know I'm still around.

Saravanna let's one know that despite being a fan, I really have no idea what Indian food can be about.

I can't wait to go back.

Saravanaa Bhavan, 81 Lexington (at 26th St.), New York, NY, 212-684-7755

The Mother of All Food Crawls

I was going to write about dinner at Uva with a high school friend visiting with her husband from California, but then I remembered that back in 2005, pre-engagement, the two of them visited and embarked upon the Mother of All Food Crawls.

We're talking fourteen food stops in 48 hours.

View The Mother of All Food Crawls in a larger map

Some were planned, some spontaneous. Myself and two high school friends (G and K) living in New York took around S and A from the Bay Area for a whirlwhind eating tour. I stole these pictures from my friend, and here we go

Day 1, ~10:30 p.m. Sushi Samba, planned
A complimentary appetizer of flash-fried Japanese river crabs because we had to wait a really long time for our table despite making 9:45 p.m. reservations.

Not pictured: edamame, blistered Shishito peppers, fried calamari.

Neo Tokyo Roll (yellowfin tuna, tempura flakes, and aji panca); Green Envy Roll (wasabi pea crust, tuna, salmon, asparagus, and aji); Pacific Roll (king crab, avocado, Asian pear, soy paper, and wasabi-avocado cream).

Two orders of Kampachi (Japanese yellowtail) Sashimi Tiradito with yuzu, black truffle oil, and sea salt.

Yellowtail Ceviche with ginger, garlic and soy.

Miso-marinated Chilean Sea Bass.

Day 1: ~12:00 a.m., Flute Bar, unplanned

Foie gras platter, smoked salmon platter, and bubbly obviously.

Day 1: ~1:00 a.m., L'Express, unplanned

Somehow we decided we needed Dinner #2.

Steak tartare with mesclun greens, moules frites, chocolate mousse cake, tarte tatin.

Day 2: 8:00 a.m., Norma's, planned

We ate family style modified for individual orders, while sitting around a circular table. Five people, five dishes, eat one-fifth, pass to left.

Seared rock lobster and asparagus omelette with home fries.

Crab cakes spice with Habanero peppers with dill yogurt mustard sauce.

Mandarin Orange French Toast.

Artichoke Benedict

Day 2, ~10:00 a.m., nap

Four friends passed out on my bed.

Day 2, ~12:30 p.m., Rice to Riches, unplanned

Marscapone rice pudding.

Pear rice pudding.

Day 2: ~1:30 p.m., Cafe Habana, planned

Mexican grilled corn with this delicious mayonnaise slathered all over; chicken diablo sandwich with fries; avocado and white cheese sandwich with fries; Cuban sandwich with fries, chicken dish with beans.

Someone couldn't wait for the food-paparazzi picture.

Day 2: ~3:30 p.m., il laboratorio del gelato, planned

Twelve flavors available, five people, 2 flavors per small serving, the solution seemed obvious.

Which two flavors did we not want to try?

Chocolate gelato, rum raisin gelato, vanilla rum gelato, peanut butter gelato, papaya sorbet, tangerine sorbet, coffee gelato, green tea gelato, raspberry gelato, lemon sorbet.

Day 2: ~6:30 p.m., Joe Shanghai, planned

Three orders of crab and pork soup dumplings, one order of pork soup dumplings, one order of string beans with pickles.

Day 2, ~9:00 p.m., A Salt & Battery, planned

It's so sad, the Second Avenue location has closed. You'll have to go to the west side for your fish 'n chips fix now.

One large order of cod bites, one small order of chips.

Gone in no time. End of a long day, but we've still got it!

Day 3: ~8:00 a.m., Le Pain Quotidien, planned

I like the 19th street location best because they bake the bread there.

One Tuscan Platter of Parmesan, ham, tapenade, the some amazing ricotta, pesto, sun dried tomatoes, olives and greens.

Mesclun greens salad.

Two orders of baguette with jam and praline spread.

Day 3: ~10:30 a.m., Artisanal, unplanned

Large basket of gougeres.

Sinful Experience Flight: Humboldt Fog (goat, California, airy yet rich, tangy finish); Brillat Savarin (cow, French, velvety, neutral to pronounced; Robiolo Due Latte (cow, Italy: yielding, lactic subtle).

Sampled of cheese condiments and some Langres to the left (cow, France, salty but not too aggressive, smoky)

Great Iberian Peninsula Flight: Serra de Estrella (sheep, Portugal, rich, intense, subtle toffee finish); Pau (goat, Spain, creamy, slightly sweet and nutty); Cabrales (3-milk, Spain, complex, buttery, numbingly intense)

Day 3: ~1:30 p.m. Alice's Tea Cup, planned

We went to the UWS location, but they've got the east side covered now too.

Scones: pumpkin, orange walnut, strawberry chocolate, banana butterscotch.

Clotted cream and jam.

Carrot-Cumin Sandwich.

Alice's tea and Rooibus Bourbon tea.

Day 3: ~6:00 p.m., Ota-Ya, planned

Sadly, this place has closed down. They had the best tempura. Now the next best option in the neighborhood is Tenzan for fantastic rolls.

Shrimp tempura.

Black Draft Roll, Crispy Salmon Roll, Mexican Roll, Volcano Roll, three orders of "white tuna" sashimi.

Day 3: ~8:30 p.m., Chola Eclectic, planned

Uttapam (rice and lentil vegetable pancake)

Chicken chutneywalla (curried mango chicken, mint, coriander, fresh ginger); Goa fish curry (spiced Chilean Sea Bass, fresh coconut, tamarind, chili-tomato sauce); Murli's chingri malai (spiced shrimp, raisins, ginger, fennel infused, tomatoes-coconut sauce); Bhindi masala (sauteed okra, onions, bell peppers, ginger, fresh tomatoes.)