Wow. All I can say when I look at Meena's Chilli Paneer on her blog Hooked on Heat is "wow." Sometimes I wonder if in a previous lifetime I was an Indian princess (not just Indian, but a princess!) because the spices, flavors and ingredients of Indian cuisine give me shivers like no other. Aside from the fact that this dish is absolutely glisteningly gorgeous in the photo, I was totally taken by how long, er rather, short the preparation time is. Meena sears the Indian cottage cheese cubes (which, to me, have a texture similar to a crumbly tofu) in oil, then basically stir fries them with onions, garlic, and chili peppers. The dark color comes, oddly enough, from soy sauce.
I am not shyabout myobsession with Indian food, and today is no exception. When I'm in a restaurant or ordering in, I almost always order palak paneer. I say "almost" because sometimes, it's called "saag paneer." Either way, the dish is a curry made of spinach and lightly sauteed cubes of paneer, a fresh Indian cheese. Hooked on Heat has made palak paneer at home and the photo makes me want to dive into my laptop screen with a giant piece of naan. As delicious as it looks, it seems that it's not overly complicated to make, though it does require a bit of time to make the cheese.
I've been trying to force myself out of my chicken tikka masala rut at Indian restaurants. I tried and loved the spiciness of a lamb frankie, bindhi masala (okra), and even some creamy daal (lentils).
Sev puri are small, deep-fried wheat-based crackers or bread (puri) covered with sev, a chickpea based noodle that has also been deep-fried. Sev puri are considered a type of chaat, which refer to small savory snacks that are served from street carts all over India. Puri, which are the crackers, can be topped with a number of fillings to create different kinds of chaat. Bhel puri are filled with puffed rice, pani puri has potatoes, chickpeas, and a number of chutneys on top, and dahi puri is about the same, except with a yogurt sauce.
Normally, the words "food porn," conjure images of decadent desserts, soft, sultry, totally sexy sweets oozing with chocolate and frosting, dressed in nothing more than a dollop of whipped cream, and perhaps a few berries that have toppled off onto the plate in the haste to get to the...table.
But food porn isn't just desserts; it's anything that makes my eyes widen and mouth salivate when I look at it, like a couple of pieces of thick, fluffy, puffy, soft and chewy, charred-in-all-the-right-places naan stuffed with sweet onions. I've had garlic naan many times before. Onion naan was my first time. I might, just might, not ever go back to garlic naan again.
However, in recent months, I have been forcing myself to try new things because the Indian table doesn't revolve around chicken tikka masala. I have now become quite enamored of dal, any number of varieties of lentils. Moong dal are lentils cooked with garlic and ginger, mild in heat, but still extremely flavorful. I'm quite sure I could make a meal of naan dipped in dal.
With a new little niece around, I am becoming more and more aware of what little babies
and toddlers eat. Cheerios and goldfish crackers always seem to the be the snack of choice, and dinner-time foods are
always finger-foods like chicken nuggets and peas. However, kiddies
around the world don't eat the same way. Heck, growing up in a Korean household, I'm quite sure I was wrapping up
little balls of rice in nori and spilling soy sauce all over myself. If you've ever wondered what a two-year-old in
South Africa is eating, check out this list:
Japanese toddlers may not be eating sushi, but they do lunch on egg-flavored rice with broiled fish or
seafood and miso soup with tofu. It's no wonder that Japan has the longest average lifespan, with the types of foods
that are introduced into the diets as such a young age.
In South Africa, kiddies eat toast thats been spread with a touch of Marmite, a concentrated yeast spread that is a by-product of the beer brewing
process.
Danish and Swedish kids eat meatballs and lots of other meat and potatoes. Sweden has the world's highest
consumption of ketchup, which kids put on to disguise anything that looks healthy.
In India, children eat khidchi, a spicy rice and lentils porridge.
They even list kids in Korea! Korean kids eat lots of kimchi, which is probably how they build up such a
tasty tolerance for spicy foods. They also eat gim-bahp and bibimbahp.
Back when I roasted cauliflower with
curry, I thought that Indian raita, a minty cucumber yogurt sauce, would have been a nice accompaniment.
Raita is made by wrapping 1 seeded, grated cucumber in cheesecloth and squeezing out all
the moisture. In a bowl, whisk together 1c. whole milk yogurt, 1/2 tsp. cumin, a
pinch of cayenne. Add the cucumber, as well as 2-3 Tbsp. finely grated carrots, and
1 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro or mint.
Raita is very similar to Greek tzatziki which is
yogurt, cucumber, lemon juice, and a lot of minced garlic. I have to say that even though the raita
sounds like it matches better with a roasted curried cauliflower, I'd rather have the garlicky tzatziki.
I love Indian food, but I still have a lot to learn about the nuances in the cooking from region to region,
ingredients, and technqiues. The best way to learn of course, is to keep eating it!
Recently, I have been enamored of a small restaurant in Santa Monica. Chandni is a vegetarian restaurant. Now I'm
not vegetarian, but that doesn't mean that I can't have an incredible meal there. There are standard dishes that you
will find in the "vegetable" section of any Indian restaurant's menu like saag paneer,
bengan bhartha, and gobi aloo. However, I have been forcing myself away from these
standards to try things like bindhi masala (okra) and khumb (mushroom) curries. The
best thing I've had at Chandni is the bhara mirch, a bell pepper that has been stuffed with spiced
mashed potatoes (similar to what's inside a samosa) and simmered with a rich, creamy, spicy tomato-based sauce.
Chandni Indian Vegetarian 1909 Wilshire Boulevard Santa Monica, CA (310)
839-0482
I often whine about how I go to restaurants with the promise of spicy foods, and end up disappointed because I
didn't even break a glisten. Korean food is spicy, but I
always hear stories about Thai and Indian foods being hot enough to put
hair on my chest. I've given up on Thai, mostly because I think restaurants in the LA area are too scared to really
give me the fire, but I still had hope for Indian food.
And thank goodness I did, because I finally found something that got me a little hot. At Bombay Cafe, the lamb frankie made me glisten. The frankie is an Indian
street-type food made of a thin bread similar to a tortilla that is coated with egg and fried. The tortilla is filled
with meat and/or vegetables, then rolled like a burrito.
I tried the lamb frankie at Bombay Cafe, which had nothing but enormous chunks of lamb meat straight out of Hades.
Granted, I wasn't reaching for the fire extinguisher, but it was still spicy enough that on a breezy winter day in LA,
I had to lightly dab my forehead. I felt awesome.
The strange thing is, the heat was very different from the type of heat I get from Korean food. The lamb meat in
the frankie wasn't so much a burn on my tongue that I feel from things like red pepper and jalapeno. No, this heat was
an overall heat that I felt after I swallowed my bite of the frankie. Like I said, it was awesome.
Though Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia is known as Little india here in Los Angeles, there are
quite a few Indian restaurants on the westside. There are a number of restaurants and stores along Venice Boulevard in
the Culver/Palms area, and even just north in Westwood and Santa Monica. A recent visit was made to Akbar in Santa Monica, a restaurant with four other locations
in LA: Hermosa Beach, Pasadena, Third Street, and Marina Del Rey.
The restaurant is a little different from other Indian restaurants. The chef has a few of his own creations on the menu that go beyond the
standard Indian restaurant items from the tandoori grill, chicken and lamb dishes like tikka masala and vindaloo, and
vegetables like gobi aloo and benagn bharta. Last night, we tried something called chicken
chutneywala, small pieces of chicken in a heavily minted sauce, and something totally brand new to me,
gucchi, or mushrooms. Obviously, mushrooms are not new to me, but seeing them on an Indian menu
was. The mushrooms were cooked in a heavy, nutty sauce that was mixed with fresh cilantro. I am not a huge
fan of cilantro, but the mushrooms were delicious.
Some of the other little less usual menu items of note at Akbar: tamatter naan (naan stuffed with
sun-dried tomatoes), cheese naan (naan stuffed with cheddar, mozzarella and parmesan cheeses),
chicken aamras (chicken cooked in a mango sauce), and coco lamb (lamb cooked in a
coconut-fennel sauce.
I've been trying to force myself out of my chicken tikka masala rut at Indian restaurants. I tried and loved the spiciness of a 
I have to admit that I am 
With a new little niece around, I am becoming more and more aware of what little babies
and toddlers eat. Cheerios and goldfish crackers always seem to the be the snack of choice, and dinner-time foods are
always finger-foods like chicken nuggets and peas. However, 
Back when 
Though Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia is known as Little india here in Los Angeles, there are
quite a few Indian restaurants on the westside. There are a number of restaurants and stores along Venice Boulevard in
the Culver/Palms area, and even just north in Westwood and Santa Monica. A recent visit was made to 
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