"indian restaurants" news and stories

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

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.