Indian Food Trail in America Part3- Dallas

In continuation with

Indian Food Trail in America Part1-Chicago

Indian Food Trail in America Part2-Atlanta

 In Dallas, Indian food is very much cherished by NRIs. I was surprised to see huge Indian grocery stores everywhere. The supermarket had all the possible things Indian. Many of the gluten free food was easily available at these stores. Freshly roasted indian bread was churned out of roti machines at the supermarkets. I saw many of the Indian working housewives shop for those hot rotis. Many of the Indian supermarkets also have a small area reserved for people to sit and enjoy street food, so while they shop for spices, they might try pani puri, idlis, vadas and samosas too.

There are many private supermarkets but Patel Brothers have spread their wings in all corners of America and many delicacies and Indian sweets are locally prepared in private homes and factories. There were all kinds of sweets available and things like khakhra, sev and other savories too. I am not surprised that visitors are discouraged from bringing food stuff into the continent., they are strict at the airports, there is really no need to bring grocery to USA, everything is locally available there.

My cousin insisted that I try the briyani at Chemeli. Their portions are large but the food tasted great. There were some mouth watering dishes like kababs and curries too. This one is the family run eatery that serves Bangladesi, Indian and Pakisthani cuisine.

Royal Sweet Mart specialised in Indian street foods. In this restaurant, the man was working in the open kitchen, frying a huge dosa, stuffing it with potatoes bhaji and cheese, cutting it into triangular shapes and serving like a pizza.

Week after week, Indians  in Dallas have regular religious meetings, either in the temple or in the private homes. At Hanuman temple and SaiBai temple, lunch is served weekly. Some of them have in private homes in rotation, where they enjoy Indian cuisine during pot luck parties. It is more like a social gathering. Elaborate lunch is prepared, people get to try new recipes each week thus keeping in groove with indian cooking.

to be continued

Indian Food Trail in America Part4-New York

Indian Food Trail in America Part1- Chicago

When I travel abroad, feasting on Indian cuisine is last on my mind. I prefer to try the local cuisine of the place I am visiting. I love to try new flavors, learn about the culture and tradition of the places. The favorite food that american enjoy is Pizzas, Fries and Burgers. Home to immigrants, this is one country, where there is variety of food from every nation, be it Chinese, Malaysian, Mexican, Italian, etc. But then, if you are travelling with family and friends then you don’t get much option to choose, it is mostly the choice of the majority.

During my visit to Chicago at my sister’s home, I was in the company of my  family from Lagos and Spain, who enjoy Indian food, (I have tried Indian restaurants in Lagos and Spain but have not been too happy) so naturally they wanted to visit indian restaurants specially for biryanis and street food of India.

The Indian restaurants in Chicago cannot meet the standard of the restaurants in India. Devon street in Chicago is micro India,  where you see lots of Indian shops, Indian grocery stores and restaurants.

We visited Tiffin at Devon street several times.

Although there are many indian restaurants on this single stretch of street, Tiffin is the most popular restaurant at Devon street and has a great variety of dishes on their menu. Their butter chicken is too sweet but the kids seemed to enjoy it. Family enjoyed the Malai Chicken and Mutton Rice too, although I found mutton a bit hard to bite, wish they would cook it to a bit more tender consisitency. On another day, we went again for indian buffet at Tiffin, they had quite a good selection. I didn’t enjoy much, because I tend to compare it with what I get back home, but my cousins did enjoy it.

Getiing street food like samosas and bhajiyas is a treat, which is okay but they cannot replicate the taste of chutneys that go with these snacks.

Another favorite stop was at Mysore Woodland, a south Indian vegetarian place that also had  butter paneer and chole bature on their menu apart from the regular south Indian cuisine. The chutney that they serve with dosas is stale and sambar too watery. I , as usual, ordered my onion uttappam, which is never a disappointment.  The kids ordered sada dosa and were quite amused with cone shaped dosas. The milky sherbet was a welcome change.

On the day, my friend from Indiana came to meet me at Devon street, we walked into a Pakistani restaurant Ravi Kabab House, once more we had biryani and kababs. It was disppointing but then…I was beginning to lose faith in finding a good indian restaurant.

During my six weeks stay in Chicago, I didn’t much enjoy the Indian cuisine there, although trying the betel-nut paan at the street corner at Devon street was quite a treat.

To be continued

Indian Food Trail in America Part2-Atlanta

Indian Food Trail in America Part3-Dallas

Indian Food Trail in America Part4-New York

Food Trail In Mahableshwar

The heat in Mumbai had become unbearable during the month of May, going to a hill station seemed a better idea. My friends and I decided to go out of Mumbai for a long weekend.

Early Friday morning, we took a road trip, 275 kilometers away from Mumbai to Mahabaleshwar. It was six hours drive. We wanted to have typical Maharastrian food during this trip. On friend’s recommendation, we stopped at Kailash on Pune-Mumbai express way. This restaurant served only platter (thali), special and normal Thali the only difference being that in choice of vegetables.

The food at Kailash was disappointing, it didn’t taste that authentic Maharastrian meal. We were expecting usual, peanut based veggie and a spicy meal but the food was quite bland. There was no sweet dish.

During our stay, dieting was of least importance and eating was our full time pass time. Whereever we walked down the path, the streets were filled with hawkers and who could resist that? Munching on everything was so enjoyable

 There is different kind of charm at hill stations in India. Colorful and fresh fruits line the market streets. Munching on berries and fruits while walking down the streets is a fun…every stall we pass, we are tempted to buy and eat, sometimes even without washing the fruit….it tastes so good….During our walk to market street, we stopped to eat at every stall

We got tempted to eat black Jamun

Roasted corn coated with salt, red pepper and lime

Raspberry and assorted berries

The next day we went sightseeing, but food was always on our mind. The air smelts of fruits and roasted corn. Mango cucumber carrot salad looked so tempting

Carrot n cucumber

Strawberries and white apples

Carrots and strawberries...

You would think that munching all day would be enough. But no, we still were hungry and visited few restaurants to have proper meals too.

We were staying in a private bungalow on the outskirts of the city and we were lucky to be surrounded by good restaurants. We visited Baghicha twice for breakfast.  It had quite a spacious dining hall with colorful nursery occupying one corner of the restaurant.  The walls were decorated with large pin ups of all the film stars and celebrity who had dined in this restaurant. The food is freshly prepared, the order took long time to come, but it was worth the wait. The potato parathas were cooked to perfection, steaming hot, it melted at the first bite and spicy too. We went back for breakfast the next day too and ordered the same breakfast of potato parathas, pohas, sabudhana khichidi, upma and corn cutlets. Tea would pair beautifully with this  breakfast but sadly, they don’t serve tea or coffee, there were soft drinks and fruity milk shakes.

My friends were keen on having Maharastrian food. It was raining heavily and it was so misty that we could not see anything beyond few meters. It was decided that two of them would go and bring food for all of us. But when they stopped by Hirkani, there were hot bakhadi roti and food that looked so appetizing.  They called us to come to the restaurant to enjoy the freshly cooked food. I am glad we went because I really enjoyed the lunch. Although the restaurant serves Thali  to majority of its clients, we decided to order a la carte. It was the most enjoyable meal I had.  We ordered corn vegetables, potato bhaji, brinjals, puri and ussal, all vegetarian meal, so delicious that I didn’t miss non-veg.

Someone suggested that Jaffar at Panchandi  famous for its Briyanis, so we decided to go for lunch the next day. The décor was good, it was surrounded with beautiful landscape. It was crowded too and we had to wait for about fifteen minutes to get a seat. The restaurant serves mainly Biryani, I was surprised to learn that there was no pillaf. However, the biryani was quite disappointing. In veg biryani there were hardly any veggies. Food was bland and we were served a glass of fresh green chilies. Two of my friends reported sick after the meals. I would have preferred a way side dhabba that serves better food.

On our return back to Mumbai, we stopped by Shri Dutta, famous for his Batatawadas at Pen.

 Everybody who passes by this road of Raighad district has to stop by Dutta for battawadas. Friend said I must try it and we relished it on our way back home…..