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2004-08-28: Chicago Eatathon, Part 5 -- A Passage to India
Posted by extramsg on Thursday, November 18, 2004 @ 04:02:10 PST
Contributed by extramsg
You know that scene in every movie set in the third world? Protagonist in the congested city streets narrowly avoiding being run down by rumbling buses and trucks coughing black exhaust. People dressed in peculiar garb. Strange advertisements and signs on storefronts. Exotic foods being sold in every storefront. Well, I am now of the opinion that every one of those scenes could well have been shot on Chicago's Devon Ave.
From just east of the intersection of Western and Devon to several blocks west of the same intersection, is a tremendous concentration of Indian and Pakistani restaurants, markets, and retailers. Bindi decorated women in their saris and men in suits, some with turbans, fill the shops. Caucasians are a conspicuous minority. There are no 7-Elevens or McDonald's separating the stores. A friend's wife can't walk a block without him needing to take a crowbar to get her face and hands off the windows of the jewelry stores. Each side street contains hidden gems, too.
Devon has become a required destination on my trips to Chicago.
Photo Album
RESTAURANTS
Unfortunately for my Indian restaurant adventures, I mostly ate alone. Because Chicago has such an extensive set of Indian food choices, I tried to focus on places that would offer regional styles or dishes that I can't find at home in Portland (ie, most things beyond the typical lamb curries, chicken tikka masala, and tandoori chicken). But that's many of the places along Devon and so to some extent, I just chose based on what I remembered hearing about on Chowhound and LTH, but for all I knew I could be remembering them because someone said they were bad.
The two places I hit on my own were Udupi Palace and Bhabi's Kitchen, two choices that may be as different as any two choices on the stretch. Udupi Palace is bright inside, has relatively nice decor with dark wooden tables and padded chairs, and contemporary sconce lighting along the walls. The menu has a large selection of vadas, pullavs, uthappam, and dosai. You can choose from three different thali in order to get a sampling of dishes, so that's what I did.
I chose the South Indian Thali which came with roti, rice, sambar, daal, koottu, avial, poriyal, rasam, curd, pickle, and papad. Frankly, I wouldn't be able to point to my pictures and say what is what. But I know which I liked by sight. The cabbage dish with mustard seeds was quite tasty, as was the chick pea curry. The white, I assume coconut milk or yogurt based curry, and the yellow lentil curry were both pleasant as well. Service was attentive, but it was mid-afternoon and I was one of the few people there. Nothing blew me away, but I was happy with my food and it was a clear step up from most places in Portland.
Bhabi's Kitchen is on a side street, small and dark inside, and I had to wait for the owner to come back to get service. It still wasn't dinner time and I was the only one there. The man was quite eager to help me, though, once he showed up, and gave me a deal: three curries for the price of two. Of course, this happened once he found out I was a Chowhound/LTHer. He even showed me a picture of a crew of online food geeks at his store. I told him to choose the three curries and he gave me dishes of sarsoo ka saag, butter chicken, and haleem.
Here, I made two huge mistakes: 1) I got the food to-go, and 2) I didn't order any breads. I can hear the sighs already about the breads. Reading up on Bhabi's Kitchen later and looking at their menu, I realized that one of the specialties is a diverse selection of Indian breads. Why was it a mistake to get the food to go? Two reasons: I didn't get any pictures and the containers were not water tight and I was bussing it back to the hotel. And then once I got to the hotel, I didn't have any utensils. I ended up slopping it into my mouth by hand, wiping the green, brown, and orange goo on the towels so that it looked like I had cleaned up after a night of heavy drinking.
Still, the food was good. The butter chicken was a very good version of that dish and the haleem (beef cooked with wheat lentils) had a tasty and unique flavor, very earthy. The saag was fine, but I've definitely had better.
On my last day in Chicago, one of the friends I was meeting, Scott, and I, hopped the bus back to Devon and paid a visit to an old favorite, Sizzle India. An Andhran friend of his from Dallas had recommended it on a trip a couple years back. We went in not knowing much except noted-friend's legendary asbestos-lined stomach. Three pitchers of water later we left quite satisfied. Sure, the food, especially the chili chicken, had floored us with its heat. But it wasn't just that. The buffet contained some of the best Indian food, especially vegetarian Indian food, we'd eaten up to that point.
This visit still showed signs of why we loved it so much. Just seeing those chili pakoras, little stockings of pure magma, brought back fabulous memories. However, the chili chicken was a neon red and lacked the testicle-shrivelling burn that I remembered. The eggplant curry had an interesting, almost peanutty flavor, and the tomato dal had a very pleasant freshness and rounded flavor. Everything was at least tasty, but it lacked that revelatory experience that at least a couple dishes had provided on my first visit. Is it me? Is it them? Just the day?
With poor planning, mistakes, and disappointments, I am eager to get back, better prepared, to Devon. I say I was disappointed, but largely that's a result of having such high expectations. It's just such a fabulously diverse area. And not only for the restaurants.
MARKETS
As someone who cooks on a daily basis, often exploring a variety of cuisines, I spend a lot of time in markets. Portland lacks a truly good Indian market and when I stepped into Patel Brothers, I wished I could send down the tornado that took Dorothy and her little dog to Oz and transport Patel Bros back home. Just the snacks aisle is amazing. Bin after bin of Indian Chex Mix. But then there's dozens of daals, fathoms of flours, and racks of rice. Spices and pre-mixed powders, jars of chutney, packages of this and that for the busy Indian homemaker. Shelf after shelf of the stuff.
While not quite as impressive, they have a formidable produce selection, too. Piles of bagged curry leaves, tropical fruits, fresh turmeric, chilis, various herbs, squash, and eggplant.
Kadmar Plaza was smaller, but still puts most Portland markets to shame. They had a nice chaat and sweets counter, more shelves of spices and lentils than I could ever use, and a variety of flours. Prices were cheap and I wish I would have picked up some packaged snacks for the plane ride home.
TREATS
It's amazing that the French get all the credit for the world's desserts. Where would they be without Mexico's gift of chocolate and vanilla, or India's gift of spices? So many of the same spices that work so well in savory curries, work just as well in sweets. Indians have created a unique and vast set of finger desserts. I visited two stores devoted to such, Ambala and Sabri.
The most stunning thing about Ambala was their hyper-modern decor. But the ladoo special was quite good and the gulab had a dark, rich flavor that was very interesting.
Sabri clearly wins in head-to-head competition, though. The textures and flavors were perfect and the man behind the counter was helpful and encouraged me to try several items based on my other preferences. I ended up going back on my last day and buying a gift box of sweets which I took home on the plane (most of which made it) and shared with my wife. Unfortunately, when I returned, my favorite item from my previous visit wasn't there, some sort of flaky rectangle with a nice mix of sweet and savory.
I also got a chance to try some chaat (or as I like to call it, Chex mix curry) at Sukhadia's. Chaat isn't one of my favorite things, but I enjoyed it anyway. I would have liked to try some of their ice cream, but they were out that day.
CONCLUSION
I can usually find something worth eating at most Indian restaurants in Portland. But only one, Curry Leaf, would be able to compete with Chicago's fabulous choices. And without a good Indian market, options for making truly authentic dishes at home are limited as well. It's sad that Portland with its strong tech industry, a huge Intel campus, a healthy, though not large, Indian population (an Indian man is my next-door neighbor) lacks food equal to its potential. We're much better in Thai and Vietnamese, both with markets and restaurants. Chicago's Devon shows what could be, and for now, I'll just keep dreaming.
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