Comments on: America is increasingly going Deep

By: musing

musing — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:39:21 +0000

@Rokeach.. Try Marigold or Vermilion. The latter is Indian/Latin fusion. I've heard great things about Vermilion, nothing about Marigold but it looks interesting.

True, some of the restaurants on Devon aren't worth their salt, but I still like Udupi.

By: Rokeach

Rokeach — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 22:16:06 +0000

Please? Could someone recommend a really good desi restaurant in Chicago? I've lived in this area for 15 years; besides Vermilion (off Hubbard) and Marigold (further North), have yet to eat anything besides the lazy tikka masala crap the Devon Street people dish out.
Thanks!

By: bsb

bsb — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 19:51:09 +0000

Agree with Rabindranath at #2 about going paleo (or primal, it's more flexible; really just low-carb in general).. the typical Indian diet is incredibly bad for our bodies (hello diabetes!), so it's kind of ironic to see people giving each other recommendations about how to make a meal 'healthy' that have almost nothing healthy in them to begin with. I convinced my mother to quit eating wheat products and most other grains and she lost the weight she'd been adding on the last few years, and her osteoarthritis even lessened.

I do miss rice with yogurt and mango pickle, or a nice hot masala dosa with coconut chutney and sambar sigh, or idli with ginger pickle... but those have just become occasional treats.

By: Guji2

Guji2 — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:52:25 +0000

My wife and I discovered the Babu pockets a few months ago at a local desi grocery store. They are the BEST frozen snacks we have had EVER. The Paneer Tikka pocket was simply outstanding. We liked the pockets so much, we literally bought 20 boxes of Babu pockets and cleared out the entire Paneer Tikka line.

The Babu pockets come in handy whenever we need to make quick snacks for ourselves and our kids. I wish that these Babu pockets were available when I was a kid as the frozen vegetarian snack options were few and far between in the 1980s. Now that's one less thing for my kids to worry about! It's good to be an American desi in the 21st century.

As for the dosas and South Indian food - you need to be married to someone from South India to really enjoy the real taste of South India. I was very, very lucky to have married my wife who grew up in South India in a Gujarati family. She's an expert in making authentic dosa mixes from scratch (we have two grinders at home) and EVERY WEEK, the whole family enjoys crispy dosas, thick uttapams, fluffy idlis, and fried idlis that taste like something straight out of a popular hole-in-the-wall joint in Tamil Nadu. I'm eating at least $100 worth of dosas, uttapam, and idlis EVERY WEEK. We haven't been to a South Indian restaurant in the U.S. in 12 YEARS.

By: p.row

p.row — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 22:49:38 +0000

jyotsana – the place is called Kabob Palace – it’s got the best chola around!

By: Vishy

Vishy — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 21:15:08 +0000

Take one or two Soan Papdi squares from any desi grocery store and mush them into a cup of vanilla ice cream and you'll get insanely addictive Ice Papdi. You heard it here first!

Better known is the gulab jamun and vanilla ice cream combination. For best results, the gulab jamuns are made from Gits-style mix, but even if they come out of a can, do warm them up first before eating with ice cream.

By: Neha

Neha — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 10:54:27 +0000

Paneer parathas (the frozen kind - obviously, Deep) with cucumber raita. (I'm not a fan of boondi - it's too given to go mushy very quickly).
About the canned rasgulla thing - throw away the sugar syrup (no one needs that much sugar!) and cpok 'em up in two to three cups of milk to get a rabri like consistency. Finish it off with slivered almonds or pistachios (or both) and seasonally, serve hot or cold. It's a great rasmallai substitute for home without the labor.

By: nom nom

nom nom — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:55:46 +0000

I like Deep's roshmalai. It's not home cooking, but Deep does have a less of a preserved, bland taste to their taste. They taste like real food, even if doused in preservatives.

But the sad truth is we wouldn't need all this if the wimmenz would just stay home and make sammiches in the kitchen. End of an era.

By: rohit

rohit — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 21:18:50 +0000

“And yes…the tables are a little unkept”

b mahesh, Yes I will have a car…thanks for the advice…and as far as unkept table, That’s one of my clues to find really good places…I’ve found strangely that a tiny bit of dirt is essential to have really awesome food…In Vietnam especially, but all over the world.

By: rob

rob — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 16:40:46 +0000

ak, (fish) cutlet, kottu roti, egg hopper (appam)