I’ve always wanted to be a talk show host, or interview people for magazines and the like.  We are so lucky to have Tom Green work for Kasa, so I thought I’d start with him.

Me –  Let’s get right into it.  Why such a short marriage to Drew Barrymore?

Tom – (goes red and starts laughing)

Me – Ok maybe too personal.  How was working on the set for Charlie’s Angels compared to here?

Tom – (laughing) I think you have the wrong Tom Green.   I get that a lot.  I get mistaken for him all the time because I look like him. Even Drew Barrymore mistook me for him.

Me – So the name?

Tom – It’s just a coincidence.  I googled it, and THE Tom Green’s real name is Michael Thomas Green, while my name is after my grandpa ‘Thomas Green’.  So my parents did not get inspiration for my name after seeing Road Trip.

Me – Tell me about the suspenders that you ALWAYS wear?

Tom – I bought them for a costume party originally and never stopped wearing them since.  I like them because they people know I’m just a little bit different.  Mot much, but just enough.

Me – And the Oliver Twist cap?

Tom – It works really well with the suspenders. (smile)

Me – Where are you originally from?

Tom – Boise, Idaho!!

Me – Wow,  what brought you all the way here to SF?

Tom – I followed a girl…

Me – Aaaah.  What was your first impression of the City?

Tom – I was pretty overwhelmed at how many PEOPLE there were, and how BIG and congested it was, I’m used to things spread out a lot more.  The cost of living is horrendous too.  But part of me loves living paycheck to paycheck.  I have what I need to just live in the present and not too much out there in the future.  But part of me knows that I should start saving and go to school.

Me – How old are you, Tom?

Tom – Just turned 22!

Me – How long have you worked with Kasa?

Tom – A year and a half now. Kasa hired me a week after I first arrived here.

Me – What do you love and hate about being a server?

Tom – I love talking to really cool customers.  Just today, this older lady told me about this awesome cookbook from the guy who started Momofuku, the ramen noodle place in NY. I also like that this city has a lot of food-conscious people who really want to talk about the food.  I like chatting to them and telling them how we cook the food here.

Me – What do you hate?

Tom – (laughing) I don’t know what it is about alcohol that makes people shout, but the super drunken crowd is not cool.   Other than that, not much.  Oh wait, I hate trying to deal with a customer in line while answering the phone at the same time — that’s a doozy.  And I don’t ask for much, but it’s always a bummer when customers don’t tip.  Even a penny in the tip box is appreciated.

Me – What are you most proud of at Kasa?

Tom – (smiling) I make pretty awesome roti and I’m really proud of my chai.  Anything I make here, I have it to a T.

Me – What’s your personal favourite dish?

Tom – The lamb curry with chutney and onions.  It kills Tim because it’s the most expensive dish! (laughing)

Me – What’s different here compared to your last job as a cook in Boise?

Tom – Everything is cooked fresh at Kasa.  In Boise, everything came frozen in a bag — the onion rings, the burger patties, the fries.  All I had to do was throw everything in the fryer. It was a really easy job.

Me – OK, last question.  What do you think of the handful of yelpers out there dissing on white Kasa servers?

Tom – That’s a tough one.  I always wish they would say it to me in person so I could come back with some sassy remark.  I like people who have fun with it though.  The other day a guy asked me, ‘What province of India are you from?”  I said, “Idaho.”  I also like when Indian customers come in and giggle at a white guy serving them Indian food!

Thanks Tom:)

You can find Tom Green at our Marina location, with his suspenders, cap and super sweet personality, making you awesome roti, amazing chai and serving you with a smile.  Don’t forget the tip though and if you are intoxicated, try and keep your voice to a reasonable tone and it’s all good.

Anamika

“The naan didn’t taste like naan.”  –> That’s because we don’t serve naan. We serve roti.

“Why are they serving Mexican black beans?”  –> We don’t serve black beans. We serve black lentils (daal).  There are dozens of different types of lentils.

“Why are there white people serving us Indian food?” —> We live in the United States of America!

And my favourite most hated comment: “It’s Americanized Indian food.”  –> It’s homestyle Indian food, different to what people may have tried before.

1 – How cute were they?

2 – How funny were they?

3 – How cheap (with their tip)?

4 – How clean (did they buss their table)?

5 – How polite?

When we meet other small business owners, there is a definite and instant camaraderie, an unspoken understanding that we belong to the same club.  No matter our product or service, our shared painful, exhausting, rewarding and sometimes humiliating experiences bond us together (even if we mercilessly compete with each other).

Acquaintances often ask us to share our experience of running a restaurant as they consider embarking on their own dream venture, so this post is for those brave souls.  I will say that Tim, Suresh and I are still seriously in learning mode even after 2 years, but so far this is a collection of what I’ve learned.

If you’re confident about your food and can raise enough money to get started, then you’ve just hit the tip of the iceberg. Thereafter, no matter how much preparation and due diligence you’ve done, chaos will ensue.  This is some of what we have been dealing with:

• Smelling of Chicken Tikka ALL the time
• Not seeing your children and family for days at a time (no exaggeration)
• Being self critical to an extreme and disciplining yourself with an iron fist
• Scrubbing things clean for hours
• Lifting stuff so heavy, you permanently have shoulder or wrist aches
• Controlling your emotions, not showing how upset or angry you are
• Stopping yourself from stalking and throttling an ignorant yelper (although mostly people LOVE US ON YELP, and we LOVE them…   :)
• Paying attention to mind numbingly boring details
• Thinking, eating, sleeping and dreaming your restaurant
• Listening to everyone on your staff’s issues and dealing with them
• Going wherever necessary with your menu to shamelessly promote your restaurant
• Making mistakes and moving on optimistically
• Learning Spanish at 10pm at night after a long day at work
• Watching your friends have a social life on the weekends without you since it’s your busiest work time
• Trusting your instincts and confidently hiring (and firing) people
• Forgetting about privacy – your phone is on 24/7
• Having unyielding faith in your food and concept
• Giving up everything you own to the bank, including your first born child
• Did I mention…smelling of Chicken Tikka ALL the time!

On the flip side, there is nothing more I would rather be doing with my life as I love Kasa deeply — despite the occasions when I feel I can’t take the stress any more, like the time I checked myself into a hotel for the weekend, told Suresh and Tim I wasn’t coming in and switched my phone off.  I pretended to be a tourist with my English accent, walked the city, met a bunch of friendly Americans who gave me recommendations on where to eat, shopped and went back to Kasa recharged.

Most importantly, prepare to pace yourself and take a vacation before a breakdown.

If you’re still up for plunging ahead despite all this, then you’re as mad as we are and we look forward to bonding with you as a comrade in arms one day.

Anamika

In London’s defense, I will say that I spend most of my time in Hounslow/Southall, the Indian enclaves of London where I grew up — if you’ve seen the film Bend It Like Beckham, it was filmed round the corner from my house. There is some really good Indian/Pakistani food in Hounslow/Southall, but the rest is just fast food pizza, fried chicken and doner kebab shops. I usually don’t eat out much as I’m busy enjoying my Pinky Aunty’s Indian home cooking. (Most of Kasa’s recipes originated from Pinky Auntie.)

As a result, I’m not really in the know as to which restaurants to try in Central London for amazing food.

Having said that, English food can get a bad rap abroad, and I spend much of my time trying to defend it’s honour. I’ve spent the last two weeks in London visiting my cousin Amars who had a major operation and I took this opportunity to get through my list of ‘MUST EAT’ English food before I head back to San Francisco:

1) English Breakfast

There really isn’t anything as satisfying as this, especially after a hangover. Much as I like American breakfasts, nothing quite hits the spot like pork sausages (with absolutely no hint of apple or anything sweet in it), baked beans (again a lot less sweet), proper bacon (that is bacon with meat on it and not crispy fat), eggs, tomatoes and fried mushrooms. Admittedly the whole thing can be a little greasy and seriously filling, but it is utterly delicious and you don’t have to think about food for many many hours to come!

2) Chicken and Mushroom Pie

This pie is comfort food at it’s best. Shortcrust pastry soaked in the thick gravy of the chicken and mushroom filling… yum! Or even yummier is Steak and Kidney pie… wow! Pot pies in the US just don’t compare.

3) Savoury pastries

• Sausage rolls – a delicious, basic English sausage covered in a very light flaky pastry… when it’s cold and raining outside and you need a snack, this totally lifts your spirits.
• Cornish pasties – a thicker pastry filled with minced beef and vegetables.  I crave this from accross the continent constantly.

4) Treacle Pudding with Hot Custard

I might say that sometimes I miss this dessert more than my family in London. It’s a light sponge pudding that has been steamed with a thin layer of sweet treacle and covered with steaming hot custard. The endorphins released when you eat this are unparalleled. I really really wish that I could find this in SF. Has anyone seen it around?  I probably have gained quite a few pounds on this dessert alone.

5) English Roast

Roast Lamb, mint sauce, yorkshire pudding, basic boiled vegetables and roast potatoes (NO MASH) with really rich gravy (very different to American gravy) is divine. Eating this on a Sunday in the pub brings back great memories.

6) A visit to Nandos

No trip to London is complete for me without a trip to this popular South African chain of Chicken and Chips. They are super successful here and on their way to the US soon. Their peri peri marinated grilled chicken with peri peri sauce and wild herb sauce with chips (thick french fries) is superb. The sides are really good too. They have different levels of heat from lemon and herb all the way to xtra hot! I keep mine at the sensible medium heat.

I come back home to San Francisco tomorrow and will have to crave these foods until my next visit. It was funny to hear, though, that my cousin Amar was craving Kasa’s Chicken Tikka Masala Kati Roll from his recovery bed at Kings Hospital!

Get better quickly, Aams, so you can get to San Francisco for your kati roll fix!

Anamika

In that same vein, you don’t always get to pick the people you work with despite having to spend hours with them.  This fact creates a kind of ‘Work Family’ dynamic where you learn some pretty interesting facts about your co-workers and start to feel comfortable with their unique quirky characteristics.

This staff spotlight is on Kalyan, one of our managers.  Although he would have loved to have written this himself, he informed me that he would need a couple of hours to put pen to paper, and that he simply does not have that kind of time in his day.  Between balancing a busy and demanding work day, a caring wife, a beautiful daughter (he’s a great dad) and a little bit of wine and cards, he has zero time to write!  So I’ll write about him instead.

Whilst you may have already experienced Kalyan’s friendly nature serving you lunch or dinner (or your drunken late night cravings at 2am in the Marina!), and you may have already expected that he is a rock star behind the scenes (hard working, talented and ethical), what you wouldn’t have known is that Kalyan literally is a ROCK STAR!

Allow me to share the latest interesting fact I discovered about Kalyan: introducing (for the first time in North America)………..’K2Z, the Nepali Sean Paul’.  Most definitely check out his video below!

We really do only hire Rock Stars at Kasa!   :)

Anamika

• Suresh’s joke about the ’Punjabi Santa’ (like Santa, he has a beard, is tall and plump, and say Hoy Hoy Hoy)
• Going to Winter Wonderland in Tilden Park in Berkeley with the kids
• Dancing to Country, Salsa and Hip Hop at the Kasa Staff Holiday Party

But I couldn’t relax, as in the midst of all this, K2 (aka Kasa Marina) launched and Tim and Mer had their third baby (aka V3).  This should have been a time of only serious hard work for us, and whilst all of us at Kasa put that work in, it had to be so stop and start because of the holidays.  We literally had to force ourselves not to think or do any work on Xmas day and spend it with our families, and try to understand that the government and rest of the country were going slower because of the holidays.

So I’m glad that life is back to normality and we can just steam ahead with work now, as we have a lot more ahead of us.  The pressure is on high, not only because we have a bigger space and higher rent at K2.  We opened around December 19, and these first few weeks have been pretty steady but not that many people in the Marina know that we exist yet and we need customers flooding in.

Whilst it’s exhilarating and satisfying to have a successful restaurant or to get some wonderful press,  margins in our business are slim so we have to be super successful to make it all add up, and that pressure extends all the way through to our staff. Our staff need their hours maxed out (or else we lose them) to make rent, support families here and back home, put themselves through school or, like our Line Cook Extraordinaire Gomez who is about to have his first baby, just survive in SF. The emotional pressure of being successful is intense as our families, staff, vendors and on and on rely on us.  More customers means more hours for our staff, which means more tips (which is vital to their livelihood) and ultimately more raises.

So instead of waiting around for the Punjabi Santa to deliver a bushel of money, we’ve come up with our own Kasa Plan of Action:

1. Continue to keep the food as excellent as humanly possible
2. Continue to train our staff to provide warm, wonderful service, even if on occasion you have to deal with a not-so-pleasant customer
3. Community outreach and education in the Marina — introduce ourselves and turn people on to delicious, homestyle Indian food
4. Connect with all of our customers as much as possible…like through this blog :)

I’m confident that with a little more time and work, we will all reap the rewards of our hard work, all whilst consistently giving our endless love to Kasa Castro.  In the meanwhile, we thank you all for your continued support and hope that you’ll pass the word to your friends.

Love, Anamika

I had put this list together when I was in high school and it still holds true for me today. The list in pieces goes something like this:

1.  To become a wife and a mother

This means the world to me.  If no other thing on the list ever got achieved, I decided I would be content with this.  It drove my family of strong women and feminist-bent friends a little crazy as I would preach that my ambition was to be a ‘Housewife’.

2. To write a book

This one was by far the most difficult for me.  I tried a couple of times, playing with Indian historical fiction, a biography, boarding school stories, but the discipline of this art is daunting.

My good friend Annie (the artist who started Studio Rasa) really helped me in achieving this when we decided to work together on a children’s story based on street animals of India.  I wrote and she illustrated beautifully.  We decided that we would finish the book no matter what!

She helped me accept that I would write this book even if it never got published and to put aside all fears of rejection, and better still, to do it at a mellow, creative pace rather than at full speed.  We did indeed finish the book and self-published it.  You can download a free copy of The Mischievous Monkey here — I’d love to hear your feedback!

Producing the book made me realize what a talented artist Annie is.  Her illustrations are stunning and her work is beautiful.  The use of colour is my favourite part.  Most importantly, it helped give me the confidence that I could start and finish a project and enabled me to move on to number 3 on my list…

3. To open a restaurant

Although I’d imagined doing a high-end sit down Indian restaurant, Kasa has proven to be way more fun and in line with my speedy nature.  Annie designed our cool logo, the beautiful artists map on the website and the subtle wall of sanskrit above the banquette at Kasa Castro. She also helped me to communicate my vision of simple Indian materials for our clean decor. Our customers, of course, are mainly to be thanked sincerely for supporting Kasa and allowing us to continue to be able to cook for you all everyday.

4.  World Tournament Poker champion

Well I haven’t done this one yet, and have accepted that I probably never will.  A very apt poker saying here goes:

“You aren’t as good as you think or as bad as you think.”

5.  I can’t really talk about this one, as it needs an element of surprise.

6.  This one may be offensive to some if it is not accompanied with a deeper explanation.  I don’t really have the words or the idea down yet.

Take care,

Anamika

Of all the things I could write about, I feel like writing about the super cool women I’ve worked with this last year and a half.

Generally speaking (I know I’m going to be negatively judged for this), I prefer working with men (there will be a whole separate blog post on them too) because in my experience GENERALLY I find them more straight forward, they don’t hold grudges for as long, they are super co-operative and have an even keeled temperament at work.

However, this last year, I have had the pleasure of working with some very cool women:

At Kasa…

• Lydia (Server at Kasa) – super fast, a lot of fun, organized, clean and totally on it with her work! A real no-nonsense girl at work. Whenever I feel the pressure, she steps right in and just knows what needs to be done.

• Polly (Server at Kasa) – originally introduced as the “craziest” on Roti Josh’s blog post, Polly works at the speed of light, has real pride in her work, very straight forward, and a real sweetheart.   She’s also very smart — I’m afraid we will probably lose her when she is done with school and becomes a famous biochemist!

• Tuesday (Server at Kasa) – new to the Kasa team, but really really good. She is totally on it, smart, friendly, organized, reliable and fun. Again, she just knows what needs to be done and does it with a calm confidence.

On the creative side…

• Gi Paoletti (our designer at Kasa 2, also designed Tipsy Pig, Bloodhound and many other cool spots) – smart, always so well put together, extremely accomplished in her field and really co-operative. I love the way that she helps us problem solve our design issues and puts her whole heart into her work.

• Tammy (a metal worker building this cool metal screen we are creating for Kasa 2) – I have just recently met Tammy, and she already is a pleasure to work with. She’s fast, reliable, a practical problem solver and a true local artist.  You only have to drive by her metal yard on 1340 Bryant Street to see how talented she is.

At home…

• Janey (my wonderful Nanny) – I call her the punk Mary Poppins with her bright red hair and nose ring, but she is also organized, reliable, a sweetheart, firm and fun. Without her doing a wonderful job at home and making my life easier, I wouldn’t really be able to focus on the work that needs to be done at Kasa.
• Merideth (Tim’s wife) – one of the unsung members of the Kasa team, Merideth keeps the Volkema house running smoothly and helps Tim  keep going through all the ups and downs here at the restaurant.  Wish her luck with Volkema #3, likely to arrive right around the same time as Kasa #2!

I would love to include myself in this list, however, I will leave it to Tim and Suresh to comment on that..  :)

P.S. – My friends have already been warned — anyone caught trying to steal my nanny is in serious trouble, and the same goes for my amazing staff.

Anamika

1) you have to sell a heck of a lot of $4.50 kati rolls to make a living for two families in San Francisco; and

2) it’s time to spread the gospel for simple, fresh homestyle Indian food to other parts of the City.

So…we’re doubling down and opening our second Kasa location (dubbed K2) in the Marina next month!

The space is at 3115 Fillmore Street (b/t Union & Lombard) and is a little bigger than K1.  We’re converting the space from an old furniture store, so the permitting, design and construction process has been intense. (K2 “Coming Soon” sign)

We kept things really really simple at K1 with a handful of dishes and a clean aesthetic so that we could focus on making amazing food from scratch every day, and we plan to keep the Heart of Kasa the same at K2.

Of course, we have some twists that we’re adding this time around, most notably: late night weekend hours (open til 2am Thursday thru Saturdays) and pitchers of beer and Sangria, but mainly we don’t want to mess with a good thing.

So…tell your friends, help us spread the word, and as always let us know your comments and brilliant ideas.

After 16 months of being open, curiosity finally got the better of me today and I googled ‘Prison Food Trays‘.  The reason for this strange search is that one too many yelp reviewer (5 total) has commented that they feel like they are eating on prison trays at Kasa.  These comments perplexed me for a while, as I haven’t understood the rationale (thankfully having never eaten in prison).  Post Google search, I can see where the connection is coming from.  Prison food is indeed served in compartmentalized trays, as is our food at Kasa.

Kasa Thali

Prison Tray

I feel I must explain why we serve our meals on metal trays (called a ‘Thali’) here at Kasa.  We do it as an homage to the vast majority of people in India (many of humble socioeconomic status) who eat out of these trays each and every day and have done so for centuries. Nowadays, the wealthier classes in India tend to use porcelain plates in an attempt to mimic the West and distinguish themselves from the poor.  But we love the metal thalis because they are extremely durable, never break and fit our vibe of being ultra-practical.  We think they look pretty cool too…

Our thalis, plates and bowls are all imported from India with the help of my very interesting cousin Kiwi, to whom we owe many thanks as we had him searching for days on end for just the right sizes, weight, shininess, etc.

We aim to be true to the way Indians serve and eat food in their daily lives.  I would never have guessed that the plates would make people feel like they were eating like prisoners, or even eating in an ultra modern place (a separate confusion that we hear occasionally).

My hope is that some of the Yelpers commenting about prison plates are able to read this blog and realize (just as I have done today) that it appears that the majority of India and prisoners in the US have something in common.  They both eat out of compartmentalized trays  :)

On some level, I find this discovery extremely cool.  Thalis are a no-nonsense, no-frills, humble way to eat.  I’m guessing that this is the reason for the trays in prison too.  Hopefully, most of you find our actual food to be at least a cut above though…

Cousin Kiwi

Gujurati Thali

South Indian Thali

North Indian Thali

Despite Kasa being a business entirely about Indian food, we now found ourselves in a world which had nothing to do with food.  Creating the physical space for Kasa up to code and having the finances to be able to do it was the enormous task ahead of us.

For a minute, we were all stunned and unsure about where to start the magnanimous task of transforming ‘La Castro Taqueria’ to the blurry vision of Kasa that was in our heads.  It really dawned on me that the restaurant was about to become a reality.  So far, we had ignored all the people who had told us that we were crazy to enter into this business.  I never worried about that as I kind of like crazy.

But when the owner of La Castro Taqueria, on the night of the signing, breathed a sigh of relief and fled to Vegas tocelebrate getting out of the business, I did momentarily panic as to what I had got myself into.  But not for long as there was no turning back now.  Besides, I think I truly understood the old phrase ‘Time is Money’ to my core, for everyday that went by, we paid rent with no money coming in.  Time really was of the essence just to intensify the pressure.

There was no more theorizing, no more hypothesizing — only completely plunging into action was required.

At the time, Tim was struggling with his move to San Francisco from Chicago after leaving Kraft and was desperately trying to hunt down an affordable place to live for himself and his family and their very large dog

Morgan and trying to sort out schools for their kids.

Suresh was working hard at his demanding full time Google job and I didn’t have any experience with restaurants or construction projects or health codes or building codes.  I hadn’t worked on anything business-like for the previous 6 years after being consumed by full-time child raising and being a co-op parent (which is still the hardest thing I’ve ever done).  I didn’t really know where to start either.  Those first few days were a little surreal and a lot scary.

Six months later, on June 18, 2008, Kasa finally DID open its doors for business.  For those interested in the birth of Kasa or in opening their own restaurant one day, Tim, Suresh and I will detail some of what was involved during those grueling six months in future blog posts.

Anamika

If you haven’t read Christian Lander’s now-famous blog, Stuff White People Like, I think you should. It’s super funny (you know, funny because it’s true). Indie Music, Manhattan, Study Abroad, and Promising to Learn a New Language describe some aspects of myself I find pretty annoying (but are nevertheless true).

He hasn’t gotten around to the topic of Indian food yet apart from briefly mentioning it in an Asian Fusion post, but it’s probably just a matter of time.  Well Christian, this white person loves Indian food and now has a vested interest in making sure lots of others (of all races) do too.

I fell in love with Indian food a long time ago while studying abroad at Oxford. I need to give a shout out to Chutneys Indian Brasserie, where my uncle Bill took me to my first Indian meal back in 1996. Since that time, I ate it more and more every year until it crept up to 2-3 times per week.  To provide some context, over the last six years my wife Merideth and I dropped most of our outside interests to focus all our disposable income on finding the best inexpensive restaurants in the city (first New York and then Chicago). We created a spreadsheet to capture our thoughts so we didn’t forget the details of our meals and so we could have something to pass around to friends. We had our favorites in each category, but I’d say Indian pretty easily emerged as our favorite cuisine overall. For Indian, we’d mainly dine in or take out from hole-in-the-wall places, and we’d go out every once in a while for a higher-end meal. Although we definitely loved the places we frequented, we sometimes just wanted a quick, fresh, and delicious Indian option. We had that for sandwiches, burritos, burgers, hot dogs, pizza, and even falafel. Why not for our beloved Indian?!

After a few years at Kraft, despite the fun, smart people I worked with, I started to burn out on slinging processed food for a living. Plus, all I ever did was think about restaurants and what the NY or Chicago scene really needed. In the fall of 2006, I decided to flesh out the kind of Indian place where Merideth and I would love to eat all the time. I also called a friend of mine from business school (Suresh), because he was talking about doing something like this way back then.

After the first time I spoke to Suresh on the phone about it, I told Merideth that he and I would probably end up working on this together. Then we hit a snag: Suresh said he was really tied to the idea of his wife being the chef. I tried my best to keep an open mind, but was honestly trying to figure out how to extract myself from this thing if her cooking wasn’t high-end chef caliber. I wasn’t going to involve myself in a project without knock-out good food. So Merideth and I flew out to SF to see what came out of Anamika’s kitchen on a regular basis. We were optimistic, but also pretty nervous.

We picked up and moved across the country to open Kasa, so I’m sure you can guess what we thought of her cooking. I’m actually amazed at the ease with which she puts out her dishes. She’s just plain gifted with the ability to work with flavors and textures—even outside of Indian food.

Merideth and I feel blessed to be here in San Francisco and to be part of what makes Kasa a place our customers enjoy.

Gringo out.

Sitting around, we are always talking about the restaurant business, be it our latest Yelp reviews, strategies, sharing tips back and forth and what the rest of the family thought of their latest food experience at our restaurants.

Suresh’s mum is, of course, our most brutal critic. (Move over, Michael Bauer.)  We panic when she’s coming to eat and try to ensure the food is at its ABSOLUTE ABSOLUTE BEST.  If she is happy, all is well.  If not, we know we have some more work to do and that is always exhausting when you are already trying your best.

One recent funny discussion between Aman (Suresh’s nephew and Chaat Cafe’s head chef) and I was over the definition of Lamb Vindaloo.  Both of us are Punjabi, but on occasion we both do regional Indian specials.  He was surprised as to why I don’t put aloo (‘potatoes’ in Punjabi) in my Vindaloo.  I told him that was not traditional and that I had read that ‘Vin’ was vinegar and ‘Aloo’ was garlic in Portugese and those were the two main components of the dish, with no potatoes.  (The dish arises from when the Portugese colonized Goa.)

We just looked at each other pretty sure of our own positions.  Aman’s younger brother declared a ‘Chef Off’ to conclude the debate, so we had to Wikipedia it.

Turns out we were both kind of right.  It is not traditional to add potatoes, but has been done so much that it has kind of become tradition.  I guess it’s because of the confusion around Aloo being part of the word Vindaloo.

As a side note, according to Wikipedia, there are some Indian restaurants serving ‘Tindaloo’, which apparently means an extra spicy version of Vindaloo.  Aman is convinced (and I’m with him on this) that it probably was a typo at a restaurant that was then covered up with this extra spicy story.

The different number of  fake Vindaloos that we came up with after this had the family in fits of laughter for a while.  The worst of the bunch was ‘Been da the loo’ (when you’ve had too much vindaloo), which kind of signaled that we had to end the joke.

I find it fascinating that the regional distinctions in India are so vast not only in cuisine but in culture and language.  Even within a region, from home to home, traditions vary widely on a recipe.  I hope that we will see more and more regional Indian cuisine become popular in San Francisco.

Anamika

Things that feel good in the moment, however, often tend to leave you feeling not so great the next day.  It seems pretty unfair to me, but ‘it is what it is’.

Dragging myself to work today was tough.  All I wanted to do was eat, eat, eat and sleep some more.  I asked Suresh if there was an INSTANT cure to a hangover.  His response was to do a shot!  I couldn’t stomach that, so I took his second suggestion instead of popping an Advil.

I got to Kasa kind of slowly, with all the staff noticing my low energy and asking if ‘la patrona es triste’.  I just said yes and prayed my mood would not affect the daily specials I had planned to cook.

Phirni with fresh cut strawberries and rosewater

I focused on the cooking and really entered a quiet zone.  The beautiful yellow of the pineapple I was cutting for the new Pineapple Chicken dish stood out as HAPPY against my sadness.  The luscious bright red of the strawberries mixed with the green mint jumped out to me and screamed HAPPY.  The sweet smell of the rosewater mixed with sugar going into the Phirni reminded me of HAPPINESS.

Finishing my work for the day gave me a sense of accomplishment too, especially when I tasted the food and was HAPPY with my work.

I still felt down the rest of the day, but just being able to notice the small things in life that make me happy and feeling a sense of accomplishment even on a tiny scale gave me hope that I can find my way out of feeling sad.

Anamika

The best thing about being the Chief Financial Officer is that I get a fancy sounding title.  The list of the worst things about being the Chief Financial Officer is much longer and includes:

• Having to enter around 20 fields of data into Quickbooks for each day of sales.  Typically the fields of data include numbers that were illegibly scribbled by Tim, Anamika or one of our other great staff during the hustle and bustle of the day.  Trust me, it’s exactly as fun as it sounds.
• Having to organize, 3 hole punch and enter all our bills into Quickbooks.  That includes our daily deliveries from our produce and meat vendors, twice weekly deliveries of our spices, thrice weekly trips to farmers markets with scribbled (yet again) receipts, payouts to our nightly cleaning service, beer and wine deliveries, dry good deliveries, flower receipts from the vendor down the street and so much more goodness.
• Paying all our bills on-time so our vendors continue to love us.  This is…stressful.
• Reconciling all of our accounts each month.  Now you might ask…what does it mean to reconcile each account?  Great question.  It means going back through every single transaction — every bank deposit, every individual expense, etc — and categorizing it, confirming that it’s accounted for in our bank statements and that our ending balances in Quickbooks are the same as they are in our bank statements.

This may not sound like much, but when you factor in the many unexpected laptop crashes, accounts that don’t balance, receipts that have gone missing and so much more wacky fun, one can start to understand why many restauranteurs advised us to outsource the bookkeeping function as quickly as we could.  But that would be far too easy (and expensive).

I’d much rather be in the restaurant, rocking a dinner shift  and chatting up our customers, but for now, you can find me at home many nights after work, watching Eastbound & Down, engaged in an epic battle with Quickbooks.

If you want to share tips, or want advice on how we set things up financially, or just need moral support as you struggle through restaurant bookkeeping, feel free to hit me up (contact at kasaindian dot com or @kasaindian on twitter).

Suresh

As the newest addition to the Kasa serving team, I’ll take this moment to reflect on a few things I’ve thought about in my first month of making Kati Rolls and Thalis…..

My body is still getting used to the server’s life (after having spent the past several years sitting in a cubicle at a computer) so I usually get to work feeling a little stiff, but leave energized.

To me, spice is the most interesting element at Kasa. It’s what makes our food so special, from the cardamom that I toss into our rice before cooking and the sweet cinnamon steam that wafts out as I scoop it. From the handfuls of fresh mint that I get to scatter over our onions to the mustard seeds that dot the Gobi Aloo.

But spice also complicates things when customers entrust me to steer them towards the dish with the right amount of heat for them. It’s like they’re walking in the door, approaching the counter, and asking me what song they’re in the mood for at that moment. I’ve never met them before, I don’t know a thing about them, and I’m supposed to know what level of spice they will enjoy. I’ve slowly learned to read their faces and tones and to decide pretty easily whether this is a Lamb Curry (mild and safe) or Chicken Tikka Masala (more fiery) kind of diner.

I can tell how hungry I am based on how godly the rotis smell as they’re lifted off the griddle and land in front of me to become a Kati Roll.  Sometimes the scent of the butter (ghee) overwhelms me and reminds me of Dad making pancakes on Sunday mornings growing up.

I love the routine of my mid-day sidework. Zoning and listening to music as I spoon thick dollops of cucumber raita and crunchy bites of salad into to-go containers is a nice antidote to the lunch rush before and the dinner rush that follows.

One little boy comes in after school most days and I help him learn to count money through buying Mango Lassi. He’s recently decided that his favorite dish is the Gobi Aloo.

This week, we were visited twice by a customer who taught me a thing or two about Kati Rolls. Being an Indian, she respectfully instructed me on how to create a special Kati Roll to her tastes: unda (egg) style, with cilantro coconut chutney and onions mixed right into the egg before frying.  Roll it just like that with some salt and a few more onions for crunch. I can handle a customer like that – she knows what she wants but makes me want to give it to her.

I’m heading to work in a couple hours – come visit me on the other side of the counter!

Kirsten

Our naivety as first time restaurant owners shows up despite the leaps and bounds we’ve made learning the trade.  The Asian American Film Festival (of which we were totally unaware) with Deepa Mehta’s new movie Heaven on Earth drew in crowds with lines out the door at Kasa.   We were perfectly well staffed up for a normal Saturday night, but multiply that by 3 and craziness ensued.  Our entire crew worked like super heroes, bringing out food, rolling Kati Rolls, washing silverware, bussing tables, taking deliveries and pouring out drinks all at the speed of lightening. 

At one point our roti stock was totally depleted…it is hand made after all!  The panic in all of us struck in.  That’s when I started to make frantic calls to Tim and Suresh for HELP.  I’m not sure what kind of crazy babysitting arrangements were made between them, but soon thereafter Tim swooped in to save the day.  All in all, it was a lot of fun though, and the entire work crew bonded.  

Needless to say we researched the festival and were well prepared for the Sunday night showing at the Castro of Shah Rukh Khan’s movie Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi.  Things were fast, furious, buzzing yet SMOOTH.  

Lesson learned: know the events going on in the Castro really well.  I’m Indian though…how did I not hear about these movies? I really want to watch the Deepa Mehta movie.  Someday when I have a little time.

Anamika