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My Favorite Indian Things in San Francisco

May 27, 2010 by Anamika
Although Indian by decent, I also consider myself British and, now after 10 years in SF,  American too.  Other than six years spent at boarding school in India, I was born and brought up in Hounslow, London.  Which may as well be Punjab, India.  I don’t lie when I say almost everyone there was Punjabi, and if not, then they’re from some other part of India.  (If you’ve seen Bend It Like Beckham, that was filmed in my town.)
There are a couple disadvantages to being raised in such a lack of diversity, such as everyone pronouncing jalapeno and tortilla exactly as they are spelled, or (on a more irritating note) people always being interested in whom you were dating and whether/when you are getting married.
However, there are some serious advantages to being submerged in everything Indian:
  • Language – it was very easy to keep alive my family’s mother tongue of Punjabi.  Practically all my friends’s parents and grandparents spoke Punjabi.
  • Threading – this is a serious advantage for Punjabi women….you can go to any corner and get your eyebrows looking fantastic within seconds!
  • Music – I witnessed some amazing fusion Indian/western music and dance.  Bally Sagoo remixes are amongst my favourite.
  • Food – I learned to make countless dishes from friends and family, and more importantly, I internalized what they were supposed to taste like.
  • Culture – I learned about the festivals and religious events celebrated in India and just the general Punjabi nature of being.  Most Friday nights there’d be a dozen dinner and dances going on, where you’d be guaranteed to get a basic chicken curry, bhangra and a punch up.
In San Francisco, I sometimes miss some of those things Indian (other than people getting into your business), but I’ve found some true gems here to satisfy that part of me:
  • Yoga Tree in the Castro is truly epic yoga.  I’m learning Sanskrit verses like never before.
  • Bibi of Bibi’s Skin Care & Threading on Fillmore Street for threading is by far the best I’ve ever had.  A true artist.  I’ve even received compliments by strangers on the street on my eyebrows.
  • Seema Shah teaches my little daughter and a bunch of other adorable 5 years olds some truly original bollywood dance moves.  She’s still building her website, so contact me if you want to reach her.
  • Stanford’s Holi Mela is the best Holi celebration outside of India.
  • El Sobrante Gurdwara is a beautiful Sikh temple in the hills north of Berkeley where you’ll find some of the most original (and free) Punjabi food in existence, as well as some peace of mind if you visit it when it’s not busy.
  • And of course I hope that Kasa Indian Eatery stands amongst the list as serving some of the most authentic home style Punjabi food.
As for dinner and dances, you’ll find those around the Bay Area but not many in the City itself.
This June 5th however, the American Indian Foundation are putting on a swanky dinner and dance gala with Kasa food, performances by Seema and her dance group and more at R-80, a very cool venue in Potrero Hill.  All proceeds go to the very noble cause of providing funds to under served children’s education in India.  You won’t find your your basic chicken curry and hopefully no punch ups, but the Kasa crew will be making kati rolls, Indian chickpea salad, Gobi Fritters, Mini Chicken Kofte and there will be lots of dancing!
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May 5 at Kasa Marina: Indian Laundry special dinner

April 25, 2010 by Anamika

I’m very excited to invite you to a special dinner that we’ve cheekily dubbed “Indian Laundry” at Kasa Marina on May 5th at 8:30pm.  For just a few hours, we’re going to deviate from our relaxed counter-service to bring you a treat: a full-service five course sit down meal that I will personally prepare, with each course paired with wine by the extremely talented sommelier Mark Bright from Saison.  Mark and I will host the dinner.

We want the experience to be communal and intimate, so expect to eat family style, make new friends, try amazing wines and push your culinary boundaries.  We’ve limited the dinner to the first 16 people who reserve tickets by calling Kasa’s co-owner Tim at 917-535-0148 to pre-pay. Tickets costs $75 – click here for the menu and more information.

So why are we doing this?
At Kasa, our regular offerings are comprised of our favourite six dishes (plus a couple daily specials), alongside our favourite chutneys and raita. But there is so so much more to Indian food, as it is a complex cuisine with a never ending list of dishes and regional styles.
At our Indian Laundry event, I want to showcase Punjabi food a level deeper than you might normally find.  I want to highlight the cuisine’s ability to take an ingredient to its highest potential using herbs, spices, fats (in moderation) and heat (both fire and sunlight) to produce delicious and sometimes surprising results.  At the same time, I want the meal to be subtle enough where guests can taste the ingredients and  feel good afterwards. To me, this is the ultimate fine dining.
This isn’t always easy to do, as some foods are easy to love (french fries, sweet and sour deep fried anything) , whilst others require a little more sophistication of the palette, and a little more foresight about how you might feel later on.  Indian food, at it’s best, is able to achieve this.
My menu for Indian laundry is intended to bring potentially unfamiliar and interesting flavours like fresh bitter yet addictive fenugreek leaves (not normally found in a restaurant but a regular Punjabi household fare), and deeper richer tastes like Saag Lamb to the table.  We’ll also have achaar (pickles) that are currently out in the sun souring in my garden and a variety of unique chutneys to enhance the meal further.   Some of these flavours are bitter, some are sweet and some tangy, all with the use of amazing ingredients like tamarind, jaggery or celery seeds.

Some of these dishes can be difficult to do on a normal basis at Kasa because of the time it takes in the sun for instance, or when certain dishes cannot hold up to large batch cooking, or crunchy savoury pakoras become soggy if not served immediately.

I’m also grateful to Mark Bright for recognizing this potential in my cooking and agreeing to pair and serve the wine on the night.  (Mark also designed our wine lists at Kasa.) We’ve become friends through our joined love of good things in taste (food and wine) as well as our love for taking people through that journey with us.  And so we are putting together Indian Laundry at Kasa.

I hope to see some of you at the event.  Get your tickets today!

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Trinidad Night at Kasa Castro, April 7

April 4, 2010 by Anamika

This Wednesday evening, April 7th, we’re going to have some fun with a ‘Trinidad Night’ at Kasa Castro.  Why?  For no other reason than to celebrate the wonderful Trini culture and cuisine with its strong connections to India, Africa and Britain.  We’ll be serving a Trini Plate ($10.95) with:

  • Curried Chicken
  • Aloo Channa
  • Pumpkin Talkari
  • Daal Roti
  • And of course plenty of cold Red Stripes will be at the ready

When slavery was abolished in the British empire in 1838, the colony of Trinidad needed alternative sources of cheap labor. In came the first Indians, who today constitute about 45% of the population.  The dishes that evolved from this emigration are uniquely Trinidadian using produce, spices and herbs native to the island, joined with a strong Indian influence.  I’m so excited to have discovered these new dishes!

Adriel

The idea for Trinidad Night came from chatting with Adriel, one of our favorite Kasa customers, a Princeton alum, McKinsey consultant and most importantly a Trinidadian.  Whilst in the store, he asked me to cook up some Trini food as a special. Since I didn’t know anything about the cuisine, I told him to email me some recipes.  I have since discovered that his interests (other than food) involve ‘coming up with ideas and doing nothing with them’.  I didn’t let him get away with that though — I managed to get some recipes from him AND get him to cook and taste with me on Wednesday to make sure the food is as authentic as possible.

If you want to try these recipes at home, the trick is to find Chief’s Curry Powder (apparently everyone in Trinidad uses this) or green seasoning — not easy even in such a cosmopolitan city as San Francisco.  But my hunt led me to Oriental Lucky Mart in Oakland, where I found not only the curry powder but also the best Jamaican beef patties ever.  Just pop them in the oven and get dreamy!

I’m still working on finding Chadon Beni (aka Culantro, Ngo Gai or Ngo Tai), an herb related to Cilantro.  I need to check out Vietnamese grocery stores for this fresh herb.

Another cool find was a flag from Trinidad.  On Valencia and 24th street, on display at the parking lot, you can practically find ANY flag from around the world.

Look forward to seeing you on Wednesday, and if you have any leads on the Chadon Beni / Culantro / Ngo Gai / Ngo Tai, please let me know.

Anamika

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Doing Justice to My Grandma’s Parathas This Saturday at Kasa

May 27, 2009 by Anamika

bari-ma-21

This Saturday from 5pm onwards at Kasa, we’ll be offering a real Punjabi treat for the first time:  Aloo (potato), Keema (minced lamb) and Gobi (cauliflower) Parathas.  I’m dedicating this special to my grandma (Bari Ma), who is unfortunately suffering from the after-effects of a severe stroke.  This is the frailest I have ever seen her.
She spoiled me rotten, particularly by stuffing me with food.  She always thought I was too thin and needed to eat more. I miss those days.   :(
My absolute favourite dish she made for me from childhood through to adulthood was Aloo Paratha with a side of butter, achaar (Indian pickles) and yogurt.  On Sunday mornings when she made this at my cousin’s house, she would phone me up and tell me to hurry up and come over to eat.  I would be there in a flash, hoping to eat the first paratha off the tava, literally with a huge side of butter.  It was so damn good, I can still recall that feeling now.
Another vivid memory is going out clubbing one night and sneaking in at 4am.  Bari Ma was waiting up for me and I got caught and yelled at pretty badly, something about ruining my reputation, nobody wanting to marry a girl going out late and the psychos waiting to jump in my car and kill me.  Once she calmed down, I told her about the fun I’d had that night and that I was really hungry from all the dancing.   She had some boiled potatoes in the fridge and she made me a fresh paratha with melted butter.  I have NEVER felt more loved in my entire life than that night.
I claim that my grandma makes THE BEST parathas.  I’ve heard others make this claim but do not believe it.  The closest anyone ever came to my grandma’s was my great grandma in India.  The only reason she came close was because she made this homemade white butter that was truly fantastic.
So…this Saturday we’ll try to do justice to their parathas.  They’ll be served, of course, with a dollop of butter, achaar and yogurt.  If I can perfect the white butter between now and then, we will have white butter.  If anyone has tips on this, please let me know!
Being an only child raised a lot of the time by my Grandma, I have been heavily influenced by her.  Her quotes that she loved to use to get her point across to me will always be with me and help me remember her at her finest:  strong, cynical, practical, yet extremely loving to those she chose to love.
Bari Ma’s favourite quotes:
On sex before marriage: ‘Who needs the cow when they can have the milk for free?’
On friendship: ‘Familiarity breeds contempt.’
On clinching a marriage deal: ‘Many a slip between the cup and the lip.’
On being too fussy for marriage: ‘When she’s 20, she says Who is He? When she’s 30, she says What is He? When she’s 40, she says WHERE is he?’
On love:  ’Where did all the love go when there is no money to pay the rent?’
Anamika
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Indian Street Food at Kasa this Friday Night

April 21, 2009 by Anamika
Slumdog Millionaire, set in the slums of Mumbai, is playing at the Castro Theatre on Friday night.  I’m going to do a tribute to one of my favourite cities in the world and make Kasa’s Friday special to honor the ultimate street food of Mumbai.
The question is…what is the ultimate street food of Mumbai?
It’s a tough choice based on the memories a person associates with their street food experiences, but I narrowed it down to a few based on my own childhood memories of Mumbai:
1. Pani Puri on Chowpatty Beach – some of the happiest moments of my life were here as a kid on vacation from boarding school with my mum, super late, hot night, sand in my hair, trying to fit a whole puri in my mouth without dribbling everywhere.
2. Kwality Vanilla Ice Cream – Nothing has ever been able to touch the taste of this creamy white ice cream that I would hunt down on a hot night after an exciting night of clubbing (bollywood stars/mafia/regular people all in one club).
3. Bheja Masala Fry – This one is strange and, had I known beforehand what it was, I would never have tried it.  But, I was a kid and had been to a late night street festival (I think in Byculla) and was hungry. My mum’s boyfriend at the time told me to try it and I loved it.  Turns out I had just eaten ‘Masala Fried Lamb Brain’ with Roti.  It’s popular street food in Bombay  because it’s so GOOD.
4. Pav Bhaji – So this one WINS.  It simply hits the spot at any time.  The spicy, buttery, lemony, potato mash on buttered white buns and crunchy red onions is the ultimate comfort food.  If you’ve never had it, imagine a vegetarian sloppy joe with delicious bread and tons of flavor.
Nothing can beat eating it standing up on the street, but I will seek to do it justice at Kasa on Friday evening.
I’d love to hear your Indian street food snack experiences, so leave them in the comments below.  Or tweet them @kasaindian.
Anamika
P.S. Check this Mumbai street food video out…just watching it makes me crave the food!

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