Royal India

I love Indian food, but apparently I am not having great luck with it in South Austin. Last fall I went to Asiana (see my post here) and was completely uninspired by the offerings (not to mention the decor), but have come to find out several foodie friends of mine like the place AND it made the Austin Chronicle's "First Plates" critic's picks list. Then last month, I tried Royal India, in the old Estancia Churrascaria location on the westbound Hwy. 290 access road, just before Brodie Lane in Sunset Valley. My friend and I met for an early Saturday evening dinner, and got there at 5:30 when they opened.

I ordered an iced chai tea which then took about 20 minutes to come. And when it did come, it was warm, and didn't have much flavor to it -- very little of the cardamom that I love about a hot or cold chai. So I told the waiter that. He said Indians don't drink it iced, only hot. And I understand his point completely (and no, there was not an iced option on the menu), but don't you think from the hospitality/customer service standpoint, that perhaps he should have said when I ordered it that it would essentially be a watered-down hot chai drink? Basically, we argued over the chai. He took it to the back and returned with more ice in it, but that didn't exactly help either. Fortunately, he did take it off the bill.

And on to the food. We shared an order of the vegetarian samosas, which I found to be bland. No cumin or coriander (or really any spice or salt) could be detected in the mashed potato interior.  Ironically, their online menu describes these as "well-seasoned."

My friend had the Aloo Gobi, a cauliflower and potato dish, which was fairly spicy; this was the best dish we ordered.

I had the lamb (kakori) kabobs from the Royal Tandoor portion of the menu. The ground meat was over-worked, and hence dried out. Tough meat is not very good meat in my book. I think the flavor was okay, though not memorable, but the execution was not.

I really wish I had better things to report. If you have been to Royal India and liked it, please tell me what you ate! I would love to have better things to write about.

Recent Eats -- Italian, Cajun, Indian

Here are a few places I have been to in the past couple of weeks!

A friend and I checked out a couple of food trailers on a recent Sunday. We met at Lucky's Puccias, which is adjacent to the Tiniest Bar in Texas on West 5th and Bowie. What's a puccia, you ask? Well, it's a regional bread from the southern Italian region of Taranto (think: the heel of the Italian boot), that I would say is a cross between a pita and focaccia. Lucky's makes their own bread in a wood-fired oven, and they have a variety of sandwich options.

We got the original Lucky's, with tomatoes, arugula, fresh mozzarella, and prosciutto, and it was delicious! There's also a touch of chipotle aioli on it, which provides just enough kick. The bread is tender and soft, but didn't break apart when eating. They post their daily specials on their Facebook page, and I've seen pictures of some really yummy looking pizzas, which would be great with a beer.

We then went over to the trailer park on South Congress, large to dispel a rumor that I had heard that the lot had already been shut down for hotel development. Nope, it's still alive and well, though I imagine that day will come soon. After walking the block and seeing what our various options were, we decided on The Original New Orleans Po-Boy and Gumbo Shop.

We split the crawfish po-boy (though I really coulda sworn I ordered catfish) and a side of rice and beans. The po-boy was okay, though the bread totally fell apart. Wish there had been more remoulade or sauce or something other than under ripe tomatoes. The rice and beans though was not good. WAAAAY too salty, and if I am saying that, then it's too salty. Some of the rice at the bottom was also undercooked. We each took about two bites and that was it. I hope others have had better experiences here!

Last week, I had dinner with another friend at Asiana. "Great, Asian food!" you're probably thinking! Yeah, so was I when I first heard the name, but it's actually Indian food, located at IH-35 and William Cannon. I had never heard of Asiana until a couple weeks ago, when the Statesman released their Top 50 restaurants, this was listed at number 50, so I figured it ought to be good. Weeeellllll..... it wasn't bad, but it wasn't really what I was expecting, though it's entirely possible I didn't order their best dishes.

I started with an order of samosas, which turned out to be four smaller-sized ones. Well-fried, and/or they were fried a while ago and were keeping warm, they were your average potato and pea samosa. I was disappointed in the tamarind sauce that accompanied them; it was too thin and not twangy enough to satisfy my normal love of a good tamarind dish.

I was very excited to see the southern Indian specialty of dosas on the menu. Dosas are the Indian version of a crepe, made typically from rice and lentil flour. I thought I had ordered #20, the Mysore Masala Dosa, which was a crepe stuffed with potatoes and onions. What I received was #19, the Mysore Dosa, just the crepe with some chutnies. (Hope this isn't some sort of pattern. Am I saying the right dish, and just receiving the wrong ones???) Kind of like the tamarind, these sauces did not excite me. I did like just the plain crepe, but would have been a bit happier with the "burrito" version. I had also ordered the #45, the keema nan bread, which is described as being stuffed with a spiced ground lamb. The keema looked identical to my friend's garlic nan, so we didn't even realize at first that mine had been delivered to the table. But the lamb was ground so fine you could barely make out the specs, and sadly, there was practically no flavor to it, much less any kind of spices. Realizing that my meal was not what I had expected it to be, and also that I was in need of some protein, I quickly scanned the menu and ordered the chicken korma.

Meanwhile, my friend ordered the tandoori mixed grill, which had chicken, shrimp, and sheeh kababs (seasoned ground lamb patties). The chicken was tasty, the lamb a bit dry. Very red!

My korma arrived, and I forgot to take a picture, though it wouldn't have been very photogenic anyway. It too, was just okay. Once again, it's the sauce I had the most problem with. Not really rich, creamy, and nutty like kormas I have had before. Thinner, and I wouldn't say there was a distinct flavor to it, though it was more yellow (turmeric) than what I feel like I typically see. Just kind of uninteresting. Oh, and I should say a word about the decor at Asiana. WHAT decor?!? There's almost nothing up on the walls, except a few ill-fitting photographs that look like they were left over from a 1990s travel business. There was the Denver skyline and the London bridge, as well as a covered wagon. These alone left me scratching my head.

I would go back to Lucky's Puccia's in a heartbeat! The other two.... I am in no hurry to return to, unfortunately. Thanks also to Foodie is the New Forty for the Lucky's recommendation!

Recent Eats

So here are a couple places that I've eaten recently, and clearly haven't made the time to write full posts!  

Had lunch at the Whip In, the combo Indian food/bar/convenience store spot on the southbound frontage road of IH-35 between Woodland and Oltorf. I seem to remember it from years ago when it was still mostly convenience store. Now, when you walk in, you're immediately faced with a somewhat jumbled chalkboard menu. As you keep walking straight back, you have some bar stools at the counter, and the store merchandise and refrigerated cases behind you when sitting.

After studying the board, and hearing they were out of samosas (problem with the fryer, I think), I picked the Travis Heights sandwich -- samosa-style potatoes, peas, carrots, cilantro chutney, and provolone cheese grilled in naan bread, and my friend had the curried ratatouille.

All in all, not bad. Mine could have used more of the chutney, or something to jazz it up a bit. Would be interested to try some of their meat dishes. They do get creativity points for their menu, a fusion of Indian and American cuisines, with things from biryanis to South Asian Frito Pie. And they source locally! 

A last minute meet-up with a friend found us at Red House Pizzeria on a Friday night. We walked in through the bar area, which was packed, but across the covered patio and into the restaurant portion found no waiting. GREAT happy hour specials, which were available in the restaurant -- a few different drinks at half or reduced price, and the appetizers were half price. 


We both started with the house punch cocktail, and then shared the garlic bread, meatballs, Greek salad, and Gorgonzola and bacon pizza. The meatball description says they have a touch of truffle oil, which I couldn't taste at all.

The pizza was a little underdone for my liking. I had one leftover piece that I ate for lunch the next day, which I heated it in the toaster oven, and the crust did get nice and crispy.

Certainly decent food, great happy hour prices, and a very friendly, efficient waiter, named Ross. Would I go back though? 


And then brunch this weekend at the very popular 24 Diner. Fortunately, it was only about a 15 minute wait (after being told 45 min), and we were seated in the back room, which was a hair quieter than the main room. 

Three of us split the heirloom tomato salad, which was delicious.

I had the French toast with vanilla cream and blueberries, with sides of egg and sausage. Yum! 

One friend had the ham and Gruyere frittata, and the other the hash, all very tasty. We had wanted to split a milkshake for dessert, but were too full! 

Bombay Bistro

Went for an early dinner the other night at Bombay Bistro, a recently opened addition in the Brodie Oaks shopping center, at the northwest corner of South Lamar and Ben White/290 (where SunHarvest and Hobby Lobby are located). They share the building with Pei Wei and have another location way up on Research Blvd. A friend had been for the lunch buffet, and deemed it quite good. Another friend and I looked at the menu online, saw a number of lamb dishes, and headed on over. 

There was only one other diner when we arrived, and we were seated at one of the booths along the side walls; I sat facing the kitchen in the back of the restaurant. There was a steady flow of incoming diners throughout our meal, including a couple tables of people who I would guess were Indian -- always a good sign.

 

We started with the Aloo Cashew Rolls, which are lightly-spiced potatoes, rolled in a cashew crust, and fried. They were good, not greasy, and benefited from a touch of salt; the tamarind chutney that was brought when we sat down with some papadums (lentil cracker bread, the Indian version of salsa and chips) was very nice with the aloo rolls. We also had the curried mussels, which were in the most fantastic broth; these are a specialty of Goa, one of the coastal regions. It was a coconut milk base, and after a little tomato, spices, and the natural brininess from the mussels, it was delicious. We both took the mussel shells and used them as spoons to drink down the broth. The basket of mixed breads helped soak it up too. 

For the main dish, we ordered the Khyberi Ghost, described as "succulent lamb pieces marinated with a special sauce and slow cooked to perfection." It wasn't just perfection, it was heaven! Apart from chunks of lamb and crispy shallots sprinkled on top, I really couldn't tell you what they put in there, but it was amazing. Tender, flavorful lamb, bathing in a complex gravy. As this was from the House Specialties menu, you also had a choice of a side dish, and we chose the lentils, which had great flavor and a nice kick to them. The only slight disappointment to me was the assorted bread basket. The naan was fine, but it also had an onion kulcha (bread stuffed with onions and herbs) and aloo paratha (bread stuffed with potato, peas and herbs). Neither of the stuffed breads were particularly exciting, nothing wrong with them, just not memorable. Next time, I will probably stick to a garlic naan or the lachedar paratha if it's the flaky, somewhat crispy bread (skillet-cooked) that I am thinking of. 

Our service was wonderful; I think it was the manager who seated us and took our order. Other waitstaff brought the items out, and what appeared to be a Latina server never let our water glasses get very empty. I was also excited to see the Khuroos-e-Tursh dish on their menu (chicken stuffed with spinach in a decadent creamy nut-based sauce), which I have never seen anyplace but the Clay Pit, and it's about the only thing I ever eat there because I love the sauce so much (read about it here). So my next trip back to Bombay Bistro, I will have to try their version. This could be a very, very bad thing that they are on my way to and from work!

Pre-holiday Eats

So now Christmas is past, and my relatives have returned to their homes. Exercise? Take down decorations? Nah! Time to get a little caught up on food posts!

Two weeks before Christmas, I had lunch with a friend at Ichiban, a place I hadn't been to in years. My friend has a newborn, so we avoided the lunch rush, and were able to get one of the traditional tables where you remove your shoes and sit on the floor, as there was a lot more room for the baby carrier. Ichiban has combo of Japanese and Korean foods, along with a sushi bar. We both got bento boxes, and my friend got some extra sashimi that she couldn't eat while pregnant, which she said were decent, but not outstanding. For just under $10, you get plenty of food with the bento. It starts with the miso soup and a salad. I got the bento with the Korean spicy pork bul gogi, which didn't really taste spicy, and it did have the feel of something that was cooked earlier in the day. Accompanying the pork were several pieces of nicely fried tempura vegetables, 4 pieces of a California roll, 2 pieces of sushi, 2 dumplings, and rice. The tempura was probably the best thing on the plate. The rest of it wasn't bad, it just wasn't memorable in any sense, except for the amount of food and the price.

What does intrigue me about Ichiban is their online menu. Their website is incredibly rough, claims to be a temporary site, but what's fascinating about it to me is you can text your lunch order to them, and they'll deliver within a 5 mile radius. It tells you how to order by item code; my pork bul gogi would have been "LB3". And if I wanted 2 of them, plus another dish, text: 2LB3, LK11. I've never seen this style of ordering, but something tells me this is common throughout Japan.

The week before Christmas, while out running errands, I stopped at the new Soup Peddler to go outlet at South Lamar and Manchaca in the new *Austinville* enclave. Cute buildings, I thought one one be for the soup and the other for Juicebox, but no, the larger building houses both food establishments, and the smaller one is the loo. They had been open about a week when I visited. It was one of those blustery December days, which was unfortunately a bit exacerbated by the wind tunnel that's created between the two buildings. They've got a chalkboard up with your choices....and what, you ask is a Bouktouf? Well, I don't really know either. As a restauranteur, wouldn't you want to have a menu that explains what things are to the customer? Especially for those customers who aren't familiar with your product? Vegan chili or Frito pie? Does that mean you can either have your chili in soup form or frito pie form? This form of menu, with little to no explanation, leaves me lacking.

And disappointingly, what was also lacking was flavor from my caldo de pollo soup. It did have a nice grease slick on top. Large chunks of potato and carrot, some chicken, but there wasn't much to the broth. If you go digging into Soup Peddler's website, the caldo apparently has cumin, cayenne, cilantro, jalapeno and lime juice as it's flavorings. I got exactly zero of that. The other problem I experienced is that if the person in front of you orders two smoothies, there was only one person making things. So I had to wait several minutes to get a Styrofoam cup of soup handed to me. This was during lunch hour, and hopefully by now, they've worked out the kinks in that one, as there were others standing around waiting. (I took the soup home and poured it into a bowl for it's picture....see the oil on top?) The young woman working the register was perky, and when asked, did explain that bouktouf is an Algerian soup with squash and lemon.

The week of Christmas, another friend and I had dinner at Tandoori Bistro, a new Indian restaurant, housed in an old Mexican one (JoJo's?), next to the La Quinta Hotel at IH-35 and Oltorf (SE corner). I had heard (on Yelp?) that the woman who owns the place does a lot of Indian catering and needed a larger commercial kitchen, so she decided to open the restaurant. They specialize in Punjabi and Gujarati cuisine, both provinces in the northwest, bordering Pakistan. The place has been there about a month, and still has the feel of the previous occupant. It's a pretty large space, and it wasn't that busy on a Tuesday night. There are 3 large flat screen tv's on the walls and I think a neon beer sign, giving the place a little bit of a sports bar feel.

Arriving just before 7 pm, we took advantage of their half-price appetizers (5 - 7pm), and got the bataka vada, or fried potato fritters. The waitress also brought papadums with two sauces, mint and tamarind chutnies, both different from what I have had in the past. The tamarind was more watery, and didn't really have the distinctive sweet and twangy taste that I love. The potato fritters were a bit dried out, and I guess not surprisingly, since they are potatoes, a bit devoid of taste.  Our waitress was very friendly, and when asked for main dish recommendations, she happily pointed out a couple items, and even saying she had recently returned from a several year stint as a vegetarian, and was enjoying the lamb dishes. I picked the lamb biryani and my friend the chicken tikka masala. 

Essentially biryani is sauteed or stir fried basmati rice with various spices, vegetables, and meat/paneer. This was a decent sized portion, but just didn't have a deep flavor base. The lamb, cut into small cubes, was right on the border between tender and a bit chewy. I had a couple little bites of the tikka, which I thought was way too sweet, and almost had a canned flavor.... canned tomatoes, maybe? So kind of underwhelmed, unfortunately.

My family is from New Mexico, so our traditional Christmas Eve dinner is tamales, pinto beans and pecan pie. I got tamales from a co-worker who made them (quite good, especially when steamed, not done in the microwave), and made the beans with a ham hock, and the pie with Dai Due (should be http://daidueaustin.net/, but currently doesn't seem to be working) leaf lard in the crust. Christmas morning, we had croissants and morning buns from La Patisserie (along with bacon and fruit salad), and we went to Trace at the new W Hotel for dinner, which I will post later.

Tarka update

Since my original post, I have now eaten at Tarka two more times. I don't usually repost on places I've eaten, but I feel this is worth it! (And read to the end for updated menu info.)

Arriving Sunday at 7:45pm, we had to wait 15 minutes just to order food because the kitchen was so backed up. Little irritating 'cause I was starving, but fortunately once we ordered, the food came fast. We had the veggie samosas, which are small but delicious, and come with a fantastic mint chutney. I had the lamb vindaloo, medium spicy. Lamb was tender, and the sauce flavorful, but certainly on the milder side of medium heat. My friend had the tikka masala with paneer, and the sauce was great.

Yesterday for a late lunch, I opted for the chicken curry "naaninni," which is their take on a paninni. The chicken was tasty, but maybe not as layered in flavor as it could be. Fortunately, it comes with the mint chutney, and that certainly elevates it. The plate also comes with seasoned fries, which were crisp & perfect. My friend and I split the samosa chaat from the appetizer menu, and essentially, it's a deconstructed samosa. Good flavor -- nice spice mixture, not too overpowering, nice texture. She ordered the lamb korma, hot heat, which it was, but good. She was torn between the korma and the coconut curry, and we asked our order taker, who deferred to the line chef, as he had only been working there 2 days. With no hesitation and a bulging of his eyes, the chef said korma.

I had noticed that there wasn't the after 5pm specials listed on the board, as there had been in the past. We asked about that too, and a woman, who I think is one of the owners, said that they decided to do away with them because they took extra time to prepare, and it was really backing up the kitchen, like my experience on Sunday night. She said they still had a couple things made in the back that people could order, but they're weren't going to be posted. I asked about my beloved Clay Pit Khuroosh-e-tursh, which I have been eyeing in anticipation on the Tarka menu for weeks now, but on my previous 2 visits, I forced myself to try other things. They did have some available, and I got it to go, and that will be dinner tonight! Of course when I got home with it, I did taste it, and the sauce still sends me over the edge! But in short, specials no more.

These last 2 trips in, particularly for Sunday dinner, I was pleased to see a LOT of people of Indian heritage eating there. Apart from Bombay Grill on Bee Caves, this is the only Indian place I know of in South Austin. Lots of happy campers, me included!

Clay Pit

I could have sworn I had written about one of my favorite places before, but scanning the history of my own blog, it appears not. Whooops! So the Clay Pit has been around for at least 10 years, making it almost as historic as the building it occupies! It's in a beautiful old stone (limestone?) building, an old trading post & general store that dates back to the 1850s. And apparently haunted, but that's another issue.

My friend and I had a 7 pm reservation for Friday night. We were greeted promptly and immediately escorted to our table. On the walk back to the table I noticed that CP doesn't have any 2-tops. The majority of the diners that were already seated were parties of two, all sitting at tables for four. Kind of nice they don't cram us into smaller tables!

I ordered a glass of Hogue Gewertztraminer and my constant downfall, the Khuroos-e-Tursh; my friend ordered a cocktail, the Tikka Masala, and some veggie samosas and garlic naan to split. A another waiter brought the drinks, and inquired "Hogue Fume Blanc?" I said I had ordered the Gewurtz. He apologized, and disappeared. Our first waitress came back and said something to the effect of "I see you got your drinks" to which I replied he had brought the wrong one. With a touch of annoyance, she said, "Well I TOLD him the Hogue Geturz. He must of misunderstood." She didn't exactly apologize, and that set her tone for the rest of the evening. More on the service in a sec.

She had brought pappadums, a thin, crisp cracker-bread that are toasted in a skillet. There was already a dish on the table with two condiments, tamarind sauce, and a green cilantro-y one. I love the tamarind, and it went really nicely with the samosas, which were fried to perfection, not greasy, and still hot. They had a mashed potato filling with green peas and some spices. Very mild in flavor, but complimented nicely by the tangy tamarind. Our main dishes came soon after. One of my "problems" with CP is that I am totally addicted to the sauce that comes with the Khuroos. It's chicken stuffed with spinach in a luscious creamy almond & cashew sauce, with a bit of spice to it, and I could eat the sauce all day long. So my problem is since I don't eat there very often, I almost always have to get that dish, and therefore I don't know the other menu items well at all. But I have always had great luck with the dish, and have turned many other people onto it. This time, I asked for a little extra sauce to go with it, knowing that I would take it home a cook a piece of chicken up the next night for dinner. (Dinner the next night was lovely! Leftover sauce, basmati rice & naan!) The waitress mentioned that it's the korma sauce, which never occurred to me, and now maybe that will make it slightly easier to find a recipe to make it. I've searched for a khuroos recipe before to no luck, and have come "this close" to writing to Bon Appetit or Gourmet, and asking them to get the recipe. Heaven! My friend's tikka was good too, but sorry, nothing compares to my sauce!

The food was great. No issues. It was our server who was just brusque/brisk most of the evening. Maybe she felt the need to turn the table quickly to increase her personal revenue, but definitely not a real gracious host. I will of course, continue to go back, just maybe not on a Friday night. And looking at the fairly pathetic picture my cell phone takes, I am resolving to carry my camera more!