Desi Chaat House

Sitting here in November with freezing toes and fingers, it's hard to believe that it was 100-degrees the day I visited Desi Chaat House in University City, but it takes extreme situations to get me to cross the Schuykill River into the western regions of the city. We were looking for a reason to get out of our un-air-conditioned house, so savory Indian snacks it was!

Desi Chaat House's searingly bright orange corner store is set up for take-out, although there are are a few seats at a window counter and a small table wedged near the door. A few outdoor tables along the sidewalk are available, too.
The affordable menu has odds and ends like wraps, soups, biryani, lassis, ice cream, and shakes, but the main draw at Desi Chaat House is obviously the chaats. Chaats are savory snacks made of various crispy little bits of fried dough combined with all sorts or toppings and mix ins like onions, chickpeas, yogurt, chutneys, and spices. There are twenty or so chaats at Desi Chaat House to choose from. I'm only familiar with about five chaats on the menu, so after choosing my favorite, we just pointed and hoped for the best.

Behind the counter are canisters containing all the different crispies, bottles of sauces, and pans of vegetable add-ins. Once you place your order, they get to assembling your chaat in a to-go container, reaching here and there, going down the line until the masterpiece is assembled.
I'm ashamed to say I do not remember which one of the specialty chaats this is. Bengali, Mumbai, Punjabi? Either way, what you have is a salty, sweet, spicy, tangy potpourri of many different crispy bits, accented with potatoes, onions, radishes, lentils, nuts, cilantro, yogurt, tamarind sauce, and spicy chutney. It's a profoundly delicious textural playground of intense flavors that cover any Indian cravings you might have.
As a special, Desi Chaat House had my favorite Indian chaat, dahi puri — crispy fried semolina puffs filled with potatoes (and sometimes curds or chickpeas), then topped with yogurt, sweet chutney, spices and sev. Unlike any place I've ever eaten dahi puri, Desi Chaat House gives you the makings of dahi puri, and has you assemble your own. This involves breaking out the top of each individual puri puff (not too easy with a plastic fork), then filling and garnishing them. I'd much rather they made them for me. These dahi puri were great, but there was so much more going on ingredient-wise in the filling than I'm used to. I have a feeling that the chaat artists at Desi Chaat House lack restraint when it comes to ingredients. I also missed the finishing sprinkling of spicy chili powder that usually comes with dahi puri when they are made in a kitchen.
The vegetable samosas comes sitting on a vibrant bed of chickpeas, onions, yogurt, cilantro, and sweet and spicy chutneys. Unfortunately, the yogurt makes the already soft, pre-made and cold samosas even soggier. Perhaps one needs to request freshly made samosas. Service is definitely friendly at Desi Chaat House, and if the guys behind the counter have a moment, they will chat with you, and perhaps offer you a free dessert, like they did for us. I wish I could recommend the pistachio and almond-topped Lahori-style rice pudding from Desi Chaat House's grab-and-go fridge, but it is impossibly thick and sweet. Imagine rice mixed in sweetened condensed milk. This Pakistani take on rice pudding is not my favorite style.

While not printed on their paper menu or on their chalkboard menu, there is a 8.5x11-inch piece of paper posted listing which chaats are gluten free or nut free. Also, you can request any chaat be made vegan by simply leaving off the yogurt.

Despite a soggy samosa, having to assemble my own dahi puri (it's not really that hard), and a too sweet dessert, I'm in love with Desi Chaat House, and their vast array of chaats. I happen to love chaats more than curries, but If you love Indian food and Indian flavors, you are also going to love Desi Chaat House.

Desi Chaat House
501 S. 42nd St., Philadelphia, PA 19143
215-386-1999

Philadelphia Chutney Company

Ever since the announcement at the beginning of the year that Philadelphia Chutney Company would open in Center City, I have patiently been anticipating the arrival of a casual place to get my dosa fix in Philly, a city strangely lacking in Southern Indian cuisine. Besides the linen-topped dining at the fabulous Palace at the Ben, which only serves dosas during their Southern Indian Sunday brunch, I'm not aware of another place in the heart of the city to grab a dosa.Philadelphia Chutney Company is a bright, small, fast-food style restaurant smack in the middle of Center City, that conveniently does take-out for workers that need a fast meal. Delivery up to 10 blocks will also be available soon.For those unfamiliar with a dosa, it's a large, round crepe made from a fermented rice and lentil batter, with ultra-crispy edges and a soft center folded around various fillings. Dosas are usually just shy of 2 feet long, and can be a meal in themselves.

If you care for a thicker bread around your fillings, order a uttapa, which is simply the same batter used for a dosa, but made thicker and not as large.

The Philadelphia Chutney Company has 15 dosas/uttapas to choose from. The sada dosa, a plain crepe with no fillings; and the masala dosa, a crepe filled with a spiced potato filling are the only two traditional dosas you'll find on the menu. All of the other dosas are a fusion of Indian and Western flavors for those who prefer more familiar flavors and tamer heat levels. Fusion dosas have fillings like arugula, avocado, roasted tomatoes, balsamic roasted onions, goat cheese, Jack cheese, and veggie chicken.

Everything on the menu is vegetarian. Veggie chicken and veggie tuna can be found sprinkled throughout the menu of dosas, uttapas, and wraps.Philadelphia Chutney Company's dosas are delightfully thin and crispy, but, with any dosa, are best eaten immediately before losing it's crisp. The masala dosa filled with potatoes spiced with turmeric, curry leaf, and mustard seed is right on.The curry chutney veggie chicken dosa with slightly wilted spinach, and sweet balsamic roasted onions flirts only lightly with Indian flavors. There is enough spinach to make one feel healthy, and the veggie chicken is sparse enough to not weigh one down. While I adore traditional dosa fillings, I can get behind the fusion.
Cilantro, curry, mango, tomato, or coconut chutneys come with the dosas, but be sure to pipe up your preference, as the coconut chutney or cilantro chutney seem to come standard.
At $2.50 for an order of two, the samosas might be the best deal on the fairly priced menu which tops out at only $8. About the size of a large man's palm and packed full of spicy mashed potato filling, an order of crispy, fried samosas with sweet tamarind chutney will leave you full all day.If you like spice, be sure to order the gobi Manchurian appetizer, an Indo-Chinese cauliflower snack surrounded by a thick, fried batter and smothered in a spicy, faintly sweet, Indian tomato sauce. It's like Chinese sweet and sour pork but with a vegetable and Indian twist. By far, the favorite dish of my visit. (If I were a dosa newcomer, I would have said Masala dosa was my favorite.)The hot masala chai was weakly spiced. Sugar comes on the side, and can be added as you see fit.

It was well worth the long wait for The Philadelphia Chutney Company; they did not disappoint. My only wish is for my favorite dosa, the traditional and very spicy, ginger-spiked Mysore masala dosa, to make an appearance on the menu. Maybe as a chef's special?

Philadelphia Chutney Company
1628 Sansom St., Philadelphia, PA 19103
215-564-6446
Mon-Thurs: 11:30am-9pm
Fri-Sat: 11:30am-late
Sun: closed

Indian Kitchen / Hot Breads

Readers occasionally email me to tell me about their favorite restaurant in an attempt to get me to review it, or just to enlighten me on what I'm missing. Almost all of these favorite restaurants are in some Pennsylvania or New Jersey town I've never heard of, nor will ever travel to.

I do know Exton, PA, and I do travel pretty darn close to it a few times a year. And the discovery (thanks, reader!) of an Indian restaurant that serves chaats, dosas, curries and other Indian classics, as well as Indian pizzas and wraps, Bombay specialties, and Indo-Chinese dishes meant that the next time I zoomed down Highway 30, I'd be taking a detour.

Indian Kitchen is the name of the restaurant, with a sister restaurant, Indian Hut in Bensalem, PA, but people seem to refer to the restaurants as Hot Breads, which is the name of the bakery inside.Yeah, I said bakery. Birthday cakes, tiramisu, and a whole slew of tradition bakery goods, including a few Indian specialties like pastry puffs filled with Indian curry are baked on the premises.

Hot Breads pretty much has you covered on any Indian food craving you might have. Want to cook it at home yourself? Hit up the Indian Corner grocery next door.

With such a large menu, covering so many styles of Indian cuisine, I had a hard time choosing. Ultimately, I decided to check out an Indo-Chinese dish (India's take on Chinese food) , since I've had Indian pizza and Bombay street food elsewhere, and I've never seen Indo-Chinese food at any other place.

After looking over the menu, step up to the counter to place your order. Pay, then have a seat. When your order is up, a person behind the counter will call out the name of the dish (listen closely, because it comes with an accent), and you go gather your goods on a tray to bring back to the table.

When ordering, you'll be asked if you want mild, medium, or spicy — for everything! I've never had any anyone ask my spice preferences at an Indian restaurant for anything other than curries, and even then usually not. Not knowing Hot Bread's definition of spicy, I played it safe with medium, but I'm afraid the lack of heat may have diminished my enjoyment of Hot Bread's food. Next time, it's spicy all the way.Of course, my favorite chaat, dahi puri, was ordered. Puffed puri shells filled with potato and chickpeas, topped with yogurt, tamarind chutney, and sev could have had a little more sweet tamarind chutney for my liking, and I very much missed the sprinkling of chili powder I get on most dahi puris. I'm hoping the lack of chili powder was because I ordered the dish medium.The masala dosa was thin, crisp and not at all greasy, although the potato filling suffered from a little too much grease and lack of spiciness. Again, I think medium got me.When it came to the Indo-Chinese dishes, I waffled between the curries over rice, noodle dishes, and fried rice for quite some time. The Veg Manchurian won. Deep fried vegetable balls the consistency of a chewier kofta balls swim in a mild Manchurian sauce flavored with onion, ginger, garlic, and a healthy amount of cilantro. The dish tasted more Chinese than Indian, but somewhat different than anything you've ever had at a Chinese restaurant. It was like a cilantro-heavy Chinese sauce landed on my Indian vegetable balls and Basmati rice.
The hot cardamom tea (masala tea is also an option) was sweet, spicy, and creamy without being too much of any three of those things. Perfect, really.

I'm not prepared to declare Hot Breads the best Indian restaurant — I've only covered about 3% of their menu — but I will say that Hot Breads quite possibly has the most varied menu I've seen. I'm very envious of the Extonians who have the opportunity to blow through the menu on a quest for their favorite dish.

Oh, and the restaurant is BYOB with free wi-fi! Really, what doesn't Hot Breads offer?

Indian Kitchen /Hot Breads
260 Pottstown Pike, Exton, PA 19341
610-363-9500
Sun-Thurs, 11:30am-9:30pm
Fri-Sat, 11:30am-10:30pm
BYOB

Chai Pani

Chai Pani, a new Indian restaurant specializing in Indian street food opened up in downtown Asheville, NC, since my visit to the small mountain town a year ago. A lover of all Indian food, and now on a quest to sample the recently popular-in-America cuisine, Indian street food, we hit up Chai Pani.

Unlike Philadelphia's recently opened Tiffin Etc., which specializes in Indian street foods of the pizza, kati roll, and stuffed paratha sorts, Chai Pani serves up Indian sandwiches, chaats, parathas, uttapams, tandoori specials, and thalis — sort of a mix of street foods and items found at most Indian restaurants.

Service is casual: order at the counter and food is brought to your table in no particular order with large gaps between one dish and the other.
We started with the crispy, julienned Matchstick Okra Fries sprinkled with salt, chipotle seasoning and lime. With little flavor other than salt, these could have used a dipping sauce or a handful more of lime wedges. Quite good, though. Unlike most, I'd take fried okra over fried potatoes any day. Touted on the menu as a Mumbai favorite, Pav Bhaji is a hash of spicy potatoes and mixed vegetables cooked down into a mush on the grill and served on, at Chai Pani at least, two small Hawaiian bread buns. I would have been in favor of a neutral bun instead of the sweet Hawaiian bread, but overall not a bad way to eat a curry — especially if you were standing on the street. The Masala fries seasoned with fresh cilantro, salt, and lime were perfect and more than plentiful. The mango (?) sweetened ketchup went well with the Indian flavors of the fries. If I had known about the mango ketchup, I would have asked for some with the okra fries.
If Dahi Puri is on a menu, I will order it, so I've eaten my share of this chaat. The potato, chickpea, yogurt, sweet tamarind chutney, spicy cilantro-mint chutney, and crushed sev toppings that make up Dahi Puri matched most Dahi Puris I've had, but the fried puris at Chai Pani were not the usual thin, light, crispy puffed domes. These were thick, flat, hard and overly fried. The usual sprinkling of fiery chili powder was also missing. The Paneer Upattam, an Indian rice and lentil flour crepe topped with Indian cheese, cilantro, and fried onions was amazingly greasy from the ghee on the griddle, so I only partook in a few bites. A liberal dunking in the Sambar and coconut chutney is recommended to give flavor and spice to the mild toppings.

Chai Pani
22 Battery Park Ave., Asheville, NC, 28801

Tiffin Etc.

Everyone's beloved Indian delivery restaurant, Tiffin, finally decided it could travel the extra half block south into Pennsport (and possibly farther?) to deliver food to our house. And it's about time! With Tiffins opening up in the burbs, it seemed unusually cruel that Pennsport was left out of the delivery zone. So, we jumped on the opportunity to get delivery from Tiffin Etc., Tiffin's sister restaurant and Girard Ave. next door neighbor serving Indian pizzas and street food.

Tiffin Etc.'s menu is broken into four categories: Pizza, kati rolls, stuffed parathas, and beverages. With exception to the beverages, some of which sound quite interestingly spiced, we hit it all. A personal pizza is plenty of food for one hungry person, but a larger pizza is also available.

Above is the Tandoori Saubzi personal pizza topped with tandoori grilled seasonal vegetables — squash, zucchini, red and orange peppers, and onions in our case — roasted garlic, cilantro mint pesto, and fresh Mozzarella. Loaded with flaccid vegetables atop a sweet and not particularly interesting cilantro and mint pesto (not sure how that's possible with those two herbs), this pizza was simultaneously overwhelming and underwhelming — too many toppings, not enough flavor umph.
The Paneer Tikka and Hari Mirch personal pizza is topped with tandoori grilled cottage cheese, makhani sauce, green chilis and mint. The thin smear of sweet, Indian spiced makhani sauce (same sauce on butter chicken) could have been more generous, but the simplicity of the toppings — just cheese with a smattering of hot green chilis and mint — made this pizza more successful than the other. The simple Indian flavors with no distracting toppings melded better with the pizza crust.

The pizza crust is a neutral thickness — not ultra thin or thick — and despite our pizzas arriving cold, the crispy crust held up through the delivery.
Kati rolls are billed as traditional Indian street-style wraps with a fried egg and either meat and/or veggies rolled in a flat bread. We went with one of the two veggie Kati rolls on the menu, the Masala Aloo wrap filled with a fried egg, pan fried spiced potatoes, herbs, pickled red onions, and mint and chili chutney. Not happy with the cold, greasy, dense and chewy flat bread, I ate the spicy masala potatoes on their own. Perhaps the bread on the Kati roll doesn't travel well, and is best eaten right out of the kitchen, but I longed for either a crisp, delicate dosa wrapper, or a wrapper of soft, fluffy naan.
Parathas are pan fried whole wheat flat breads stuffed with various fillings and accompanied by raita and pickles. A lover of onions, I went with the Pyaz paratha stuffed with marinated onions and herbs. Wrapped in foil, the still warm paratha suffered from steaming during travel, which rendered the paratha a little limp. Generously packed with onions, the paratha dipped in raita was my favorite dish of the evening, perhaps because it felt familiar and like the Indian food I know and love.

Gosh, I don't even know how to conclude. My feelings are so mixed.

I'm a little upset with myself, as I willingly embrace adventurous eating, but I can't say that I was impressed with the pizzas. They satisfy neither an Indian craving nor a pizza craving. But I can't help but think that I would do a happy dance if presented a hot slice of Indian pizza from a real street cart after a long night on the town. Another Indian pizza joint is on my list, and perhaps with something to compare Tiffin Etc.'s pizza to, I can better develop my feelings about Indian pizza.

Tiffin Etc.'s food is probably better judged by a restaurant visit, but Tiffin markets themselves as more of a delivery restaurant than a sit-down restaurant, so most patrons will be eating the food at home. Tiffin Etc.'s food does not travel as well as Tiffin's rice and curries do.

Delivery took a little over an hour, which is what we expected. All of the food arrived cold, except for the paratha, which was still warm.

Prices are extremely reasonable, so it's worth ordering at least once to see how you feel about Tiffin Etc.

Tiffin Etc.
712 W. Girard Ave., Philadelphia, PA, 19123
215-925-0770
menu

My Favorite Eats...Ever!

OK, so I've told you on this blog that I'm originally from South Carolina, but I've never mentioned what town. I was born, raised, and spent the better part of almost three decades in Columbia, the capital of South Carolina. With the seat of government, the main campus of the University of South Carolina, and the Army's basic training facility, Fort Jackson, Columbia is filled with mostly government workers, students, and army families.

Columbia is not at the white sand beaches, nor is it in the rolling foothills of the mountains, but smack dab in the middle of the state, and, I might add, the hottest most humid city with nary a breeze you will ever set foot in. (People from other Southern towns and Southeast Asian countries never believe that statement...until they've spent a summer there)

Really, there's no reason for you to go to or be in Columbia (I'm not dissing Columbia; all of my childhood and young adult memories are there, and I love them all), but if you ever do find yourself there, the following are my three favorite restaurants of all time, and, really, the only reason (besides family) that I return. I dream of these restaurants and their food -- all ethnic and all hole-in-the-wall/casual. Old location.

My absolute number one favorite restaurant in Columbia is Touch of India (link for address purposes only; ignore the poor reviews by people that have only been there once), a restaurant run by Devi, the sweetest woman ever. Devi and her family only serve Southern Indian dishes, and I have never eaten at an Indian restaurant that serves food as good as hers. Fresh and with love. I kick myself for not taking cooking classes with her, but I took all her food for granted. We would line up before she opened her doors at 11 (show up late, and it's gone) almost every Sunday for their small, but quality lunch buffet.

My favorites from the menu: mysore masala dosa, dahi puri, and cabbage (not on the menu, but cabbage will pop up occasionally as the veggie of the day).Sadly, I didn't make it to Touch of India this last go round, but that picture above is from a trip to her buffet the last time I was in town (buffet plates are never pretty). Since the last trip, she has moved her operation out of the most run-down, dismal, dead strip mall behind a dead strip mall you've ever seen to a brand new building. Yay! She worked for it. Next up is Bangkok, one of Columbia's first Thai restaurants that still sits in the same strip mall near Fort Jackson Army Base and does a bangin' take-out and sit-down lunch and dinner business. Same cooks, same servers (now with more gray hair!), same stains on the walls and carpet. Massaman curry...mmm.

There's nothing fancy about this place, but they dish out some good food. Is it better than your favorite Thai restaurant? Probably not. But it was my first, and I judge all Pad Thai and Massaman curry (my favorites) by their versions. Still, many people in Columbia love their dishes and proclaim them the best Thai, and that many people can't be wrong. I know I'm never wrong.Blue Cactus is probably the quirkiest restaurant in town, but is a must. You'd never know from the name or the outside of the restaurant that Blue Cactus serves Korean, Cuban, and Southwestern food. This restaurant is run by Lloyd (loves spicy food), who is a one-man show at the stove in their open kitchen; his wife (so quiet and cute, I've never caught her name) who brings her Korean expertise; and their daughter, Julie, who has been single-handedly waiting on your sorry ass since Blue Cactus opened in 1994. It's a family serving food they know and love, and doing it well.
Lloyd in his kitchen.

A few things to know before your first visit to Blue Cactus:

• Blue Cactus has a motto and its: Good food takes time...and we're real good! Lloyd is the only guy cooking, and his wife does the non-cooked dishes like kimbap and bibimbap, so if you go in at prime lunch time, you may be there for one and a half hours...or more! If you're in a hurry, go late in the afternoon, or just go when you have time. Oh, and so you don't waste more time, go to the register when you're done, and tell them what you ate; they don't bring you a check.
  

• Lloyd loves spicy food. Ask for it hot and it'll burn. There's a whole shelf of hot sauces if you'd like to try them...and bring him a bottle, too.

• Blue Cactus is not a traditional Korean restaurant. Don't go in expecting twenty complimentary banchan dishes. Kimchi is on the menu, if you want it.

• The Reese family is super nice (Julie even remembers my name and order after being gone for so long), but are not your bitches. Julie waits on you like she's a normal person (and like I would to if I were a server), so will roll her eyes if you ask her a stupid question. Remember Blue Cactus' motto? If you call the restaurant on your cell phone from your table to ask where your food is (true story), Lloyd will escort your ass out of his restaurant. It's sort of like Shopsin's in there, except I think Kenny Shopsin is missing a few screws and is unnecessarily harsh, and the Reeses have all of their mental faculties and you've got to be a real ass-wipe to get the Reese family smack down.

My favorites:
Bibimbap with tofu and without the fried egg, Kimbap just made by Mom so the rice is still warm, and Japchea with tofu.

Ekta

We decided to get Indian food delivered on Thanksgiving Eve last week, what with all the cooking that would take place the next day.

Hmm. Where should we order from? There aren't a lot of Indian restaurants in South Philly, and the closest one to us is passable, but not a favorite. Philly's beloved Tiffin doesn't deliver to Pennsport, and the place we just called in Center City doesn't deliver to Pennsport, either. Is it possible that Ekta, the Indian take-out restaurant opened this summer by Tiffin's ex-head chef in the same Fishtown neighborhood as Tiffin, delivers to Pennsport?

Yes!

We didn't balk at the estimated one hour and thirty minute delivery time since it was the eve of a major holiday, but we were very happy when our doorbell rang thirty minutes after we placed our order over the phone.

We ordered the navratan curry and baigan bharta (already had naan in the freezer), but delivery also packed complimentary raita and pickles to accompany the main dishes, and fragrant, cardamon-spiced kheer for dessert. I love free dessert!No one can help but compare Ekta to Tiffin, and I guess I can't help it, either. Firstly, Ekta's menu is similar to Tiffin's, but Ekta has cheaper prices.

Overall, both curries were very similar in flavor and consistency to Tiffin's. Ekta's curries were spicier than Tiffin's, and that is a plus in my book. Ekta also throws a little more -- just a little more-- vegetables in their curries, so as not to be just a bowl of sauce. I'm a huge proponent of sauce, but I do want some veggies in my veggie curry, so Ekta's about even with Tiffin there.

The only disappointment of the night was the baigan bharta, a smoked eggplant curry in a tomato sauce, that was overly salty. The dish was not inedible, but salty enough that we avoided the bagain bharta, and, instead, devoured the navratan curry with creamy cashew and onion sauce. Since the navratan wasn't overly salty, there's hope that the cook is not salt-insensitive, but just made a mistake that night.

With delivery to Pennsport, cheaper prices, and spicier curries, Ekta has Tiffin beat -- even with an overly salty curry. The delivery is the key, though.

Ekta
250 E. Girard Ave., Philadelphia, PA 19125
215-426-2277
Mon.-Fri., 11 am- 9:45 pm; Sat., noon-9:45 pm; Sun., noon-9 pm

Brunch at Palace at the Ben

While I was hanging around Palace at the Ben for cooking classes, I, of course, checked out their lunch and dinner menu featuring Northern Indian cuisine. I also spied their weekend brunch menu, which happens to feature Southern Indian foods.

Southern Indian food, a rice based cuisine that doesn't rely as heavily on dairy as Northern Indian cuisine, is what I prefer. I used to eat at a Southern Indian brunch almost every Sunday in my hometown. My hometown Southern Indian restaurant is the restaurant that I miss the most now that I live elsewhere.

When I saw dosas on Palace at the Ben's brunch menu I got excited. When I saw dahi puri (my most favorite Southern Indian chaat) also on the brunch menu, I knew what we were doing that weekend for eats.I was beyond excited when I saw dahi puri on the menu. I have yet to find this little chaat on any Indian menu I've encountered since I moved away from home six years ago. Dahi puri are hollow, crispy fried puris shells filled with potato and topped with yogurt, sweet tamarind chutney, chili powder, sev, and cilantro. I could pop these little guys all day long. All night long, too.We also ordered sev puri, fried flat puris topped with a slice of cooked potato, onions, green chutney, tamarind chutney, and sev. Very good, but with such generous appetizer portions, I tried to save more room for my beloved dahi puri.Palace at the Ben offers a few different kinds of dosas on their brunch menu. I went with my favorite, mysore masala dosa, a thin rice and lentil crepe filled with spiced potatoes and spicy chili/garlic/ginger chutney. The dosa was accompanied by coconut chutney and sambar.

This crepe was soft, and I prefer my dosa crispy, but I'm sure I could request it to be made crispy next time. With my first bite, I encountered a large smear of chili paste that caused me to tear up a little (kudos to them). After the first bite, all was good with my mysore masala dosa.potatoes and spices inside the dosa

I cannot tell you how happy I am to have found an Indian restaurant in downtown Philly that serves dosas and dahi puri. These foods are only offered on the weekend, but that's when I'm in Philly anyway. If they would offer curried cabbage (my favorite main dish), I'd tear up from complete and utter happiness.

*Delawarians and New Jerseyans, note that the owners of Palace at the Ben also own Palace of Asia in Wilmington, DE, and Palace of Asian in Lawrenceville, NJ . Same menu, same food.

Palace at the Ben
834 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19107
267-232-5600
Sun.-Thurs, 11 a.m.-11 p.m.; Fri-Sat., 11 a.m.-12 a.m.
Brunch: Sat. & Sun., 11:30 a.m.-3:30 p.m.

Schooled Indian-Style

Panir Bhuna (we made) with Naan (they made).

Guess where I've been Monday nights for the past month? Indian cooking classes at Palace at the Ben in Philly!

If there's one cuisine that intimidates me (cooking, not eating), it's Indian cuisine. Indian food is just so darn good, I was sure that there was no way I could even come close to an approximation in my own kitchen. Not any more!

Thanks to whipping up a handful of dishes over the course of four Monday evenings at Palace at the Ben's first ever cooking class, I have confidence that I can make great Indian food at home.

Honestly, it's really easy. Just like any cooking, it helps to see it done, and then do it yourself. Oh, and they teach you the master gravy that is the trick to all Indian curries!

Seeing, doing, master gravy; that's why you should attend Palace at the Ben's cooking class.Sauce for Chicken Tikka

The classes were conducted in the dining area of the restaurant with about eleven students sitting at linen topped tables (I spilled ingredients every time --sorry, linen washer) lined with ingredients and spices for the dishes on the lesson plan for the evening (you get to take the spices home with you at the end of the night!). Chef Subhash cooked at the head table, and walked around to sample and advise on the dishes we made at our tables on portable burners.As a vegetarian, I really appreciate that they had vegetarian dishes each night. We cooked two or three dishes each evening, usually one meat and the other two vegetarian. There are so many cooking classes that I would attend, but don't because either they don't cook any vegetarian dishes, or cook so few vegetarian dishes that it's not worth my money to attend.

Here's a sample of what we made:Top, left to right: Aloo Tikki and Chicken Tikka; Spinach Pakora before being shaped and fried. Bottom, left to right: Mutter Panir before being cooked down; Aloo Sukhi Bhaji.

Everyone involved with the teaching of the cooking class at Palace at the Ben was accommodating, warm, and just plain wonderful. Co-owner Nick was the gentle father figure, Chef Subhash was always smiling, and Manager Ryan was the charismatic leader. Have a question; they'll answer it. Ask about a dish not on the syllabus; they'll run to the back and type up the recipe. They even offered to let me sit in on the class I missed due to vacation the next time they hold a session.

This was Palace at the Ben's first cooking class, and you could tell they were excited and a bit nervous. I think they did a great job with their first class, and the other classes can only get better now that they know what to expect.

Palace at the Ben had a great response to the cooking class, and plan on offering the same intro class again, as well as other advanced classes in the future. Keep your eyes peeled and ears up if you're interested.

Palace at the Ben
834 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, PA 19107
267-232-5600