Tag Archives: biryani

Feasting at the Fountain

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Food Truck Friday

Yestereve was my first Food Truck Friday of the year and aside from being 91 degrees at 6:00pm it was a good evening for dining al fresco next to the fountain.

I’d previously scoped out the lineup of food trucks and knew which one I was going to hit so I didn’t have to spend a lot of time roaming and reading menus.  But first things first I had to acquire a beverage from the adult beverage selection.  Being so hot I decided a cider would be better than a beer although the lady in front of me was singing the praises of the shandy she got.  In this case I got a Blake’s Hard Cider El Chavo.  Now to be honest I didn’t really pay attention to the graphics on the sign that showed one of the letters on fire and when the guy nodded smiled and said “It has little kick to it” I thought he meant the alcohol content.  Nope.  He meant the habaneros in this clearly labeled (and totally ignored by me) cider infused with habaneros & mangos.  He was correct it did have a little kick.  I didn’t taste any mango there was however some heat from the habaneros but it was a light sweet cider so I didn’t break down whining about a mouth on fire.

Now that I had my drink I went in search of the Chennai Curries food truck to see what Indian dishes they would be serving up on their first FTF.

I was fairly early and almost none of the trucks had much of a line but these folks had no one in line or waiting on food so that was not a great first impression.  I had geared myself up for Indian though so I was at least going to check them out.  One couple got their just ahead of me and the man told the young Indian lady running the window he had never had Indian before and wanted to try something new and she was very welcoming and answered his questions and made suggestions.  She also said “The owners are cooking the food so of course it is delicious”.  I’m not sure if she thought ownership conveyed cooking skill or she meant since they were in the truck and couldn’t get away they had to be good but either way her confidence was inspiring.

When my turn came she treated me the same way except I knew what I wanted from the get go so she didn’t have to make recommendations.  They had a couple of vegetarian options and three non-veg options and unsurprisingly I chose a non-veg option, going with the chicken biryani.

This was the fastest food truck I’ve ever purchased from aside from a cupcake van.  I’d no sooner finished giving my order than they were passing the guy in front of me his order.  Most fast food places aren’t as quick as these folks were.  That certainly explained why there was no line.   I got my plate and wandered over to sit on the wall by the fountain hoping for some wind born mist as I dined.

I’ll start by saying this was not the same as Hyderabadi biryani I had in India but it was tasty.  The chicken leg was fall off the bone tender and had been simmered in a mildly spicy curry.  The chicken gravy was spicy and so was the rice so between all the spiciness in the food plus my pepper laced cider my tongue was fully woke and able to taste and feel every single atom passing across it.  As I mentioned earlier it was 90 degrees out and I was sitting on concrete eating spicy food so there’s a chance I was sweating.  It was delicious and the thin yogurt sauce you got with it provided some cooling action so I poured that on half the rice and had the spicy gravy on the other half.  I could go back and forth so I didn’t melt right away.  One thing that seemed to be missing was some naan or roti to complete the Indian experience but there was plenty of feed as it was and there are no complaints about portions from me.

After the meal I needed a beverage that was not spiked with capsicum and selected a Windy Hill Orchard  Gala Peach cider which was a known quantity for me.  Nice cider with a hint of peach and just the thing to while away the time while waiting for the Chairmen of the Board to start playing.

By the time they started I had finished the peach cider and I was sitting across from the Italian ice booth and kept seeing all these people walking by with the cool refreshing treats so I broke down and got some pineapple Italian ice.

It was indeed cool and refreshing and just the thing to occupy oneself with while people watching and listening to a pretty good rendition of Superstition.  The funniest thing I saw was a guy walking past the fountain with his hand covering the top of his beer.  I thought, that’s weird is he afraid a stray drop of water is going to get in his beer and dilute it past drinkability or what?  No that would just be crazy.  Turns out that was apparently it because as soon as he got past the fountain he removed his hand from the top of the beer.  People are weird.

Anyway another great night of Food Truck Friday.  Next month it’s on the 20th.  Come on down.

Lunchistan

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Pakistan

From Oktoberfest last blog I took the culinary-passport east to Pakistan via Zafram Kabab Palace.  I was actually trying to find a place that served Afghan cuisine and this place popped up but the best they really had that I could see was something they called Afghani rice with a couple of dishes.  Instead they mostly had Pakistani and Indian food and that’s what they advertise.  I decided what the heck I’d try them out.

They started out with a big downgrade from me.  I got there at 11:30, which is the opening time on their website, on their door and at least two places inside the restaurant but they were not yet opened.  There happened to be a family of folks from somewhere in southeast Asia who got there before me and were waiting as well.  We all sat in our cars for about 5 minutes and then they got out and stood around the door, at this point they had a few more join the initial crew so there were 8 of them.  One guy got impatient and banged on the door when he saw someone moving around inside.  That person unlocked the door and while I didn’t hear the whole conversation I saw one of the women tapping her watch and heard the guy say “12:00 o’clock”.  Every one of us immediately looked at the sign on the door that said 11:30 and then back at him like he was nuts.  We got in though and waited while they stocked the buffet.

The buffet was apparently the what they expected everybody to have because there was no offer to bring a menu or even a casual wave of the hand at the huge pictures of their food hanging from the walls.  At this point I was kind of just wanting to eat and leave so I decided to go with the buffet, in spite of the fact they didn’t have any damn kababs on the buffet.

The picture above was my second plate.  The first one I had a bit of goat biryani, white rice and chicken kadhai and some vegetable pakora.  The kadhai was chicken in a spicy tomato gravy and was quite good.  The pakora was essentially a battered potato slice along with a bit of other vegetable stuck to it and deep fried.  The second plate I had tandoori chicken pieces (they cut those chicken pieces very oddly), some white rice and pakora in a yellow curry gravy along with some naan to sop up the plate.  I didn’t catch the name of the yellow veggie stuff but it was suggested by the guy running the front who had become quite solicitous once everyone got in and got seated.  He came over a couple of time to make sure everything was good and on the first trip I got him to hook me up with a mango lassi, one of my favorite drinks.  The orange pile on the plate is gajar ka halwa, a carrot based pudding kind of thing.  The carrots were grated small and almost granular so it had an interesting texture.  It wasn’t as sweet as I thought it was going to be at first, which was good.

Overall the I’d give the place good marks for the food but they lose some for their apparent disregard for time and schedules and the initial greeting from the front man.  He made most of those back after the fact but first impressions do matter.

There’s a good recipe for kheer and a nice video on the Tell Me More page so check it out.

Next week is the last food truck Friday of the year so I’m going to have to go hard at finding new countries or new restaurants for old.