India

From Japan last week I ventured west to the Indian subcontinent as represented by Chaupaati Indian Restaurant in Pineville, NC.  I’ve been to some other Indian restaurants in town that were pretty good but wanted to try a new one and their subtitle, “Casual Indian Kitchen”, pulled me in.

It’s located in a non-descript shopping center so unless you knew it was there you probably wouldn’t stumble on it.  Fortunately they do have a pretty good website to give you an idea what you’re in for menu wise and to provide directions, see the link at the bottom of the post.

When I arrived there was one person waiting for take out, which is apparently a good part of their business, and the young lady working the counter.  When I told her I hadn’t been in before she grabbed a menu and asked if I’d ever had Indian before.  When I said I had she asked what I liked and proceded to point out some popular choices.  She was very nice, willing to try to help someone pick out a meal they’d like and industrious judging by her activities while I was there.  I settled on the Lamb Chetinad, an order of butter roti and a mango lassi.

When I ordered she asked if I wanted it medium or spicy and to be on the safe side I went medium.  Turned out to be the prudent choice.

The lamb chetinad is a curry made of coconut, chili, masala and other spices with chunks of lamb.  It comes with rice as you can see and the roti sops up the curry quite nicely.  The lamb chunks were very tender and just about melted in my mouth.  The sauce itself was about the perfect spiciness for me and I’m not too proud to admit the spicy would probably have done me in and made the dining experience not nearly as pleasant.  The flavor was very good and the portions quite generous.  At first I thought it seemed expensive but I had two helpings and still took some home so two people could easily share this dish.  Oh and last but certainly not least was the mango lassi.  That was worth the trip all by itself.

It is a sweet yogurt drink with mango and according to the menu it had pistachios as well.  I couldn’t taste the pistachios but the mango was there in force.  It was a bit like a milk shake but not quite as thick.  I could’ve downed a gallon of this stuff.

My verdict is this is a great place to get authentically Indian food of good quality in a comfortable atmosphere.  The menu is extensive enough anyone should be able to find something they could like.

Here is the link to their website and don’t forget to check out Tell Me More for a chetinad recipe and Bollywood dance numbers of course.

Chaupaati Restaurant