Diva—Somerville, MA

Diva is an Indian Bistro that sits in an area called Davis Square in Somerville, MA. I have been there a couple of times before and thought that the food was OK but nothing all that special. However, since Groupon had a special coupon last month where you paid $15 for $35 worth of food, which was a great deal, I thought I’d go back to Diva and write a review about it.

Diva is very contemporary in it’s looks and has a separate bar area off to the right as you enter and I’ve heard a lot of good things about their drinks. It’s definitely a place that makes for a more than average evening or lunch.

We ordered a special for two which included everything you’d need for dinner. Soup, appetizers, main dishes of your choice, dessert, and even coffee or tea. The price of all that was just $36.95, which I think is an awesome deal for two people.

Let me start with the soup and appetizers. The soup was a lentil and vegetable soup that was just luke warm and didn’t have a lot of taste. Personally I think it needed more seasoning (spices and a bit more salt), but most importantly it needed to be hot temperature-wise. As far the appetizers, they were actually pretty darn good. You got quite a variety—samosas, seekh kebab, chicken tandoori, chicken tikka, boti kebab—wow, it sure was a lot. Of the two pre-main course dishes, obviously the appetizers won hands down.

The two main dishes we picked were: Shrimp-Do-Piazza, which was juicy shrimp pan-roasted with ginger, garlic, onions, tomato and exotic spices and Shahi Chicken Korma, chicken cooked with exotic spices, herbs, cashews, raisins and a mild cream sauce. Both of the dishes were delicious and the portion was very generous. My favorite would have to have been the Chicken Korma which had a wonderful Indian flavor with just enough heat, and the creaminess that any Indian food lover would appreciate. After our main course, we ordered our desserts. They were really very generic and almost feel store bought, I am not sure if they were or not but I really hope that they weren’t.

Now comes the not so good part of the meal… the service. I have heard some horror stories from friends that Diva’s service was bad and I would have to agree with them. Our water glasses were left empty for way too long and when we asked someone for something that we needed, the answer was “You need to ask your waiter”. That was not the right answer in my book. Everyone in the restaurant needs to help each other in order for the place to run smoothly and it makes for a better experience for the customer.

All in all, there were some some ups and some downs at Diva. That being said, there are many good Indian places in Boston area, and while I would probably go back to Diva if Groupon do another amazing coupon, under normal circumstances, I’d probably pick another place, so Diva gets 3 pans from me.

Diva Indian Kitchen
246 Elm St., Somerville, MA 02144
(617) 629-4963
divaindiankitchen.com

DLE Podcast Episode 015: Hot Buttered Rice

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Chris overstuffs his burrito, JJ eats Korean Tacos, Peter has the other Tom soup, Chuti gets chipotle in his lap.

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Uru Swati – Healing through food

Chicago.

An Indian word meaning “There are 1,712 Indo-Pak restaurants here.  Choose wisely.”  Tonight, I found the jewel of all Indian restaurants, and trust me, I’ve eaten at each of them.

I’m gonna get the one bad thing out of the way first.  They put fennel in.  I don’t like fennel.  That is all.

Now, on to the positive.

I almost didn’t go here, because the Yelp reviews were semi-poor: good food, but bad service, and I hate bad service.  But, we went anyway, and I’m ecstatic that we did, IF ONLY to have come up (conversationally) with another item to serve when I open my Mary Poppins themed Indian restaurant.  In addition to Peshwari naan, we will serve supercalafragilisticexpialadosas.  But enough of that.

The service was remarkable.  First off, they hand you a 3,000 page menu that is confusing.  Then they give you the annotated version of the menu that you can use to cross reference what is in the menu, to get exactly what you want, and believe me, you want it ALL.

Decor

I want my Bollywood TV

I started with batata vada and samosa chat, as I skipped both breakfast and lunch today.  I had never had either before, but will eat both again, every day, for as long as I shall live.  Batata vada are potato dumplings deep-fried in a batter made with gram flour, cumin seeds, red chili powder and turmeric powder. Served with green serrano-cilantro chutney and red tamarind chutney.  Amazing.  These puffs of potato love had rainbows inside.

Batata vada

Samosa chat

Everyone has had a samosa before, and if you haven’t, shame on you.  Samosa chat, on the other hand is topped with channa masala (chickpeas cooked down with tomato sauce and spices), potatoes, yogurt, red and green chutneys, cilantro, sev (fried chickpea noodles).  They’re served like samosas bell grande from Taco Bell, and taste oh so good.

I should point out that this restaurant is vegetarian.  Yum.

For dinner, I had the paneer makhani, which is never a mistake.  This had fennel though, which is a partial mistake.  Fennel should never come near the beauty that is the sauce that cradles the cheese, as only ginger and ghee can.

Paneer makhani

The raita was kind of a miss, but it was just different than I was used to.  No points deducted.  The mango pickle was sweeter than I’m used to, which was actually a bonus, since every mango pickle I have ever had in my life tastes of pine and gasoline, and is as foul as it is addictive.  Honestly, five or six times I have had bird beak or something in my mango pickle, and I just chew through it, destroying teeth and gums.  Seriously, though, try it.

It turns out that one of my dinner guests knew Chuti from a past life, so it’s a small, small world!

I intended fully on ordering shrikhand (strained yogurt mixed with cardamom powder, saffron and chopped nuts) for dessert, but I was so stuffed by the end of dinner, there was no way.  I washed everything down with my brilliantly mixed instant coffee and THICK milk and let everything settle.  And then I ran across the street and got 1,200,000 incense sticks for $4.00.  I love Devon Avenue.  <3.

Check their menu out here.

Map

Uru-Swati
2629 W Devon Ave.,
Chicago IL 60659

Daytime, not winter

Hours

Muttar Paneer—Yes Garrett this one is for you :)

Recipe courtesy Nigella Lawson Show: Nigella FeastsEpisode: Spiced Up

Ingredients
1/2 cup vegetable oil
8 ounces paneer, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 onion, halved
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1-inch piece ginger, roughly chopped
Sprinkling of salt
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon garam masala
2 (10-ounce) packets frozen peas
1 teaspoon tomato puree
1 cup vegetable stock
Special equipment: food processor

Directions
Heat the oil a large skillet and add the paneer cubes, in 2 batches, and fry until they are golden. Remove the golden cubes to a double thickness of kitchen towel. (It is possible to dry fry the paneer cubes in the pan with no oil, to avoid the oil splashing you. Then continue with the recipe below.)

Pour all but about 2 tablespoons of the oil out of the pan. Put the onion, garlic cloves, and ginger into a food processor and blitz to a coarse pulp. Fry gently for about 5 minutes with a sprinkling of salt. Stir in the garam masala and turmeric and cook for another 2 minutes before adding the still frozen peas.

Dissolve the tomato puree in the vegetable stock and pour over the contents of the pan. Stir again and turn the heat down to low, cover with foil or a lid and cook for 15 minutes, tasting to check that the peas are tender. You can cook muttar paneer up to this stage, if you like, uncovering and then reheating gently with the diced, oil-crisped cheese, or proceed directly now.

In which case, take off the foil and add the paneer cubes to warm them through before serving.

Receipe from Foodnetwork.com

Madras Grill—Decatur, GA

For Christmas dinner, my friends and I drove out to the Decatur area for an Indian dinner since there weren’t many places that stayed open. My friend Kevin told me about Madras.  He said that it was one of his favorite Indian places around so I thought I should take his recommendation and try it out.

There weren’t many people out on the streets so it was a quick and easy ride to the restaurant. We ordered a few items for appetizers and Indian beer to drink. Our appetizers were Chicken Pakora and Puri. They both were decent.

As for dinner, we ordered Dosa, which is a Indian bread with a soft, sour tasting and crispy crust on the outside. Lamb Jhalfrezi Curry and Chicken Korma. Both of the curry dishes were tasty especially when we ate them with the Dorsa. The perfect combination of the soft and crispy thin bread and the curry was delicious.

Over all, Madras was’t too bad and I would go back.  There was certainly some more items on the menu I’d like to try.

Madras Grill
2201 Lawrenceville Highway
Decatur, GA 30033
404.634.2299

Review: Sarovar

Really good Indian food is hard to come by.  This is especially true in Austin, TX, where Mexican cuisine rules supreme.   Thankfully, I have found a truly great place to get Indian fare in the heart of Texas, Sarovar.

I tried their lunch buffet and came away impressed.  First, buffets are notorious for offering quantity over quality.  There may be lots of choices but few are worth eating or even trying.  Thankfully, Sarovar offered plenty choices, around 20 or so, all of which were quite delicious.

Before I move on, I would like to talk about what makes truly great Indian cuisine.  I think most people would say its the spice both flavor and heat.  I would say that isn’t true.  Indian cuisine offers the spice and floral aromas that really tease your sense of smell.  After all, most of your taste comes from smell, so why not offer tantalizing aromas to whet your appetite?  Indian cuisine offers a lovely assortment of spices for the tongue and floral aromas for your nose; thus, making your dining experience quite memorable.  Memorable, that is, if the place you dine at knows what they are doing.  I think Sarovar has it down pat.  Check it out:

Any Indian place I go, I have to try their biryani, rice-based dishes.  I had their chicken biryani and came away very happy.  It was fragrant, flavorful, and the chicken was moist.  Speaking of chicken, Sarovar offered a very tasty tandoori chicken.  Most places offer something that is either too spicy and covers the natural flavors of the chicken or is over-cooked and dry.  None was the case with Sarovar’s tandoori chicken.

Also worth noting here is the potato masala.  This dish was quite velvety with a subtle flavor and spice that wasn’t overpowering.  Instead of over-seasoning a the potato, the flavors were milder so that the smooth texture can take center stage.

I also tried their deep fried spinach which offered a very nice crunch without being too greasy.  It was nice compliment to the potatoes actually.

Sarovar offered some very nice meat dishes but any Indian restaurant worth their salt will also have a good assortment of vegetarian options.  Sarovars is certainly worth their salt in this case. Check it out:

Although the plate features mostly vegetarian fare, I had to sneak in their house special chicken which was moist, buttery and spicy.  They offered some very nice vegetarian curries such as the chick pea curry that had a nice light texture and subtle flavor that really worked well with plain white rice.  Speaking of rice, Sarovar also had a lemon rice that featured the color and fragrance of the fruit but not the sourness.  It also had a nice nutty flavor in the background which was nice.

I also had a battered veggie dish which the name escapes me.  However, its sweet and spicy flavor is definitely worth remembering.  I would also like to highlight the nan in this case.  Nan is simply Indian flat bread.  Pretty simple fare really.  However, come restaurants make it very rubbery and quite inedible.  Sarovar’s nan was dense and slightly chewy, a perfect accompaniment to curries and soups.  I also really enjoyed their fried nan that was buttery and sweet.  It was so good I had to get a second helping.

Sarovar offers great Indian at a great price.  The lunch buffet was only $8.99, well worth the price.  The interior had a warm and welcoming ambiance that complimented the food.  The wait staff was friendly and made the whole dining experience quite good.  Sarovar offers the best Indian cuisine in Austin, TX in my opinion thus far.  If you’re in town and in the mood for some spicy and fragrant fare, try Sarovar for sure.

4/5

Sarovar Indian Cuisine

8440 Burnet Rd
Austin, TX 78757
(512) 454-8636