Indian Street-food dinner

[redfox]

(sorry, confusion over waitlist, now rectified)

Edited June 11, 2004 by redfox (log)

[otello]

ttt

[JPW]

Monica,

Every time I look at that menu posting I start drooling.

I can't wait!

Thank you SO much for organizing this!

You rock!

[Monica Bhide]

ttt

???

Sorry I am a little slow on shorthand...

[otello]

to the top

[mnebergall]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if there has been an eGullet event in the DC area that has drawn more attendance than Monica's appears to be drawing? In other words, is this shaping up to be one for the local record book? I hope someone is bringing a digital camera to show the slackers what they missed.

[squids]

Not having been before, where exactly is the restaurant located--as in what is nearby? Thanks!

[mdt]

Just out of curiosity, does anyone know if there has been an eGullet event in the DC area that has drawn more attendance than Monica's appears to be drawing? In other words, is this shaping up to be one for the local record book? I hope someone is bringing a digital camera to show the slackers what they missed.

I will have my camera with me.

I have to agree with JPW, Monica rocks!

[JPW]

Not having been before, where exactly is the restaurant located--as in what is nearby? Thanks!

It is on Cordell which crosses Old Georgetown Road 3 blocks north of Woodmont.

If memory serves me right, the corner of Old Georgetown and Cordell has a gas station on the NW corner. (I could however be wrong)

[mnebergall]

Here is a mapquest map showing the location.

[squids]

The map is great--I was in the process of looking it up myself when I saw your message--I'm looking forward to meeting everyone!

[babka]

half a mile from the Bethesda metro station, for other public transit folks, and the walking map is here

[Monica Bhide]

Okay all - THe chef is not taking any more reservations for this now. The event is completely sold out.

Look forward to seeing you all there. If you have any questions over the weekend please PM me.

thanks again - come hungry!

[dcfoodie]

Wow. What a great event this was. THANK YOU MONICA FOR ORGANIZING THIS! I'm so full I could burst. Time to hit the treadmill and work of some of that tandoori chicken.

[Malawry]

Amen. What a great showcase for the beauty of Indian street food. Special thanks to the chef and especially his lovely wife, who kept coming over and talking to me about the dishes we enjoyed. Also thanks Don for the special treat you sent us...the nutty milk with cardamom and rose petals was particularly delectable.

I really enjoyed the company at my table...JPW and his lovely wife, Mdt, Cjsadler, Txaggie, and Squids. It was great to share such a meal with people as interested and interesting as these. My only regret is that I didn't get as much time to spend with the people I hadn't met before as I'd like...I particularly enjoyed talking to Edward, and I would have liked to have gotten to know folks like Laniola, Otello, and Mnebergall. Hopefully next time we can circulate more.

Thanks Monica for putting this together--what a great event! I will try to get my photos up by tomorrow.

[otello]

What a meal. The food just kept coming for, oh, about four hours (pacing was key). Most of the menu was meatless and we hardly noticed (and that's saying something for this carnivore). Fresh ingredients made with obvious care. It was clear that Passage to India put alot of effort into this event and it showed. Thanks alot Monica. We had a great time.

[JPW]

As we walked to our car, I was forced to loosen my belt as discretely as possible. Driving home I kept repeating to Mrs JPW "An Indian street food tasting menu, I'll bet you that noone else around DC outside of maybe the Indian embassy has ever had anything like this."

Finally, she told me to shut up.

Not only unique, but at times absolutely spectacular. My favorite dish was the "Ragda Pattice: Pan-fried spicy potato cutlets with tangy white pea curry".

However, to me the most amazing part of the meal was the ability of Chef to match the Indian beverages with dishes. It was very exciting to try all of the different drinks, even if some of them were not fan favorites with the Anglo palate. A true education.

3 cheers for Monica!

[Monica Bhide]

Good morning! I just wanted to take a moment to that Chef Sudhir for an OUTSTANDING meal last night. The restaurant really outdid themselves... and for that we are all thankful!

I am going to post pics of people in random order . malawry is going to do the food pics. My lovely digital camera ran out of memory at the last minute.

I have to say I specially enjoyed the onion fritters and the chicken.. YUM

And ofcourse many thanks to Don Rockwell for the round of drinks. Very gracious of you Don -- but next time I hope you will come in person

And finally - Cheers to DonRocks!

At last count we had 48 people!

[mdt]

Again, thank you Monica for setting this up. The chef and his staff did a tremendous job of putting together a wonderful menu. What a great meal! I really enjoyed the selection and found the Ragda Pattice and Chole Bhature especially tasty.

At one point I remember thinking of how much food we had eaten, only to realize that we were just done with the appetizers!

I had never had any Indian sweets before and really enjoyed sampling the various items. The jalebi and besan laddoo were my favorites.

Looking forward to the pictures.

[bilrus]

Another fun, tasty eGullet event, thanks to Monica and the nice people at Passage to India. I was dreaming last night about the intensely flavored items on the Chaat Counter.

Looking forward to more pics.

[Malawry]

Chef Sudhir Seth came out to talk to us a little bit about the meal's setup before dinner started. (Monica played a funny trick on us beforehand to break the ice, but I won't ruin it by posting it here. Suffice it to say she got us all to say something in unison that was blatantly wrong and absolutely hilarious.)

We started off with ambi panna, a sweet, minty-tasting green mango drink seasoned with black salt.

The first food we ate came from the "chaat counter," where Chef Sudhir and staff assembled bhelpuri, dahibhalla, gol gappas, and papri chaat before our eyes. It was hard not to load up on all these wonderful treats; my plate is an attempt at restraint in light of the many many courses to come.

Ragda pattice followed, some pan-fried potato cutllets drizzled with tamarind and hot green sauces. A white pea curry was served on the side; many of the folks at my table thought it was one of the top three items they ate last night.

Salty lassi, a yogurt drink spiked with roasted cumin, helped cool the mouth from the spicy potato patties.

I believe this was the nimbu pani, or Indian style lemonade. (Things got a little confusing at times with the beverages and the foods for me, as I am mostly unfamiliar with Indian street foods. Apologies if I get names mixed up as a result.) In any case, this was a sweet. refreshing, fruity drink--just what I'd like on a hot summer day.

Pao bhaji and some bread to go with it followed. This vegetable curry was a particular favorite of mine--the vegetables were cooked to the point where maximum flavor was extracted without losing the texture of their components. Plus the copper dishes, especially the bread holder with a little candle underneath, were really cool.

I think Chef Sudhir's wife told me this was called Tandai, but I'm not sure. This particular drink was a special gift to us from DonRocks...thanks Don! Traditionally this beverage is, uh, chemically enhanced and served during an Indian festival of colors. Ours was not spiked but it was richly textured and flavored with assorted nuts (including pistachios and almonds), cardamom, and a rose petal on top. The aroma alone was killer. This is what eggnog wishes it could be when it grows up.

Onion bhajia and masala wada, with a cooling pale green sauce, came out next. The onion bhajia were probably my favorite dish of the entire meal: lacy, crisp fried little nests of peppers and onions. The lentil fritters (masala wada) were small, dense little patties with cracked pepper flavor.

I think this was the Jal Jeera beverage, but I'm not entirely certain.

Samosas, filled with potato and drizzled with yogurt sauce and chutneys.

The action picked up again when Chef Sudhir brought out his little porta-tandoor and started cooking things on it. Tawa and tandoori meats came off this makeshift griddle, and lamb kebabs and fried fish amristari (which I regarded as a sort of an Indian fish stick) were set out. There was puffed bread and chole bhature (a dark chickpea curry with a mysterious muddy-cinnamon undertone). The tandoor meats were extremely tender from their yogurt marinade, aromatic and beautifully charred around the edges. Some bread pakoras (which I didn't get an image of) were brought to our table as a sort of sidelight.

Roohafza, or rose milk, was a sweet, floral counterpoint to all the hot grilled food.

At this point some people were so nervous about making room for dessert that they left the meal and took a short walk. We were all pretty stuffed, but then the desserts came out...

Jalebis (the squiggly orange things), rasbhari, besan laddoo, kalakand and shreekhand comprised a dessert course. I especially liked the jalebis, which are sort of like an Indian funnel cake (and which Txaggie was especially excited to see on the menu.) Some of the desserts were a little too sweet for my palate, but the milk cake (kalakand) had a gentle almond flavor that I really enjoyed and the shreekhand (saffron yogurt) was a welcome tart contrast.

Masala chai and coffee followed.

Edward (right) and friend looked a little beat after all that food. I suspect we all slept well last night.

Chef Sudhir looked amazingly chipper after cranking out so much food for all of us.

Special thanks to Monica Bhide, Chef Sudhir's wife, and especially Chef Sudhir Seth himself for a wonderful night!

[Monica Bhide]

Nicely done malawry - and you got it all correct. (no portable Tandoor though.. he did it all on the griddle.) And thanks for not revealing my icebreaker. I am speaking at the French Embassy in a few weeks, on Indian cooking, and plan on using the same one

Nicely done.. and damn I am hungry again looking at all the pics!

[JPW]

Nicely done.. and damn I am hungry again looking at all the pics!

My lunch was limited to a small salad and some tuna from the Safeway salad bar.

I didn't finish it.

[laniloa]

Let me jump on the bandwagon and add my thanks to Monica, Chef Sudhir and his team for a fantastic evening. I now have many new favorite Indian dishes! My favorite were the masala wada with a lovely coconut sauce -- mostly becuase it is something I probably never would have ordered for myself and really enjoyed. I'll be back to Passage to India to get more of anything using the tamarind sauce.

[DonRocks]

This sounds like it was an amazing event, and Monica did a fantastic job of putting it all together.

I really wish I could have been there and met the team, but I'm glad I at least got to buy a round for everyone in absentia.

Cheers,

Don.