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Monthly Archive for May, 2009

Doing Justice to My Grandma’s Parathas This Saturday at Kasa

Published on May 27, 2009 in Indian Culture and Specials. 2 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , .

bari-ma-21

This Saturday from 5pm onwards at Kasa, we’ll be offering a real Punjabi treat for the first time:  Aloo (potato), Keema (minced lamb) and Gobi (cauliflower) Parathas.  I’m dedicating this special to my grandma (Bari Ma), who is unfortunately suffering from the after-effects of a severe stroke.  This is the frailest I have ever seen her.
She spoiled me rotten, particularly by stuffing me with food.  She always thought I was too thin and needed to eat more. I miss those days.   :(
My absolute favourite dish she made for me from childhood through to adulthood was Aloo Paratha with a side of butter, achaar (Indian pickles) and yogurt.  On Sunday mornings when she made this at my cousin’s house, she would phone me up and tell me to hurry up and come over to eat.  I would be there in a flash, hoping to eat the first paratha off the tava, literally with a huge side of butter.  It was so damn good, I can still recall that feeling now.
Another vivid memory is going out clubbing one night and sneaking in at 4am.  Bari Ma was waiting up for me and I got caught and yelled at pretty badly, something about ruining my reputation, nobody wanting to marry a girl going out late and the psychos waiting to jump in my car and kill me.  Once she calmed down, I told her about the fun I’d had that night and that I was really hungry from all the dancing.   She had some boiled potatoes in the fridge and she made me a fresh paratha with melted butter.  I have NEVER felt more loved in my entire life than that night.
I claim that my grandma makes THE BEST parathas.  I’ve heard others make this claim but do not believe it.  The closest anyone ever came to my grandma’s was my great grandma in India.  The only reason she came close was because she made this homemade white butter that was truly fantastic.
So…this Saturday we’ll try to do justice to their parathas.  They’ll be served, of course, with a dollop of butter, achaar and yogurt.  If I can perfect the white butter between now and then, we will have white butter.  If anyone has tips on this, please let me know!
Being an only child raised a lot of the time by my Grandma, I have been heavily influenced by her.  Her quotes that she loved to use to get her point across to me will always be with me and help me remember her at her finest:  strong, cynical, practical, yet extremely loving to those she chose to love.
Bari Ma’s favourite quotes:
On sex before marriage: ‘Who needs the cow when they can have the milk for free?’
On friendship: ‘Familiarity breeds contempt.’
On clinching a marriage deal: ‘Many a slip between the cup and the lip.’
On being too fussy for marriage: ‘When she’s 20, she says Who is He? When she’s 30, she says What is He? When she’s 40, she says WHERE is he?’
On love:  ’Where did all the love go when there is no money to pay the rent?’
Anamika

Kasa Delivery

Published on May 20, 2009 in Kasa Behind The Scenes and Staff Spotlight. 5 Comments Tags: , , .

I wonder what the ebb and flow of delivery patterns truly are.  Some are obvious:  rainy day = busy delivery night.

Other evenings, there appears to be no rhyme or reason as to why a lot of people at the same time think, “I want Indian delivery from Kasa.”  (I’m not complaining AT ALL.  The more customers, the merrier!)
Last night was one such night, where a flood of delivery orders came in at once with no apparent impetus, so naturally our quoted delivery time raced up to an hour.  When I informed one customer of this wait, he made me laugh:
“OH MY GOD,” he exclaimed.
“Really?” I said. “You want to bring God into this?”
Pause….silence…
My turn again: “So… sir, is this acceptable to you or unacceptable?”
He told me it was unacceptable but that he would live with it.
It made me laugh because sometimes life can be as simple as just making sure you have food.  Like this particular customer though, when I’m hungry I can get seriously agitated and everything makes me mad.  That’s the business we work in at Kasa, feeding Indian food to hungry people.
JulianFortunately his food got to him well before the hour because Julian (our delivery guy) rocks!
If anyone has any insights into the drivers behind delivery patterns, I would love to know.  In the meanwhile, keep ordering delivery from us and we’ll do our best to get your food out to you hot and on-time.
Anamika

The Extended Punjabi Family

Published on May 12, 2009 in Indian Culture. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , .

This entry is dedicated to my cousin in London, who is about to have family from India come to visit.

The Punjabi extended family is as rich and complex as the cuisine. Familial responsibilities, obligations and levels of respect have depths that are difficult to put into words.  I don’t think non-Indian people really get it, but I’m open to correction if I’m wrong.
To make my point (and to document what cannot be found on the web),  I have put together a summary of Punjabi kinship terms, many of which simply do not exist in the english language.  You should note that some of the terms double up as swear words due to the tenuous relationship. (Your wife’s brother, or sala, apparently is usually a pain.)
Also there are different words for relationships depending on relative age in the family (to ensure the right amount of respect) and whether you are on the maternal or paternal side.  Punjabi families are usually all about the boys…
After my research, what I found most interesting was that there was no word for ‘Cousin’ (you’re just brothers and sisters) and no word for ‘Husband’ or ‘Wife’!  If you want to refer to your husband, you call him ‘Your Man of the House’. Your wife would be called ‘Your Bride’.
Needless to say, the Punjabi family can be an endless source of joy and at times an endless source of stress!  :)
If I have missed out any terms, please leave me a comment as I am trying to come up with an exhaustive list.
And many thanks to my Sas and Nanaans for their help in pulling this list together!
Mother – Mataji
Father – Papaji
Son – Putar
Daughter – Dhee
My Mother’s Mother – Naniji
My Mother’s Father – Nanaji
My Father’s Mother – Dadiji
My Father’s Father – Dadaji
My Older Brother – Veerji
My Younger Brother – Kaka
My Sister – Bhenji
My Younger Sister – Bhen
My Mother’s Grandparents – Parnani / Parnana
My Father’s Grandparents - Pardadi / Pardada
My Husband – Karwala (loosely translated: Man of the House)
My Wife – Woti (loosely translated: Bride)
My Cousin – ???
My Father’s Older Brother – Taya
My Father’s Older Brother’s Wife - Tayee
My Father’s Younger Brother - Chacha
My Father’s Younger Brother’s Wife - Chachi
My Father’s Sister - Bhua
My Father’s Sister’s Husband – Phupher
My Mother’s Brother - Mama
My Mother’s Brother’s Wife - Mami
My Mother’s Sister – Masi
My Mother’s Sister’s Husband – Masar
My Brother’s Wife – Bharjayee or Bhabi
My Brother’s Son – Bhateeja
My Brother’s Daughter – Bhateejee
My Sister’s Husband - Jeeeja
My Sister’s Son - Panewa or Bhanja
My Sister’s Daughter – Panewee
My Wife’s Brother – Sala (but you never say Salaji!)
My Wife’s Brother’s Wife – Salehar
My Wife’s Sister – Sali
My Wife’s Sister’s Husband – Sandhu
My Husband’s Sister – Nanaan
My Husband’s Sister’s Husband – Nanaan Waya
My Husband’s Older Brother – Jeth
My Husband’s Older Brother’s Wife – Jethani
My Husband’s Younger Brother – Dewar
My Husband’s Younger Brother’s Wife – Dewarani
My Son’s Son – Potra
My Son’s Daughter – Potri
My Daughter’s Son – Dotra
My Daughter’s Daughter – Dotri
My Son-in-Law – Jawai
Daughter-in-Law – Noo
My Father-in-Law – Sora
My Mother-in-Law – Sas
Father-in-Law to Father-in-Law – Kurm
Mother-in-Law to Mother-in-Law - Kurmani

Stuff White People Like: Indian Food

Published on May 6, 2009 in Kasa Behind The Scenes and Staff Spotlight. 6 Comments

img_0335Hi, I’m the gringo you’ll most likely see behind the register when you come to Kasa.  It’s time for me to make a guest appearance on what has essentially (and thankfully) been Anamika’s blog.  She has far more interesting things to say than I do.

If you haven’t read Christian Lander’s now-famous blog, Stuff White People Like, I think you should. It’s super funny (you know, funny because it’s true). Indie Music, Manhattan, Study Abroad, and Promising to Learn a New Language describe some aspects of myself I find pretty annoying (but are nevertheless true).

He hasn’t gotten around to the topic of Indian food yet apart from briefly mentioning it in an Asian Fusion post, but it’s probably just a matter of time.  Well Christian, this white person loves Indian food and now has a vested interest in making sure lots of others (of all races) do too.

I fell in love with Indian food a long time ago while studying abroad at Oxford. I need to give a shout out to Chutneys Indian Brasserie, where my uncle Bill took me to my first Indian meal back in 1996. Since that time, I ate it more and more every year until it crept up to 2-3 times per week.  To provide some context, over the last six years my wife Merideth and I dropped most of our outside interests to focus all our disposable income on finding the best inexpensive restaurants in the city (first New York and then Chicago). We created a spreadsheet to capture our thoughts so we didn’t forget the details of our meals and so we could have something to pass around to friends. We had our favorites in each category, but I’d say Indian pretty easily emerged as our favorite cuisine overall. For Indian, we’d mainly dine in or take out from hole-in-the-wall places, and we’d go out every once in a while for a higher-end meal. Although we definitely loved the places we frequented, we sometimes just wanted a quick, fresh, and delicious Indian option. We had that for sandwiches, burritos, burgers, hot dogs, pizza, and even falafel. Why not for our beloved Indian?!

After a few years at Kraft, despite the fun, smart people I worked with, I started to burn out on slinging processed food for a living. Plus, all I ever did was think about restaurants and what the NY or Chicago scene really needed. In the fall of 2006, I decided to flesh out the kind of Indian place where Merideth and I would love to eat all the time. I also called a friend of mine from business school (Suresh), because he was talking about doing something like this way back then.

After the first time I spoke to Suresh on the phone about it, I told Merideth that he and I would probably end up working on this together. Then we hit a snag: Suresh said he was really tied to the idea of his wife being the chef. I tried my best to keep an open mind, but was honestly trying to figure out how to extract myself from this thing if her cooking wasn’t high-end chef caliber. I wasn’t going to involve myself in a project without knock-out good food. So Merideth and I flew out to SF to see what came out of Anamika’s kitchen on a regular basis. We were optimistic, but also pretty nervous.

We picked up and moved across the country to open Kasa, so I’m sure you can guess what we thought of her cooking. I’m actually amazed at the ease with which she puts out her dishes. She’s just plain gifted with the ability to work with flavors and textures—even outside of Indian food.

Merideth and I feel blessed to be here in San Francisco and to be part of what makes Kasa a place our customers enjoy.

Gringo out.

A Rainy Windy Day on 18th Street

Published on May 3, 2009 in Castro Neighborhood News and Kasa Behind The Scenes. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , .
It’s raining and windy today.  All kinds of things are canceled and it’s starting to affect my mood.  I want to stay cozied up in bed.  To worsen things, I’m wondering how this may negatively affect business.
I walk the 18th St corridor as usual to get to Kasa and I take a good look around me.  It’s around 10.30am and people are actually out and about with their umbrellas.
Suresh's Favorite @ Tartine: Morning Buns

Suresh's Favorite @ Tartine: Morning Buns (Pic from 7x7)

To start with, I see the usual line out the door and around the block at Tartine, despite the weather!  What better than a ham and cheese croissant to cheer someone up.

Delifna Pizzeria is buzzing with activity getting ready to open.  I would put money on the fact that they will remain busy today. And as for Delfina, that roast chicken is so good I would go through a hurricane to get it.
Next, I walk past Bi-Rite Market.  The fruit looks tempting and beautiful as usual and the flowers outside look even more amazing with rain drops on them.
A little farther down the block, and believe it or not, kids in raincoats are waiting for ice-cream outside the fabulous Bi-Rite Creamery.  (I love the new giant cone outside!)
Jivano’s knife sharpening shop is closed, but only in San Francisco can you have a shop with a sign that reads, “We have to go out frequently so we don’t keep regular business hours.”  I just call when I need a knife sharpened and it works out fine for me.
Next is Dolores Park Cafe.  Packed as always!  There aren’t too many people in the park though, although I see some brave souls.
Past the beautiful Samovar, with people enjoying their relaxed slow service tea philosophy.  Urban Bread with their newspaper/coffee patrons.
All along, people are out there.  I literally have walked past some of the best eating establishments of all time here.  I really respect San Franciscans for getting out despite the stormy weather.
And finally to Kasa.  We haven’t opened yet but the warm smell of spices is wafting out though, and I’m looking forward to chai.  We don’t get busy until around 12:30 on Sundays, so I’m thinking of doing a saag lamb special that should hit the spot on a rainy, windy day like today.  I hope some of you battle your way to Kasa to enjoy it with me.  And thanks to 18th Street and all our wonderful neighbors for cheering me up.
Anamika