Kasa Indian Eatery Blog » Castro Neighborhood News

Donating 10% of Proceeds on Dec 1 to Paint the Castro Red

Anamika — Thu, 01 Dec 2011 04:10:28 +0000

I am insanely passionate about my personal mission (and Kasa’s) to introduce my larger community to Delicious Indian Food from Scratch. I’m coming to realize that I may be driven by this passion for my entire life, whether I like it or not. I envision myself introducing people to the wonders of Gobi Aloo and Saag Paneer for eons.

Thank goodness there are noble people tackling MUCH more important issues, and we at Kasa want to highlight and support them.

December 1st is World AIDS day and 16 dedicated organizations are going to ‘Paint the Castro Red’ to raise awareness about this 30 year old global epidemic.

Their goal is to to educate about the need to protect ourselves and continually get tested, to help those who have been affected, to remember those we have lost and also to highlight the advancements that have been made in the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS.

We are VERY proud to support their efforts and will donate 10% of our proceeds on December 1 to this cause. Many of our fellow Castro business owners are also participating.

So please come to the Castro — which will be adorned with red lights, red ribbons and red balloons — and shop, drink and eat delicious Indian food from scratch at Kasa and participating merchants tomorrow. There will also be free HIV testing and a candlelight vigil at 6:30pm in Harvey Milk Plaza. Here’s the Facebook event link.

We look forward to seeing you and are yet again proud to be a part of the Castro Community.

Anamika

Free Kasa Chai and Anthony’s Cookies on June 18!

Anamika — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 01:10:30 +0000

Kasa turns 3 years old on June 18!

We’ve been thinking through how to celebrate and show how much we appreciate you.

Giving out sweets for special occasions is a wonderful tradition in India. Endless amounts of mithai, gulab jamun, jalebis, halwas and ladoos are purchased from specialized artisanal mithai stores. They are often covered with pure leaf silver, boxed beautifully, exchanged among friends and families, displayed lavishly, and fed in small bites to whomever the celebration is in honour of. Then of course they are consumed by everyone else too. When Suresh and I got married, we both had major sugar overload as hundreds of people shoved mithai in our mouths!

We don’t make traditional Indian sweets at Kasa, but we still wanted to pass out sweets for our anniversary. And we offer two of the best sweet treats in San Francisco at Kasa, so…..

On June 18th, we’ll be giving out complementary Kasa Chai and cookies from our friends at Anthony’s Cookies!

No crazy purchases required or anything. Supplies may run out at some point so come early.

Much love for all of your continued support of Kasa!

Anamika, Tim & Suresh

P.S. Thank you to Anthony’s for providing cookies for this special event!

A Rainy Windy Day on 18th Street

Anamika — Sun, 03 May 2009 19:38:39 +0000

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 (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

Indian Street Food at Kasa this Friday Night

Anamika — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 07:11:01 +0000

Slumdog Millionaire, set in the slums of Mumbai, is playing at the Castro Theatre on Friday night. I’m going to do a tribute to one of my favourite cities in the world and make Kasa’s Friday special to honor the ultimate street food of Mumbai.

The question is…what is the ultimate street food of Mumbai?

It’s a tough choice based on the memories a person associates with their street food experiences, but I narrowed it down to a few based on my own childhood memories of Mumbai:

1. Pani Puri on Chowpatty Beach – some of the happiest moments of my life were here as a kid on vacation from boarding school with my mum, super late, hot night, sand in my hair, trying to fit a whole puri in my mouth without dribbling everywhere.

2. Kwality Vanilla Ice Cream – Nothing has ever been able to touch the taste of this creamy white ice cream that I would hunt down on a hot night after an exciting night of clubbing (bollywood stars/mafia/regular people all in one club).

3. Bheja Masala Fry – This one is strange and, had I known beforehand what it was, I would never have tried it. But, I was a kid and had been to a late night street festival (I think in Byculla) and was hungry. My mum’s boyfriend at the time told me to try it and I loved it. Turns out I had just eaten ‘Masala Fried Lamb Brain’ with Roti. It’s popular street food in Bombay because it’s so GOOD.

4. Pav Bhaji – So this one WINS. It simply hits the spot at any time. The spicy, buttery, lemony, potato mash on buttered white buns and crunchy red onions is the ultimate comfort food. If you’ve never had it, imagine a vegetarian sloppy joe with delicious bread and tons of flavor.

Nothing can beat eating it standing up on the street, but I will seek to do it justice at Kasa on Friday evening.

I’d love to hear your Indian street food snack experiences, so leave them in the comments below. Or tweet them @kasaindian.

Anamika

P.S. Check this Mumbai street food video out…just watching it makes me crave the food!

Kati Roll Madness At the Asian American Film Festival

Anamika — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 06:19:07 +0000

Deepa Mehta? I’d never heard her name until Saturday night just gone (though I’d seen her controversial movies Water and Fire). I guess she may never know just how exhausted she got us all at Kasa.

Our naivety as first time restaurant owners shows up despite the leaps and bounds we’ve made learning the trade. The Asian American Film Festival (of which we were totally unaware) with Deepa Mehta’s new movie Heaven on Earth drew in crowds with lines out the door at Kasa. We were perfectly well staffed up for a normal Saturday night, but multiply that by 3 and craziness ensued. Our entire crew worked like super heroes, bringing out food, rolling Kati Rolls, washing silverware, bussing tables, taking deliveries and pouring out drinks all at the speed of lightening.

At one point our roti stock was totally depleted…it is hand made after all! The panic in all of us struck in. That’s when I started to make frantic calls to Tim and Suresh for HELP. I’m not sure what kind of crazy babysitting arrangements were made between them, but soon thereafter Tim swooped in to save the day. All in all, it was a lot of fun though, and the entire work crew bonded.

Needless to say we researched the festival and were well prepared for the Sunday night showing at the Castro of Shah Rukh Khan’s movie Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi. Things were fast, furious, buzzing yet SMOOTH.

Lesson learned: know the events going on in the Castro really well. I’m Indian though…how did I not hear about these movies? I really want to watch the Deepa Mehta movie. Someday when I have a little time.

Anamika