The mural on the Women’s Building on 18th Street adds a magical element to the entire street. I walk past it everyday and never lose appreciation for its size and artistry. I’m not the only one in awe — there are always photographers and tourists clicking away at its magnificence.
This Friday evening, we are proud to parter with The Women’s Building to serve food from the Kasa Indian Truck along with a live performance of Yoni Ki Baat, which translates to ‘Talks of the Vagina’ (think Indian Vagina Monologues). Part of the proceeds from the event will go towards restoring the mural.
The performance is put on by the South Asian Sisters, a diverse collection of progressive South Asian women dedicated to empowering the community to resist all forms of oppression through art, dialogue, conscious alliance and grass roots political action. The show has been touring the country for the last 8 years very successfully. This weekend’s shows have a funny, touching new script that is not to be missed!
I am honoured to be able to give to this cause. Whilst I am busy convincing people to eat more vegetables, it warms my heart to learn of the various organizations working on such important and complicated issues such as women and their place in our community. I was raised by a single mother and am very aware of the strength of women and the struggles they endure, in particular the many ingrained and subtle oppressions of South Asian women.
Please come out, watch a great show, support The Women’s Building organization in the Mission and of course eat wholesome Indian food from the Kasa Truck. We’ll be out there Friday night only (tickets), but the show is also playing Saturday and Sunday (Saturday night is sold out).
Thanks and look forward to seeing you all. You can purchase Friday night tickets here, and Sunday tickets here.
We want to make Indian Food that would make our grandmothers proud. That is a line from the Heart of Kasa, and it truly is the very center of what Kasa means to me. Kasa makes my grandma proud not only because our food tastes good, but because it is bridging the larger community to the Punjabi community, a community my grandmother left behind and I know missed dearly.
So in the vein of making her and her generation who moved to London and America in the 50s and 60s proud, I write this post to introduce a little more of Punjabi culture and invite you all to join me and my family in three fun Punjabi events this weekend.
1) This Saturday evening is a massive Lohri celebration at Stanford. I’m super excited for it, as it’s a harvest festival celebration which includes a giant bonfire, Dhol drums, Bhangra performances and DJs and dancing. The event is totally free to encourage community celebration, so bring a mat, food to share and shoes to dance in. Here’s the events page with location and time details.
2) Later Saturday night back in the Mission is Non Stop Bhangra night with the Kasa Indian Truck at Public Works. NSB has become so wildly popular with their Bhangra classes and club night that they had to move to a bigger spot at Public Works! There’s a great line up of DJ’s so put on some bangles, bindis or anything Indian you have and plan to dance the night away. Look out for the Kasa Truck with Tim rocking his Desi dance moves until 1am outside the event too! Details here, tickets here. Huge props to Jimmie Love of NSB from the Kasa crew and all of our grandmothers for developing such a fantastic tradition!
3) And finally for those who really want an insiders peek into authentic Sikh culture, this Friday thru Sunday afternoon please stop by the Hayward Gurdwara as my family and I host a 3 day ceremony called an Akhand Path to celebrate my son’s 10th and niece’s 21st bdays. Everyone is welcome, and the best part is they want to serve you some of the most authentic and best vegetarian food ever. The food is cooked by members of the community in the communal kitchen, which is why it tastes extra delicious.
We will be cooking and serving food all through the day from Friday morning to the grand finale on Sunday lunch. Some of the highlights on the menu:
Suresh’s mum’s Gulab Jamun — the absolute best in the Bay Area
Kadi — a yogurt curry with vegetable fritters
Poori Aloo — yummy fried poori (bread) with potatoes and mango pickles
Maki ki Roti and Saag — a real winter treat of cornmeal-based roti with fresh spinach
Phirni — rice almond custard with pomegranate seeds that some of you may have seen at Kasa occassionally
If anyone is interested in attending and wants the low down, feel free to email me for tips at anamika@kasaindian.com. I’m already laughing as I imagine how the Gurdwara people might be a little confused when a large crew of Chowhounders or Yelpers show up! :)
As many of you know, we take great pride at Kasa in our daily vegetable specials. But Chicken Kofte, those delicately spiced chicken meatballs in a tangy tomato-based sauce, are so delicious that we make an exception and have served the dish sporadically over the past year.
(Sincere apologies to our much respected Vegetarians for listing the dish on our Vegetable board — we are simply tight on chalkboard space!)
I’m excited to announce that due to countless requests, we’ve finally committed to a regular schedule for Chicken Kofte and will now offer Monday Meatball Mania every Monday dinner starting this Monday!
I can’t mention Chicken Kofte without also expressing my deep gratitude to Zaida, who works for my mum in the Indian Fashion industry in London. Zaida first fed me this dish and shared the recipe with me. As so often is true with food, there are memories and emotions so closely tied together with a dish that it becomes tough to separate the two. In this case, it is impossible for me to think of Kofte without also always thinking of Zaida.
When Zaida finds out that folk here in San Francisco are eating, demanding and loving her Kofte, I know it will bring her immense pride and joy. And if you knew what a gem of a woman she is, the Kofte would bring a deeper fulfillment than just their delicious taste for you too.
Thanks Zaida for everything. Your calm, humble and dignified manner inspires everyone: genuinely visiting my grandma in the nursing home, working with my mum and dealing with all her diva clients with grace, and most of all for always feeding me and making me feel special.
I have not written forever because things have been CRAZY! And crazy is a state that we are grateful for at Kasa, even if it does mean that we have been worked to our bones.
After months, I am finally able to breathe calmly after having gone back to back with:
Dealing with the city extensively for truck permits
The launch of the Kasa Indian Truck, aka The Kati Roller aka KIT
Three grueling days of vending at Outside Lands in Golden Gate Park
The sheer and utter madness of the SF Street Food Festival
In the midst of all this chaos, we’ve thankfully hired some great new additions to our team. Welcome Charles, Mike, Sarah and Juan!
This post is a quick update to share that I am madly in love with the truck. It is beautiful and bright and brings a smile to my face. As an added bonus, being only 5′ 2″, I also love being taller than everyone else on the street for a change. It’s still blowing my mind that we’re able to simply load up and drive down to Berkeley or the Financial District or outside of a wine bar and further Kasa’s mission of serving up simple, delicious, Indian food from scratch.
People have been asking me about the phrase ‘Horn Ok Please’ on the back of our truck. This was a nod to India and its many many trucks. If you’ve ever visited India, it would be hard to miss this phrase painted colourfully on most trucks and commercial vehicles. The origin of the phrase is not clear, but there are some interesting theories (Wikipedia):
In WW2, trucks ran on kerosene engines. Kerosene, being highly unstable in nature, would cause the trucks to explode at the slightest accident. Hence a warning would be painted on the back saying “Horn Please, OnKerosene”.
Most trucks in India are manufactured by TATA. In India, when wishing someone goodbye, one commonly says, “OK TATA!”, where TATA means goodbye. Since most trucks had the TATA logo on them, truck owners often painted the word OK above it. The HORN PLEASE phrase surrounds the OK TATA vertical combination. Thus, a person reading just the first line would read, “HORN OK PLEASE”.
The Tata Oil Mills unveiled an economy detergent powder called OK. This brand had a symbol in a shape of a lotus flower. To market this detergent better, it is believed that the symbols were painted on trucks and lorries. Since the trucks had HORN PLEASE already painted on the left and right edges of the back flap, the lotus flower symbol and OK were painted in the center of the flap. That is what got OK in between HORN PLEASE, making it HORN OK PLEASE.
I believe the current use, other than for pomp and circumstance, is also to let cars know that they simply can’t see them and so they should horn if they want to overtake. Either way, if you are a Kasa fan and the bright pink colour brightens up your day, give us a horn too!
This is an amazing ‘must watch’ short video from India featuring some serious pros making naan. Their skills are unparalleled. If they didn’t make naan, they would have a career in baseball or frisbee!
I’d love to see the Health Department’s reaction to this here in the US! I reckon the health inspector would have a heart attack! Although I can’t see any particular rule being broken.
As for the customers, they would either love it or be appalled. The customer in this video does’t even blink an eye You got to love India for this kind of stuff.
I’m dedicating this post to our seriously hard working and skilled roti makers at Kasa. Day in, day out, they are at our roti station labouring away at making freshly rolled rotis at high speed. Our guys are machines, rolling out around 800 rotis or more per shift.
Having watched this video though, hmmmm. Roti guys watch out. It might become a job requirement to entertain us in this manner too!!
The mural on the Women’s Building on 18th Street adds a magical element to the entire street. I walk past it everyday and never lose appreciation for its size and artistry. I’m not the only one in awe — there are always photographers and tourists clicking away at its magnificence.
You got to love India for this kind of stuff.
