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New Kasa truck locations..a new Kasa truck..and some of our 2012 priorities

Published on January 2, 2012 in Kasa Behind The Scenes, Kasa Indian Food Truck and Specials. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Happy New Year to all our Kasa customers!

Here’s some of what we’re working on in the early parts of this year:

**Launching our second Kasa Truck
After being granted six locations for the Kasa food truck, and the subsequent Appeals hearing with its hotly debated issues (and tempers rising high in some cases) of restaurants vs food trucks and trying to interpret poorly written legislation, we are happy to have secured four spots out of the six that we applied for in the Financial District, Union Square and South Beach.
Our new spots include:
  • Weekday lunches at 2nd/Mission and California/Sansome
  • Weekend lunches outside the Apple Store at Ellis/Stockton
  • Weeknight dinners in South Beach at 2nd and Townsend
Follow us on Facebook and Twitter for exact times and locations.
** More Vegan Specials
** More street food specials on the truck (Pav Bhaji and Indian Nachos in particular)
** Possibly putting out a couple of Fish Curry specials
** Indian Cooking Classes, possibly via 18 Reasons and Bi-Rite
** Writing more blogs to introduce the reader to all that goes with running Kasa as well more on Indian Culture and Food generally.
Anamika

Chicken Kofte Star in Monday Meatball Mania!

Published on December 17, 2011 in Indian Culture, Kasa Behind The Scenes and Specials. 0 Comments Tags: , , .

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.

Roti and Naan Acrobatics

Published on July 22, 2011 in Indian Culture, Kasa Behind The Scenes and Staff Spotlight. 0 Comments Tags: , .

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!!

Kasa Indian Food Truck “Squared”

Published on June 28, 2011 in Kasa Behind The Scenes and Kasa Indian Food Truck. 1 Comment Tags: , , .

We’re in the final sprint preparing for next week’s Off the Grid launch for the Kasa Indian Food Truck.  The truck is completely built out, the wrap is being wrapped as we speak, our Public Hearing is this Wed Jun 29 to secure our FiDi locations (not too late to help!), the initial menu is more or less decided and the operating plan is operating.

One of our goals is speed — we want to keep our (hopefully long) lines moving quickly!

At first, we figured we should keep it simple and launch the truck as cash only.  But that didn’t sit right with us for a few reasons:

  1. We pride ourselves on being tech savvy.  You can’t have a Kasa co-founder from Google and be behind on this stuff!
  2. We always try to do right by our customers.  You don’t always have cash, ATM fees suck and credit cards are more convenient.
  3. Square made it so damn simple to accept credit cards on a truck!  Square is this super cool startup in SOMA designing beautifully simple transaction systems for local merchants.  We signed up on Friday, got a free square fob in the mail on Tuesday and were up and running swiping credit cards within minutes.
  4. Even better, we shamelessly begged the Square team and got into the beta test for their new Square Register point of sale app on the iPad.  This hopefully will allow our truck customers to set up tabs where they can order and pay for our classic Indian street food without having to even take their credit card out of their wallet!

So…beta Indian food truck, beta point of sale system running on a 4G iPad 2.  Only in San Francisco!

Help Launch the Kasa Indian Truck in the Financial District!

Published on June 21, 2011 in Kasa Behind The Scenes and Kasa Indian Food Truck. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , .
Friends –
We’re within weeks of launching the Kasa Indian Truck in early July!  Where will the truck be rolling to?  That’s what we need your help on!
For our initial launch, we’ll be at various Off the Grid events.  (Follow us @kasaindian for details!)
We’re also in the final stretch of trying to secure permits to serve our Kati Rolls and other delicious Indian street food at specific locations in the Financial District.   We’re one of the first local businesses trying to get permitted through the new Food Truck legislation which was passed in SF earlier this year.
We have a public hearing on June 29 where supporters and opponents to our truck can make their case to the City.  The City needs to know that people support us!
There are two ways you can help:
1) Send an email to the Dept of Public Works — if you work in the FiDi or visit there on occasion, please email the note at the bottom of this email to truck@kasaindian.com before June 27. Every email will help!  Feel free to modify the note however you’d like and pass this along to friends.
2)  Come to the hearing — the hearing is on June 29 at 9am at City Hall, Room 400.  Having a large crowd of supporters present can’t hurt!
With your help, we’ll have have our Kati Roller rolling soon!
Much love from Tim, Anamika & Suresh
SAMPLE EMAIL — SEND TO TRUCK@KASAINDIAN.COM
————————–
To: Mr. Edward D. Reiskin, Director, SF Dept of Public Works
Re: Support for the Kasa Indian Truck in the FiDi
Dear Mr. Reiskin,
I am writing to express my excitement and support for having Kasa’s truck near my building in the FiDi. Like other workers in San Francisco’s financial district, I eat out very frequently for lunch. The FiDi needs additional interesting, ethnic food options. Kasa’s truck will add diversity and balance to the existing food options in this area and will make the overall dining scene here more exciting.
Sincerely,
INSERT YOUR NAME
INSERT YOUR FIDI WORK ADDRESS IF APPLICABLE