Cumin - Wicker Park

We enjoyed the new Nepalese and Indian place in Wicker Park this week. Cumin (menu not yet online) offers a page of Nepalese specialties, and several pages of Indian dishes. Our choices included Momo, a dumpling of ground chicken, flour wrapper, and a dipping sauce of ground cashew (as a dish, quite flavorful with very fresh tasting herbs to complement the ground spices); a Nepalese goat stew which was unctuous and good; a Chicken Curry, with very moist thigh meat in a rich sauce; garlic naan (served piping hot) and raita (tasty but a little thin I thought). This amount of food was very satisfying for two people, with leftovers for lunch, and we thought the pricing was very reasonable. The food was impressively forceful in flavor without being too heavy (sometimes a downfall of Indian in my opinion). It's nice to have this option in the neighborhood.


Cumin
1414 N Milwaukee Ave
60622

The menu is available online via MenuPages.

We ordered delivery from them yesterday and were quite pleased. I stuck to the Nepalese side of things just for a change. First up was Chicken Choela, officially an appetizer but potentially a meal if you add rice. It's described on the menu as "diced chicken breast marinated in Nepalese spices and herbs" and it had a nice garlic kick to it along with a good amount of julienned ginger. Simple, with really nice bright flavors, not too heavy. They didn't have my first choice of main course available (Paalungoko Saag) so I got Parvate Aalu Tama Ra Bodi, "potatoes, bamboo shoots and black-eyed peas cooked in delectable Nepalese spices." This was really good, and was definitely different from Indian food (in my experience any way). One of the main differences was the taste of the bamboo shoots, which permeated the dish--a good thing, since I love bamboo shoots. The black-eyed peas and potatoes were perfectly al-dente, so the dish had a nice combo of textures rather that a general mushiness. Last but not least, an order of onion kulcha which was hot, moist, and very very flavorful.

I'm looking forward to trying the goat dishes!

I had dinner here last night and was pretty much impressed with everything from the food, decor and service. The only downside to the decor are the hard as wood seats, that have a covering on them that looks like it would be soft, but when you sit down, you get a nice jarring. We started with some cocktails, which were fairly standard, and some Momo. These little gems were bursting with chicken curry flavors and a little bit of broth. They looked like mini xio long bao. I will always order these now. I don't know that they would travel well for delivery as they should be eaten hot. We also had a vegetable samosa chaat, this was good in an ordinary way, I wouldn't order this again, as the chutney was on the sweet side, easier to make your own at the table. Next time we'll try a lamb samosa.

We ordered everything spicy, not realizing that when you do this, they make everything spicy, not just the entree. It was fine for us this time, but it was surprising to find such intense heat in Palak Paneer, but it was a good surprise. I don't know what pepper they used, but you could see it shining away in the bowl. I had the chicken bhuna,chicken sautéed in indian spices and hot- spicy curry sauce. The only differation from vindaloo I could tell , was that there was no potato, just all meat, white and thigh I believe. It was spicy and not just one note heat spicy. Jman had the lamb vindaloo which he proclaimed just about perfect, not fatty or grisly as he has had in the past. We also had nan, and roti (we couldn't tell which one was which) The breads were cooked perfectly, but ususally the whole wheat Roti is flatter and more oval like. The flavor and texture of the bread was spot on. I too thought the cucumber raita was too thin, but we used most of it up to counter balance the heat. They served basmati rice with everything, I had a bite, I guess it's ok, I'm not really a rice person, I'd rather sop everything up on my bread and slather with the spicy green chutney sauce. No dessert this time, we had enough food to take home for another meal. Which we did...

I'm looking forward to my next visit here to try some new things. but, I'm also happy to know they do the all the old standards perfectly and generously. My neighborhood needed this restaurant, and it was packed on a Wednesday night. Reservations looked to be needed. but, we chanced it and got a table right away. The service was almost perfect. Our waitress made some suggestions and was a very nice lady. The only problem we had was getting a second drink, and then she was very apologetic.

My new one-two punch is Gunner's for a perfectly mixed cocktail (a little further West on Milwaukee-bartenders from Matchbox opened this place up-try the rosemary chips..) and dinner at Cumin.
http://cumin-chicago.com

Gunner's is owned by a friend of mine and his brother (the friend, Eric, was a long time bartender from Matchbox). Glad to hear they're open!

We ordered delivery tonight, it was very tasty. We had a Nepalese spinach dish, and it was one of the best things I've had from restaurant delivery in quite some time. Hunks of garlic, perfectly cooked spinach, soft but not mushy tomato and onion, tasty spices. They definitely use whole spices and not a one-size-fits-all powder. Which is very nice but gives you occasional pieces of something you can't chew

I like goat a lot, but the tandoor goat dish probably does better in the restaurant. It was fine, but next time I'll try one of the other goat dishes. The guy who took my order was patient with my questions about how hot things would be (he included some hot sauce for the side, but apparently Nepalese dishes are mostly not supposed to be very HOT)

Is it that no one on LTH eats here or that nobody posts about it. It just seems odd that you'd have a place serving such good food so far away from Devon and no one on here would care. Enough people must be familiar with Cumin though because when we left the restaurant at about 9pm, the place was packed and there were a number of people waiting for tables.

In any event, I thought dinner here tonight was excellent - great seasonings, very well cooked food and good service. One unique aspect of Cumin is that they offer a number of Nepalese items. Don't worry if you don't know the difference between Indian and Nepalese food. The first portion of the menu is entitled "passing by Nepal" to help you along and that will start to clue you in to some of the differences.

We had a couple of appetizers to start the meal. Vegetable samosa were about as good as any I've had on Devon. Crisp, flaky shells, fragrant spices, and distinct bits of potatoes (and peas), not just mashed. The other appetizer, aaluko achar, was from the Nepalese portion of the menu, and was no less delicious. Diced potatoes, cucumbers and carrots in a sesame-lemon paste with spices and chewra, which are crispy, flattened rice kernels that are distinct to Nepalese food, and which added an interesting textural element to the dish.

As for main courses, possibly my favorite was the tandoori prawns. Large, butterflied prawns were beautifully grilled, tender and delicious, and served with a yogurt-based sauce featuring tandoori flavors. Also very good was the shrimp biryani. Perhaps not as aggressively seasoned as biryani I've had elsewhere, but it was still delicious and the shrimp were perfectly cooked.

Back to the Nepalese portion of the menu, palungoko saag was sauteed spinach (notably, not pureed) with garlic, ginger and spices, including cumin. The seasoning was bold and delicious, and I liked that the spinach was not overcooked. But even more traditional Indian dishes were delicious and cooked well, including the baingan bharta (eggplant roasted in tandoor oven) and butter chicken.

Overall, a very satisfying meal and a place people living closer to downtown should be pretty excited about. Hell, I live pretty close to Devon and I was excited about it.

Cumin
1414 N. Milwaukee Ave.
Chicago
773.342.1414

Heard about this place will reading this article, an Indian friend of my says it's his favorite place.

http://www.travelandleisure.com/article ... -the-us/11

Well since you asked I will give my impressions if I can recall what we had from looking at the menu.

Goat Choela - I really liked this, probably my best bite of tandoori, but I admit that I am not usually a fan of that style. I think what elevates it is that each goat piece is also coated in a sauce very flavorful with spices. Usually you just get a red piece of meat that is usually too dry, but the goat was still nice and juicy.

Chicken Sahi Korma - Korma has been pretty reliable for me in the past, but I found the version here pretty bland.

Bhindi Masala - My favorite Indian vegetable preparation, so I always get it first visit. Cumin's avoided the grease pit of some places while still serving tender and delicious pieces of okra.

Peshwari Naan - There is a place in Madison Wisconsin that does a fabulous and simpler version by the same name so I when I saw this at cumin I had to try it. The filling was nearly unnoticeable, but other than that it was actually really good naan, again avoiding the greasiness I often associate with naan.

Sadly, I will probably not make it to Indiatown up north unless I end up moving closer, so right now the only contenders for my Indian spot is Cumin or Rangoli with the edge currently going to the latter.

BR wrote:Is it that no one on LTH eats here or that nobody posts about it. It just seems odd that you'd have a place serving such good food so far away from Devon and no one on here would care. Enough people must be familiar with Cumin though because when we left the restaurant at about 9pm, the place was packed and there were a number of people waiting for tables.

My impression is that people take things for granted in terms of writing about them once a place has been open for awhile. That stretch of Milwaukee in particularly has a bunch of solid standards like Taxim that I hardly ever hear about.

I like Cumin a lot and I had them in my writing queue for Chicagoist's One Great Dish for the Goat Chhoela.

Next year, the owners of Cumin — one of Chicago’s more popular South Asian restaurants — are planning to open a new two-story location in Lakeview.

https://chicago.eater.com/2019/3/29/182 ... ate-events