Slim pickings for certain South Asian regional cuisines?

Like, I have no idea if there are even ones that specialize in Tamil or Bengali cooking, like Luzzat does for Andhra and Mysore Woodlands for Kannadiga (i.e. Karnataka) - TN and WB seem to be the least represented areas in the Chicago Desi food-scene...or so I think. Please prove me wrong.

You start all your sentences with "Like," I'm going to start calling you Shaggy.

That's fine, Miss Gori, but answer the question.

Anyone?

Maybe the problem is that people don't understand what you're asking for. Speaking for myself, I have no idea what the following parts of your post mean:

Luzzat
Andhra
Mysore Woodlands
Kannadiga (i.e. Karnataka)
TN and WB
Chicago Desi

Perhaps some additional clarification would help people help you.

Luzzat is an Indian restaurant in Rogers Park that I have not been to. Mysore Woodlands is an Indian restaurant on West Devon where I have eaten what seemed like mainstream Indian cuisine with the constraint that it is all vegetarian.

I have no idea what the other terms refer to, and I too found the use of those terms very confusing.

Really folks? Can't blame you if your Indian geography isn't particularly strong, but there is always Wikipedia for chrissakes.

TN = Tamil Nadu.
WB = West Bengal.
Desi = a term for people of South Asian ancestry.
Kannadiga/Karnataka = one of many states in India.
Mysore Woodlands = a restaurant on Devon.

Suburbian,

As far as I know your characterization of the Indian/South Asian food scene in Chicago is pretty accurate. You can add Goa, Assam, Kerala and Sri Lanka to the list as well (what I would give to try a hopper). What I think Chicago does really well are the type of foods you might find in Northern India and maybe Hyderabad, and of course, Pakistani cuisines of all kinds.

I can't tell, Habibi, whether your "add to the list" means the list of places we do have or don't have.

I haven't tried it yet, but I've heard the Royal Malabar Catering in Glenview is the top place for Keralan cuisine. I loved the food in Kerala, so it would be nice to find an outlet. I do know that India House offers some southern Indian dishes. Of course, these options are all in the suburbs, so may not meet the needs of the OP.

Cynthia wrote:I can't tell, Habibi, whether your "add to the list" means the list of places we do have or don't have.

Don't have. And speaking of Goa, you can add Portuguese, a complaint I feel obliged to note somewhere annually.

Suburbian wrote:Like, I have no idea if there are even ones that specialize in Tamil or Bengali cooking, like Luzzat does for Andhra and Mysore Woodlands for Kannadiga (i.e. Karnataka) - TN and WB seem to be the least represented areas in the Chicago Desi food-scene...or so I think. Please prove me wrong.

While Mysore Woodlands is named as it is, it isnt *purely* Kannadiga cooking - they do some pretty good Tamil stuff too (dosais et al). In general, I wouldnt say TN is under-represented at all in Chicago - Udipi has a fair bit of TN food too (tho technically thats K'taka too I suppose)..as does Dakshin. Id say its much easier to find TN food in Chicago than it is to find Andhra food (Hyderabadi food is available many places.. but non-Hyderabadi-Andhra food isnt that common in Chicago, really).

Bengal.. ok, yeah, Bengal is pretty unrepresented There used to be one spot on Devon that did Bangladeshi-type cuisine, with some touches of Bengali, but thats about it. And its now gone.. at the moment Iam not aware of any Bong places in Chicagoland.

Talking about unrepresented Indian regional cuisines..far more unrepresented than TN cuisine in Chicago is, IMHO, Goan food (coincidentally Goan food is also much better IMHO, which makes me miss it more There is no Goan food of any kind (now that Janets in Des Plaines is sadly closed). There is also no Parsi food. Heck, there arent even that many purely Gujarati places- shocking considering how many Gujaratis there are in Chicago!

c8w

And not us not even mention the lack of Myanmar cuisine in Chicago (despite a strong representation in New York or San Francisco and elsewhere).

Myanmar = Burma for wiki-phobes.

GAF wrote:And not us not even mention the lack of Myanmar cuisine in Chicago (despite a strong representation in New York or San Francisco and elsewhere).

Fort Wayne, Indiana, claims the highest number of Burmese refugees - 3,000 - of any city in the United States. I'm told this pan-Asian restaurant there offers a variety of Burmese dishes on request:

Mahnin Asia Restaurant
2701 S. Calhoun Street
Fort Wayne, IN 46807
(260) 744-3584

I've also heard a recommendation of a place on Fort Wayne's north side called Yathamon Asian Cuisine on East State Blvd., but I can't find any information about it.

AFAIK Chicago doesn't have any Cambodian restaurants, unlike Cleveland, which has Phnom Penh. We also don't have any Laotian restaurants AFAIK.

nsxtasy wrote:Fort Wayne, Indiana, claims the highest number of Burmese refugees - 3,000 - of any city in the United States. I'm told this pan-Asian restaurant there offers a variety of Burmese dishes on request:

Mahnin Asia Restaurant
2701 S. Calhoun Street
Fort Wayne, IN 46807
(260) 744-3584

I've also heard a recommendation of a place on Fort Wayne's north side called Yathamon Asian Cuisine on East State Blvd., but I can't find any information about it.

Thanks for the reminder, I really need to post a report on Ma Hnin, one of the more interesting restaurants I've been to this year. It's not incorrect to call Ma Hnin's menu pan-Asian but more simply, it's a modest mix of Burmese and Thai dishes. Ma Hnin—that's the name of the owner/cook—is Mon (not Hmong) so these are probably the foods she grew up with.

I haven't been to Yathamon but their menu can be characterized as truly pan-Asian. Any restaurant offering sushi, kung pao chicken and pad thai as well as Burmese curries makes me highly suspicious but I'd be more than willing to try their Burmese dishes (assuming there's a Burmese cook in the kitchen).

I realize this isn't much help for finding Bengali food in Chicago,,,,

Yathamon Asian Cuisine
2805 E State Blvd
Fort Wayne IN
260-442-3663

It may not be much help in finding Bengali food, but I feel an itch for a road trip.

Habibi wrote:Really folks? Can't blame you if your Indian geography isn't particularly strong, but there is always Wikipedia for chrissakes.

TN = Tamil Nadu.
WB = West Bengal.
Desi = a term for people of South Asian ancestry.
Kannadiga/Karnataka = one of many states in India.
Mysore Woodlands = a restaurant on Devon.

Suburbian,

As far as I know your characterization of the Indian/South Asian food scene in Chicago is pretty accurate. You can add Goa, Assam, Kerala and Sri Lanka to the list as well (what I would give to try a hopper). What I think Chicago does really well are the type of foods you might find in Northern India and maybe Hyderabad, and of course, Pakistani cuisines of all kinds.

My partner is Sri Lankan and occasionally teaches some basics of the cuisine. We have hopper pans somewhere that we almost never use - maybe I need to organize something. There used to be a good Sri Lankan place in St. Paul, but now I can only think of places on the coasts or in Canada. Anyone know of anywhere closer?

kwhyte wrote:My partner is Sri Lankan and occasionally teaches some basics of the cuisine. We have hopper pans somewhere that we almost never use - maybe I need to organize something.

Nephew was in Sri Lanka counting monkeys* a number of years ago. For the most part he was in a remote area and quite liked the food though commented it was very spicy, some way too spicy for him. The group was international including Thailand and India and they all commented on the extreme spiciness of the food. This is my way of saying if your partner holds a cooking class count me in.

Enjoy,
Gary

*Literally, I think it was with Earthwatch Institute

When I lived in Minneapolis in the early 1980s/late 1970s, there was a restaurant called the Mulligan House #1. It was an attempt by an owner to create a chain of small Irish-ish restaurants (thus, #1, since it was the first). But the owner hired a Sri Lankan couple to cook, and once a week (month?) they offered a Sri Lankan dinner. Eventually through word of mouth, it became quite popular among Minnesota chowists, so popular that the Mulligan House soon became the Sri Lankan Curry House. In time that restaurant moved and expanded to become a quite elegant restaurant (near Calhoun Square, if I recall), and then, in time, closed. But in its glory days as a small storefront in Northeast Minneapolis, it was a true GNR.

(This is my best memory, but it is clouded by wondrous tongue-burning curries).

Note there are plenty of Sri Lankan restaurants on Victory Boulevard on Staten Island (New York City).

I wonder if there is a Maldivean (demonym?) resto lurking in Toronto, NYC, or London...