When you need breakfast or brunch in Encino, where do you go? Well, when the opportunity presented itself to me I found myself at Claudine, which is like a bakery and restaurant in one. You order at a counter, and seats are hard to come by on the weekend, but I managed to snag a table right out from under an old lady. To be fair, all she needed was 2 seats and we needed 6 so I found another table for her. Sheesh.

As for the foodstuffs, there was one thing on the menu that called my name annoyingly loudly. It was called Breakfast “Naan”-zza, which is fancy bakery-speak for pizza on a piece of naan bread. The menu said this was to be topped with gruyere, sausage, bacon, a farm egg, jalapeno relish and grilled onions. I wanted nothing to do with the onions and ordered thusly. While Claudine heeded my order, they failed to tell me that this naan-zza would come topped with a devious handful of arugula.

I don’t know what the hell they were thinking, but you cannot be so damn careless with arugula. Maybe they thought that nearly $13 for a mini pizza with those toppings would be an easier pill to swallow if they added one more ingredient? However, this was subtraction by addition and it’s one thing to throw the mess in a bowl or on the side, but strewn atop my pizza was something that could not be forgiven. And that’s a real shame, because everything else about the naan-zza was great, including the explosive yolk of the egg.

Instead of leaving Claudine singing the praises of the naan-zza, all I was left with were the thoughts of what might have been.

On the way into Taste of the Himalayas in La Jolla, a patron on the way out told us that we had to get the tandoori chicken tikka. There was a strong scent of smoke in the place, which had clearly turned off its smoke detectors a long time ago, and we figured this departing patron must have known what she was talking about.

Thus, we began with the tandoori chicken tikka. It arrived like a plate of fajitas – steaming up the place to accompany the smoke. The chicken was good, although not exactly something I would declare every stranger walking through the door should order.

We also ordered a little something called Momo, which are a part of why this restaurant is called Taste of the Himalayas and not Taste of India. That’s because momo are Tibetan specialty (that have spread throughout South Asia). They are steamed dumplings that are generally filled with whatever is available. In this case, since we don’t live in the Himalayas and have choices, we opted for the chicken variety. They came with a “Himalayan” sauce that was pretty good and while I enjoyed the dumplings, our resident South Asian expert at the table let us know that they weren’t anything special.

As for my main course, I went with the Chicken Korma, because that is generally my favorite Indian dish. Taste of the Himalayas served it up pretty solidly.

Ultimately, Taste of the Himalayas churned out a solid meal. None of the dishes stood out to me in particular, but they were far from being bad. If you’re in La Jolla looking for Himalayan food, Taste of the Himalayas will do. But I wouldn’t exactly make it a destination.

There’s something about fusion done well that really gets me excited. Throw some Korean BBQ into tacos and I’m sold. Try to make Mexican food Kosher, not so much (don’t underestimate the need for cheese!). But I had never thought of Indian food as something to fuse until I found California Chutney in Old Town Pasadena. This place is all about fusing Indian food with American (and by American I also mean Mexican because, hey, North America).

Instead of a salsa bar, there’s a chutney bar. There’s a tandoori oven and they make naan right in front of you. That naan can be used for tacos and they make roti into burritos, but I was more interested in a couple other options. Thus, I ordered the Chicken Tikka Masala Fries and Tandoori Chicken Wings.

The fries were pretty impressive, being topped with roasted chili sour cream and goat cheese in addition to the chicken. There were also some chives for good measure. Regardless, the chicken took front and center in this dish, dominating with some powerful flavor and spice. The fries themselves were solid, holding up well under the weight of the toppings while staying at a good consistency. I tried a few different chutneys with the fries, but they weren’t necessary.

They did come into play, however, with the Tandoor Chicken Wings. They came out sizzling like fajitas and were weirdly served on a bed of onions. I guess these added some flavor, but they were unnecessary because these wings were already packed with delicious flavor. They also had a nice kick, and thus the Mango Ginger chutney became my friend. This chutney added some sweetness to the wings without distracting from the tandoori taste.

While I may not have gone for the tacos or burritos, I was incredibly happy with the fries and wings. This was fusion done right, and I hope California Chutney is here to stay.

Situated in what appears to be a former home in Oakland is an Indian restaurant that goes by the name of Tamarind. For a long time I had heard that this was a good as far as Indian food in Pittsburgh goes, so I finally got the chance to try it and found it didn’t exactly follow the classic pattern of Indian restaurants. For one, the menu had a wide variety of dosas.

Dosas, by the way, are a South Indian specialty that I had experienced before at Mayura in LA, but was looking forward to trying again. In this case, we tried out the Cilantro Dosa, which arrived as little more than the crepe itself while I was expecting it to be stuffed with potatoes and other goodies. It tasted great, yet I can’t help but say that I finished it hoping for more.

For my main course I went with the Chicken Vindaloo and it arrived with a look more along the lines of spaghetti sauce than a curry. Nonetheless, it tasted nothing like spaghetti sauce and was actually a really well-flavored spicy dish. It came with a side that looked something like succotash as well as rice, which were both not mentioned on the menu and probably meant to buffer the heat. All of it was great, as was the garlic naan that we ordered to go with it.

I also got the chance to try the wife’s Chicken Tikka Masala, which was especially delicious and tasted very different from the tikka masalas I’ve had in the past…in a good way.

From a guy that can’t necessarily vouch for authenticity, I really enjoyed Tamarind. Sure, I could have gone without the dosa, but everything else was quite tasty and packed a whole lot of the flavor that I’ve come to know and love about Indian food.

A while back, Sang Yoon opened up a place called Lukshon in Culver City. For some, this was a time to rejoice, as this was the man behind the Father’s Office burger. But for me, it was a time to…well…consider trying out Lukshon. You see, if you know me, you know my disdain for the Father’s Office burger. So it took until dineLA’s Restaurant Week to get me out to Lukshon. I went with a sizable crowd, collectively known as the Suppah Club, and we had ourselves a seat at a massive table on Lukshon’s patio in Culver City.

While we were there initially for the fixed price menu, a group of us decided to go rogue and order a bunch of things from regular menu, including some of those from dineLA. This was great, as it gave me an opportunity to try more than I would have otherwise, beginning with the Spicy Chicken Pops. These things start out as basic Shelton Farms drumettes before being topped with garlic, kecap manis (a sweet soy sauce) and spicy Sichuan salt. And yes, they were as good as they sound. I loved the combination of sweet, salty and spicy flavor and could not get enough of these. They also had a unique texture, being quite crispy on the outside and tender on the inside.

Next came the Lamb Belly Roti Canai, an incredibly unique dish with perhaps a few too many flavors going on. The roti itself is flatbread and the belly was topped with chana dal (a type of lentil), cumin, mint and raita (a South Asian yogurt sauce). There were also pickled cauliflowers on the side, which went right to everyone else. While I was happy with this dish, I felt like I couldn’t really taste the lamb belly itself. Maybe that was the intention, and while I was happy to get protein, I would have liked to taste the meat rather than just the yogurt, cumin and mint.

Then we got down with some Short Rib Rendang, a beef short rib dish cooked with Malay spices and served with a red chile lemongrass rempah (spice paste) mixed with coconut cream. While I didn’t eat much of this, I found it to be quite the opposite of the lamb belly, in that none of the flavors really popped at all. Perhaps my taste buds had taken a vacation after the lamb belly, but I expect some strong Malaysian flavor and was a little disappointed to find none. Nonetheless, the beef itself was cooked perfectly and had a fair amount of its own flavor to offer.

With that taken care of, we moved on to my favorite dish of the night – Heirloom Black Rice. Tossed in with the rice was lap cheong (Chinese sausage), roasted garlic, onion and a Lily’s Farm fried egg. I couldn’t order without the onion, as we were splitting this delicious rice, but if there was any onion in the final product, it went unknown to me. The fried egg was perfectly runny and got sliced, diced and mixed in with the black rice. The result was some spectacular flavor and texture. The black rice is a bit heavier than white and has a tougher feel to it, while the lap cheong is a slightly sweet and chewy sausage that goes well with just about any form of rice. With the perfect balance, the Heirloom Black Rice was the big winner of the night in my heart.

But wait, we weren’t finished yet. There was still Garlic Pork Belly to be eaten. Mixed in with the slivers of pork belly was do ban jian (a spicy paste), tubular rice cakes, cabbage and garlic chives. This made for a dish I needed to pick at. You see, I wasn’t about to be eating cabbage, I do have a reputation to protect. Unfortunately, though, the dish was lacking in pork belly content. When I did find that delicious pre-bacon, it was delicious, but it felt too few and far between. The rice cakes were a nice touch though. They may have been filler, but they were delicious filler with the great flavor of the do ban jian.

Now, Lukshon has a unique policy of offering free dessert at every dinner. Ordinarily I love anything free, but I have to think a restaurant offering free dessert for every diner is offloading the costs onto its patrons anyway. And since I’m not a dessert guy, I would prefer a cheaper regular meal. But that’s beside the point, and it turned out that our desserts were delicious. I couldn’t tell you what they all were, but rest easy that Lukshon comes through on desserts.

I left Lukshon a happy and full unvegan. While not every dish was a hit, I loved the thought behind them all, the emphasis on local sources and the overall variety of Asian influence. Plus, the great dishes were truly awesome. I also want to mention our terrific waiter, who knew the menu like the back of his hand, made some great suggestions and prevented us from over-ordering anything. With all that said, Lukshon was definitely a step up from the Father’s Office burger and Sang Yoon is moving in the right direction.

When Jonathan Gold’s latest rendition of the 99 best restaurants in LA came out, I was amazed to find an Indian place basically in my backyard. No, I don’t have an actual backyard because I live in LA, but you get my drift. Fortunately, my body had been craving Indian and I easily convinced my girlfriend that we had to order some carryout from there. While the menu appeared to have typical Indian fare, Mayura actually specialized in South Indian food. With that in mind, I was excited to get down with something new.

But before I could make it too far down the menu, I came upon the Kerala Special Chicken Curry. Chicken curry is usually my go-to Indian dish and I was excited to see what Mayura could do with it, but I didn’t stop there. I also ordered their Butter Masala Dosa and in a surprise twist opted for Poori instead of plain old naan. When I arrived to pick up my order, my meal wasn’t quite ready, so I took a moment to speak with the guy who seemed to either own or manage the place. He was pretty excited by the dosa I had ordered and asked me if I had ever had one before. I replied that I had and he was quick to assure me that whatever I had before would pale in comparison. It was quite a boast, but then he pointed to the issue of LA Weekly with the 99 best restaurants. It had been open to the page with Mantee on it and covered with a clear plastic tablecloth so anyone sitting at the table could see. I tried to tell him it was open to the wrong page, but failed miserably.

Soon enough, though, my food was ready and I got it home as quick as possible (with a short pause to pay).

When I opened up the bag of Southern India, my worst fear was confirmed – I had ordered way too much food. Yes, that is the thing I was most scared of. But everything looked and smelled amazing. Even better, it tasted amazing. The curry was a little more viscous than I am used to, but it was packed with intense flavor. It was definitely on the spicy side and I needed water to keep me cool, but it wasn’t overwhelming and definitely did not distract from the delicious flavors. The chicken itself was perfectly tender and made for a great curry conduit.

The poori also made for a great curry conduit. This fried flatbread had a sort of fried donutty taste to it, without all the sweetness. A bit of cinnamon and sugar would have made it into an Indian elephant ear, but as it was I just ripped and dipped into the curry and the coconut chutney that had come with my order. Speaking of the chutney, I love coconut and this did a great job of delivering coconut flavor without overdoing it. As for the poori, while I definitely liked it as a change of pace, I think I’ll be sticking to good old-fashioned naan as my go-to Indian bread.

Finally, there was the Butter Masala Dosa, which was an Indian crepe stuffed with spiced potatoes. It was also disappointingly filled with peas and carrots. While these were easy to avoid and hardly noticeable when bit into, I was still a bit upset. Yet, while this meatless wonder may have been fit for a vegetarian, we unvegans love our potatoes as well, and I must say the dosa was certainly fit to have a place next to meat. It was definitely large enough to be an entire meal, but I was happy that I ordered the chicken curry to have some real nutrients in my meal. Nonetheless, the man who told me I had never eaten a better dosa was correct. It doesn’t mean better dosas don’t exist, but I haven’t found any (not that I’ve exactly been searching for them…).

Mayura was definitely a delicious meal that I recommend for anyone with a stomach strong enough to handle Indian food. It’s some of the best Indian food I’ve ever had and has some unique flavors to differentiate it from your typical Indian. Being in my backyard, it’s going to be my new go-to Indian, but for someone who doesn’t live on the west side, similar if not better Indian can probably be found nearby. In any case, I know where I’ll be ordering from next time I’m home and in the need of food from the subcontinent.

By name and color, No Tomatoes! has the makings of an amazing food truck. The name implies an amazing lack of the vegetable known as the tomato (I don’t care if it’s anatomically a fruit, so is a cucumber and you don’t see anyone calling that a fruit) and the orange coloration that enshrouds the truck makes it look beautiful. Oh and if the name doesn’t give it away, it serves up Indian food. But hidden in this supposed gem of a truck is deception. For there is one dish at No Tomatoes! that actually contains tomatoes: Tikka Masala. So while they were serving up lies with Tikka Masala, I looked to other options.

The one other option that stuck out to me was the Kathi Roll. This was shredded chicken (or potatoes or paneer for those not unvegan inclined), red onions, cilantro and mint chutney, wrapped in some whole wheat breadstuff. I said no to onions, then upgraded to a combo. This meant paratha bread and mango lassi. I grabbed the lassi and waited for my wrap to appear.

Mango lassi, by the way, is a delicious mango drink. It’s kind of like the mango version of orange julius, but even more refreshing. With about half of my mango lassi consumed, my wrap and bread were ready.

I started out with the Kathi Roll. The shredded chicken was nothing short of delicious. It was so juicy that some of the juices even escaped the wrap and wound up on my pants. Annoying? Yes. Worth it? Also yes. Because it wasn’t simply juicy, it also had an awesome spice to it. They seemed to have dropped a lot of cilantro with the onions, but some was still in there and added a nice, cool change of pace to the wrap. The mint chutney, though, I moved over from the sandwich to use with the paratha bread. The truck menu described the bread as flaky, buttery and layered. It was certainly all of these, but also a little charred. It was good, but less char definitely would have been preferred. The mint chutney helped me battle against the char, but I still wouldn’t get the bread again.

So no tomatoes and no onions made for a pretty good meal. The chicken of the Kathi Roll was some of the best spiced and juiciest Indian chicken I’ve ever had. And really, despite having a dish with tomatoes, the concept of No Tomatoes! is truly unvegan-friendly. I would definitely be up for another visit if they came by the office again.

Soon e

After a couple of days in Michigan, it was off to Chicago for a wedding, but I wasn’t going to let the wedding get in the way of my feeding. My sister, a Chicagoan for the past few years, recommended we head to La Creperie, so to La Creperie we went. Having been to La Creperie a few times in the past, I was pretty excited to grab some lunch there. The place has a great outdoor courtyard that is perfect for those Chicago summers. If only they could last for more than 3 months.

We took a stroll through the place and grabbed some seats at the courtyard. Then we took a look at the menu. La Creperie has a nice selection of savory and sweet crepes, but I was having a tough time deciding which direction to go in. It turned out I had plenty of time to think, because after taking our seats, the waitress seemed to disappear. During this time, my girlfriend came to the rescue and offered to split some sweet and savory with me. We decided to go with the Poulet au Curry crepe for the savory end, which is fancy French-speak for chicken breast, with curry cream and mango chutney. As for the sweetness, we went with a tried and true favorite, Nutella and banana.

There was another long break between ordering and getting our food, but when it came, it looked pretty delicious. I started into the savory first and found myself in the middle of a delicious clash of cultures. I hadn’t imagined France and India could work so well together, but the nicely seasoned curry and paper-thin crepe were a match made in…Chicago. Bet you thought I was gonna say heaven there.

And the desserty crepe made for a great follow-up to the curry chicken. Once again, the crepe was nice and thin, but the innards were quite different. In general I’m not much of a chocolate man and have a hard time understanding the infatuation some people have with it, but when it gets combined with hazelnut and becomes Nutella, it simply becomes awesome. And of course the best medium to eat the Nutella is a crepe. While these two alone go great together, it’s nice to throw it some fruit as well, like bananas. Combined, they make for one powerful crepe, and La Creperie did a great job of executing this.

Then, after eating, it was time to wait again. After chatting with a busboy and another waitress, we finally got our own to come back and take our money. It’s a shame the service was so bad, because the food was quite good. Fortunately for La Creperie, I had been there a few times before and felt like this was an isolated incident, but it was still bad enough to keep me from feeling fully content with experience.

Somehow, some way, I was convinced to go to a restaurant in North Hollywood called HealthyCA (pronounced hel-the-ka, rather than Healthy California) . The very name offends me, but I have chosen a life of open mindedness, as opposed to the closed-minded lifestyle so many vegans choose. I must admit, though, that I feared this place, and not because it was healthy, but because so many people associate vegetables with a healthy diet. Us unvegans know they are wrong, but it is hard to convince vegans to pay attention to facts.

Luckily, when we arrived I found that they were not totally loaded up with veggies. Sure, almost all of their dishes, from sandwiches to hot food, included veggies, but I was able to find one dish on the menu that seemed free of vegetative ingredients. This was their Tandoori Chicken ($10.95), which was made with Indian spices and a non-fat yogurt sauce. It came with a choice of two sides, which fortunately had the carbs to balance out my protein. I chose the Red Smashed Potatoes and the Basmati Rice. Good thing they had these two, because every other side was unfit for unvegans. Learn more about the benefits of exipure.

After about 15 minutes, my chicken was finally ready. This was a surprisingly long wait for a lunch, so I hoped it would be worth it. At first glance, this was definitely not worth it. Sitting atop my chicken was a slice of tomato and underneath it was a few lettuce leaves. It was like a sandwich from hell. I scraped the tomato off and struggled to avoid the lettuce while cutting off pieces of chicken. Lucky for HealthyCA, the tandoori chicken was really tasty, according to them, one way we can all eat more healthy and nutritious food is to obviously make more of what we eat at home. Soup makers (such as those in this guide), bread makers and even smoothie makers all allow us to take natural ingredients and make what we need. Plus they are great time savers which is great, especially since more of us are busier than ever nowadays. I’m no expert on Indian food, so I can’t vouch for authenticity, but based on taste alone, I was happy with the chicken. The yogurt sauce and the spices made for a flavorful glaze on the juicy chicken. The sides were pretty basic, but definitely acceptable. Neither one really had any special flavoring or spicing, but did a good job of filling the space in my stomach that the chicken just couldn’t reach. Check out these exipure reviews.

Overall, I was quite happy with the taste of my chicken, but it wasn’t without effort on my part. First, I had to scour the menu for any unvegan options and when I found one, it still came with some vegetable surprises. Too bad for HealthyCA…if they hadn’t tossed on those veggies, they may have changed my mind about “healthy” restaurants.

In my ceaseless attempt to find great unvegan food, the Valley has become my newest stomping ground. No, I didn’t just wake up one day and decide that there must be tons of hidden food gems in the Valley…my newish job made that decision for me. Right down the street from my office in North Hollywood is an Indian place called Salomi Indian Restaurant and one day at lunch we decided to check it out. The interior was a little bit fancy for lunch, but we were seated quickly. I took a look at the menu we were given and discovered that the prices were also a bit fancy for lunch. Just as I was feeling disheartened, one of my genius co-eaters asked if there was a special lunch menu. Our waitress said, “Yes” and we rejoiced.

But why hadn’t they given us their special lunch menu in the first place? Well, that’s a great question and the only answer I can think of is the fact that their lunch menu was one of the most ambiguous works or writing I’ve seen since The Turn of the Screw (damn you Henry James!). On the menu were such Indian classics as “Chicken Lunch,” and “Shrimp Lunch.” Don’t remember those from Indian 101? Well neither did we and it made for a long question and answer session when the waitress came to take our orders. Of these vague choices, I ended up getting the “Meat Madras Lunch,” which apparently was not just a mystery meat and came with my choice of meat. I chose chicken, and the special also came with rice and iced tea for about $8.50. Fearful that this wouldn’t be enough food, I also ordered some cheese naan.

The iced tea came first and although I’m usually not big on talking about non-alcoholic drinks on a meat blog, the tea was surprisingly good. It had a strong taste of cloves and was unsweetened. Soon after, my naan appeared. It was filled with gooey, yummy-looking cheese and had been cut up so it looked like an Indian quesadilla. The bread was a little softer than I would have preferred, but it’s hard to go wrong with anything that has cheese. Unless it’s a vegetable, and then there is nothing that can save it.

My main course arrived and looked appalling. Somehow they had turned a nice and spicy Indian dish into a mockery. Sprinkled all around my madras were vegetables that looked like they had been pulled from a frozen vegetable medley. Ewww medley. Peas, carrots, cauliflower, and corn gave the madras a nice rainbow of color, but also a rainbow of distaste. I did my best to avoid those terrible things as I ate, but it was pretty damn hard. There were times when I was able to get a nice forkful of madras without vegetables, but these were few and far between and the madras wasn’t good enough to make up for it.

A damn shame too, because a good Indian place with a lunch special near my office would have been a good thing to have.