Scallion uthappam
Namaste India
7500 University Ave., Clive,
255-1698
Tuesday through Sunday,
11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. (buffet
available)
Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday
and Thursday, 5 to 9 p.m.;
Friday and Saturday, 5 to
10 p.m. |
Namaste India
In the last year, Namaste India
expanded and remodeled, changing
owners and chefs. The place opened
three years ago as a grocery store
with a small kitchen in back.
Its self-service window introduced
Des Moines to Dravidian and vegan
specialties like dosa, idli, bajji
and uthappam. Its grocery store
introduced scores of chutneys,
pickles, rices and dhals that
also improved life for nostalgic
South Indians as well as vegetarians
of all ethnicities. The popular
restaurant outgrew its secondary
status and was closed to remodel.
Bureaucratic red tape shut it
down longer than expected — too
long for the talented dosa chef,
who moved on. When it re-opened,
walled off from the market, it
became a north Indian café
that resembled most other Indian
restaurants in town. During those
changes, I received more anxious
e-mail inquiries about Namaste
than anything else in town.
All that is history. Things are
better than ever now on both sides.
Namaste’s market is much larger
now with added space for more
bags of regionally specific flours,
rices and dhals. With kewras of
floral waters, Namaste’s hair
care section now includes more
organic foods than one can find
in most convenience stores, plus
safer rose water than you can
make with flowers bought at a
florist.
The restaurant is thoroughly modern
Indian, with chefs from both north
and south of the subcontinent
and an Indo-Chinese menu to boot.
That latter category is hot with
contemporary middle class Indian
diners. Basically, it amounts
to Chinese staples like hakka
(duram wheat) noodles, fried rice,
egg rolls, fried vegetables, meats
and shrimp — all treated with
Indian spice and chile. “Manchurian
sauce” replaces Indian curries
in many of these dishes, adding
soy sauce and wasabi to ginger,
garlic and onions.
More traditional Indian palates
are also appeased here. I tried
roti, naan, kulcha and poori from
the bread menu; the onion kulcha
rates as one of Des Moines top
pizza. Naans (white flour bread
baked on clay oven walls) were
inconsistent. One day they tasted
like buttermilk biscuits; another
day more like deep-dish pizza
crust. Pooris (fried wheat bread)
were heavenly puffs. From the
rice menu, bisibellabath (rice
cooked in lentil soup) stood out,
even from an authentic Hyderabi
dum biryani. That second dish,
called “Dravidian paella,” cooks
yogurt-marinated meats in saffron
and lemon flavored rice, over
a coal fire.
Dosa (rice flour crepe) and uthappam
(gram flour pancake) menus have
been reinstated. Dosas are no
longer rolled into cylindrical
shapes, but their flavors remain
similar. A masala butter dosa
was a reasonable facsimile of
the food of Hindu gods. Its clarified
butter helped turn its texture
to a divine crunchy lace. Other
dosas were more ordinary, with
the texture of typical pancakes.
Uthappam varieties should enter
the Des Moines vegetarian hall
of fame; their only drawback is
having to choose whether to eat
them straight or with their accompanying
sambar (soup) and chutneys.
I tried several northern Indian
dishes — curries including goat,
tandoori meats, kabobs, pakoras
(fritters) and bajjis. That latter
is the original “popper” — fried
chile peppers that have been coated
and stuffed with a paste of gram
flour and yogurt, or cheese. It
produced wildly different levels
of heat on different occasions,
with chile membranes removed once
and retained another time. Servers
ask about heat preferences with
the other dishes, but you might
offer that information if you
order bajjis, too. All meats at
Namaste were Hallal (kosher).
Lassis (shakes) were made with
homemade yogurt and available
in either sweet or salty varieties,
perfect for soothing the bite
of too much heat.
Bottom line: Better than ever,
Namaste now offers the most contemporary,
cosmopolitan pan-Indian menu in
town.
Side Dishes
Super Quick Gas Station (East
30th and Scott Avenue) now has
samosas made with Italian sausage,
likely the first Indo-Italian
fusion fast food in Iowa… Brian
Dubai (DuBay’s) now chefs for
Jerry Talerico at Sam & Gabe’s.
CV
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