Kama Bistro - La Grange

I have had severe allergies over our Christmas and New Years vacation and that left me miserable for a good 3 weeks. I saw my Doctor and was on the mend. I also had my booster shot appointment on Thursday Jan 20th at Orland Park, Illinois. Thursday January 20th just seemed to be an ideal day to get dinner outside and kick of our "Adventures of a Hungry Couple". A day before the booster appointment, I looked for Indian Cuisine near my vaccination clinic and I was surprised to find very few that were within a few miles. Kama Bistro was about 15 miles away and it has been on my list of places to try since quite long. I knew of it, but, had never been before. I reserved it on opentable.com. Visali and I went there after my booster.

We arrived around 7:30 pm and found parking by the BNSF train station parking for La Grange Road, a few steps away from the restaurant which is well located on main street. It has a nice glass facia with warm, comfortable lighting inside. They asked for our vaccination status and had us seated at a nice booth. I was expectant and happy to be there. The menu looked good. The menu was not the longest or deepest, but it looked good. The menu seemed to promise "Hey, what I have is worth it. Go ahead and try.". The server arrived quickly and I ordered a mango lassi while Visali ordered a Love - Rooibos hot tea. My mango lassi was good. It was not overly sugary and it felt refreshing. Visali liked her tea - it was aromatic and soothing to her.

Mango Lassi

Love - Rooibos Hot Tea

We spent a few minutes on the drinks when the server asked about our preferences. The server took time to describe the items and all that conversation whetted my appetite. For appetizers, we ordered the Crispy Chili Potatoes and Paneer Lemon Tadka. Crispy Chili Potatoes were good. The food was super hot as served and felt like it came from a pan on the stove (not reheated). Potatoes were just well crisped on the outside and soft, sweet on the inside. I could not tell that Ketchup was one of the ingredients, Visali could tell and then we confirmed from the menu that indeed, it had "Kama Ketchup" in it. It was tangy, sweet and had a chili kick to it. The cold weather outside, sweet Mango Lassi and then the Crispy Chili Potatoes were all going very well for me. The Paneer Lemon Tadka also turned out to be a fresh item. I don't think I can compare it to anything else before that day. Later we learnt from our server that the chef blends French and Indian Cuisine in some of their items and Lemon Tadka was one of those. Je pense que c'est une bonne idee. The Lemon Tadka had house made paneer. Upon asking, the server reminded us that all menu items were house made from scratch. The Lemon Paneer Tadka had the paneer and creamy soup or gravy like base. After the first few bites, I felt like the cream was a bit too much and I somewhat struggled to imagine a French citizen eating that Lemon Paneer Tadka - admittedly, I have no knowledge of French food except for what they show in "Emily in Paris" (I binged season 1 last year and will binge season 2 later). Both our items were for eating with a spoon, like eating a thick soup served in a dish (not a bowl) with chunks of paneer and potato. 

Crispy Chili Potato

Lemon Paneer Tadka

For the main course, we chatted again with the server and landed on Kama-Kaze Vindaloo (medium spicy) and Paneer Black Pepper Bhujnee. Interestingly, the menu had an "Add-On" section containing a few other of my favorites. I ordered Eggplant Bharta from that add-on menu. For breads, I got Paratha and Pudina Paratha. When the food arrived, it looked and smelled great. The Vindaloo was not too hot and the Black Pepper Bhujnee was - peppery. Parathas were fresh and perfectly cooked. My Eggplant Bharta started out good as well. About half way into the main course is when we started talking earnestly about the food. So far, it was all "ra, ra, go, go", but as the belly started filling up, we started becoming a little more selective and started feeling new tastes and textures. Lets just say that the food was better and the ingredients felt fresher than any other Indian Cuisine restaurant I have been to. Beyond that, there was a nagging feeling that the chef was simply too generous with cream and oils. The Vindaloo, the Bhujnee and the Eggplant each could have been laid on a strainer to drain some of the cooking oil, better yet, the chef could have started with a little less oil. I have never enjoyed vindaloo because it is a one track dish - just red hot chili pepper (in this case Bhut Jholokia). The black pepper in the Black Pepper Bhujnee was too coarse for my taste. The eggplant was not fire roasted enough and hence was too mushy and I did not taste any herbs in it. This is a common problem with Indian Cuisine in United States. It is almost as though all chefs have extrapolated the "chunks" and "mush" construction of the Chicken Tikka Masala on to every other dish even if those dishes were originally meant to have a crispy texture of main individual ingredients. At one point, to demonstrate the oil, I picked up a spoonful of Eggplant Bharta and gently twisted my wrist for the spoon to drain a stream of oil back into the dish that I picked it up from. I sincerely felt sorry for myself because I had come deliciously close to calling this one of the best restaurants I had eaten at.

Eggplant Bharta

Paneer Black Pepper Bhujnee

Kama-Kaze Vindaloo

Paratha

Pudina Paratha

For dessert, I ordered Kama Bistro's take on the Malai Kulfi. Malai Kulfi is my favorite kind of Indian ice cream. The server described a malai kulfi served with Kama Bistro's own take with a few other spices, sweets and tart. I liked the malai kulfi, although, I have to say that this one was probably made from heavy whipping cream from the store and was too low on sugar. In my opinion, Malai Kulfi tastes better when made from condensed cream than just whipping cream. It was served in small chunks with strawberries, a raisin sauce and some nuts. I liked the dish but, I sorely lamented the kulfi itself.

Overall, I don't think I will remember this as my best Indian Cuisine restaurant. It definitely has a fresh take on some of the food, it is high end, servers are knowledgeable, friendly and it has a decent ambience. On the way back, Visali and I tried to compare this experience with other experiences. We ended up saying that this Indian Cuisine restaurant wanted to be like a Sunda (Asian Fusion) or Tanta (Peruvian Fusion) but fell way short.

We continue, on the Adventures of a Hungry Couple. Next up are Chicago Curry House and Shikara.

The Adventures of a Hungry Couple - the quest for good Indian Cuisine in Chicago

I have only rarely eaten good Indian Cuisine in restaurants in the United States. There are only handful of restaurants out of 100s that I recall the taste and the experience of. To say the least, that is shocking. Having said so, I am now not so sure what exactly is shocking. Is it shocking that I don't like the Indian Cuisine that I have eaten or is it shocking that Indian Cuisine restaurants in the United States really suck? There is one way to answer that question. Visali and I are going to try out one new Indian restaurant every week and write a review. We will go in with an open mind and a empty belly. We will sample as many items as we can and I will follow up with a blog here. I want to believe that it is shocking that I don't like the Indian Cuisine that I have eaten. I want to collect evidence for my hunch that there must be some place out there that serves good Indian Cuisine.

Now, let me state a few traits I would look for in this adventure. For one, the food must taste fresh and reasonably balanced. The word "fresh" here means it should feel like the cook heard me order the paneer korma and then chopped up the herbs, grated the paneer, took fresh oil from the container, fired up the kadhai (wok) and made that korma. The words "reasonably balanced" means, each item should have the right amount of flavor, bite and texture while reasonably matching up with the rest of the items we order. That is mainly it. Fresh and Reasonably Balanced. At this moment, I do not care much about other stuff such as ambience, service, price and other non food items. This is definitely about the food.

Note: I will write this blog and the series following this while addressing all experiences as "My" experiences or "I" doing things. However, my wife Visali is going to be an equal partner. When there is reason to relate to our individual experiences separately in the same dinner, I will call that out separately. So, "I" means "Us" unless I say "I" and "Her" specifically in the same context. I know! Complicated.

If you like a restaurant, do let me know.

Self Importance is unimportant - shed it

 How important am I? On the cosmic scale, not at all. What I need to learn is that even on the microscopic scale, I am not important at all. This is difficult to understand. "I am not important!" Who says that? No one can say that without a little loss of self-esteem. I am starting to think if one can say "I am not important!" without losing any self-esteem, then, one has found the secret to happiness. 

It seems to be a choice in everything we do moment to moment in our lives. When performing any activity, we must make a choice. How important am I? How important are my feelings? If we choose to make ourselves important and attach our feelings to the result of activities, then, we are bound to controlled by our activities. Instead, if we choose to say, "I am not important" and "my feelings are not important", then, we become detached with the work we are performing or its results. Suddenly, the work we are performing need not satisfy us, success does not come from the success of the activity we perform. I think that is the secret to happiness.

I would like to apply this secret to my work and life everyday this year. I have meditated on and off over many years after first reading Jon Kabat Zinn way back. At first, I found it very easy, then, at some point, I simply lost interest. I should have kept it up. I think this realization I had today about my importance (or the lack thereof) is the core of meditation. One goal of meditation is to disconnect the material world from the soul, to disconnect the outside from the inside. I think answering the question "How important am I?" and asking it over and over again in the context of activities we perform is an important self-aligning, self-correcting mechanism to get happier moment after moment.

Wish me luck. I wish you luck.

Meeting hell

Give me hellfire and brimstone. Don't give me meetings. I mean I would rather be dead. Some meetings are good, but most suck the air out of my lungs. The big problem is that half the time, participants are never well prepared, and the meeting organizers never think of what they want the meeting to end with. Here are my suggestions for all meeting organizers all over the world.

Suggestion 1: Set an Agenda

I mean, people! Please! I might be working on 5 different things and my wife and kids may be wanting other things from me. I have not gone working out for 5 days straight. It is cold outside. I don't have enough money in my bank and I drank too much last night. You expect me to read your mind on what your meeting is about? At the very least, set bullet point agenda of what you want to talk about. What does an agenda look like you ask? Well, what is the meeting about? Is there a problem that we need to collectively solve? Then, lead with the problem statement in one sentence containing one subject, one predicate and as few conjunctions as possible. Follow that with a few bullet points describing potential solutions and who will do what part of that solution. Do we need to agree on a difficult topic? Start with the topic itself. Chase with a call to action to participants that they must formulate their thoughts and bring to the meeting. Tell them that they must reach a consensus before the end of the meeting. Sometimes, it feels like these things are obvious, but that is never true. Without a written agenda, participants will often make up their own agenda or highjack your meeting. Don't let them.

Suggestion 2: Budget time

Do you have all the time to listen to your grandma talking about her problems? What makes you think anyone wants to listen to anyone else in your meeting? Hence, feel free to budget time. If there are 6 people in a meeting and the meeting is for an hour, have a think about who gets to talk for how long. If the meeting is to discuss a person's requirements for the next 2 quarters or address their issues from the last interaction, then, budget 30 minutes for that person and 6 minutes each for the remaining 5. If the meeting is discuss highway construction plans, then, offer 10 minutes to each participant. You may think that often times, a single meeting participant "just emerges" as the important participant. Thats baloney. Having a free reign on time allows the noisiest person to self-emerge as the important participant. Don't allow that.

Suggestion 3: Ask your participants to pre-send a written response

You know that smooth talking person who can walk into a bank, impress upon the banker how rich they are and walk out with a million-dollar loan? Neither do I. Banks have gotten smarter. They use a credit score, financial statements, purpose statements, character statements and even mortgage your house to give you a loan. Why can't you expect a meeting participant to send you a brief write up or a diagram of their opinion of the topic at hand before the meeting starts? Force them to prove that their participation in the meeting is important and meaningful. Additionally, they will be forced to prepare. Preparation has two benefits. Firstly, they will bring their knowledge to the meeting. Secondly, if they are wrong, they will learn that they are wrong and will learn new stuff from the meeting. 

Suggestion 4: Cancel your meeting

If it can be done on teams chat, google chat, zoom chat, telegram chat, whatsapp chat asynchronously (meaning, with about 15 minutes to an hour between chat messages) then, do you really need to spend collective hours on a phone call? Really?

Please. Give me hell.

Writing is hard

For me, writing is hard. Writing is hard because I am busy working, living or thinking about working and living. Now, I have started to feel that I could probably skip the thinking about working and living and replace that with writing. Hopefully, in 2022, I will busy working, living and writing.

The idea is to write often. Just get into the zone of expressing things publicly. No matter what the topic, or how frivolous. Just write. In normal course of life, whether I am at work or spending time with family, I am concerned with being right. In 2022, I want to be just concerned with the write (not right, you see what I just did there?). 

To writing, here is a poem.

Write they say?, Right, they say.

But what about, by the way?

When? Between meetings and eating?

Normally, I wish I was sleeping.

I've been trying to write since August last year. Now, I realize that trying to write itself is taxing, time consuming activity. I think the actual task of writing itself may be much more fun and fast. 

Well, well, well, what could I write about? Oh there are so many things to write about. The key is to not fret about what to write about. How many times do I reminisce times gone by in a week? 3? 5? 10? Each of those are opportunities to write. How often do I feel intensely more intelligent than the rest of the world? Those are the number of times I can write. It seems to me that there are many opportunities to write. See this post itself? See how I am writing about my desire to write. This itself is a great piece to write. 

In short, writing does seem hard, but, in reality, it is really easy. All I gotta do is write. But that's hard!