Just before the dinner hour last night, our sole vegetarian friends phoned. They were heading to Devon. The timing was perfect, so we hopped in the car. Our friends left the choice of the restaurant in our hands, which I consider high praise. When choosing dinner on Devon, I tend to feel a gravitational pull from Bhabi's Kitchen, but in the interest of variety and being nice to Mr. & Mrs. Veggie, we headed for some South Indian vegetarian at Udupi Palace.
Udupi is bright, comfortable, and has a reasonably diverse menu for a vegetarian place. We started with "Udupi's Special Assortment" appetizer basket, which is basically one of each of their most popular appetizers, all deep-fried. The standout was the "Chilly Pakora" (and by "Chilly" they mean "Chile") a deep-fried pepper that offered some decent heat and jump-started my taste buds. Everything else in the basket (samosa, sambar, aloo bonda) was either potato or lentil-based and all tasted similar. Needless to say I made liberal use of the nice variety of sauces.
Udupi has a wonderful selection of breads, uthappam (pancakes), and dosai (crepes). The vegetable uthappam, (a thick pancake with soft onions, carrots, and peas) was satisfying, but I'll order the one with the chilies next time. The paper masala dosai is a visual treat: a wafer thin crepe, cooked very crispy, rolled into a 2-foot-long cylinder, and stuffed with onions and potatoes. The dosai went fast and was tasty, but I think I enjoyed looking at it more than I enjoyed eating it.
From the entree choices we chose the chana masala (chick peas), pongal (described as rice and lentils cooked with avial, a vegetable/coconut milk dish), and the ubiquitous mattar paneer (peas and cheese). These three dishes definitely helped anchor the meal, as they should have, but didn't really live up to my hopes. The mattar paneer was disappointingly bland and half the table complained about the texture of the cheese, comparing it to the compound that they make running shoe soles from. The other two dishes were satisfying, but still a tad bland. Again, it was helpful that their sauces run the gamut of flavors from sweet to bitter to spicy and their preserved lemon chutney added a fantastic flavor to everything.As an unapologetic carnivore-for-life, I found this Indian vegetarian dinner to be a bit hollow. It achieved the paradox of filling me up but leaving me wanting more. During the meal, I was secretly hoping that I would find a treasure trove of lamb hidden in the chickpeas or some goat in the lentils. The complex Indian spices (a tad bland at Udupi) need something on the plate to meet them halfway. Lentils and chick peas just didn't hold up their end of the bargain. This is not to say that these dishes wouldn't fit well in a lunch context, they would make a fine lunch.
After dinner, we walked a couple blocks west to visit the lone US branch of the UK's Ambala Sweets for an after-dinner treat. Ambala is a beautiful store. All of their treats are laid out for easy (and fun) browsing, and the staff is very helpful. We would up buying a Sohan Halwa, a large disk of ghee-based toffee with a variety of nuts. Super-sweet with a very satisfying crunch. Two bites was about all my jaw could handle.
Walking east on Devon after leaving Ambala, Mr. Veggie and I were discussing the array of Indian fast-food options. I remember eating my first samosa on a corner bench at Devon's only Indian fast-food outlet nearly 20 years ago, today there are at least a dozen options between California and Western. I've experienced shamefully few of these storefronts, and while they all look similar, I'm sure there's treasures and specialties to be found among them. I mentally bookmarked the Indian fast-food walking trip plan for another day.
Check out Udupi Palace at 2543 W. Devon, 773-338-5152. Ambala is at 2741 W. Devon, 773-764-9000.
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