American Kerala Kitchen

Right after the Sunday church, I badly wanted to have Kerala food. Typed in 'Kerala' in the GPS and based on the Yelp user rating, which is the highest, I traced Kerala Kitchen in a 'Gas Station'. 

Was I surprised by the location? Nope. This is the second best restaurant I spotted in a Gas Station in Texas. Big building - never a mandate for a great restaurant. That's my take.

William's chettan welcomed me with a smile and we shared some Kerala memories while I the food was getting ready behind the scene.

Clockwise (Kerala Plate, Kerala Beef Fry, Pulippan Moru Curry, Kerala Style Mulakitta Neymeen Curry)

Clockwise (Thani Nadan Kerala Papad, Smiling Kerala Kitchens Williams Chettan, Nadan Avial, Nadan Beans Thoran)

I had a Kerala Plate, which is kind of a Thali, with Fish Curry and Beef fry as the specials. It came with a 'load' of rice, but I ended up eating double the quantity. 

William's chettante kannu thalli poyi kaanum. I loved the food and showed no mercy at all :)

Saw a lot of Keralites getting food in bulk from Kerala Kitchen. A touch of Kerala at Carrolton. 

Manu chettan & Nisha chechi's Kitchen

The thick gravy with onion and tomato, with Kerala spices, I didn't need anything else...

It is a month in US and I already started missing Kerala food and tea. 

Ani knows my love towards tea (which I inherited from Jeeju. He is a great Tea Lover) and she had a good control over it back in Bangalore. Still at office, I used to have a lot of tea in between the work. It became a habit. And the tea which Ani makes, it got a very homely taste. 

It was a month since I had a tea of that kind. And the first thing Nisha chechi gave was a cup tumbler of tea. OMG, that was a lot of tea for me. But each and every sip of it, enjoyed to the core.

I think they noticed it and Nisha chechi told me this, "whenever you feel like having this tea, feel free to stop by". I took it serious though. I don't mind the 22 mile drive to have this tea :)

I love to explore the cuisines near by like a food nomad. There are only few restaurants, in a 2 km radius in Arlington, that I have not visited. Covered decent number of restaurants in Dallas and Fortworth.

But now, I wanted Kerala food. That emotion was deep inside my heart and abruptly came out when Nisha chechi gave the Kappa. I loved it, loved it to my heart and enjoyed each and every piece of it.

Tony chettan is a Kappa lover and so I never missed that in Bangalore. But I never expected that encounter in US. 

Must say that, it was delicious! 

The kappa upperi, egg curry, pork roast, biriyani, appam - was I lost in the midst of those wonderful makes? YES, I was :)

Loved the moments spent with them. Spoke for a long time, watched a movie half through, discussed fashion & photography, drank a litre of tea...Wonderful moments...

Kerala style egg roast and beef curry with coconut milk. The egg curry was outstanding with the appam. I never had beef curry with coconut milk before. I have marked this recipe for trying out in Bangalore. It was so yummy!

Super soft Kerala appam. It literally melted in my mouth...chechi told that it's first time shes making it. Anyway, it was hard for me to believe that. It was the touch of a professional :) 

Can someone suggest me a combination to beat these guys. Don't waste time. They are the best.

I was reluctant to have the wine. When came to know that it was pure home made, i thought of trying a bit. Yes, it was home made.

The white and yellow biriyani, surged the Indian Coffee house memories into my head. The exact same taste of well cooked ghee and rice, and juicy chicken masala mixed. See that rose color salad. Ammachi's recipe back home

Boiled rice, kappa and pork roast. Shall we forget about this for the time being. I want to sleep peacefully. Mouth watering!

Here comes the famous, Kerala mango cut pickle. Yes it is pickle - I tried to train my mind with these words. At times, I treated this as a curry.