I guess because I grew up in Cerritos, which is right next to Artesia, that I never thought of Indian food (or Indian people) as "lacking" in the Los Angeles area. Artesia has the typical "northern" Indian cuisine that most Americans think about when they think of Indian food, but there's also southern Indian, Chettinad, Gujarati, Desi cuisine...
When I was a college student, my friend and I would often eat at Tandoori Nights in West Hollywood; it closed a long time ago. It had the typical stuff, I liked it at the time. But I guess it was kind of run-of-the-mill. My friend lived in the area so we would eat there.
I actually didn't try southern Indian food until much later, and I was like 'Why didn't I try this sooner??' I love idlis and dosa. I like Indian vegetarian food as well. My partner and I do occasionally get tandoori chicken. We love fish curry, too.
We've been to Indian places that we liked and have heard customers complain about the food among themselves. We heard one guy tell his friend "This doesn't really taste that great." But they were eating the buffet food. It's been my experience that buffet food in general is mediocre at best. When we go to an Indian restaurant and there's a buffet going on, we STILL order off the menu.
We've also heard people complaining about the chicken tikka masala---AT A SOUTHERN INDIAN PLACE. We've learned long ago to order what the restaurant specializes in, and NOT order the dishes they throw in that more people are familiar with. Chicken tikka masala isn't even an Indian dish, it was invented in the UK.
They do this at some Chinese restaurants we've been to too, where they have the more authentic stuff, but then they'll throw in orange chicken for the gringos.
It's funny because yeah, I realize that most of the Indian restaurants my partner and I really like are actually in Pasadena and Artesia. There is one LA restaurant that we like that serves cuisine from Kerala, called Mayura, on Venice Boulevard. When we're out that way, sometimes we'll go there. We like Annapurna in Pasadena, and in Artesia we like Udupi Palace. There was a place in Artesia called Standard Sweets & Snacks, but they closed some years ago. We also like Artesia's variety of chaat houses. There's a restaurant in our town of South Pasadena that we'll go to a few times a month called Radhika, which we like.
One place that I thought was overrated in LA is a place called Badmaash. Many years ago, one of my partner's coworkers recommended a place called Electric Lotus. We tried it and it was AWFUL. We should've known better when we went inside and saw that NONE of the customers were Indian, and a lot of the staff weren't Indian either.
Mmm, Indian food.
Uttapam.
Photo by me
Kerala fish curry on the left, baingan bharta on the right.
Photo by me
Spinach masala dosa.
Photo by me
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