An Indian Summer

... this is Indian week.. and as per recommendations by food bloggers, the Indian place to go to have is at Sri Kamala Vilas, a hole-in-the-wall establishment in Little India... yup... as the picture shows.. the place isn't cool... but the food....really is quite excellent... and very affordable

I managed to ask (translation: blackmail) a couple of (new) friends on a culinary tour to test out the place (translation: lab rats)... really guys/ladies, I'm sorry if I was a little pushy on your menu selection!!!... no malice was intended... just some dents in your wallet, I swear! don't think badly of me.. it's just food... :-)

taking honour of first place.. biryani chicken...really surprised on this one.. it was really good..the rice was perfectly separated, fragrant and well oiled.. and the herbs were just nice.. light and with none of that musty smell prevalent in lesser establishments next.. chappati... must admit I'm a little undecided on this one... it's ok.. but nothing exciting....

we're moving on to blackmail 1, paper thosai.. :-)
these mothers are huge!!... must be one and half foot of extra crispy thin thosais... pretty cool when presented on the plate and all... but maybe it was a little too crispy for some..and lacked a little... sponginess...:-)

blackmail 2, masala thosai
this is, arguably, the most popular dish in the restaurant... most of the table I saw had some version of it. it is basically normal thosai wrapped around mashed potato filling. definitely lived up to its reputation... and for $2.60.. very filling...
blackmail 3, chan bhattura...
this is the hardest person to blackmail of all... :-) but I think he would agree that my choice was pretty good..... this is basically fried pastry.. but due to the intense deep fry, blown up resemble semi-inflated volley ball size.....you need to pierce the ball to squeeze the hot air out.. this is eaten with chick peas and a squeeze of lemon...this one is still my favourite south indian bread.

poori
basically two smaller sized version of chan bhattura... some people would say that two small portions is better than one big one (in the case of fish, for example).. and on most cases I would agree, however not in this case.. for some reason poori is heavier and more brittle than bhattura... maybe the heat tends to overcook the poori's quicker than it does bhattura...

chicken masala
this is the pride and joy of the restaurant, and on this one, I have to agree.. most masala chicken I've tried seem to be excessively salty, and make you feel like you're eating spices with chicken, instead of the other around.. this one is quite different... what seems to make this one different is the addition of sour tomato in their blend.. one bite of this masala chicken really is explosion of flavour... the chicken is well marinated, without being excessively salty, also the spices does not leave a bitter aftertaste.. and the tomatoes, really bring the much needed sour tang to provide relief to the heavy spices...

all in all... a successful expedition.. and one more reason to miss Singapore even more...