the best indian food in houston

Gourmet India
13155 Westheimer Rd.
Houston, TX 77077
281-493-5435

5/5 samosas

Chicken tikka masala

I first discovered Indian food when my college roommate unpacked tupperwares filled with brightly colored edibles into our mini-fridge in our dorm room. When my roommate missed the comforts of her mama’s home cookin’, all she had to do was pop a tupperware into the microwave, and volia, there was mama’s curried potatoes, cauliflower, spinach, chickpeas…

She was always kind enough to offer me some, and I nibbled only with reserve, feeling guilty for taking her mama’s food. But I enjoyed the bursts of flavor and spices that Indian food had to offer. My palate only grew more adventurous after college when I was finally making my own money and could afford tasting different cuisines. I found myself craving Indian food whenever I thought about my friend’s midnight snacks, the aromatic herbs wafting out from beneath the crack of our door and filling the hallway with delightful pungency.

“Where can I find good Indian food?” I asked another friend once I moved back to Houston post-graduation.

The best Indian food in Houston, she told me, was actually only blocks from my home. Gourmet India, an unassuming restaurant located in an abandoned strip mall where the dollar theater I used to frequent as a child sits as either a modified Bollywood theater or a vacant storefront, cooks up some of the best Indian food I’ve ever had. True, I didn’t grow up with an Indian mama, and true, I’ve probably eaten in less than a dozen south Asian restaurants, but nothing has beat Gourmet India’s dishes. Seriously.

My father only discovered the place recently after my husband and I took him there. It’s a shame that after 20+ years of living in the same house, he only now got to eat at this fine restaurant which is literally down the street.

Naan--flatbread you eat with your right hand (not your left--it's custom)

The dishes I tend to order are:

• naan, the popular Indian flatbread used to scoop bites of other dishes into your mouth
• saag paneer, a spinach and paneer cheese dish which, due to its creaminess, goes great with naan
• chicken tikka masala, another creamy dish made with grilled chicken and tomato sauce
• the basmati rice which, here, is made with almonds and peas–a family favorite

All the dishes I’ve gotten here have not been a disappointment. If you prefer to try a little of everything, lunch is often an all-you-can-eat buffet Of course, you can always order my staples; I’m almost positive you won’t be disappointed. I’ve learned to make chicken tikka masala at home (though it’s not as good as Gourmet India’s), but for the life of me, I cannot find a decent saag paneer recipe anywhere. So I’d be grateful if anyone out there could send me one. Anyone?

Basmati rice

chuc mung nam moi!

Translated from Vietnamese to English, this means “Happy New Year!” Growing up in Alief where there was a Vietnamese-American presence, most all of my non-Viet friends knew this phrase. And today, I say it to you as it’s the New Year, according to the lunar calendar.

There are many customs practiced during Tet, or Lunar New Year. For days and even weeks leading up to the New Year, households prepare for the impending celebration by cleaning house, cooking, repaying debts, buying new clothes, etc. How you spend the New year, the Vietnamese and Chinese believe, dictates how the rest of your year will be. It is considered bad luck to clean on the New Year, and visitations to families and friends are done in a particular order to avoid insult. Money in red envelopes are given to children (or elders), firecrackers are ignited, and dragon/lion dances are performed to loud percussion all to ward off evil/bad luck spirits. There are so many traditions and superstitions linked to the Lunar New Year that I, as a second-generation Vietnamese-American, can only fathom a handful of them. I have yet to be in Vietnam during a New Year celebration (which I heard lasts for a week or so–businesses close shop to celebrate), but it’s supposedly a much larger spectacle than it is here in the States.

The traditional New Year’s food for the Vietnamese is banh chung or banh Tet: a sticky rice cake containing fatty pork and mung bean. It is wrapped in banana leaves before steaming, the leaf lending the savory cake an olive green hue once done which is supposed to symbolize the earth. Growing up, I’ve always eaten banh chung all year round. But during the New Year, it’s especially a treat. My paternal grandmother made the best banh chung; she’d make dozens of them to give as presents to visitors during Tet. Today, I’m not so lucky to get homemade banh chung, but I find that My Hoa Food Market (13201 Bellaire Blvd., 77072) makes some pretty comparable banh chung. Unlike my grandma’s (which were an enormous 8″x8″ square), the ones from My Hoa are a more manageable size, fitting into the palm of your hand. I grew up eating them plain, but some like to add sugar or Maggi seasoning sauce (similar to soy sauce and GREAT with eggs sunny-side up). I’ve even seen some pan-fry their banh chung in a skillet until the rice becomes crispy. Supposedly, this frying method is a good way to “freshen” up older banh chung.

I know that I as the Blind Cook would typically have a fabulous recipe posted, but frankly, I am no banh chung master. I do have a recipe from an aunt but I have yet attempted to make it from scratch. I’ve seen my grandmother and aunts squatting over the bowls of sticky rice, shaping them into perfect squares and rolling them inside banana leaves, to know that it ain’t no easy task. Perhaps I’ll attempt it one day. Perhaps I won’t. Maybe I’ll continue opting for the ready-made kind at My Hoa. Whichever way we eat them, it’s still a timeless Tet tradition. So let’s lift our forks full of glutinous bites of banh chung and toast to this Year of the Rabbit!

Took the pic myself. The square cake with Maggi on top.

food that will touch your heart

Fung’s Kitchen
7320 Southwest Fwy. #115
Houston, TX 77074
713-779-2288

4.5/5 steamed xiu mai

Xiu mai - one of my favorites

Happy New Year! Dim sum used to be a New Year’s tradition in my family; every January 1st, we’d gather at a dim sum restaurant mid-morning for this delicious Chinese brunch. Like the Spanish’s tapas and the French’s hors d’oeuvres, dim sum is the Chinese’s variety of small dishes conducive to socializing.

Dim sum, which translates to “to touch the heart,” stems from the tradition of drinking tea while conversing with friends. Travelers on the Silk Road in ancient China would need rest stops along the way, and so teahouses sprouted on the roadside. After a long morning of manual labor, farmers also needed a place to commune and relax. Teahouses began serving snacks as an accompaniment to the tea, and thus, dim sum was born.

Dim sum is mostly associated with the Cantonese people in southern China and Hong Kong who, over the years, had transformed the dining experience from a respited to a joyful, bustling one. Today, dim sum is typically eaten for brunch, enjoyed by the elderly after morning exercises or on Sundays for family get-togethers. In some of these overseas restaurants, dim sum can be served from as early as six in the morning and continue until three o’clock when the typical Western afternoon coffee break takes place. Many dim sum restaurants in the States still follow this tradition, some not even serving dim sum unless it’s Sunday morning.

Fried taro puff - my other favorite

Dim sum in the U.S.is an experience in itself. The restaurants have open floor plans as large as ballrooms, and all tables are made for ten; even if you’re a party of three, you may get seated at a table for ten. Food isn’t ordered off the menu; carts piled high with steaming hot dishes are pushed around the restaurant, and you point to what you want and it’s given to you straight away–now that’s literally “a la carte.” The wait staff marks the dishes you order by stamping a paper that remains on your table until you’re done and it’s time to calculate the bill. In smaller or less traditional restaurants, you’re given a sheet of paper, and you mark off which dishes you want before handing it to the wait staff. Dishes come in small quantities (which I love) so you can try a little of everything. There are steamed buns filled with Chinese barbecue pork, all sorts of dumplings and fried pastries, cold jellyfish salads, congee (or rice porridge), braised chicken feet, egg tarts, and so on. Dim sum experts claim you should start with the steamed dishes, then move on to the exotic, then fried, then finish everything off with the sweets. And hot tea is always the beverage of choice–it aids in the digestion of the greasy foods. My friend, Joy, and even John when we had first met both did not like dim sum, saying that every dish tastes the same and not that great. I said they were going to the wrong places and eating the wrong dishes. Personally, these are my dim sum staples that I have to get at every dim sum meal:

• Xiu mai – steamed dumplings filled with either pork or shrimp wrapped in a wheat flour skin and topped with crab, roe, and/or mushrooms
• Har gau – steamed shrimp dumplings wrapped in wheat starch skin
• Cheung fun – steamed large flat rice noodles rolled around shrimp or meat and served with sweet soy sauce
• Nor mei gai – a lotus leaf filled with sticky rice and other savory ingredients such as hard-boiled egg, Chinese sausage, chicken, and/or pork
• Gai lan – steamed Chinese broccoli with oyster sauce
• Pork spareribs steamed with black beans and jalapenos
• Fried taro puff

Fung’s Kitchen, along with Golden Palace and Dim Sum King (which serves dim sum every day, all day), are my favorite places to eat dim sum in Houston. These are the top three–I think I’ve only had better dim sum in Vancouver. I know this entire article was about dim sum and not about Fung’s itself, but I really can’t pinpoint what it is exactly that I like so much about Fung’s aside from the fact that their food is just damn good. Try it and see for yourself. Now after typing this post, my mouth is watering for a little food that would touch my heart. Maybe I’ll have to revive the old family tradition and plan a dim sum outing today. Happy eating! Here’s to many more in 2011…