Anjan uses the best ingredients and brings a level of freshness to Indian food that is pretty much unique in San Francisco. He's been wanting to do a chile pepper menu for some time and the dishes are all over the map in terms of heat. Because this is a BlackboardEats special, YOU MUST sign up at http://blackboardeats.com/ and download a passcode on June 28th (or first thing June 29th) to be able to order these dishes. But the good thing is you can order as many or as few as you want.
I teased Anjan that this corn salad is a bit like succotash. But really it's a bright lime and spiced smoky salad that has a little bowl of chiles on the side so you can take the heat up to wherever you like.
The lamb pepper fry is a rich curry with many layers of chile and sweet undertones of cardamom and cinnamon.
The peppers stuffed with chicken looks like chile rellenos! I guess in a way it is, and the sauce resembles mole because it is made from more chiles and ground nuts and sesame.
The batter fried chiles are like Indian jalapeno poppers! The batter is light and made from lentils and instead of cheese the filling is a creamy puree of sesame and peanuts. Anjan uses different peppers so you don't know if you'll get a mild bite or a zinger but there is cooling tamarind and yogurt chutneys to take the heat down if you desire.
I am always torn between ordering dosas which are like crepes or uttapams which are like moist pancakes. For this special menu there is a Habanero uttapam. This untraditional uttapam has a mango habanero chutney mixed into the batter, along with seasonal vegetables making it bright and colorful and it comes with that outrageous dal that is at once exciting and comforting.
The dishes are priced extremely well considering the quality, from $9 to $12 each and of course there are lots of other wonderful things on the menu to round out your meal. Many thanks to Anjan for creating this great menu and to Robin Jolin for taking the drop dead gorgeous photos.
