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LTH,

I recently met the ever engaging Cathy2 for lunch. Our original plan was to go to Usmania for Paya, but Usmania does not open until 1pm. Luckily Hyderabad House was just a few doors East, I say lucky as Cathy and I ended up having quite a delicious, and inexpensive, lunch.

Our lunch, which came to $13.50 with two sodas and an extra round of chapati, started with Lamb biryani.


A sauce which was used for the biryani.


Langan chicken with accompanying rice.


Side dish of fresh veggies.


Resulting in one nice looking place of food.


Hyderabad House is a modest restaurant, what is often referred to as a 'Taxi Driver' place. Hyderabad even has the obligatory pool table.


As Cathy and I were leaving Naseer, the owner, introduced both himself and his head chef Bisantae. Interestingly Bisantae hails from Guanajuato, Mexico. Bisantae (L) Naseer (R)


I quite enjoyed our lunch at Hyderabad House inexpensive, freshly made, flavorful food, friendly interactive owner, and pleasant, though modest, physical space and good conversation throughout lunch.

Enjoy,
Gary

Hyderabad House
2225 W Devon Ave
Chicago, IL 60659
773-381-1230

Hi,

As Gary described, this meal was an embarrassing large quantity of food for an equally embarrassing little money.

They did seem a bit surprised we were really eating dinner there. Initially, it was a bit challenging to learn what each menu item may be. Biryani had been the goal and I was attracted to Chicken Lagan, principally because the name was similar to the Indian movie Lagaan

Picture from GaryW


The cold vegetables came first with tamarind and yogurt sauces. Everything else showed up all at once. I still cannot get over the variably colored rice in the Biryani, just how do they do it? When we needed more bread, it was so fresh off the grill it was still puffed up like a balloon. Fresher still and we'd be eating off the grill.

Not only was there the pool table, there were several ceiling mounted televisions playing a comedy. Especially amusing was this guy dancing around a room with a life-size cardboard point of purchase display human figure. Fun!

The owner did indeed follow us out the door. He somewhat confronted us for all the pictures Gary was taking. For a moment I thought we may have crossed a cultural boundary unintentionally, but what was it? The owner said we forgot to take a picture of the most important person: the Chef! I was quietly relieved because I really wasn't quite sure where the conversation was going.

Near the front door is the kitchen door, where you could peer in to see automatic rollers pressing out chapati before hitting the grill.

As we were leaving, someone dropped a quantity of food for the pigeons by the gate. In a flash it was all eaten and the birds gone. Just as our short excursion to India concludes as abruptly leaving us back in Chicago and our real lives.

_________________
Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

Some more pics from a more recent trip to Hyderabad House. This is one of those places that tests your tolerance for the reality of Third World dining; it has the ambience of an old Sinclair station which has been converted into a pool hall/restaurant, gaining something of the hospital waiting room along the way (the TVs playing old Indian movies add that, I suppose, which means you could play cuts from this as the background for this post).

The best you could hope for food in such a situation is that it will produce homemade-seeming dishes which will be hearty and unslick-- and that is exactly what Hyderabad House produces:



The yellow stuff in front is dal; the two brown goos in the middle are, left, a chicken leg in a rather gloppy stuff which needed to be warmer, and right, a very tasty lamb curry; and in back, the langan chicken [correction: chicken 65, see note below] which is, as far as I'm concerned, the one dish that you would make some real effort to come back for. I'm not saying the others weren't fairly tasty, but this is the star of Hyderabad House in my book. I made us order a second bowl, which we did not, by any normal person's reckoning, actually need.



These are the answer to the question, what if you took some real beef and worked it over to most closely resemble tofu or seitan or a Gardenburger? They were okay, kind of like dried meatloaf.



Another thing we didn't strictly need, but enjoyed anyway, was this late-arriving bowl of seasoned chicken. It was what it looks like.



One surprisingly likable discovery (that's Z1, aka Steve Z., discovering it right there) was Limca, an Indian Coca-Cola product, a citrusy drink sort of like Fresca (but minus the saccharine or cyclamate chemical taste). Very light, not too sugary, quite refreshing; amusingly, a Google search reveals that they sponsor the Limca Book of World Records, India's answer to the Guinness. (Also amusing, in light of Cathy's metion of Lagaan above, is that the Limca site I linked to has a bnch of commercials to watch starring Aamir Khan, the star and director of Lagaan. It's a small world...) Anyway, I wouldn't call it a direct substitute for a Guinness, but I may have to find a six-pack at one of the markets.

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mmmmm,mmmm, good. Johanna

_________________
Looking for great food at good prices here on the banks of the Des Plaines River in River Forest.

Hi,

Loved that Limca. Mike hit it right on the spot comparing it to Fresca. It was very much like the original Fresca with the cloudiness, all it needed to go fully Fresca of old would be a few bits of pulp floating about. In the past, we have chased after Mexican Coke, we now have straight from India: Limca. My brother-in-law is from India, I mentioned to him the Limca I had for lunch. He mentioned another very popular drink, similar to Coke though more fizzy, I cannot remember the name this moment (it might be Thumbs Up - I'll check) but bottles of it were right next to Limca in their refrigerator.

Wee correction, the chicken dish we ordered twice was 'Chicken 65.' For my wimpy chili appreciation, this Chicken 65 was hitting slight discomfort zone though it was otherwise very good.

_________________
Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

Oh right, Chicken 65 it was. Yes, it was hot, I took one bite, then held off until my Limca arrived, it didn't bother me after that though.

Was I right about what I said was lamb curry? I'm thinking now it was beef.

Anyway, I should mention that our ordering method this time was 1) Gary reminding the owner of his and Cathy's previous visit (so he knew we weren't afraid of his food) and 2) saying "Bring us some of everything." With repeated emphasis on our willingness to eat a LOT.

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It was introduced to us as "Mutton Curry." Knowing mutton is somewhat rare, I asked if it was really "Mutton Curry." He then slightly backpedaled saying it was really lamb in there. The meat wasn't strong tasting like the Mutton I remembered as a kid. Though I am not sure if his shifting from Mutton to Lamb was maybe as a clarification in case he supposed we didn't know what mutton was.

What was clear, it came from an animal with a fuzzy coat we use to make wool. Whether it was the baby (lamb) or the parents (mutton) I am not quite sure.

_________________
Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

Is Limca readily availanle at the markets on Devon?I was planning on being there possibly within the next week.TIA.

Limca certainly has the "Fresca Look". The big difference is that it doesn't seem to have grapefruit as a component. That's a good thing for me, as I'm deathly allergic to grapefruit. In fact, that's the reason for my look of concentration in Mike's excellent Limca photo. I was checking the ingredients list to make sure.

_________________
Steve Z.
Photographer/Pseudojournalist

"The only time to eat diet food is while you’re waiting for the steak to cook." - Julia Child

I'd rather play this

I won't comment on the "third world atmosphere" other than to say the guys there are pretty welcoming, friendly and have a sense of humor.



actually Mike, those are shami kababs - which are a mix of meat and lentils, which is why you get some of the veggieburger feel to 'em




Limca (which is my favorite of the indian sodas, other than maybe vimto) is available at a number of groceries around devon, including patel bros and kamdar, where you can get it by the single bottle

As I would hope would be clear from my overall post, I didn't mean "Third World atmosphere" in a derogatory way-- certainly not in terms of the welcome, which as you say is quite friendly (and I don't have any association of "third world" and "unfriendly," not sure where that's coming from). I just mean in terms of a retrofitted cinderblock building, with pool tables and half of its bathroom (that is, the sink and towel dispenser) out in the open, it's got a definite "make do with very little capital" feel which is not especially restaurant-like (as noted, more gas station-like) and might be harder to talk less adventurous people into sitting down to enjoy than, say, Tiffin. Or The Cheesecake Factory.

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Hi Cathy. Yes, the soda you're referring to is Thums (no "b") Up, which is a Coca-Cola product. It is a best-seller in India--as is Limca--with a lot more fizz than many of our cola products here.

We've actually discussed Limca before on this forum - coincidentally the last
time Hyderabad House came up in discussion That was during a
"Midnight Meanderings" thread that can be found at:
http://www.lthforum.com/bb/viewtopic.php?t=1068&start=0

The review of Limca this time is a lot better - the last time it was described
as "Lemon Pledge mixed with soda water"

This "Coca Cola Product" bit also came up then - and it is, but not originated
by Coke, only bought out by them in the past decade. As mentioned in
the above thread...

--------------

"I also ordered a Limca soda, an Indian product of the Coca-Cola Company. The label claims the beverage contains "no fruit juice." I believe it. If you mixed Lemon Pledge with soda water, it might taste something like this. In one corner of the room, a self-serve cooler provided water. "


Limca isnt really a true product of Coca-Cola, its just owned by them. Basically
India had Coca-Cola way back, in the 1960s and 1970s, and then they
got booted out of the country in 1977 when a socialist government won the
election (to much mourning among all kids I knew, we all liked Coke and
its products, my fave as a kid used to be "Fanta" and its no fun to have your
fave drink taken away from you for good when youre still a kid. Anyway).
When Coke went away, only the indigenous products were left - "Thums Up"
was the Coke-style drink, and Limca was around, as was Mangola and
Mirinda (an orange drink). Finally Coke was let back in when the economy
was liberalised in the early 1990s, as was Pepsi. The indigenous drinks
that were established werent quite as popular anymore with their entrance,
but still commanded a bit of market-share (and probably always will) - Limca
among them. Coke bought the company that produced them in the mid-1990s,
and has kept them in production (wisely, because as I said they still retain
some market-share, even if not a huge one).

Limca isnt bad, if youre used to it - Ive had it often, and so have never
noticed the Lemon-pledge qualities Its especially good after a heavy
Indian meal, seems to aid in digesting the oily-spicy food I think.
-------------




Yes, HH's Chicken 65 is very good usually - but it only shows up on their
menu once in a while. Saturday's I think it is? I happened to drop by HH
yesterday and they didnt have it - ended up picking up a "Hari Mirchi Chicken"
instead, which basically translates as "Green Masala Chicken". And that
is exactly what it is - and pretty good it was, too.

Also (if Zim is reading this - I think he had mentioned Chopal Kabab House?),
dropped by Chopa after picking up from HH and got a menu. Fairly
standard, but Ive heard Chopal is pretty good (not least from a cabbie I
asked about it at HH yesterday), must try it soonish. An intersting (if over the
top) decor - you might even prefer it to Jewel of India's, Cath Also has
pretty ornate "cushion" style seating IIRC. Chopal, BTW, is across the
street from HH, and half a block westward (sort of bang across the
street from Usmaniya and/or Daata Durbar).

c8w

Yes, forgot to mention this part - it *is* probably Thums Up being referred
to, was clearly the #1 drink in India thru the 80s (when Coke and Pepsi were
banned). It isnt anymore, though it still has a share of the market - when
Pepsi and Coke came back in the 1990s, they almost immediately took over
a large share of the market and pushed Thums Up down to #3 quickly
enough. And by the late 1990s Coke had bought out the parent company of
Thums Up and Limca - they didnt alter either drink and kept them in production
however. Both still are drunk often enough in India nowadays - but are
not nearly as popular as Coke or Pepsi (who are battling for supremacy
in the enormous soft-drink market in India, just as they are eveywhere
else. And even using quite a few similar ads as they do here - there was
a "stealing the drink" ad here with Dominique Wilkins and MJ IIRC, back
in the early 1990s, and that was followed by an identical "stealing
the drink" ad in India starring 2 top cricket superstars a couple of years
later

c8w

Speaking of such things, I recently had a Pakistani soft drink at Kababish of London that I wanted to like but could not. (And I like everything.)

It's the color of Green River and called Pakola (I'm serious). It is numbingly sweet and tastes like a mix between HubbaBubba brand bubble gum and cardamom.

VI and I lunched at Kababish, today, where I saw this item for the first time. I am generally game for new soft drinks of any stripe, but the byline, "Ice Cream Flavoured Soda," or some such, had me taking a pass.

Erik M.

Ive seen this - its available at Hyderabad House too, BTW, right next to the Limca's
and Thums Ups - but Ive never bothered to try it. I dont think its particularly
old, at least I hadnt seen it much until the last couple of years - and I sort of
presumed it was named "Pak-Kola" as a sort of nationalistic cola drink meant to
be an alternative to the American Imperialist Coca Cola (which, along with
the Equally Imperialistic Pepsi Cola has been the most popular drink in Pakistan
for many decades, and remains so today IIRC). Also I hadnt heard anything
good about the way it tasted

c8w

Unquestionably there are nationalistic colas. On the other hand, who can explain why the main local cola in Austria is Afri-Kola?

_________________
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I fondly remember drinking tons of Mirinda in Pakistan - along with the rose-flavored mega-sweet drink (someone help me with the name!)... SO tasty in the oppressive heat as a kid.
Along the lines of Zam-Zam cola, I also recall Coca-Cola being banned in Saudi when I visited some years ago.

Did you mean falooda? Its rose-water flavoured with lots of stuff in it (can
be found on Devon in a couple of sweet stores).

BTW, Zam-Zam is sort of "holy water" in a way - its the water found in
the holy places. Pilgrims sometimes carry it back in bottles for the people
back home.

c8w

HI,

I am working my way through my 3rd 2-liter bottle of Kvass since Christmas, often jokingly referred to as the "Russian Coca Cola." It is a fermented (often slightly alcoholic) drink made from barley, rye and just as often from crumbled black bread. It is just as often homemade as it is available commercially. It is somewhat suggestive of beer.

For the germ phobic - don't read or you will put your hands over your eyes running from the room - In the Soviet days, Kvass was a drink available from a rather unique two station dispenser:

Station 1: Thick walled glass positioned upside down. You pushed down on the glass and a small fountain rinses it with water.

Station 2: Turn glass up, drop your 5-kopek coin and the glass is filled with Kvass. Drink deep perhaps sharing with a friend.

Station 1: Return glass to the upside down position and walk away.

Next!

_________________
Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

My mom always tried to push the concotion of Rooh Afzah on us as kids - which is a super sweetened rose syrup added to Milk, kind of Falooda without the goodies.

Some more history on Coke in India - It used to be incredibly huge in India before the decision to leave in the 70's, so much so that my grandfather let me drink fairly large quantities of the stuff even though I was under the age of 3 (My mom wasn't too big a fan of that decision)

I remember hearing (and this is unsupported rumor, devoid of any real factual basis, the kind of stuff you read about on the internet) that Coca Cola India was asked by the socialist government at the time to give a 51% ownership to the government as well as the formula, hence the decision to leave.

c8w,
thanks for the further info on Chopal. I noticed the fairly standard menu, but was intrigued by their sarsoon ki saag, especially as I wasn't all that impressed by bhabi's, do you know if your cabbie acquaintance had tried it? of course they didn't list maki ki roti to eat along side.

and hell yeah on the decor, love those chairs

That'd be it! Something from my mothers childhood that they continued to drink. Maybe I'll try it again and see if I still enjoy it...

However, without one of those cheap paper straws I just won't even try Mirinda.

Ahhh, Limca. Way back as an undergrad, I spent a semester in India. I became obsessed with Limca. Before I left, I had a Limca t-shirt made for myself. (You could get anything embriodered on a shirt for a couple bucks). At the time, we were told that the U.S. wouldn't allow Limca in because it was considered a carcinogen. I think in a warped way added to the allure. I am guessing that was an urban myth perpetutated by American ex-pats who wanted to feel special.

Now I have even more reason to go to Hyderbad.

Thats exactly what I meant when I suggested falooda - just was blanking
momentarily on the brand-name Rooh-afza, the rose-syrup, in water or
milk (usually milk). Have basically the same thing on the streets, with
added stuff in it, and its falooda




I heard exactly the same thing BTW - that they wanted the formula, as well
as "controlling interest" in the Indian division, which would mean 51% at
least. Part of their nationalization drive. Which is why Coke left, of
course - only to return (along with Pepsi) with very favourable benefits
offered by the Indian Government in the 1990s.



Dunno, only bumped into the guy at HH and asked, and he said the place was
good. I dropped into Chopal myself, and picked up a Kadai Chicken to go a
couple days ago - was pretty decent, with a much higher degree of heat
than anything Ive had at Bhabi's (which, admittedly, has been like two or
three items I liked what little I saw of Chopal - they even served me
"sweet corn chicken soup" at the start (while I was waiting for the food
to be made to be picked up), just like they do at JK Kabab House! And a
pleasant girl from Jordan (been in the US only 3 months, and thus going thru a
first-winter!) named Amani was the server (and no, I didnt ask if the
surname was Toomer And the decor is quite something, definitely
Cathy2-worthy

Looking at it, BTW, maybe it isnt such a typical menu after all - they have
Jhinga Masala (spicy shrimp) on the menu, but no biryani! Thats not particulary
usual on Devon, really (though I suppose JK does biryani only on weekends
too, and its maybe a similar restaurant).

c8w

Cathy and I went to Chopal a week ago. With the exception of the aforementioned "sweet corn chicken soup," I thoroughly enjoyed the food. They didn't fool around with the spicing, either. Most of our dishes were quite spicy, if not downright incendiary. The item that offered the greatest intrigue, for me, at least, was the red-hued chutney. Our waitperson said that it was date-based, but I remain a skeptic. At any rate, I loved the flavour of it.


"sweet corn chicken soup"


condiments


sarsoo ka saag


"Chopal special quail"


balti gosht


"Great Desi Food 1st Time in Your Town... Enjoy The Great Fun With us"


Chopal Kabab & Steak
2240-42 W. Devon
773.338.4080


Erik M.

*Edited to correct spelling.

Hi,

c8w you have proof your posts are read and your recommendations are followed. I arrived first to Chopal and felt like I walked into a folk art museum. To put it mildly, it is very, very colorful. It was also outfitted with at least one piece of furniture whose design suggested it was a bed or a very deep sofa.

The food was spicier than I prefer, though I was still eating what was offered. Unlike some places we have visited, where the waitstaff is testing your spice tolerance and whether the food would agree with us, there was no such discussion. We were rather flattered they thought we could take their food as-is.

Not pictured was the salt Lassi I ordered immediately. They offered it two ways: 1) in a simple glass or 2) in a clay pot very similar to what the sarsoo ka saag was served. I opted for the clay pot, which dampened my mouth's spice assaults very well all during dinner. The clay pot
held multiple glasses, if you consider its volume. Given my spice tolerance I was grateful for the large quantity.

Thanks for the heads up on this visual and palate stimulating Pakistani dining adventure.

Regards,

_________________
Cathy2

"You'll be remembered long after you're dead if you make good gravy, mashed potatoes and biscuits." -- Nathalie Dupree
Facebook, Twitter, Greater Midwest Foodways, Road Food 2012: Podcast

salt lassi

Now it is!

Erik M.

meant to write this a while ago, but I stopped into chopal a litte while ago to pick up some stuff. It turns out that the similarity to JK is no accident. the owner is the old JK owner. He claims that while at JK, he was the first to introduce chili chicken to the devon strip. And I have to say that there's was excellent, better than JK's though not as much of a deal. Also excellent were the "goat champs". While I liked the spice level on a number of dishes, I thought that a few were overspiced, for example the frontier chicken (my favorite versions of this are more about the sweetness and caramelization of the onions and tomatoes). he had biryani that day(sunday) as well. Found it a little odd that the rice that came with a few of the dishes was dilled, since I didn't see that until we got home, didnt ask about it, don't know if that implies the cooks are sindhi (they use more dill than most subcontinentals, don't they?) or if he just likes the dill rice he gets at persian spots.

I also didn't ask whether he sidlines in import/export but given the volume of handicrafts there's gotta be some sort of connection

Are Hyderabad House and/or Chopal at all vegetarian friendly? I have a friend who is my usual Indo/Pak food eating companion, and he doesn't eat meat of any kind. We both really love spicy food, though, and we're on a budget, so these two places sound really great. Any thoughts or recommendations of particular dishes?

Personally, I love lamb, but that just won't fly if we want to share food!