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Went to the no-frills Khan BBQ on Devon for lunch on Saturday. We seated ourselves and despite the humble arrangements inside, they do graciously serve tableside.

Looked over the menu and ordered Nan, Kharahi Ghost (goat), Seehk Kabob, Tandoori Chicken, Alou Paratha (potato) and Keema Paratha (ground beef) for a group of 5...

The Seehk Kabobs are shaped on the long spears and placed in the tandoor, where the intense heat imbues the wonderful BBQ flavor. Garlic and spices predominated - very tasty.

The Chicken is initially placed in the tandoor, then finished on the grill, perfectly cooked, again with the nice outdoor BBQ flavor.

The Alou Paratha was tasty - the potatoes were smooth and creamy inside the firm and hearty bread. Keema Parathas fell apart a bit, but the ground meat inside was flavorfull and both are definitely a meal unto themselves.

The masala for Karahi Ghost was intensely scented and flavorful and after the we ate through the bone-in goat meat, we sopped up the masala with our nan, absolutely beautiful flavors of tomato, onion and spices all coming through.

The nan of course is cooked fresh on the tandoor...

The bill came to $28 - 28 bucks for a meal for 5 people which we left overstuffed and satiated. Hard to beat a meal this good at that price level.

Khan BBQ is East of Western on the north side of the street

Stopped at Farm City butcher afterwards and picked up some Beef Hot Links from there freezer for future BBQ'ing at home. Very spicy and large, a great change of pace from a regular hot dog on the grill.

Ms. EC and I had our first introduction to Khan BBQ today during a perfect Indo-Pak Easter brunch with the Vital Information family. I have walked by Khan a few times on my way to Bhabi's and I've always smelled the meat from the oven and thought, "Next time!"

I'm glad we finally made it because everything was excellent. The highlights for me were the perfectly spiced seekh kebab, the rich and flavorful frontier chicken, and the smokey and chewy parantha.

On our way out, VI noticed the oven had natural coals, rather than the expected gas burner. Here's a close-up of Khan's oven coals:


While we ate, they were constantly preparing fresh breads. We saw the interesting technique of parantha-making, where the dough is stretched long and coiled up before it's rolled flat. Here's a shot of the happy baker making naan, I believe:


Khan is full of smokey flavors that are nicely spiced. The menu has a nice mix of Indian and Pakistani standards (along with a breakfast section that wasn't available at noon). I'll definitely be back.

Khan B.B.Q. Restaurant
2401 N Western*
773-274-8600

Best,
Michael / EC

*Edit to reflect new address

I've always said that Khan's may be the best smelling restaurant in town.

Next time folks try the chicken boti, which really isn't something I usually order but they came out as I described them in an earlier post (you have to scroll down towards the end of the thread)

Best smelling? I'd still say Johnnies is the best.

I actually thought I ordered chicken boti, and the way the tandoor chicken was cut, we thought that was the boti for a while. When we realized we did not get all the dishes we ordered, it was a good thing as we had more than enough food.

As savory and scrumptious as all of the dry (and I mean dry) food was, my favorite dish of the day was the spinach. Ms. EC was saying, there's something here, something I cannot make out. I took a taste. Butter, yea that was it, butter. Lots of it. I read something recently, I think on Penny's Morsels, where there was a joke at the old Le Frances, about the mashed pototoes being just enough potato to bind the butter. Well this dish was just enough spinach to bind the ghee.

And as usual, Da'Bomb was the perfect place to be on Easter Sunday. Zim, have you seen Mughal Darbar, the newest of the ever changing restaurants at 2544 W. Devon. They have on offer, that mysterious and desirable of all Punjabi dishes ( ), mirchi ka salan--curried jalepenos.

And, and, I would be remiss if I did not mention how much fun it is to spend the holiday with a couple of fellow hounds.

Rob

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I should add, that dry in no way implies lack of succor or flavor. It was there fer sure.

Rob

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Dont know if that was an inside joke (or if its a public one, not sure I recall
it But I think mirchi ka salan is a Hyderabadi dish, no? They have it
sometimes on the cabbie joint menus too - both Hyderabad House and
Daata Durbar (actually I think Daata even has it on the Friday lunch
buffet of "bagara khana").

I was at Devon early on Easter Sunday myself - to pick up a "halwa puri
breakfast" at Tahoora (now priced at 3.50, as opposed to the old
price of 3.00 , and to pick up some sweets from Ambala. Tried
the Ambala samosa - it was hot, just prepared, so its impossible to
be bad, and it was decent enough. But it had *corn* in it - basically they
put mixed veggies in it, not just potatoes, spices and peas, and, not
having grown up on that, I didnt care for it (why try to fix something
that aint broke?) The fig halwa and kaju-katri were excellent, as
usual - its the best tasting sweet shop on Devon by a margin, I think.

c8w

Yes, mirchi kaa salan is a hyderabadi dish, NOT punjabi.

For chili addicts, recipe details can be found here -

http://www.hyderabad.co.uk/cuisine.htm

The biryani is tradionally served with raita, mirchi ka salan, raw onion rings and slices of lime.

I've "eaten" at Mughal Darbar - I should have ordered the biryani I later saw brought to anothe table, it looked interesting & to have all the proper accompaniments. I made the BIG mistake of ordering the chicken boti (on the recommendation of the manager)- what was claimed on the menu to be grilled, was in fact simply dropped in hot oil (a small bowl, containing the equivalent of maybe one thigh, even had an inch of oil covering it). The chicken also not cooked through & was basically inedible. I ended up sending it back & leaving, but spotted the biryani on the way out - it had just been brought out of the kitchen.

For boti, I'll stick to Bhabi's Kitchen.

I forgot to add - the Ambala samosas with corn in them - this is very traditional punjabi style. My mother used to make these with corn & peas mixed in the potatoes (no carrots), as well as pakoras made with corn & crushed black peper (I think I've seen these at Ambala, as well as traditional cauliflower & crushed black pepper pakoras).

Remember, this is the land of makki ki roti (corn bread)!

Yes, the Biryani even at the cabbie joints (well, I believe at Daata and definitely
at Hyderabad House) does come with above accompaniments - raita, often
raw onions, and definitely mirchi ka salan. I personally just ignore most
of that - my biryani is never to be mixed with stuff, not if its good biryani,
and Iam not a big raita guy (why mix meat with silly veggie stuff, I say).
So I often just have the big ole plate of biryani, and send the other stuff
back. But I do know it comes with all that stuff, usually. (Though, actually,
maybe its only the meat biryani - had a Daata chicken biryani a couple
days ago, and I dont recall it coming with above stuff; or maybe theyve
just realized I usualy send it back and so dont bring it out to me

Thanks for the Mugal news - I'll probably not make an attempt to go there,
above being the case, unless you report back with news of a very
good tasting biryani

c8w

Hm. Yes, the pakoras Ive had some of before. But I grew up on samosas
that were nicely spicy, with potato and just peas usually (or not even
peas on occasion) - Ive eaten some very good food at dhabas in Punjab
when younger too, but maybe not the samosas (or just dont recall this
particular thing very well). The corn sort of surprised me - I asked the
girl at the counter and she said they put "mixed vegetables" in it (I dont
think I tasted carrot, however - that would have *really* thrown me off

Ive often been to Ambala, but usually just for the sweets which are
excellent - this time I was tempted by the samosas because the girl
was in the back stirring something, nobody out front - when she came
out I asked what was currently being cooked, and she said the samosas
were just ready (and who could ever then resist the temptation of
saying, "well, gee, hand me a couple" then?) They did have some pakoras
there too, but they werent as fresh and I didnt try them. On asking I
found that they do also serve chicken-roll type stuff - will have to try
that the next time (no beef at Ambala, so no beef samosas, they do
chicken samosa instead; and, it was specified, the stuff is cooked
entirely separately, so the oil is not the same for cooking chicken
samosas and veggie samosas etc, to avoid hurting veggie sensibilities).

Maybe Ambala should start something like a "halwa puri breakfast" thing.
I was at Tahoora for their breakfast at about 10pm, and it was still
fairly packed - I had a good 10 minute wait before they could fill my
order. Then I went on over to Ambala for their sweets - and I was the
only customer there, not a soul in sight, even the counter-girl back in
the kitchen finishing up the samosas. I used to be a Tahoora-guy for
sweets too, but now find Ambala clearly superior - but I wonder if theyre
doing anywhere near the sort of business that Tahoora is (Tahoora
seems busy enough that I think theyre about to move to expanded
premises across the street - saw a sign the other day, the new digs
appear as if they might be considerably larger). I really do hope Ambala
is doing at least reasonably well - with their quality I'd like the to be
around for quite a while.

c8w

just to be clear, the boti being recommended by me were not those from mughal darbar, at which ihaven't yet eaten and given the reports may not, but rather those of khan's. Hey rob, how 'bout a smellathon?

Yeah mirchi ka salan's definitely hyderabadi, did mughal darbar have other hyderabadi stuff? Rob may have been referring to the fact that jonathan gold has mistakenly written in the past that almost all indian food in the US is punjabi due to punjabis being the main regional immigrants, whereas in reality most spots in chicago were historically gujerati owned, though that is changing somewhat recently. For folks who are interested in this sort of stuff there is a decent history of indian immigration to chicago called Namaste Chicago put out the Penn State University Press.

I agree wholeheartedly with the applause for the sweets at ambala as well, though there may be individual items i would get elsewhere (such as ther kalakand at tahoora) it is by far the best overall sweets collection on devon and worth its extra price. I like their motichoor ladoo quite a bit. I think Athena mentioned on CH that they are famous for these in the UK.

btw, another change of pace you can get from farm city meats is frozen camel

I'd be up for a boti tasting session along Devon (my current fave is Bhabi's as mentioned above, but I'm always looking for other options) & willing to help organize, if anyone else is interested.

I hope Ambala survives, I was disappointed to see Rajbhog close, as I was fond of some of their sweets & particularly ice creams & kulfi, but its very competitive on Devon now. What seems to be missing is somewhere that serves real Delhi-punjabi-style paranthas with butter & lassi for breakfast (which is what I grew up eating, rather than halva-puri). Maybe Ambala cam be convinced.

Going back to the samosa issue, my mother insists at home that they have to smaller & have a decent amount of veg in them, whatever type, which makes them a lot more expensive. The problem is that very few cooks make them at home any more, it takes time & its simply easier to buy them. For a comparison point, Deep Foods makes "cocktail" samosas for the freezer which have a far higher percentage of peas to potatoes & are pretty authentic to the style of samosa filling I grew up eating (made by the home cook). Also, if you read Jamuna Devi's Indian veg cooking tome, you can see some of the huge variety of stuffings beyond potatoes & peas that exist. My fav version is potatoes with whole cashews & pieces of dried red chilis.

On the topic of frozen samosas, I've never tried the deep foods variety, but I'm making a note of it. We try to keep a few decent small canned or frozen items on hand for extremely busy/tired nights where cooking or dining out is simply not an option.

We recently bought a box of Trader Joe's frozen samosas to try as an accopaniment to their canned curried chickpeas (which I love so much I could do a commercial for them). I've been less and less enthused with TJ's frozen foods over the past year or so, and I'm not too crazy about the samosas either.

Ms. EC contends that they're pretty good if you don't consider them samosas. "Think of them as an indian spiced, potato-stuffed, filo dough thingy and they're not that bad." She's right about this, but there's one key problem:

The first time I had one, there was an intensely familiar odor and taste to the dough wrapper. I could not place it but it haunted me for weeks. Finally, we bought another box and I tasted one again and it hit me like a ton of bricks. These samosas use almost the exact same outer dough as a McDonalds hot apple pie!. The odor is absolutely unmistakable. I haven't eaten in a McDonalds in over a decade, but the last time I did, I think I had an apple pie.

I don't know what to make of this, or if it's particularly interesting to anyone but me. Moral of the story is: If you want a Indian-spiced potato-stuffed thingy that will conjure memories of a McD's apple pie, then TJ's frozen samosas are for you.

Best,
Michael / EC

Apologies for having dragged this thread completely off topic, re frozen foods, you might find this of interest.

http://www.littleindia.com/october2004/hotcold.htm

If you are looking for options, the Pillsbury rotis & parantas are pretty good; the paper copy of this publication had a good tasting review of some of the products (& an earlier issue had one of the shelf-stable packs of vegs etc that can be bought on Devon). I'll see if I can track down the details & post them.

Pillsbury paratha are "pretty good" crisp, layered, scattered scallion, reminded me of a scallion pancake from Spring World. I'd buy them again, $2.49 for 6 at Fresh Farms in Niles.

Pillsbury paratha

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If I'm not mistaken, you can get them at Assi for even cheaper--$1.50 or so.

They are, indeed, not bad.

_________________
yes yes yes

Went to Khan BBQ for the first time the other night for dinner. We had the chicken boti and the goat palak plus aloo gobi, a roti, and a naan. My friend loves rice pudding so we split a kheer. Everything was delicious, especially the goat and the chicken--so tender!

Next time try the garlic naan, the broasted chicken, and the seekh kabab. the seekh kabab is only bettered than what i've eaten abroad.

Thanks for the suggestion; I'm planning to eat my way through the menu. How's the tandoori fish?

I've had it a few times and it's been mostly up and occasionally down. Definitely worth a try because when it's on, it's moist, meaty and fiery.

Here's a shot of it from back in 2007 . . .


Tandoori Fish

For a lot more info on Khan, check out this thread:

chicken boti at khan's [Khan BBQ reopend at new location]

=R=

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