From owner-freebsd-chat Mon Jun 21 21:41:26 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-chat@freebsd.org Received: from lariat.lariat.org (lariat.lariat.org [206.100.185.2]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E27B814DC3 for ; Mon, 21 Jun 1999 21:41:22 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from brett@lariat.org) Received: from mustang.lariat.org (IDENT:ppp0.lariat.org@lariat.lariat.org [206.100.185.2]) by lariat.lariat.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id WAA19680; Mon, 21 Jun 1999 22:41:03 -0600 (MDT) Message-Id: <4.2.0.56.19990621221902.04666340@localhost> X-Sender: brett@localhost X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.2.0.56 (Beta) Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 22:41:00 -0600 To: Greg Lehey From: Brett Glass Subject: Re: Restaurants (was: FreeBSD Con) Cc: Nik Clayton , chat@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <19990622134757.T76907@freebie.lemis.com> References: <4.2.0.56.19990621220114.00a2c590@localhost> <19990621230521.A79159@catkin.nothing-going-on.org> <4.2.0.56.19990621220114.00a2c590@localhost> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org At 01:47 PM 6/22/99 +0930, Greg Lehey wrote: >> I'd like to gather some enthusiasts for dinner at what I think is > > the best Indian restaurant (actually, a family-run chain) in the > > Bay Area: Pasand (http://www.pasand.com/). > >Are they the people who used to be on Stevens Creek in Cupertino near >the junction with Lawrence? They were OK, but not spectacular. I >drove past there last week, and they don't seem to be there any more. Yes, they're still there. In fact, they took over the space next door and doubled in size to meet demand. They make the best idli sambhar I've tasted -- bar none! -- and excellent dosas. For folks who don't know what these things are: sambhar is a thick vegetarian vegetable soup with a lentil base. An idli is a steamed bread dumpling made via natural fermentation; it has a wonderful sourdough taste. In this dish, it comes submerged in the soup. A dosa is a huge crepe (so big it sticks off the plate at each end) with a filling that includes potatoes, peas, carrots, and toasted mustard seed. They also have a killer biriyani -- a rice casserole flavored with whole cardamom pods. Hackers from the UK have remarked that it's hard to find good South Indian food in Great Britain. Which is true; for the most part, "Indian food" means North Indian food there. So, this place is a treat even for those coming over from the UK, where Indian food is much more common than in the US. The Santa Clara restaurant's sign shrunk a bit when they remodeled, because the city adopted a rather fascist sign code. In order to make the restaurant bigger, they had to make their sign smaller. (Go figure.) So you might have missed it. The Pasand I'm recommending, though, is their Berkeley location. Same family recipes, but much closer to where the conference is going to be held. The Berkeley restaurant is the original one. I was there last month. Good buffet at lunch; seriously great Tandoori at dinner. (If you like fish, try the Tandoori sea bass. Wonderful stuff. I've never had it done better anywhere.) Another interesting place to go in Berkeley is The Blue Nile (Ethiopian) on Telegraph. I've conducted hacker dinners there. But I like Indian food even better than Ethiopian, so Pasand would be my first choice. There's also Jade Villa in Oakland for Dim Sum, but you really have to go on Sunday morning to get the best they have to offer. --Brett Glass To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message