Vik's Chaat Corner
Saturday morning, we headed out to Vik's Chaat Corner in Berkeley. We had heard great things about this fun warehouse full of Indian street foods, served cafeteria-style.
We arrived around... 12:30pm on Saturday, found good parking as it is in a warehouse district, and proceeded to stare at their food listings trying to figure out what we want to get. We had not had the benefit of looking up the menu with photos beforehand, so we took a shot in the dark.
We ended up with:
Bhel Puri $3.50
Lamb Baida Roti $5.50
and
Samosa Cholle $3.50
The samosas were some of the best I've ever had, with a pungent, kick-y curry spice in the potatoes. The "cholle" (I think this refers to the garbanzo curry that comes with the dish) was pretty good -- not remarkable, but pretty good.
The lamb baida roti was REALLY good. It had a minced & spiced lamb filling in the flattened bread -- pretty straightforward, and pretty damn good. It was a pretty thin layer of filling, not like a bursting burrito if that is what you are expecting (so don't). I would eat this again and again. Compared to some of the other dishes there, $5.50 seems a little on the pricy side, but I'd say it was well-worth it.
The bhel puri was the only bomb. We didn't know what to expect and chose it semi-randomly. It was a cold dish with little puffed rice kernels, and I was expecting neither the cold nor the puffed rice-ness (ok, not a word) of it. Oh well. Live and learn.
Seppo and I plan to go back again this weekend, except with a couple of friends so that we can try a bigger variety of dishes. Tasty!
We arrived around... 12:30pm on Saturday, found good parking as it is in a warehouse district, and proceeded to stare at their food listings trying to figure out what we want to get. We had not had the benefit of looking up the menu with photos beforehand, so we took a shot in the dark.
We ended up with:
Bhel Puri $3.50
Lamb Baida Roti $5.50
and
Samosa Cholle $3.50
The samosas were some of the best I've ever had, with a pungent, kick-y curry spice in the potatoes. The "cholle" (I think this refers to the garbanzo curry that comes with the dish) was pretty good -- not remarkable, but pretty good.
The lamb baida roti was REALLY good. It had a minced & spiced lamb filling in the flattened bread -- pretty straightforward, and pretty damn good. It was a pretty thin layer of filling, not like a bursting burrito if that is what you are expecting (so don't). I would eat this again and again. Compared to some of the other dishes there, $5.50 seems a little on the pricy side, but I'd say it was well-worth it.
The bhel puri was the only bomb. We didn't know what to expect and chose it semi-randomly. It was a cold dish with little puffed rice kernels, and I was expecting neither the cold nor the puffed rice-ness (ok, not a word) of it. Oh well. Live and learn.
Seppo and I plan to go back again this weekend, except with a couple of friends so that we can try a bigger variety of dishes. Tasty!
posted by ei-nyung at
2:06 PM
1 Comments:
So, we did go back, and had a bunch of stuff. We had a big, puffed up bread thing that was used to scoop up some of the Cholle (which, just based on context, has to be the garbanzo curry). Good, but greasy as all get out. We had the Keema Samosas, which were basically lamb Samosas. Excellent, but the ratio of meat to bread in the Lamb Baida Roti is better. The samosas are the better value, though.
My favorite thing we tried was a rice paper crepe with a vegetable curry filling. The crepe was browned to a crisp on the outside, to the point of being somewhat brittle, but the inside was a solid, but somewhat gluey consistency. The contrast was great, the filling had a subtle pleasantness to it, and it wasn't heavy or greasy at all. I think that's probably my favorite thing there. We got some lentil & somethingelse bread puffs, which came with a mysterious orange powder, and some sauce, but no one really liked 'em that much - that was the one miss for the day.
Still, otherwise, good stuff.
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