What better way to start a tour of Little India than by eating at a restaurant where the tables look like the Taj Mahal?
The materials may not be as precious, but Rajdhani's gracefully patterned tabletops do call to mind the ornate inlaid walls of the Taj.
More than 20 of us sat down to a Gujarati style vegetarian lunch there before taking off for the shops along Little India's main street, Pioneer Boulevard in Artesia.
The visits to jewelry stores, a sari shop, a market, a craft, fabric and furniture shop, an ice cream parlor and a Bollywood dance class were arranged by the Los Angeles Mumbai Sister Cities Affiliation as a benefit for projects in India.
Soon the shiny steel thalis at each place were filled with breads, rice, snacks and curries, an astonishing amount of food that was replenished repeatedly, beyond anyone's capacity to eat. Amazing that such a gargantuan repast cost just $13.99, including dessert and chhas, a yogurt drink.
First came little yellow squares of steamed dhokla to eat with mint and tamarind chutneys. Meanwhile, papads, rotis and puris were piled on the thalis, and the small steel cups set inside the trays were filled with delicious mixtures--garbanzo and potato curries, tomato with green beans and khadi, a thin, yogurt-based curry.
The Gujarati taste for sweet was apparent in sweet nuances to the curries and in dal as thin as consomme in which floated peanuts, not lentils.
As we ate, servers brought vegetable pakoras and golden brown, sesame-topped squares of baked handwa. There was no need to choose between plain rice and yellow mixed rice. We could have both.
To spice up the food, there were fried green chiles and chile-dusted onion strips; for cool relief, mango puree and yogurt.
Gujarat's irresistible shrikhand made choosing among the six desserts easy. Both tangy and sweet, this soft pudding is composed of thickened yogurt flavored with cardamom and saffron and dusted with finely chopped almonds and pistachios.
More dessert and chai were waiting at the last stop of the tour, the ice cream parlor Saffron Spot.
The flavors there were as colorful and exotic as the sari fabrics and gem-encrusted jewelry that we had admired earlier.
Jackfruit, chikoo, rajbhog, pomegranate, lychee, saffron silk, fig, guava and more beckoned from the display.
Tipped off by restaurant critic Jonathan Gold, I made sure to try the most exotic of them all--meetha paan (sweet paan), which is modeled on the seasoned betel leaf packets that one chews as a digestive after meals in India.
It was extraordinary, an herbal, almost minty, totally Indian blend of tastes that I hadn't experienced since I was last in India itself.
Rajdhani Indian Cuisine, 18525 Pioneer Blvd., Artesia, CA 90701. Tel: (562) 402-9102.
Saffron Spot, 18744 Pioneer Blvd., Artesia, CA 90701. Tel: (562) 809-4554.
To learn about activities of the Los Angeles Mumbai Sister Cities Affiliation, go to www.lacity.org/sistercities/mumbai.
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