Awesome Indian Food

Taste of the Himalayas
1700 Shattuck Avenue, Ste. A
Berkeley, CA 94709
Website

Sunday, 4/12/09

Steve said this is the best Indian food he's had in Berkeley (or maybe anywhere?) so far. It was more expensive than places like Biryani House, House of Curries, and Naan 'n' Curry, but the quality was excellent, and the flavors were delicious. And OMG to that naan. I'd been wanting to try Tandoor Kitchen because people keep saying their naan is good, but I don't even need to try that. Hands down, this place has the best naan. Fluffy, hot, fresh, slightly buttery...puffy and thick but not consistently so (I prefer bread that's not uniform in size, shape, etc.). Hmm...what's up with that little missing bite? Haha! Maybe someone took a bite and then saw that I was taking a picture and put it back. How considerate. :)

Ian got a biryani dish of some kind, apparently. Steve got his butter chicken (chicken makhani), which is like chicken tikka masala but better (at least to us). I thought this was more buttery than creamy, and tikka masala seems more creamy than buttery. Does that make sense? I'm no expert on anything, by the way. You just have to try these things yourself. According to their online menu, I ordered the kukhura ra saag, although I thought it was just chicken saag when I ordered it. ::shrugs:: Maybe I just read the description and figured it was pretty much the same as chicken saag and assumed that that was the name from that point on. Family style is the best, by the way. Either that or sharing a little.

These dishes don't look all that big, but there was a lot of stuff in them.

Some kind of lentil soup, which actually came first (these pics aren't in chronological order). It was really good:

Love at First Bite's Green Tea & Red Velvet Cupcakes

Their website.
Love at First Bite Bakery
1510 Walnut Street, Suite G
Berkeley, CA 94709

OH MY GOODNESS! This green tea/matcha (I still dunno where the "t" comes from; I think it just helps English-speakers say it correctly or something) cupcake is SO good. I gave these to Yuya as a good-bye present (did same for Constance when she went back to France too. hehe) on Thurs, 4/23/09 because he's Japanese (green tea is very Japanese), I knew that one was good, and because I wanted him to know what a red velvet cake was. Here's my post on the pumpkin cupcake, which is also wonderful. Yuya gave me some chocolate and some inedible Japanese items, but I'll post about those chocolates later.

Free Speech Movement Cafe's Tomato Bisque

Yummm. Forgot how much. I ordered a bowl instead of a cup on accident. I can't remember when I ate/drank this, but it was sometime this semester, and it was really good.

Thai Noodle Food @ APU's Professor Dinner 4/31/09

Thai Noodle
1936 Shattuck Ave (between Berkeley Way & Hearst Ave)
Berkeley, CA 94704

There's also Thai Noodle II, which recently opened at this address:
2426 Telegraph Ave (between Channing Way & Haste St)
Berkeley, CA 94704

APU (the Associated Psychology Undergraduates) hosts a Professor Dinner event a few times each semester. Basically, students interested in psychology pay $5 to eat a delicious meal with other students and a UC Berkeley psychology professor. This time, the professor was Matt Walker, who runs the Sleep and Neuroimaging Lab at Cal and is actually speaking at the psych department's commencement ceremony! I'm also taking his Biopsychology course right now.

Anyway, here's my plate. I don't know the exact names, but there's a pumpkin curry with green bell peppers and tofu (SO GOOD!), some kind of sweet-and-salty rice with raisins and beef (yea...I broke my no-red-meat rule for the night), and pad thai. I wish I were more familiar with Thai food. I don't know how to describe the flavors well because I don't even know the names of commonly used Thai food ingredients. Compared to other Thai food I've tried, this was really good, although I still love Berkeley Thai House and Thai Basil (one of the few actually good places in the Durant Food Court, aka Southside Asian Ghetto).