Indian Feast: Dhaba Walla Pop-Up with Roger Feely

First day back in San Francisco.  First stop Rainbow Grocery to stock up on vegan snacks and ZUZU mascara (THE best vegan eye wand in the World...probably).  First meal...Roger Feely's Last Supper...Confusing I know..first/last..middle?  Well the middle was me, pigging out all day.  Wandering around mindlessly popping WHOLESOME BAKERY, peanut butter cookies,

raw superfood granola, raw chocolate dipped organic fruit and nuts...ahhh!  I was STUFFED!  But..still excited to walk down to Thrill of the Grill, the pizza restaurant Roger was 'popping up', in.

No fancy dancy chic surroundings here...no.  We shared the space with large families muncHing on pizza and chicken wings.  No matter.  I was ready to 'work'.

The hand scribbled menu was mostly vegan, with the exception of the chicken curry...(bleh).. and the gulab jamon dessert (eh..what?!).  I opted for the crispy fried green..GREEN?!!  GREEN garbs..a little more info, sil vous plait.. garbanzos with tamarind corn paha and the pessaratu veggie sambar.

The poha..did I hear you say what the hell is POHA?  no? perhaps I'm the last to know.  This is what I discovered anyhoo...Poha 101



Poha..indian flattened rice.. and perhaps are more bride and groom friendly confetti.  Pic by Jim Scherer

 My first taste of poha and I was a happy camper, it was INSANELY good.  The flavours were multi-layered, and it was a textural circus. Chewy from the fried poha, crisp from strips of ginger, carrot and finely chopped fresh onion and the green garbanzos..oooh wee.. spicy and CRUNCHY.  Roger had even finely sliced vivid beets and given them a artistic jagged edge.  It was a good, good dish.

By now I was so full it was silly.  But, in the name of aveganobsession...I bravely struggled on.  Pessaratu veggie sambar.  Pessaratu?   I HAD to launch this in the Google bank too, didn't I?  or am I the only curious kitten here?..so I found out it is the type of DOSA? who knew??  A garbanzo  (green again) dosa.  I even found a recipe..Easy pessy..ratu recipe just a click away   the sambar was delicious, full of flavour, with those fried green chickpeas making an entrance again, adding a happy crunch, split peas, soft eggplant, shards of a green asian cucumber like veggie the waiter couldn't recall what it was called..despite it, apparently, being on the 'tip of his tongue'.  The dosa had a pleasing texture, but perhaps a little teensy bit charred, not a bad thing just interesting combined with the fermented tang.  Maybe just a flavour too far..or, more likely, just my brain overloading.  I was nearly in pain from over consumption!  THANK GOD, I didn't have to eat a dessert too.

My fellow diner..Glen, had the behl puri which, despite only having met me 14.5 mins before and agreeing to sccooch over to let me sit down, he let me try his.  OOh, the best I've EVER had, and I'm a bit of a behl puri tart..I've tried a few!  The dessert was good (apparently) but he didn't rave like a loon about it. Then again he looked pretty stuffed too, so was probably displaying that 'glutton glaze-over' our eyes get when our bodies are full power digest alert, or maybe he's just not as verbally reverential about food as moi.

All in all a rollicking good meal, only tainted by the plastic cuttlery and paper bowls.

A million thank you's Mr Feely.  I'm happy I got to sample his culinary creations before he moves to the other side of the country (boo!).  Bon Voyage. APPLAUSE.