During the holidays, I love going to Chinatown, every single business is open, and you don't have to worry about going hungry.
We went to Banana Leaf, because my friend said she had never been. I've only been once a long time ago. Ever since it's hard to get a table, I kinda gave up going. This particular day, was busy but not too much that deter us from waiting for a little bit.
After about 15 mins, we got a seat and we ordered Roti. To me, Roti are the ones that were from Trinidad like these. Not these thin little things. Although, if you dip it with the curry sauce it's actually pretty darn good.
We got some beef satay, the sauce isn't as peanuty as I'm used to them.
We ordered the fried noodles, it's not bad. A tad greasy, but taste great.
This is the dish that we saw everyone ordered, it's fried tofu with this sauce. It was good but not as good as everyone ordered them.
Since I know the original chef left and went to open Mamak, I know the taste is a little off. It's not as great as once was, which I can go across the way and have the food. But this is not bad, not great, but not bad. Seems like it has become a popular place for the Indian-Americans, because I overheard that someone said it's very close to what they had a home. I'm happy for them, because that's why I go to certain places, just to have a taste of home. It may be far from what it was originally, but being here, with limited resources and trying to re-create dishes, it's the closest to home you can get.
My biggest complaint is that they took a very long time to bring out the dishes. They bring out one at a time, and the lunch took way too long to eat. Not that we were in a hurry but would like to not spend the entire afternoon there, either.
Banana Leaf
9889 Bellaire Blvd
Ste 311
Houston, TX 77036
713-771-8118
http://www.bananaleafhouston.com/
I might be able to give some insight as to why Indian-Americans love the place so much. There are different styles of roti in india, and the one at Banana Leaf resembles "lumbi roti" or long roti, which is very thin and chewy. It's a localized kind of dish that isn't made all over India, like the Trinidadian rotis you cited before, so a lot of Indian restaurants don't make it either. But it's so damn good. Definetly suggest packing some of that roti and going to a local indian restaurant and buying some mutton or goat curry to eat it with- a Maharastrian treat!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sachi for that tip... now I'm definitely thinking about lamb and those roti!!! YUM!
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