A Super Indo-Pak Attak: Sheikh Chilli's

This review epitomizes the tagline of this food blog- Why Houston is Awesome, Mouth First. Houston's awesomeness lies not in the glory of its history or architecture or progressiveness or much of anything that would get us noticed for a positive reason, but it's what the people who live here contribute that makes our city special in spite of its shortcomings.

Yes, our public transportation is a joke, our 'green' ratings are among the lowest in the country, and our solution to just about any problem is to add another lane. But you know what? We have something a lot of other places don't. Food. Glorious food. I would say that, yes, Jeffe, we do have a plethora of places and cuisines to choose from and that is what makes Houston awesome.

Let's say it's nearing midnight and you're feeling the hungerbird pecking* and you're really not in the mood for drive thru or taqueria food. You want something spicy, different, goaty perhaps, and you're willing to drive ten minutes away to get it. Here's the awesome part: There is a place that has been open until at least 2am for the last 26 years and yes, they have goat.Sheikh Chilli's, an Indian-Pakistani restaurant just north of 59 S. on Hillcroft, is tucked into a strip center along with several other interesting restaurants ranging from Salvadorian and Honduran food to a halal meat market and an intriguingly seedy looking game room.

Inside, Sheikh Chilli's is large but rather simply laid out with several booths and tables and a row of tall potted plants dividing the room. A few framed Arabic calligraphy pieces hang on the wall above the counter. There is coin operated Accurate Weight machine at the door along with a rack for Indian publications and entertainment flyers. Like most Indo-Pak restaurants I've been to, there is a television playing popular Indian music videos that are highly entertaining to say the least.

Majid is the owner and Babu is the chef. I didn't see Babu, who is from India, but Majid, who is from Pakistan, has always been there when we've gone to eat. He is soft spoken and kind with tan skin and eyes the color of a shallow lagoon. He took over when Azhar, the original owner, passed away a few years ago.

Ordering at Sheikh Chilli's can be a little confusing at first if you don't know your 'murgh' from your 'gosht' (chicken and goat) but that's what I'm here for.

At lunch time you get to choose from a meat and several sides and it's all served on an old school cafeteria tray. And by school, I mean public school, as in plastic, divided, institutional yellow trays. I love it.

There are several specials each day to choose from ranging from Saturday's fish masala to Thursday's gosht curry. (Friday night is Brain Masala...I dare you!)

This here is drinking food. Most of the curries are heavy and thick and the spice infused oils rise to the surface. The goat here is excellent, especially the tender roasted bone in cuts used in the curries; I ordered the Wednesday special, bhona gosht, a thick cumin-forward goat (gosht) curry (bhona).

The chicken tikka was spicier than most other places and offered on the bone which is a rarity. We also ordered the bengan, eggplant, which was the vegetable of the day. It's spicy and tangy, sauteed with tomatoes and garlic until it's almost a puree.

Try the sag paneer if they have it- it's super rich. There are a lot of menu items they don't have at some times but that's to be expected at any down home no-frills eatery, right?

If they're out of samosas, skip the pasties- a deceptively flaky looking savory pastry that turned out to be bland and dry.

I have to admit, I was a little afraid of Sheikh Chillies the first time I went for lunch, scared in the sense that I didn't know what I was getting my stomach into, but my fears were baseless, everything was delicious, and I polished off the whole tray plus an extra piece of naan.

The next time someone says they're in the mood for Indian, surprise them with a real taste adventure for their mouth and head for Sheikh Chillies. Then thank me in the comments for enlightening you with this old school find.

Sheikh Chilli's Restaurant

- maps.google.com
6121 Hillcroft Street, Houston - (713) 995-6768

Backroad Desi- Mezban Curry and Grill

By Andrea Afra

Hiding in plain site, Mezban is located in a big shopping center in the Mahatma Gandhi District (did you know the area was recently renamed?) off of Harwin between Hillcroft and the 59 feeder road. The first time we went, there was a party going on in the parking lot complete with a DJ who would spin some records then plug the insurance company that had obviously paid the guy to come out.

Mezban started as a catering company that opened as a restaurant on the side. The main feature is its lunch and dinner buffet of a random variety of Indian and Pakistani dishes as well as a few standards, like the raita, biryani, and fresh baked naan, as well as the standard Texas coleslaw. Yes, coleslaw, and it's quite good.

Most of the dishes were on the milder side of spicy, but they didn't lack in flavor- it only meant less complaining from the kids.

While Mezban doesn't rank at the top of my Indian or Pakistani restaurants, mainly because of the lack of heat, it has a buffet which means you walk in and don't even have to sit down before you get your food. And I like that a lot.

The Buffet at Mezban, an array of meat, rice, and vegetable dishes. There is everything from kofta- meatballs in curry sauce, balti gosht- a mutton dish not unlike pot roast, Frontier chicken, saag paneer, a great cold chickpea salad, and desserts as well.



Hot Naan! Some of the best in town- even without butter, brought fresh to your table when you are seated.



There were no lentils on the buffet one day when we went and when my husband mentioned this to the owner, he quickly offered to bring him some. This is what they brought out, his very own little pan of lentils. Nice!

Hara Masala Pomfret (Fish in Green Curry) Recipe

I first had the chicken hara masala, a cilantro based masala at Himalaya Restaurant (see post here) and subsequently when we went back and my husband ordered it with shrimp. Both were 'like whoa' delicious and I decided to try to pull off a fish version from my own kitchen.


Here are most of the ingredients you'll need, slightly modified to what I had available. (Imagine a few peeled, diced potatoes and a few green chilies.) The plate holds garlic, turmeric powder and coriander seeds. The fish is tilapia- I bought about 20 individually vacuum sealed fillets for $15. This is a great dish for this versatile white fish. The full recipe is at the bottom of the post. You will also need a side of rice. Either basmati or jasmine works well. See "How to Make Perfect Rice Every Time" here.


I didn't have any fresh green chilies but I did have this habanero.


First, blend the coriander seeds and the turmeric in a blender (a food processor works even better). Blend until the seeds are reasonably pulverized.


You need about 2" of ginger. It's easy to peel by scraping with a spoon. Throw it in the blender along with the chilies and a TBSP of salt.


I used about 8 cloves of garlic. You can peel garlic quickly by holding the clove at each end and twisting in opposite directions. The papery jacket slides right off, if you're lucky. Next, coarsely chop a whole onion and throw it and the now nude garlic into the blender and blend away.


Now you are going to cram two bunches of fresh coriander/cilantro, stems and leaves, into the blender. Do a handful at a time. You might/will need to add a bit of water. Try a TBSP or so at a time until things get going. Once everything looks fairly smooth, turn off the blender.


In a pot, add a bit of cooking oil (2 TBSPs tops) turn heat up to medium. Pour your masala paste into the pot and bring to a low boil for about a minute. If you want to add any veggies, I suggest par-cooking them first. I used potatoes. Throw them in the pot until they are almost done.


Begin to add your fish. I used tilapia cut into 2" pieces. Just drop them in and make sure they are covered well with the sauce. Put the lid on and let cook for about 5 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through. Serve over a bowl of rice and watch in amazement the amazement of others that you actually made this and not only is it edible, it's really quite delicious.


Ingredients:

30 oz. tilapia (or other white fish) boneless/skinless fillets, thawed
2 bunches of fresh coriander/cilantro
5-10 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 medium onion
2-5 green chilies
2" fresh peeled ginger
2 TBSP coriander seeds
1.5 TBSP turmeric powder
Salt 1 TBSP to taste

Gear:
Blender/Food processor
Big pot and lid
Cooked rice (no fail rice recipe here)

Bismillah

We recently visited Bismillah for the first time and while we were glad to have tried it, we weren't too impressed. The chicken tawa (not pictured) my husband ordered was supposed to be enough for two, but upon first glance of the drumsticks in oily sauce I wound up ordering the goat biryani (not pictured) to supplement the dish. We also tried a couple of lukewarm samosas which were mediocre, and the aloo palak,(pic 2) potatoes and spinach, which was spicy and earthy and good, but again, not wow good. My biryani was about 10 parts rice to 1 part goat but it was tasty, though minimalistic in appearance. I still can't believe I like goat.

The kids split the beef paratha kebab roll (pic 1), a minced version of kabab pressed into flat bread and rolled up. It was tasty but the bread itself must have been better earlier in its life. I let them order a Pakola, (pic 3) which is a Desi cream soda with rose water and I promise that you will never drink anything greener than this in your life. I had it out of the can before but when we poured it into a cup I saw just how green it really was. Feeling bad about letting my kids drink such artificialness, I had most of it. It's really good!
While our food was somewhat below par with other area Pakistani restaurants, Bismillah is very mom & pop and tends to cook to the demands of the customers and when food runs out, it runs out.

Bismillah Restaurant 5702 Hillcroft

Himalaya or Bust

My family and I frequent the Hillcroft restaurant strip at least weekly and were on our way to London Sizzler, a modern Indian restaurant we've been to a couple of times and really enjoyed. It is in a shopping center at the northwest corner of 59 and Hillcroft and is host to a few restaurants and stores including a new spice shop we dropped into first. Chandrika Masala is family owned and has rows upon rows of preblended curries, whole and ground spices, flours, lentils, and many things I've never seen or heard of before. The owner was kind enough to walk me through the store and explain the uses for some of the items, like a merchant tour guide. He boasted that the curries are all blended freshly in their warehouse on Murphy Rd. Their rice is cleaned and hand packed with 'no powder to be found'. The store was packed with soap nuts and jaggery, dried pomegranate seeds, chutneys and myriad other ingredients to be explored. We bought a bag of chicken masala and fish masala with a promise to return.


Instead of heading back over to London Sizzler, we poked out heads into Himalaya, a North Indian-Pakistani restaurant a couple of doors down. We like what we saw and opted for a table there. The menu was written on three large dry-erase boards that hung on the walls, along with a large painting of a Mexican market and a map of Karachi. One board was for the meat dishes and desserts, one for the daily specials and the other was soley for vegetarian meals.


Five other tables were filled with families of all different cultures and we tried to sneak a look at their plates on the way to our table. The owner, a man named Kaiser, came over for our order and we accepted all of his suggestions as he took charge. The more mild chicken-boti for the boys, a fish curry for my husband, and for me the hara tikka masala, a chicken and green curry dish.We also ordered a side of daal, and two pieces of naan.

And as we were super hungry my husband asked about an appetizer but the owner shook his head.

"You won't need it."
We begged with famished eyes and he said, "Okay, I will send you something."
A few minutes later, two large vegetable samosas were sent out and we cracked them open and split them up between the four of us. They were gone before we got them.

While waiting for our food, I overheard a conversation from a table of about ten people sitting near us.
A woman was asking another older woman, "What do you call this, Mom?"
"Naan."
Near the Indian mother-in-law was another older woman who laughed and said, "We call it pan!"

A Chinese couple with two daughters walked in and sat down to eat, and an Indian man with his Caucasian wife sat behind us. The atmosphere was one of a family diner with a bustle of activity from the customers, the kitchen with it's order-up bell, two waiters running food and refilling waters to cool the happily burning tongues, and the owner keeping reign over the show.

Soon our food arrived- first the chicken boti and a big bowl of rice, then the bread and the fish and the masala and the daal. It was all so good with simple ingredients and complex flavors.

The chicken boti was juicy and mild enough for our four and eleven year old boys, but still jaunty with just a kick of spice.



The fish curry was awesome- two moist fillets of snapper (though we joked it was probably tilapia, the way every 'white' fish is in Houston, smothered in a curry of roasted tomatoes, sauteed onions and fresh chopped coriander.




My hara tikka masala was a creamy but not too rich dish with onions, mint and coriander leaves, green chilies, garlic, tomatoes and yogurt to name a few of the ingredients. It's one of those dishes that you keep eating just one more bite of until you regret it.


And the daal! How could something so homely be so good? Piping hot, creamy and rife with small chunks of garlic, which I love, and ginger, which I would normally avoid but didn't mind here. Toasted cumin seeds, fried onions and fresh coriander topped it off. It is by far my favorite daal in town.



The naan was large and soft and served without the unhealthy shmear of delicious ghee that I love and my husband avoids, but I didn't miss it one bit.


We did wind up with leftovers which I took care of last night and were just as good as the previous day.

Go to Himalaya- it's right off the freeway. Five minutes from the Galleria on 59 and it is well worth the 'trip'. Don't give me the "I don't leave the Loop line"- it's pathetic how much those chumps miss out on. Most of the good stuff, the really down-home-from-somewhere-far-away one star cuisine that trumps any Michelin ranked restaurant any day of the week, is outside the loop. The rest are just diluted versions to fit the Great White Palate.

Himalaya
6652 Southwest Fwy
Houston, TX 77074-2210
(713) 532-2837