New India Sweets and Spices ~ 1245 Fairfax Los Angeles 90035 @ Packard
Although I am a Southern Californian son, I did an 8-year tour of duty in New York City and an equally long tour-of-duty in a relationship with an Indian princess. I grew to love homemade Indian food as served in the Punjabi taxi cab eateries where mustachioed, broad-shouldered Northern Indians devoured their curries before hopping into their yellow chariots for 12-hour shifts of drunkards and agitated cheapskates. The girl's mother, a sweet Bangalorean with a love marriage to a wonderful Punjabi, was unequaled in her preparation of dishes from both ends of the subcontinent, be it a crisp dosa from the south, bhel puri from Bombay and a host of tandoors, naans, and rotis from up north.
However, I have been unimpressed by my forays into Los Angeles Indian food. The highly recommmended Gujarthi curries at Jay Bharat on Artesia, I found near disgusting, while Indian restaurants from San Vicente West to Fairfax to borders East have turned me off at best, made me sick at worst. I was feeling Electric Lotus in Los Feliz, but my Desi friends say they refuse to touch it. Pasadena's Sitar was quite excellent hosting a recent Mendhi ceremony I attended. But sill, my search continues...
