Kitchen Chick

A quick bite at Mahek in Ann Arbor

Chicken Tikka

Joe asked what we were going to do for dinner. I said that I was going to cook Ethiopian, but I had realized that I didn't have enough onions. (Ethiopian dishes use a lot of onions — at least the ones I cook.) It was a beautiful Spring night, so we went out and bought some onions, and because it was a beautiful Spring night we kept driving through town until we found ourselves going up Washington. I pointed at Mahek and asked "Feel like Indian?"

"I was just thinking the same thing."

Mahek occupies the old Shehan Shah spot, and we had both been meaning to get here since the conversion and had high hopes for good food.  And we were not disappointed.  We only tried three dishes so this is hardly a full review, but we were happy with what we had and want to share.

We started with an order of Gobi Manchurian, sort of the iconic Indian-Chinese dish. Battered califlower is fried and coated a in a spicy sweet soy-based sauce. Compared to versions I've had elsewhere, Mahek's version had a thicker batter, a "wetter" sauce, and the sweet seemed to be missing. But it was spicy. This was my least favorite dish of the night, in large part because I prefer a drier dish with the sweetness I've had with other versions.  (Joe liked it, though.)

Mahek's menu warns that their "hot" really is "hot", and they aren't bluffing. We ordered the Gobi Manchurian as "medium", and it was as spicy if not spicier than the average "hot" is at most restaurants in Ann Arbor.  We haven't tried the actual "hot" yet.

Gobi Manchurian

For our mains, we ordered Chole Batura and a Chicken Tikka and naan.

I first fell in love with Chole Batura at the now-gone Mysore Woodlands, so when I saw it on the menu at Mahek I knew immediately what I wanted. Chole is a spicy Punjabi chickpea dish (aka Chana Masala), and batura is a soft deep-fried bread. Mahek serves theirs with a raita, which is delicious on the chole, and a mixed achar (salty-sour pickled condiment). By the way, the chiles in Mahek's achar are not as hot as they look, so if you can eat medium-hot spicy food then you can eat the chiles in the achar. I was very happy with this dish, which is a good thing because as you can see, it's a sizable portion, which supplied me with lunch for the next day.

Chicken Tikka (Tandoori-style chicken breast) is not something we normally order, though I think we'd order it more often if it was always as tasty as the dish we had at Mahek. The chicken was surprisingly tender and moist, and — bonus for those of you who don't like chicken on the bone! — it was boneless.

Chole Batura

The verdict: definitely worth going to again and experimenting with the menu. Mahek also has a lunch buffet. If any readers out there have tried their buffet, we would love to hear about your experiences.

Mahek
212 E. Washington
Ann Arbor, MI
734.994.5972

Open 7 days, with lunch buffet available everyday

Down on the Farm CSA & other passing thoughts on the AA Farmer's Market

Ann Arbor Farmer's Market has always been the place to find (reasonably) locally grown produce and tasty bake goods, but as I passed through the market today I noticed an increasing number of vendors advertising their "local-ness". Along with local baked goods, early season produce, eggs (I saw a lot of egg vendors today!), are a growing number of CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture). Many are full up by now, but some still have spots available such as "Down on the Farm", which we are considering.

It's "Down on the Farm's" first year as a CSA, and you won't find them on a website because they are an Amish farm. (And I hope they don't mind that I'm writing about them here on the Internets.) They use 100% animal and human labor. Fields are plowed and worked with horses. Down on the Farm calls themselves a "customized CSA" because you can mark those items that you particularly love, and even opt to not receive items that you don't want at all. Members will also have the opportunity to buy beef, chicken, eggs, as well as order extra vegetables for freezing or canning.

They still have shares available for this year's growing season, and the last day to join up is May 15. They deliver shares to the AA Farmer's Market, Ann Arbor West, Ypsilanti Market, and Marshall Market.  (And if you work in the 777 building on Eisenhower, they are putting together a special delivery for that building!) Share costs are:

$300 for a "small" share (2 people — Wow! A CSA with a 2 person share!)
$525 for a "standard share" (4 people)
$675 for a "large share" (8 people - Now, that's the bargain!)

Down on the Farm can be reached by phone and mail, or you can find their stand at the market.

Down on the Farm
299910 R Drive S.
Homer, MI 49245
Phone after 8am: 517-542-2025

The flowers and vegetable seedlings are starting to make their appearance, but Spring Gardening Fever hasn't quite taken over the market yet, making it easy to spot all the delicious food offerings. A complete listing of all the vendors I love buying from would be... long, to say the least, so here are just a few highlight of our visit today.

In the bread department, Joe particularly likes Mill Pond Bakery's dense sprouted grain bread that has a tang like a sour dough, and I'm rather fond the lovely whole wheat/oat-blend-molasses-flavored Pendel Hill Brown bread from Community Farm Kitchen (a part of the Community Farm CSA). Served up with plenty of butter, of course!

Coffee lovers should check out RoosRoast. John Roos sold me my car — complete with a complementary bag of his coffee, and then shortly afterward he quit the rat race and devoted himself 100% to his coffee roasting business. (And he's looking fabulously happy doing it, too!) We don't drink coffee, but we like to keep some in the freezer for friends who do and today we added a bag of his "lobster butter love" coffee to replace the aging bag of (unnamed corporate fancy brand here).

And after seeing and talking about so much great food, we were hungry and ordered up some of Pilar's delicious Salvadorian-style tamales from her traveling tamale cart.

Pilar selling her very popular and delicious tamales, and of course... flowers!

Spring Cleaning

I hadn't planned on "decluttering" my spices today. I had just received a large Penzeys order, and in the course of refilling and replacing those spices, I realized I had a space problem and started pulling everything out. It wasn't long before all of my counters were covered in spice jars. When you have spices and herbs for cuisines that collectively cover 6 continents, you have a lot of spices.

And, in my case, a lot of them are old.

There's the old sambar powder I made back when I was cooking a lot of Indian food. Um, like two years ago or so. I'm sure I'll make sambar again, but not with this sambar mix! And the methi and awain and charnuska are rather old. As is the galangal powder and dried root. And the salam leaves. And the poppy seeds.

Some of them are "mystery spices". Joe thinks the jar with just a teaspoon of brownish ground spice mix is homemade garam masala. We can't tell, though, because it doesn't smell like anything anymore!

And how'd I end up with three 4oz bags of ground cumin? And why did I order 4oz of cloves from Penzeys? 4 oz! Do you have any idea of how many cloves are in 4oz of cloves? I didn't, but now I do.

Anyone know any good recipes that use a lot of cloves?

One thing I love doing when replacing spices is smelling the old batch and then smelling the new batch. My old whole coriander seeds were practically scent-less by comparison to my new batch! I'm really looking forward to cooking with them. And my new batch of cinnamon... heaven!

Anyway, now my spice cabinet is clean and my remaining spices reorganized in some fashion that I hope will make more sense, my kitchen sink is full of small jars that need a good scrubbing.