Ocean Tava in Redondo Beach has a Live Jazz Evening on Sunday nights. I was curious to see what type of jazz they would have. Was it perhaps Indian jazz...what is Indian jazz?
A friend and I went last night and was pleasantly surprised. There were 3 men (as pictured) with a clarinet, a sitar and guitar. They played Indian music. This was educational for us as we thought the music might be annoying, not knowing anything about their music. It was quite soothing. After 20 minutes, they switched to American jazz. The only way I can describe it is I felt I was watching "Midnight in Paris" (the Woody Allen movie). My friend agreed. We both imagined ourselves in the streets of Paris in the 50's.
The food did not disappoint. Nitin the manager, suggested we try the Tandoori Paneer for appetizer. This was homemade cheese slices marinated and grilled in tandoor. I did not recognize the cheese as it was bright orange. We both had a bite and simultaneously went...uhhmmmm! It was delicious. I wanted to order their baby corn appetizer but they didn't have it so I asked Nitin what we should have instead. I guess this was a blessing in disguise.
For our entree, we ordered the Tava special chicken and the Tava special vegetable. Both were wonderful dishes cooked in their special sauce with different herbs, raisins and cashews. We also had the Channa Masala which is a spicy garbanzo beans cooked in onions and spices.This came with with a cup of Raita which is a yogurt with cucumbers; this is a not as thick as regular yogurt, it is meant to complement some of the spicy dishes. The dinner menu has the option of including rice and naan for an additonal $3.00 which is still a bargain because you get a big serving of the naan. My friend got the garlic naan and I had the olive naan. I also ordered the Peas Pullao (basmati rice).
Needless to say, with all that food we had left overs which we happily took home.
For dessert, we decided to try the Mango Kulfi which is an old fashioned traditional Indian ice cream. Boy was that very good. It is unlike regular ice cream nor is it like a gelato. It is thicker and has more of a substance and lots of mango flavor.
We were only sorry that we had to split an order. Next time I will not be sharing my mango kulfi with anyone!
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