Cedars and Hip Asia

Because we eat out so regularly, I had thought about doing entries for each of the restaurants that we frequent. This is mostly because Kaia has become a familiar face to many and is almost greeted in a “Cheers, Norm like” fashion with “Hello Kaia!” and lots of pinches on the cheek. Indiapapa is but an accessory to all of this. Anyway, while I don’t think that I’ll get to all of the places, I thought that I would start with two places that we really like: Cedars and Hip Asia.

Cedars is a Mediterranean restaurant located very close to Kids Central in the neighborhood of Kotturpuram. We first were brought to it for the Sunday brunch menu of pitas, hummus, chicken shwarma and a whole host of other treats, but what ultimately has brought us back time and time again has been the Rs. 395 ($9) ‘unlimited’ dinner special. This special offers a great change of pace to the typical South Indian fare of masala dosais and spicy chutneys, with a wide range of dips and salads seasoned with refreshing mints and tangy flavors. The unlimited consists of six courses:

• the first, a salad with cucumbers, tomatoes, pita chips, and oil;
• the second, six dips--garlic cream, hummus, baba ganoush, tabuleh, spicy pepper, and pomegranate--with hot pita breads;
• the third, kababs—paneers, mushrooms, peppers, fish, chicken and lamb
• the fourth—chicken swarma pita sandwich or falafel, depending on if you order the ‘veg’ or ‘non-veg’ course;
• the fifth—marinated mushrooms
• the sixth—bread pudding and a marbled biscotti drenched in chocolate sauce.

Of course, being that it is the ‘unlimited’ if you want more of anything, all you have to do is ask and within minutes your bowl is filled right back up. Kaia, amazingly, eats everything—from the mushrooms to the falafel—even, at times, more than us! We go here about every three weeks and the staff—Selvam, Gabriel, Ravi—are always very warm and helpful. We’ll miss this place.

Hip Asia is located in the Taj Connemara hotel, one of the most luxurious hotels in Chennai. They’ve caught the wave of south-east Asian food trend that is sweeping many places (does Seattle really need a Thai restaurant on EVERY block?) and created a menu that incorporates the cuisines of Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia. Expectedly, there’s lots of curries and they do a good job with those—but there is also teppanyaki grill, which makes up for its cultural incongruity with its Benihana-like chefs and availability of Japanese rice. It is pretty expensive to get items from the teppanyaki bar (about Rs.300 ($7) for a shrimp fried rice), but for a family craving Japanese rice, it is well worth it. What makes Hip Asia so attractive has been this “Hip Lunch” where you can taste a lot of the menu for only Rs. 395 ($9). At first, before the concept was really refined, you could order anything off of the menu—as many dishes as you wanted for the Rs. 395! Of course, since then they’ve wised up a bit and limited the number of selections, but it is still a great menu to eat from. Kaia usually is happy with the fried rice, but also the spring rolls and pandanas chicken. Like Cedars, the staff are very friendly and really love Kaia. In the photo here, you can see two of the teppanyaki chefs teaching Kaia how to season fried rice.

Why I Love this Time: I wonder how this boy’s extended palette will translate into a lifetime of eating pleasure…