Kate ate Texas: Post-Call Breakfast at Pondicheri

18 September 2011

Post-Call Breakfast at Pondicheri

Saturday had been one of the busiest 24 hours shifts I had worked in a long time. It was full of preterm babies, ICU admissions, and vaginal deliveries galore. After I groggily emerged from a four hour post-call nap, I called Jason to see if he wanted to go out for brunch. It is a rare occasion that I am unable to make a decision, but that afternoon I was still a bit too sleepy to make up my mind on where we should eat. We finally narrowed it down to The Down House (which is supposed to have a delicious brunch) and Pondicheri which has Indian breakfast food, a novel concept to me. Jason usually defers to me for the decision making and with my brain out of commission, we decided to flip a coin. Pondicheri it was!

Pondicheri is located in a newly constructed apartment and shopping complex in Rivers Oaks/Upper Kirby called West Ave. The ground level of the complex has clothing shops and restaurants and everything above is luxury apartments. Pondicheri is located off of the busy Kirby intersection and inside of the complex. It is the second restaurant in Houston by Anita Jaisinghani whose first restaurant, Indika, is well respected in town. The concept of Pondicheri is supposed to be Indian street food made from local ingredients. Having never been to India, I wasn't really sure what that meant, but I was certainly interested in knowing more. Some of the best meals I have had overseas have been purchased for the equivalent of a few dollars off the street.

Pondicheri offers counter service at breakfast and lunch and table service for dinner. There was a line about 6 people deep when we arrived. This gave me some time to contemplate the interesting menu, espresso bar, and baked items. Some kind of caffeinated beverage was definitely in order considering the sleep deprivation. I went for a latte and also got a chili chocolate oatmeal cookie to get the ball rolling. My breakfast was called Morning Thali which contained beef keema, steel cut oats, potato curry, house made saffron yogurt, fruit, paratha & fried egg. Jason got the Masala Egg plate which was three eggs scrambled with roasted corn, red bell pepper, spinach & spices with paratha & potato curry.

The interior of the restaurant is very industrial but cheerful. But we took our number and grabbed the last table outside. Sitting in the middle of the West Ave complex you almost feel like you are inside a little downtown, except it is just a little to clean and perfect. I sipped my latte, which slowly revived me, as I snacked on the oatmeal cookie. The chili was subtle enough and made the cookie interesting. The cookie was moist and soft.

Breakfast took about fifteen minutes to come out. The Morning Thali was pretty much a taster of most of the different options on the breakfast menu. Each was served in a little metal bowl. The yogurt was delicious and flavored with saffron and local raw honey. The steel cut oats were chewy and unique with flavors of jaggery, cinnamon, and cardamom. The potato curry wasn't too strongly flavored with curry and didn't sit heavily in my stomach as most potato dishes do. Beef keema was essentially a ground beef flavored with lots of different spices. Paratha is like a thin pan-fried potato bread with Indian spices. Mine was covered with a fried egg; the yolk was perfectly runny.
Jason enjoyed his meal. The scrambled eggs were full of spices and flavors. They were not dry as scrambled eggs tend to be.