Little India

My friend Richard's annual All Oscar's Eve party is Saturday night and the theme is "Slumdog Millionaire." We have been asked to dress in our finest Indian attire for the event, which includes booze, food, and an Oscar-themed trivia contest.

My date Chris and I have no Indian attire and as it turns out, no Indian friends either, so we ventured to Little India to see if we could find the appropriate garb. Little India is a two or three block stretch of stores and restaurants on Pioneer Ave. in Cerritos bordering Artesia. It's close to the Cerritos mall and the 91 and 605 freeways, but is it's own little world.

I honestly have never seen so many Indian people in one place in Los Angeles. There were sari stories everywhere and other ethnic wares up and down the street. The saris were beautiful and out of my price range, but we looked anyway.

The highlight of the trip was definitely lunch. We'd seen the names of a couple of restaurants online but in the end, walked into a place based solely on its looks and the looks of its clientele. It was a corner cafe called Jay Bharat that had a decent amount of people in it and nice windows. You couldn't see into some of the other restaurants and for tourists like us, it was better to think we knew what we were getting in to.

One orders his or her food at the counter and they bring it to your table. We poured over the menu for quite some time, not recognizing a thing on it. No chicken tikka masala here. It was Southern Indian cuisine, which meant it was vegetarian. Okay by us.

We finally settled on two things we thought we might like and ordered. I asked the man at the counter if he thought that was enough food. He said "no" and suggested another dish. Then he nixed one of the plates we had ordered and replaced it with a combo plate of some sort. Chris ordered a mango lassi, figuring it had mango so what the heck, and we sat at our table, thankful that the worker had basically picked our meal for us.

The restaurant was filling up by then but we had snagged a table and were happy. Two flat screen TVs were attached high up on the walls and played Indian music videos. Chris stopped talking. The visuals were mesmerizing. You can't be an Indian star without knowing how to dance. I like all the group choreography. And the women don't dress like skanks either. That is refreshing.

Chris's drink came out and was tasty. It was a mango smoothie with an Indian twist. Yogurt or something gave it an almost sour aftertaste. We got used to it though.

The combo platter was next to arrive as was a crepe-like concoction filled with potatoes and spices. Mmm. A bunch of side dishes came with the meal too and Chris and I taste-tested to see what would go good with what. There was a sweet, smooth little dish that Chris started spreading on the crepe thing. We ate spoonfuls of it too. Then we thought, "What if this isn't meant to be spread or eaten directly? What if it's some sort of butter or mayonnaise and people think we're crazy the way we're eating it??"

It turned out to be pudding. We had a big laugh. Good times in the foreign land known as Little India!